Jurassic Park: Dinosaurs 2: Spinosaurus and Stegosaurus two-pack

Year of release: 2004

Description: the Stegosaurus stands in an active posture, with its body bent, its head and tail pointing towards the left, like it’s defending itself from an aggressor. Its dominating colour is green, which is found on its head, neck, flanks, all of the limbs and both sides of the tail. Its underside (throat, belly and most of the lower part of the tail) is coloured yellowish beige. The top parts of the animal (top of the head and neck, the back and upper part of the tail, as well as all the back plates) is painted dark brown. On either side of the figure several brown stripes stick out of the main brown colouring, running over the flanks and tail. On all but the really small back plates a thin reddish brown stripe is located in a triangular pattern. The tail spikes are coloured black, while the figure's claws are not painted and it sports small yellow eyes (no pupils) with black eye liner and a black JP logo on its left upper leg.

The Spinosaurus is positioned in a crouching move, its right arm resting on the ground, possibly stalking potential prey. Its left arm is raised upwards and its mouth is opened wide. Like the Stegosaurus it features a three-way paint job. The underside (belly, front part of the lower tail section and top parts of the inside of the limbs) is painted beige. Almost all of the head, the sides of the neck, the flanks, the rest of the limbs and most of the tail is coloured very light greyish brown. Lastly a thick light blue stripe runs from the neck over the back very close towards the end of the tail and also covers the back sail. On each upper limb, an additional pair of small blue stripes is found. The dinosaur has black claws on its feet, but the claws on the hands are not painted. The tongue and inside of the mouth are coloured dark pink, the teeth are white, and the space between the teeth and the edges of the mouth are black. The animal has small black eyes and a black JP logo on its left upper leg.

Analysis: finally, some other figures repainted! We've seen repaints of both this Stegosaurus and Spinosaurus before, but not nearly as often as some of the other JP III miniature figures. It's a welcome change, but a far cry from new figures of course. Both figures feature okay new paint jobs. In fact, in the case of the Stegosaurus, the paint job might actually be more interesting than on its first try (JP III Wave 2 if you recall), but not as daring as the one seen on its Camo-Xtreme counterpart. Green works well on Stegosaurs as we've observed before. The differently coloured tail spikes and the adorning of the bigger back plates are also a nice touch. Too bad the claws are not painted though, and the lack of pupils looks kinda creepy (for some reason such an effect works much better on carnivores than it does on innocent herbivores).

The Spinosaurus is less successful on the paint job front and has been done more justice on the previous two specimens. It's not necessarily bad, but the combination of light brown and blue feels too soft for a super predator and lacks the feel of menace which would suit it better. More use could have been made of the sail, since this is the figure's most distinctive feature. The little blue stripes add a bit of diversity in the paint job though. The lack of pupils, as stated above, works much better on a carnivore like this and gives it an eerie, slightly twisted feel. A shame the claws on the fingers are not painted while those on the feet are, this feels rather sloppy!

In a battle between both figures my money would be on the Stegosaurus. It's bigger, bulkier and has those nasty tail spikes to slap opponents in the face with. And because of the abundance of plates the Spinosaurus has a hard time finding a good place to sink its teeth into this herbivore. Apparently, the Spino is aiming for a low angle attack. Or the Stegosaurus has already brought the Spinosaurus to its knees... your interpretation really.

Repaint: yes. Both figures are repaints of dinosaurs that originally came with human figures for the JP III line (second wave in both figure's cases). The Spinosaurus teamed up with the Military Diver, while the Stegosaurus was paired with Paul Kirby. Both figures have been repainted once before for JP III Camo-Xtreme: the Stegosaurus would make a second appearance in this line, as well as a final appearance in JPD3. The Spinosaurus had to wait until 2009 to be featured again in a JP toy line (the aptly named JP 2009).

Overall rating: 6/10. There's nothing new to both sculpts, unless you don't own the previous releases yet. These new paint jobs are pretty nice, though nothing really special or appealing. It's good to see some of the less often repainted figures for a change. Like most dinosaur two-packs from JPD2 and JPD3, this is not an uncommon release (though not as common as the rest of them, it appears). It can still be found fairly easily, usually for low prices because it's just not a very popular set.