Jurassic Park Chaos Effect: Ian Malcolm

Year of release: 1998

Accessories:

-Dino Mech Armor Claw

-Body armour

-Tyrannosaurus hatchling

Description: this highly unusual Ian Malcolm figure has black hair, as well as black eyes and eyebrows, but that's where every similarity with previous Malcolm figures ends. His trademark sunglasses (even though they weren't used in the Lost World movie) are absent. Instead, he wears a yellow jumpsuit, covered in various brown straps as well as patches (on both knees and the right shoulder). He also wears a brown belt around his waist and sports black gloves on both hands and black arm bands around both upper arms. His legs are covered in black boot like garments, which end right at the upper legs instead of under the knees. On his left lower leg, a black knife is attached to his boot. His left hand is closed into a fist, so he can only hold stuff with his right hand. Otherwise he stands in a fairly neutral pose, though his left arm is also raised upward to a small extent. The brown strap that runs over the left part of his chest sports a yellow JP Site B logo patch. Malcolm comes with a separate piece of body armour, coloured metallic grey, that fits around his torso, offering him front protection against the ferocious Chaos Effect predators (though his back remains unprotected).

Malcolm's offensive action is supplied by his Dino Mech Armor Claw, a huge metallic grey device that fits over his right arm (and only his right arm), and is equipped with two long thin claws (both of them painted light green), ending in small “teeth” which fit together like jigsaw puzzle pieces, thus capable of fully closing these claws, preferably around a target. On the back of the Armor Claw a long green button is found: pushing this makes the claws open, ready to grab any prey in its path by releasing the button. The claw piece of this weapon can be used separately from the arm piece, so it doesn't have to be attached to figures to use it.

This set is completed by a T-Rex hatchling, not much unlike other Rex hatchlings, except it has a smoother, less detailed skin surface, as well as overly big feet. This hatchling stands in a walking posture, left leg posed forward and right leg back, while its right arm is raised and his left arm lowered. It sports a two way paint job: the underside of the figure (lower jaw, throat, belly, arms, most of the flanks and legs and lower part of the tail) is coloured bright orange, while its upper body parts (upper jaw, neck, back and upper part of the tail) sport a dark red colour, which partially runs over the upper legs and flanks in triangular stripes. It has white teeth and eyes (no pupils), and carries a black JP Site B logo on its right upper leg.

Analysis: this latest Malcolm incarnation has the distinction of being one of the most unusual human figures ever produced, though not so much by Chaos Effect standards (since this whole toy line is basically unusual, making this Malcolm fit right in. In fact, compared to the Chaos Effect Roland Tembo figure, this Malcolm looks quite realistic!). His outfit looks very futuristic, and certainly not like something you'd see him wearing in the movies since it has a much more 'cartoonish' feel to it (not surprisingly, since a Chaos Effect cartoon was once on the drawing boards). The paint job is quite colourful, though not nearly as imaginative as some of the paint schemes seen on the dinosaur figures of this toy line. The most interesting part of his gear is his removable body armour, which isn't an unlikely tool in a dinosaur invested environment. In fact, it's surprising a tool like this wasn't seen on earlier JP figures (JPS2 Bola Alan Grant got pretty close, though his armour was not removable). The armour can be used by various other Kenner figures, but it obviously fits best around this Malcolm's body, since it was designed for this figure specifically. This figure is overall pretty decent if you can swallow the Chaos Effect premise. For those who can't, this Malcolm is definitely a hideous Jurassic Park figure.

Malcolm's Dino Mech Armor Claw is an interesting piece of equipment. Capture claws have been featured before in earlier toy lines, but never as a separate piece a human figure could hold: they were always missile like weapons that could be fired at dinosaurs. This is a more close range type of capture claw, designed to subdue a creature storming right at you (preferably a smaller animal, since it has little effect on bigger beasts). Though when attached to the arm piece the claw can only be used by Malcolm (since it's incompatible with other human figures as such), it fortunately can also be used separately. Still, its effect is limited: though the gripping mechanism is surprisingly strong for such a small claw, the arms themselves are too thin and the 'teeth' are too blunt to really grab a hold and restrain most dinosaur figures, even hatchlings. Even on the Rex hatchling that comes with this set it doesn't really work, since that figure has much too smooth a skin surface so it slips loose easily. This weapon could have used better and stronger claws to make it really work (and this toy line delivered some on its Land S.A.B.R.E. and Trike Dozer vehicles), but it's a nice concept regardless (and it certainly beats the lousy capture claw Hasbro designed for the JP III Alan Grant figure).

The Rex hatchling is a cute figure and given its smooth skin and huge feet it's easily recognizable as a Chaos Effect dinosaur, though its paint job isn't as elaborate as on most other dinosaurs of this toy line. It's actually a rather decent paint job, though it's a shame the big claws on its feet aren't painted and the Rex lacks pupils in its eyes. Given the abundance of orange on this figure, it's not too dissimilar a paint job to the big Omega T-Rex's paint scheme, adding some much needed consistency to this toy line. A nice little hatchling, but nothing too special.

Playability: decent enough. Malcolm provides the usual range of poseable body parts (arms, legs and head). His body armour is a fun gadget and can be used to some extent by other human figures (though it usually looks out of place on others). The Capture Claw may not be fully effective, it's a fun weapon to use and thankfully can also be used separately from the arm piece, adding some playability to it. The baby Rex has no poseability of any kind.

Realism: this is not a very applicable factor for any Chaos Effect figure and it's certainly not for this Ian Malcolm. It looks like something out of a science fiction Saturday morning cartoon instead of a Jurassic Park toy. It also has little similarity to Jeff Goldblum (who portrayed Ian Malcolm in both the first and second Jurassic Park movie), sporting a much younger and muscular look. The capture claw is also not something likely to be used in the movies, though body armour wouldn't have been such a bad idea. The Rex hatchling is recognizable as a T-Rex (or close relative) by its shape, but its paint job doesn't resemble the colour scheme of the Rexes seen in the movies, or that of most other Rex figures except for the Omega T-Rex of this toy line, which featured a truly bizarre colour scheme.

Repaint: no, this figure is all new and so are its accessories and hatchling. None of the parts in this set would be repainted for later toy lines.

Overall rating: 6/10. It's not the best of human figures (by far!) , but not as totally weird as some other Chaos Effect figures either. It comes with a decent and fun weapon and useful body armour, as well as a good enough hatchling, but overall this set is nothing really special. It's one of the more common Chaos Effect figures, so if you feel like you need one and can get it for a decent price you should get one, but otherwise you needn't bother.