Jurassic Park III: All Terrain Dino Trapper Vehicle

Year of release: 2001

Accessories:

-Dino damage door (with gun)

-Detachable gun/battery holder/sound generator

-Billy Brennan figure

Description: (note: the writer of this review is not an expert on cars, at least not in the English language. Some parts of this review might be a little confusing as a result, for which an apology is offered here.)

This large and heavy vehicle is pretty detailed and has a lot of features. The underside of the truck is black and so are the wheels, cabin and wind shields. The upper part is coloured yellow, adorned with silver highlights, including net device, gun and lights. It has some extra details, like large silver scratches at the front, indicating this car had a run in with an unpleasant creature. There are also a lot of little brown spots, making it seem this vehicle has driven on a lot of muddy roads. A small, hardly noticeable, JP III logo can be found on the right end of this car.

In the back of the car a heavy detachable device is installed, which controls most of the action features this model has to offer. This device is coloured metallic dark grey with some red highlights on it. On top of it a transparent gun is found, with a little red button to the right of it: pushing this button results in the gun lighting up in funky red colours and causes spiffy firing noises to be heard. On the middle of the front part of this jeep a large silver crane arm is attached, with a light blue rubber net on it to capture dinosaurs with. Pressing the lever on the left of the electronic device makes the net crane cut loose and violently crashing forward, so that any creature in front of it gets pushed to the ground with force. Added to this are some weird humming noises. Another lever on the right makes the right door fall off and produces crashing sounds. On top of the door is a second gun with a large tranquilliser dart in it: pressing the little button on this weapon fires the dart: but it doesn’t get very far since it’s attached to a rather short rope.

Finally, this vehicle also comes with an exclusive Billy Brennan figure. This guy sports a green shirt, dark blue pants, black belt, black gloves, black boots, brown hair and very blue eyes. It’s got some asymmetric features (like the regular Billy figure) like a silver shoulder patch on his right arm, and a similar patch on his left knee. He’s also got a pair of sunglasses dangling around his neck. The figure stands in a fairly neutral position, except his right arm is moved to the right, like some invisible character is handing him something. It’s not possible to move the arm into a normal position.

Analysis: this car could have been better. It’s not dismally bad or anything, but it’s got so many features and details that it looks very busy and chaotic. The paint job is only decent, though I like the mud it gives the car some character. The scratches are overdoing it unfortunately: there already is a dino damage option anyway. The sounds are all fine, though pretty weird at times. The net mechanism works good, but the net itself is disappointing: it misses the realistic net feel of the nets on Kenner’s vehicles, mostly because this one is made of rubber and is very blue. But the net catching action does work properly, although only on smaller dinosaurs, because the net isn’t very large.

The dino damage action is also decent enough, but is hindered because of the irremovable gun attached to it. It would have been better if there was only one gun, because this vehicle now has two, both of them not very convincing. The gun which actually fires a missile (which incidentally looks very much like a reuse of the old Kenner TLWS1 Net Trapper vehicle’s gun), but this missile has a very limited range because it’s being held back by a very short rope. It would work better if there wasn’t a rope: of course this mistake is easily corrected by getting rid of the rope, if you’re willing to do that. The other gun is the one on top of the electronic device: this gun lights up red when activated. Though this looks funny it doesn’t add a lot. Like stated above, it would have been better if there was only one gun at the back, capable of firing a missile, and dump the light effects. Two guns is just overkill and hinders other functions.

The Billy figure is not impressive. It sports a very odd outfit, which is in no way reminiscent of Billy’s clothing in the actual JP III movie, though the head resembles Alessandro Nivola somewhat. His right arm is sticking out in a very annoying manner, further diminishing this figure. The figure fits in the driver’s seat, but it’s rather tiny in comparison to the vehicle, like the car was designed to hold bigger figures. In total, there is room for five figures; two in the seats, three on the sides of the car.

Playability: this vehicle would have had higher playability if it wasn’t so cramped with details. There should have only been one gun: that way the dino damage door would have come off more easily. The rope on the gun shouldn’t have been attached there. The light effects should have been left out, because they don’t really add anything and look silly anyway. Other that that this car should provide some good playability situations. Keep in mind it features electronics, so be careful when playing rough with it: it might break easily. It’s a good thing the electronics are all controlled by the removable box, so one can play rough with it after all.

It’s nice the car came with a special Billy figure, but sadly it’s a pretty lousy sculpt, mostly because of the redundant details like the sunglasses and patches. Though it doesn’t stand in a totally irritating posture like some of the regular human figures of this toy line, the right arm’s position severely screws it up. Fortunately the other limbs are normal enough, so it isn’t a total loss.

Realism: there was no car in JP III, at least not on Isla Sorna. It’s no surprise this vehicle looks totally unrealistic and was made up for the toy line. It has no connection to the movie whatsoever. The Billy Brennan figure looks a bit like its counterpart in the movie, though only because of the head sculpt. The clothing is also totally made up. And no, Alessandro Nivola’s eyes aren’t that blue…

Repaint: no. Both the car and the human figure wouldn’t be repainted for other toy lines either.

Overall rating: 5/10. It’s certainly not the best car in the history of Jurassic Park toys, but it’s fairly decent. It has some good options, like the net trapping action. But in general it’s more or less ruined by overkill, as well as overly weird and unrealistic design features. The Billy figure isn’t very good and doesn’t add to the quality of the set either. This vehicle is not very rare, so if you want one, it’s not all that hard to track down for an affordable price.