Jurassic Park 2009: Dino Trackers: Dino Glide Billy Brennan VS Pteranodon

Year of release: 2009

Accessories:

-Hang Glider

Description: Billy wears a grey sleeveless shirt adorned with dark blue spots, dark blue trousers with some tears on them, a black belt around his waist and brown shoes. He has red hair and eye brows and black eyes. He has some asymmetric details, including belts around his torso, a wristband (right arm), a glove (left arm), a shoulder patch (left arm) and a backpack with a hole in it so the glider can be attached to the figure: all this detailing is coloured black. Most notably, his left arm can move differently from the average human figure, not only forward and backward, but also up and down. The figure stands in an odd position with its legs wide apart and appears to be looking down. The glider is coloured black, covered in various light blue spots and shapes on both sides, revealing a yellow frame work around the edges. It basically resembles a large triangle. Billy can carry it on his back, so it appears he's hanging onto it.

The Pteranodon is positioned with its claws open and its head looking to the right, the left wing raised significantly upwards compared to its right wing. It's mostly coloured light yellow, while the back, most of the legs and feet, the arms and the fingers, the neck and most of the head are painted orange. On their top side the wings feature several brown stripes. The beak is painted brown, except for a triangular area around the nostrils which is pink instead. The figure sports two small brown bands around its head crest. The Pterosaur has small black eyes, a pink tongue and a black JP logo on the underside of its left wing.

Analysis: apart from Alan Grant, the only other actual character from any of the JP movies to reappear in JP 2009 is Billy Brennan. As before, he comes with a hang glider (inspired by the para-sailing scene from Jurassic Park III no doubt) and a left arm that has additional poseability options compared to the other human figures produced by Hasbro. His paint job is quite close to the one used on the original JP III Billy figure (though he's a red head now), except a little darker and more detailed. He looks pretty gritty and tough, as does his hang glider, which features a radically new and detailed paint job compared to its previous incarnations. At least it looks good this time, even though its actual use is still limited: Billy can carry it on his back and pose his arms like he's flying with it, but it looks totally unrealistic and rather goofy.

His Pteranodon companion also got a new paint job, which is far more brightly coloured and cheerful by comparison. It has vague echoes of the JP III Pteranodon paint jobs (the regular ones, not the Alpha Pteranodon sculpts'), but that seems a mere coincidence. Apart from the various colours on the head and the stripes on the wings, this paint jobs is less detailed than the rest of the set. The odd posture of the Pterosaur doesn't help playability, though it can still use his feet to grab a hold of the glider or Billy's left arm. For originality's sake, it's good to see this particular sculpt pop up after it's been neglected for eight years while almost all of the other JP III miniature creatures got countless repaints. There's plenty of Rexes and Raptors already in this toy line...

Repaint: yes. This set is identical to the Billy Brennan set of the JP III line (Wave 1). Billy himself has been repainted once before for JPD2 (along with his hang glider). The Pteranodon is a first time (and until so far, last time) repaint though.

Overall rating: 6/10. Billy remains a fairly good sculpt, though not overly originally repainted. While the hang glider is a bit of a silly thing, it features a splendid new paint scheme. The little Pteranodon has a less appealing paint job, but it's nice to see this sculpt again for a change. Otherwise there's nothing new to be found here. This set is not rare and can still be found with little effort. Since this set was a Toys'R'Us exclusive that might change eventually, but probably not for the next decade.

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.

Jurassic Park III: Billy Brennan & Pteranodon

Year of release: 2001

Accessories:

-Pteranodon figure

-Hang glider

Description: this figure wears a grey sleeveless shirt, blue trousers with two scratches in it, and black shoes. He has brown hair and very bright blue eyes. He has some asymmetric black details, including belts, wristband (right arm), glove (left arm), shoulder cap (left arm) and a backpack with a hole in it so the glider can be attached to the figure. Most notably, his left arm can move differently from the average figure, not only forward and backward, but also up and down. The figure stands in an odd position with his legs wide apart and appears to be looking down. The glider is coloured bright red with silver highlights. It basically resembles a red triangle. The Pteranodon figure is tan brown with green spots and stripes, and an orange head. It’s got a black JP III logo on the underside of his left wing. It’s positioned with its claws open and its head looking to the right, its left wing raised upwards.

Analysis: this is an interesting figure. Though it still stands in an awkward position, like most of the JP III human figures, the left arm with additional movement possibilities is a plus. The figure is well painted, though the asymmetric detailing is a bit weird: why is he only wearing one glove and shoulder cap?

The answer lies in his relation to the Pteranodon figure, which can grab his left arm, so that it looks like Billy is holding it and looking at it, while the animal looks back at him. Sort of. It works nice when he’s holding him, but hinders playability options, since both figures are in an odd position when cut loose from each other.

The glider is nothing special. It’s little detailed and its colours are pretty dull. The glider can be attached to Billy’s back, but when it is, it doesn’t look like Billy is flying with it, but merely standing up with a large red triangle on his back. In fact, it looks very fake. The Pteranodon can also grab on to several parts of the glider with its claws.

Playability: it’s fifty-fifty in this case. Though the extra arm movement certainly adds some points, the fact that the figure stands with his legs wide apart and the odd pose of the Pteranodon takes some points away. The glider doesn’t add much unfortunately. Luckily Billy can hold stuff with both hands, though one hand is kind of pointing at something.

Realism: this figure does resemble the Billy Brennan (Alessandro Nivola) in the movie, even though his eyes are way too blue. However, this Billy sports an entirely different outfit than his movie counterpart. Billy’s lucky pack is unfortunately missing. There was no glider in the movie, but there was some parasailing equipment (like a parachute). It would have been a lot cooler if this figure has a parasailer instead of a glider, but that would have been harder to make, so undoubtedly Hasbro opted for this instead. Disappointing, but we’ll have to live with it. The Pteranodon looks similar to the adult Pterosaurs in the movie (except with more green), but doesn’t resemble the hatchlings we saw in the awesome bird cage scenes much. It looks more like a miniature figure of an adult Pteranodon. It also resembles the larger Reak-Atak Pteranodon figure released for this toy line, so at least there is consistency.

Repaint: no. Billy and his glider would be repainted once for JP Dinosaurs 2 though, and again for JP 2009, this time including the Pteranodon figure (making that its only repaint, unlike most other small Hasbrosaurs).

Overall rating: 6/10. It’s a fairly decent figure, and better than most of the JP III human figures, but as stated above it could still use some work in certain areas. It’s not really rare, so if you want one, you’ll find it relatively easily and probably not at huge cost. The only reasons I recommend it for are the cool left arm, nice paint job and the neat Pteranodon figure.