The Lost World Series 1: Pachycephalosaurus (small)

Year of release: 1997

Accessories:

-Two pieces of capture gear

Description: this Pachycephalosaurus stands in a completely neutral pose. Its body is almost symmetrical, except for some small details, like the position of the fingers (notice Pachy has no less than five of them on each hand, more than most bipedal dinosaurs had) and the paint scheme. And of course there is the round button sticking out of the left upper leg. When pressed, this activates the dinosaur’s attack action: the head will move downward, as if it’s giving a head butt. The animal resembles a kangaroo with its large feet and arms: but it has a bizarre head covered with bumps and little spikes, and of course a bald large skull bone. A row of bumps can be found on the neck, while several more of them run over its back and tail.

This figure sports a very green paint job, with various tones of green displayed all over its body. Basically these green tones are divided in three sections: the first and lightest shade of green adorns most of the underside of the animal, namely his belly, legs, arms, most of the tail, the throat and parts of the face. A second, darker green tone is found only on the chest and flanks, and in one place also on the back. The third and darkest tone of green covers most of the back and neck, as well as the snout (around the mouth and nostrils), parts of the face (especially around the very red eyes), upper legs, and running in stripes on its tail. The button on its left leg is painted in yet another version of darker green, so it’s easy to spot. On its head it sports a large dark red colouring around the beige skull bone. Its claws are painted brownish green, and on its right leg it’s got a yellow JP Site B logo with the number .37 next to it.

Analysis: though a repaint of the JPS2 Pachycephalosaurus, this is a very cool figure and could even be considered an improvement over its predecessor. It’s paint job is rather spectacular and shows how much you can do with green. The red on the head and the fiendishly dark red eyes are also well done and add some variation to the paint job. The figure’s head butting action, though a Pachy cliché, works fine, though with some figures the button gets stuck easily, making the attack action harder to perform. It’s a shame the button sticks out so much, since it looks rather odd this way, like the Pachy has a deformity of sorts or some projectile sticking out of its leg.

This dinosaur comes with two new pieces of capture gear. Like with the Velociraptor of this toy line, it’s surprising Kenner made two new pieces, since they could also have used the pieces from the previous incarnation of this figure. Fortunately they didn’t, because the JPS2 Pachy had rather lame restraints. This figure’s gear is more elaborate, easier to attach, and also looks cooler. One piece goes on the creature’s back, while the other, attached to the first piece, covers the head. Together with the head butting action they make for a fun dinosaur-breaks-free-of-restraint-gear action: moving the head back and forth long enough will cause the Pachy to throw off the gear. It works well and looks realistic enough. However, like with the Raptor figure, this gear wouldn’t stop the animal from scurrying off, since it doesn’t cover its legs.

Playability: this figure provides for some fine playability. It’s fully poseable, and stands in as neutral a position as you could hope for. The head butting action works well in most cases. The capture gear adds some fun breaking-free action, but other than that doesn’t really serve a purpose.

Realism: this figure is clearly recognizable as a Pachycephalosaurus, mostly because of its grotesque head. It looks somewhat different from the Pachy seen in the movie though: that one was a tad smaller, though it’s very possible it was a juvenile because real life Pachys weren’t small creatures at all. It also sported different colouring, more resembling that of the larger Pachy of this toy line. The capture gear this animal comes with was not seen in the TLW film.

Repaint: yes. This figure is a repaint of the JPS2 Pachycephalosaurus. It would be repainted again for JP Dinosaurs 1, in the ‘Pachycephalosaurus with Dinosaur Trainer’ set. The capture gear would not be repainted again, however.

Overall rating: 8/10. Though it’s a repaint, this is one of the better TLW dinosaur figures, mostly because of it’s cool new paint job, fine sculpt and good attack action. Fortunately it isn’t particularly hard to find, nor will it prove very expensive, so don’t hesitate to get one yourself.