Jurassic Park III: Air Heli-Sabre Marine Copter

Year of release: 2001

Accessories:

-Helicopter

-Missile

-Dino Damage piece

-Pilot figure

Description: this small chopper is about 20 centimetres in length and is coloured mostly green. The front part of the vehicle is painted in a dark metallic green, while the rest is painted in a lighter shade of green. It sports black propeller blades, as well as a dark grey tail piece and landing gear. The cockpit window is transparent green and the cockpit can hold one figure. Right under the blades a detachable piece of transparent green plastic is located, giving the impression an aggressive dinosaur attacked the chopper and did some dino damage. Removing this piece exposes a silver engine with a red button; it also causes a damage sound (which can also be made without the damage piece by just pushing the red button). Two more sounds can be made with this aircraft: first, by rotating the round button on the underside, the propeller blades also rotate and a typical chopper sound is produced. Second, by moving the landing gear on the underside, a firing sound is made, and when loaded, a missile can be launched as well. The chopper is nicely detailed for a vehicle this size, but not overly so. A JP III logo can be found on the left side of the front part.

The Pilot figure is dressed in a light green pilot outfit, adorned with darker green stripes. He also wears black shoes and gloves and a grey belt. He sports an interesting (irremovable) red helmet with black breathing equipment on it which runs to his chest. This breathing tube is detachable from his chest but it doesn’t seem to serve a purpose.

Analysis: this is a good and fairly realistic (as far as I know, but I’m no expert on aviation) military aircraft with some cool options. The sounds are all fine, and so are the actions it can perform. The rotating blades option is an interesting new feature I missed on Kenner’s helicopter sculpts, and the accompanying sound makes it more lifelike. The dino damage piece is a nice addition, though not very original. The firing mechanism used for this toy is similar to the one used for the weapons of the human figures from this toy line, except it works better in this case. The landing gear pushes the missile out (you don’t have to use your fingers this time), but it goes in a straight line and has a decent enough impact force to knock smaller figures over. The firing sound is a bit weird though, but not irritatingly so.

The paint job of this chopper is nothing special, but good enough. Green and black are of course usual colours for military aircraft, so it’s reasonable to assume the designers didn’t want to go all wild and use much different colouring. Nevertheless it would be cooler if they had painted some of the details in different colours, because now it’s quite monochromatic. The colour of the cockpit window piece, transparent green, is rather unrealistic: normal transparency would have looked better. The pilot figure perfectly fits in this cockpit though, but unfortunately most other JP III figures don’t. It would have been great had Hasbro made a bigger helicopter, similar to the ones we actually got to see in the JP III movie, capable of carrying more people. Still, this model is good enough.

The pilot figure is okay, but not brilliant. Like the chopper the paint job could have been better, and a removable helmet would certainly be an improvement. Fortunately the figure stands in a relatively neutral position, unlike most of the other human figures from this toy line. He does hold his arms in an odd pose though: it reminds me of the way C-3PO (from the Star Wars movies, obviously) holds his. However, this way the figure fits easier in the cockpit, so at least it serves some purpose.

Playability: good enough. The chopper has a nice number of options and actions, as well as some good sound effects. Though it’s not very big it’s a cool figure to attack dinosaur figures with, or of course to be mercilessly crushed by one of them big predatory dinosaur figures. The pilot figure is decent, but nothing more. It doesn’t work too well on it’s own, but together with the vehicle it makes a formidable pair. This helicopter is electronic, and more fragile than I expected (at least my particular model is). I suggest you be careful with it and don’t get too rough, because that might damage the electronics and nullifies the funky sounds, which would be a tremendous shame.

Realism: there was no helicopter of this type in the movie as far as I know. It certainly doesn’t remind me of any of the choppers I saw in the JP movies. Nevertheless it looks like a small military aircraft might look, mostly because of the paint job and the look of the pilot. The pilot also looks different from the pilots seen in the three JP movies, but he’s without a doubt a pilot with that helmet of his.

Repaint: no. Neither this model nor the pilot would be repainted for other toy lines.

Overall rating: 7/10. It’s a good model and has some neat features and cool sound effects. Though the pilot isn’t really impressive and the electronics of the chopper have a tendency to break easily (at least in my case), it doesn’t make much difference for the overall coolness of this realistically designed military craft. If you want one I suggest you get it, because it’s a fine model and should provide for some fun interaction with other JP figures. It’s not really rare, but can’t be found all that easily either. You might have to look for it somewhat and it may not be cheap, but it’s worth it.