Jurassic Park 2009: Dino Battlers: Spinosaurus VS Tyrannosaurus Rex

Year of release: 2009

Description: the small Spinosaurus figure stands in a walking posture, with its left leg posed forward and the left arm raised, its mouth opened as if roaring and the end of the tail bent pointing to the right. It sports a typical three-way paint job. Its underside (throat, belly and most of the lower part of the tail) is painted greenish beige. Most of the head, the sides of the neck and tail, the flanks, the tip of the tail and the limbs are coloured brown. The back of the head, neck, back, sail and most of the upper part of the tail is painted green. It features several greenish beige stripes on the head, neck, back (including the sail) and tail. The claws on the hands and feet are not painted. The inside of the mouth is painted red, while the creature carries white teeth and has small red eyes with black pupils. The Spinosaurus carries a white JP logo on both upper legs.

The T-Rex stands in an active posture, its head curved to the left and its arms outstretched as if attacking something. The tip of the tail is bent pointing upwards and to the left. It has small pads on its feet to give it extra support. Its predominant colour is grey, which is found not only on all of its underside (lower jaw, throat, belly, limbs, lower part and tip of the tail) but also on most of its back and on the upper legs. The rest of the body (the rest of the head, the neck, the flanks and the rest of the tail) is orange. It features several dark grey stripes and spots on its head (around the eyes), the back, the forearms, the lower legs and the front half of the tail. The claws on the hands and feet are not painted, nor are the pads under the feet. The tongue and inside of the mouth is painted red, while the creature carries white teeth and has small green eyes with black pupils. The Tyrannosaurus carries a white JP logo on each upper leg.

Analysis: good idea, Hasbro! Let's pack the same two miniature big predator figures together... again! It's only been done a bunch of times before so who will know or care? Of course us JP fans care, but apparently we don't really count when there's the potential of making money off kids around. So we are cursed with yet another crappy set of repaints, once again with totally unappealing paint jobs. The used combination of colours is ugly on both figures, though it's definitely worst on the Rex. Grey and orange are just not meant to be used together as this figure successfully demonstrates. Also, the lack of painted details is appalling. Neither figures have their claws painted and the pads on the Rex's feet are woefully neglected. There's just nothing in this set a collector could want, except to add the set to his/her collection to make it complete.

So, assuming anybody cared, who would win this conflict? The Rex is the likely choice. Not because it is the dinosaur king as some zealous fanboys keep reminding us, but simply because it is a much heavier figure and easily knocks over its opponent.

Repaint: yes. The T-Rex originally came with the Military General for the JP III line and has already been repainted over and over again for Camo-Xtreme, JPD2 and JPD3 and would be used several times again for this toy line. This Spinosaurus sculpt was paired with Amanda Kirby for the JP III line and has likewise been repainted often enough for Camo-Xtreme, JPD2 and JPD3. In JP 2009, this would be its only appearance though.

Overall rating: 2/10. Same old same old. Not very impressive sculpts repainted and packaged together too often already, and these paint jobs aren't great. There's just nothing of particular interest in this set, unless you don't own either one of these sculpts yet. This set is not rare and can still be found rather easily. Since this set was a Toys'R'Us exclusive that might change some day, but probably not for the next decade.

Jurassic Park 2009: Dino Battlers: Triceratops VS Tyrannosaurus Rex

Year of release: 2009

Note: this particular set comes in two variations, both more or less equally common. This review concerns the set with the darker coloured dinosaurs, which is generally regarded to be the original, while the set with the brighter coloured figures is usually seen as 'the variation' of the two.

Description: the T-Rex stands in an aggressive posture, its head curved to the left and its arms stretched out. The tip of the tail is bent pointing upwards and to the left. It has small pads on its feet to give it extra support. While the underside (lower jaw, throat, belly and lower part of the tail) of the Rex is coloured white, the rest of the figure is painted light brown. The creature features two big dark brown stripes on its back, and a third at the base of the tail. Additionally, brown bands are found on the figure's lower legs (two each), arms (one each) and tail (three near the tip). The pads under the feet are painted in this same dark brown colour, as are the claws on both fingers and toes. The tongue and inside of the mouth are coloured red, while the teeth are white and the Rex sports small cat like yellow eyes with black pupils. It has a white JP logo on each upper leg.

The Triceratops appears to stand in a brace-for-impact posture, its head (almost as big as its torso) held low to the ground (and slightly posed to its right), the front legs more or less in the same position, while the left upper leg is stretched backwards. The tail curves to the right. Most of this creature's body, including the head, is painted grey, while its underside (throat, belly and the first half of the lower part of the tail) is light blue instead. On its back and tail the figure sports some vague green spots, while a trio of red spots covers most of the head crest. The beak and the horns (including those on its cheeks) are painted beige. The Trike has small green eyes with black pupils and a white JP logo on each upper leg.

Analysis: Dear Lord, not this T-Rex again! As if we haven't seen this sucker enough in the previous repaint lines, Hasbro thought it a good idea (or they likely just didn't care at all) to present us with this particular sculpt four more times in their JP 2009 line. This is one of them, and compared to some of its more zany repaints out there, its paint job is rather conservative, being a typical brown on top, white below and some dark stripes to complete it all. It's just not a very interesting or imaginative paint job. Also, it's a shame to see the claws on the feet painted in the same colour as the feet pads, since now it looks as if the two have melted together. The Triceratops also isn't a very successful release. After its surprising first appearance in JPD3, the shock of this most recently released sculpt has disappeared and it's now as conventional as the rest of these repaints. Its paint job is rather dull, though it uses much more very different colours than you might think at first glance (grey, blue, red, beige and two different shades of green). But the result just isn't very appealing.

In combat between these two, the Triceratops would probably emerge victorious considering those nasty spikes which it could use to stake the Rex to death. The Rex just isn't much bigger and would have a hard time getting a good bite out of the Trike unless it took it by surprise. Whoever wins, as far as the quality of this two-pack goes, we lose.

Repaint: yes. The T-Rex originally came with the Military General for the JP III line and has already been repainted over and over again for Camo-Xtreme, JPD2 and JPD3 and would be used several times again for this toy line. The Triceratops first popped up in JPD3 for which it was used twice. Its appearance on JP 2009 remained limited to this two-pack.

Overall rating: 4/10. Not a very appealing set of paint jobs. The sense of 'newness' experienced for the Triceratops when it first appeared in JPD3 has waned, and by now everybody is really sick of this damn T-Rex. There's just nothing of particular interest in this set, unless you don't own either one of these sculpts yet (which in the Rex's case seems unlikely by now). This set is not rare (in either variation) and can still be found rather easily. Since this set was a Toys'R'Us exclusive that might change some day, but surely not for the next few years or so.

Today's Review: Madeliefjes (Sedmikrasky)

Another one up, this one an oldie:

Madeliefjes - recensie

Ideologically, Sedmikrasky still makes sense. More so than ever, in fact. Designed as a feminist act of rebellion against patriarchal political systems, there's a lot to say for it when such systems are on the rise again. Now that so-called strong willed men are elected to office (or otherwise just grabbing such positions for themselves) around the globe, it's no surprise women's rights, hard fought and well earned, are slowly but surely diminished, even in democratic territories. So why not re-release a movie that fought for female independence fifty years back? Maybe because it is dated as heck in all other regards, for one thing.

Sedmikrasky deals with two young women tired of being told what to do by old men and turning the tables on them by questioning everything taken for granted and stopping to adhering to social rules. That sounds pretty hardcore, but the eventual acts of rebellion ultimately prove rather tame. They start by luring cuckolds into dates and humiliating them in public by acting like spoiled brats and messing with their food (a lot!). Soon, things get a bit more serious when they add burglary to their nefarious behavior. Still, that's about it. And all of it is executed in a subversively childish manner, which makes it hard to take seriously fifty years down the road, as we've seen much worse in cinema since. Though we can sympathize with rebels attacking an oppressive system, these two women are mostly just absurdly annoying, making for a good 73 minutes that prove hard to sit through.

What's worse, at least for general audiences, avant-gardist director Very Chytilova applies some mindbogglingly experimental cutting and photography, which makes for a wholly inaccessible movie. Everything is overly stylized, as if filming a dream. What's a modern audience to make of all this weirdness? Movie buffs and art lovers at least will appreciate the constant switching between colour palettes, the abrupt editing and the odd camera angles, not to mention the historical context which makes this film a classic in its own right, a prime example of its tempestuous zeitgeist. But without bearing all that in mind, little remains to provoke thoughts or aspire the latest generation of feminists, aside from good intentions.