Jurassic Park: Dinosaurs 3: Pteranodon/Compsognathus 2-pack

Year of release: 2005

Description: the Pteranodon is rather large for a creature that originally came with a human figure. The second half of each wing can fold in and out, and when folded to their full (realistic) length, the figure has about a 15 centimetre wing span. It has a small hand on each wing, which however is situated far too much towards the end of the wing and should have been placed closer to the body. The Pterosaur has two long legs which end in claws that can grip human or dinosaur figures' limbs as if it is lifting them off the ground. It has a rather thick plump head on a rotatable neck. Most of this figure sports a brown paint job, mostly a darker shade of brown, though there's also a lighter shade mixed in on various parts of its body (most notably on the chest, arms and head). The underside of the figure (lower side of the wings, tail and most of the legs) is white, which gradually shifts into light brown the closer you get to the arms. The claws on the hands are painted black, while the Pteranodon has red eyes, a purple tongue and a small black JP logo on both the upper and lower side of its left wing.

The Compsognathus is a rather skinny little critter, much smaller than the Pteranodon. It stands on a small base resembling a log or a rock, posed in an aggressive stance as if it's leaping off the base onto its prey, its mouth opened and its left arm outstretched. Its underside (most of the throat, belly and inner parts of the limbs) is coloured beige, while the rest of the body is mostly dark brown (particularly the tail, flanks and limbs). A tick black stripe runs from the back of the head over the neck and back almost to the end of the tail, with round shapes running out of it over the neck, flanks and tail. The Compy's teeth and inside of the mouth are white, while its eyes are yellow with black pupils. It has a black JP logo on both upper legs.

Analysis: haven't seen these figures in a while! After the countless repaints of the Rex, Raptor and Spinosaurus figures from the JP III line we've seen so far, you'd tend to forget Hasbro actually made other creature figures to team up with their human figures back in 2001. Two of these are packaged here together: the result is a mixed bag. It's good to see both figures again for a change, but the Pteranodon is still not a very good figure, especially considering the wonderful job Hasbro did on the other Pterosaur figures (why couldn't they just have repainted those...!?). It's larger then most of the other dinosaur two-pack figures since it originally came with the smaller Eric Kirby human figure and it was supposed to lift him into the air. This “action feature” (i.e. gripping claws) has been retained and still hardly works since prey figures just slip out all too easily. The folding wings feature also has been kept intact, saving space but looking silly and unrealistic. And the Pteranodon's new paint job is just ugly. Brown and white just don't go well together, and there's little variety or detailing in this figure otherwise (except for the eerie and weird purple tongue and red eyes).

The Compsognathus faired better for this set, but is also not as good as before. The signature green paint job which looked quite good on it has been replaced by a rather dull and uninspired brown paint job with black colouring on top, something we've seen before all too often. Details have been neglected (claws, inside of the mouth, etc.), but at least the sculpt is still pretty good and a lot different from the other smaller dinosaur figures JPD2 and JPD3 offer. As to who would be most likely to survive a conflict between the two, it depends on the situation. If the Pteranodon managed to swoop down on the Compy with stealth and speed it might be able to grab it or peck it to death easily enough, but the tricky little bastard would probably see it coming well in advance and choose to run and hide. It's probably better if both creatures stuck to eating what they eat best: know-it-all boys for the Pterosaurs and cocky Marlboro men for the Compies to feast on in large numbers.

Repaint: yes. Both figures are repaints of dinosaurs that originally came with human figures for the JP III line. The Pteranodon originally came with Eric Kirby, while the Compsognathus is one of two different Compy sculpts that teamed up with Alan Grant (the Wave 2 release). Both figures are first time repaints, and ironically enough also last time repaints in the case of these sculpts, though the exact same Pteranodon (identical sculpt and paint job) was featured with the Electronic Velociraptor figure of this toy line.

Overall rating: 6/10. There's nothing new to both sculpts, nor are these paint jobs especially appealing. However, it's nice to see different sculpts repainted for a change instead of the same old Rexes and Raptors all the time. The Compsognathus is still a fairly good figure, the Pteranodon less so. Like most dinosaur two-packs from JPD2 and JPD3, this is one of the more common releases and it can still be found with little effort, usually for low prices – not surprisingly – because they're just not very popular sets.

Jurassic Park III: Alan Grant & Compies

Year of release: 2002

Accessories:

-Two different Compsognathus figures

-Bazooka type weapon (with missile)

Description: this Grant figure stands in a relatively neutral pose, except his left leg is positioned in a forward move and his lower right leg is bent backwards somewhat. The figure sports light blue pants, a white shirt with a brown vest over it, a black belt and brown boots.

The weapon appears to be a bazooka on a tripod: it’s painted in grey, with some metallic dark grey on the front giving the impression it’s been used before. The missile is slightly transparent orange, and resembles a big bolt of fire shooting out of the gun. The firing mechanism is the same as with the guns attached to the human figures in the Wave 1 line: the end of the missile sticks out of the weapon, and pressing it causes the missile to be launched in a not so straight line with minor impact.

The Compies are the most interesting part of this set. There are two of them, each in a different position. The first stands in an attack posture with his mouth opened, like it’s jumping on its prey. The other one takes on a slight stalking pose, like it’s checking out prey. The figures sport the same paint job: both are coloured light green with some small yellow stripes and a large stripe running from the back of the head all the way over the tail. The eyes and claws are black, and a black JP III logo can be found on both figures’ upper left legs. The two creatures are pretty skinny and lightly build: one can see their ribs on either side of their bellies. Both dinosaurs are attached to a support, coloured in the same green as the figures, making them able to stand up straight. The one assuming an attack posture also appears to be standing on a small green rock.

Analysis: this is a fun little set, though not because of the Grant figure. Though the figure doesn’t stand in an outrageously inconvenient position, like a lot of the Wave 1 figures, it’s still not great. The figure again doesn’t resemble Alan Grant much, and the paint job is rather bland. It’s not bad or anything, but not much of an improvement either.

The gun unfortunately sports the same weak firing mechanism as most of the guns in the Wave 1 line. It is however largely redeemed by it’s original and cool look. It looks relatively realistic, and the fact that the missile isn’t really a missile but more of a fireball does give it some credit. It still doesn’t have a great impact when fired, but the most likely target, the Compies, are easily knocked over by it. The paint job, with the darker metallic grey on the front side, gives it some history, like it’s been in combat more than once. The figure can hold the weapon by any of its three feet, but the weapon can also stand on the ground on it’s own. Unfortunately the front side it quite heavy when the gun is loaded, so it tends to fall over at times.

The greatest part(s) of this set are the two Compsognathus figures. Though they don’t exactly stand in a neutral pose, the fact there are two of them greatly helps playability, providing a wider range of possibilities. Having a pair also enhances the group feel these creatures have to them: Compies are after all never alone, but always in a group in order to kill their prey. Having only one Compy figure in the entire TLW line was certainly a mistake, and these two figures make up for it a bit. The paint job is pretty good, and certainly reminiscent of the Compies we saw in the movies. The same goes for the overall physical design of these critters: they certainly look like agile little beings with their skinny, slender bodies. It’s a shame they need supports to help them stand up, but one can live with that flaw. Unfortunately the supports are coloured the same as the figures; it would have been better had they sported a different paint job. But this is once again a minor disappointment.

Playability: good enough. The Grant figure stands in a more neutral pose than most of Hasbro’s human figures. The weapon works decently enough and the fact that it can stand on its own feet also helps. Though the Compies aren’t poseable, it’s good there are two of them: it doubles playability options.

Realism: Grant doesn’t look much like the Grant we saw in JP III. The head sculpts still bears little resemblance, and the outfit is also different. Once again, the infamous cowboy hat is sadly missing. The gun doesn’t resemble any weapon seen in JP III, but it looks more life like than the Wave 1 JP III weapons. The Compies look a lot like the creatures we saw in both TLW and JP III: they’re coloured in a slightly different tone of green and sport yellow stripes the Compies in the movies didn’t appear to have, but their physique makes it unmistakable we’re dealing with the same little devils here. They are a bit oversized though, but it’s understandable: it would be hard to make figures half the size of these. People would probably lose them way too easily then, so this size is more convenient.

Repaint: no. One of the Compies (the one assuming an attack posture) would be repainted for the last JP Dinosaurs line though. The other one wouldn’t however.

Overall rating: 7/10. The figure itself may not be very special, but the dinosaurs are really quite cool, despite their limited playability. The weapon, though hindered by Hasbro’s standard lame firing mechanism, also looks better than most of the weapons of the JP III line. This is just a nice little set, and worth getting. It’s not all that rare in the US, so it shouldn’t be too hard or costly to get your hands on. It’s harder to find in some overseas territories, but fortunately not too difficult to acquire online, and likely worth the effort, you'll find.

Jurassic Park Chaos Effect: Compstegnathus

Year of release: 1998

Description: this hybrid bipedal carnivore stands in a stalking posture, with its legs braced for action, possibly running or jumping on prey. Its left arm is held backwards, while its right arm is extended, mostly for supporting the creature in a sort of tripod position because it wouldn’t be able to stand up otherwise. Its tail, which like the plates on its back is made of a softer material than the rest of its body, is bent downwards, because otherwise it wouldn’t fit on its card. Compstegnathus has a rather small body with a long neck and a large head by comparison.

Its upper jaw is poseable, which also supports the tongue lashing action this creature is equipped with. Between the larger spiky plates on its back there’s an orange lever which can be pulled towards the front part of the animal. Doing this makes a large orange tongue stick out of its mouth, similar in look to a snake’s, being split in two at the top. Figure’s limbs or accessories can be clamped between the two parts of the tongue. Above the right flank of the creature there’s a small orange button. Pushing it makes the tongue retract back into the mouth, the intention being it pulls whatever is clasped between it along with it. This doesn’t usually work as well as it should though.

Most of the Compstegnathus’ body is coloured sickly green, except for the lower end of the tail which is blue, and also excluding the upper jaw. A large black stripe runs on either flank from the back of the head towards the tail, with the upper tail being all black. A thin yellow stripe is located in the middle of both black stripes, running to about halfway the tail. The monster’s arms and legs are all black, including the claws. The plates on its back and the spikes on the end of the tail are also black, though the three largest plates on either side of the creature, above the legs, feature spiky patterned yellow spots on them. All spikes and plates are arranged in a totally symmetrical pattern. The upper jaw is black, adorned with a trio of large blue spots and tiny orange eyes. The creature’s teeth are yellow. Additional black spots are found on the lower jaw. A large blue JP CE logo is located on the right upper leg, along with the number .49.

This creature does not come with any pieces of capture gear.

Analysis: this creature features a cool hybrid design with a very colourful paint job to match, but has some serious flaws which hamper its overall coolness.

The most obvious point of criticism lies in the tongue assault action. Though it’s quite original (and in fact the first and last time such an attack feature has been seen on a JP figure), it just doesn’t work very well. Pushing the lever forwards does make the tongue stick out far enough, and pressing the little button makes it retract with speed, but it’s just not strong enough to make for an effective or impressive attack action. Though plenty of arms and legs or weapons and other parts of both human and dinosaur figures fit between the two halves of the tongue, they slip loose too easily when the tongue retracts. So the Compstegnathus doesn’t get them between its hungry jaws, but makes them fall down at best. Also, the lever and button, due to their orange colouring, are so blatantly visible they give a way too artificial look to this creature. I get that this was done to make them easy to find and handle, but it would have been preferable to camouflage them within the creature’s overall colour pattern.

Another nuisance this beastie comes with is the lousy playability and poseability. The creature needs to put its right arm on the ground because it falls down otherwise, and this greatly takes away from its playability. In fact, the only pose it looks cool in is the way it’s carded.

Still, there are some positive aspects. The paint job is quite neat, though there’s a little too much black for my taste. The design of this hybrid monster, as a small bipedal hunter with nasty spikes and plates and a retracting tongue for catching unsuspecting prey, also scores some points qua originality. The good ideas found in this figure would have been worthy of a better sculpt.

Playability: feeble. Like stated above, the creature can’t stand on just its legs but needs its right arm to do so. Though both arms and legs are poseable, they’re located quite close to one another and get in each other’s way (this goes especially for the left arm and leg). It would have been cool if the tail was bendable (to apply some good old Stego tail action onto this figure) but despite the softer material this is not the case. The upper jaw can also move but flaps right back.

Realism: the overall look of this animal is well designed and contains sufficient elements from both the large bulky spiked Stegosaurus and the tiny agile Compsognathus, making for a medium sized pack hunter with nasty spikes for protection. The African Tree Frog, which is also part of the DNA mix according to the card, is less visible and seems to be added only to justify the interesting tongue lashing action. It’s also a bit redundant, since the Jurassic Park dinosaurs already featured African frog DNA into their genetic makeup (according to Mr. DNA that is). However, since none of the normal JP dinosaurs featured lashing tongues, the frog connection obviously had to be made more clear because the tongue action made less sense otherwise.

Repaint: no. This figure, like all of the new Chaos Effect sculpts, would not be repainted for later toy lines either.

Overall rating: 5/10. Though original qua concept, this figure suffers from some irritating design flaws decreasing its potential as a successful sculpt. It’s one of the more common Chaos Effect figures and shouldn’t prove too difficult to get should you want one yourself. Ebay is probably your best bet, though this figure was also imported in some territories were this toy line didn’t get an official release, so it may pop up in unexpected places. Costs tend to vary.

The Lost World Series 1: Dieter Stark

Year of release: 1997

Accessories:

-Two different guns

-Compsognathus 

 

Description: Dieter stands in a sort of walking position, with one leg in a forward move and the other in the opposite direction. His eyes stare mindlessly in the distance. He has brown short hair and is quite muscular, but his head is somewhat disproportionate (i.e. too small) compared to his body. Dieter sports a bit of a military look, with camouflage pants (green with beige spots) and a shirt that has an orange and red spotted paint job. His sleeves are greenish brown and his shoes are black. He’s got black utility belts with pockets around his chest. Other details include pockets on his sleeves, a black machete on his left leg and a large green pocket on his right leg, as well as a black InGen logo “tattooed” on his left arm. His torso can move around to a small extent, in order to accommodate the figure’s dino action.

Dieter comes with two different black guns: these guns do not have any action options like most of the weapons that come with human figures do, but are mere extra gadgets, since in this figure’s case the figure itself provides the action. Since I’m not an expert on weaponry I can’t determine what type of guns we’re dealing with here, but they look much more realistic than the regular weapons the human figures carry. Dieter can wrap the biggest of the two guns around his shoulder, while the other one fits in his hands only.

Another way in which this figure differs from other human figures is that it doesn’t come with a dinosaur hatchling, but an adult. It’s a Compsognathus, one of the smallest species of dinosaurs, so it’s still the size of a hatchling. This Compy sports a mostly yellow paint job, except for the upper part of its body (back, neck, snout, upper tail) which is coloured green. Over the rest of its body there are some vague tones of green as well. A black JP Site B logo can be found on its right upper leg. Its eyes are black with large yellow pupils. The Compy stands in a crouching position with its tail raised upwards and its snout touching the ground, as if eating something. It looks a bit odd in this way, but there is an explanation for this pose: there’s a small magnet in its mouth, and another one in Dieter’s chest. This way, the Compy can be attached to Dieter’s chest and clings to it, as if the Compy has jumped on Dieter and is taking a bite out of him.

Analysis: this figure looks pretty cool, but does not resemble Dieter Stark at all. It’s better to consider it another dino tracker or equipment specialist, since it seems well outfitted for that job with those camouflage trousers, numerous pockets and realistic weaponry. These weapons are also a welcome change from the usual weird weapons the toy designers come up with. They don’t feature any action or anything, but add some realism and diversity to the toy line.

The Compsognathus sports a nice paint job, though a little less yellow would be nice. It would also have been better had the claws and teeth be painted in a different colour, but this will do. It’s a shame the Compy stands in such a weird pose though: it would have been much preferable for this sculpt to feature poseable body parts, especially since it’s the only Compy figure in the line. Better yet would have been to make a play set featuring a pack of Compies, as shown in the movie, but it seems we have to settle for this one Compy.

Together with the Compy Dieter provides for an interesting dino attack action: the Compy can be attached to Dieter making it appear he’s being attacked. By pulling the arms back and letting them go, Dieter can swing his torso around somewhat and push the little predator off of him. It’s a fun idea, but it doesn’t always work properly. The Compy slips off Dieter’s chest easily, so it often falls off before you have the chance of pulling Dieter’s arm. A stronger magnet might have been advisable. Still, it’s a nice and original action feature.

Playability: Dieter and the Compy together provide a neat little action feature. Apart from that Dieter is fully poseable and as an extra addition has a moveable torso. The Compy however does less well on its own, since it stands in a very active and thus un-neutral pose and has no poseable body parts. The weapons don’t add much playability options either since they don’t feature action options.

Realism: as stated earlier, this figure does in no way resemble the Dieter Stark seen in TLW. For one thing his clothes are totally different. More importantly, he is in no way reminiscent of Peter Stormare. He might as well be a random InGen mercenary. The weapons are more realistic and don’t look much unlike guns that could have been used in the JP movies.

The Compy is pretty similar to its movie counterparts, both in shape, size and paint job. He lacks in detail somewhat – for one thing his teeth aren’t supposed to be yellow – but the overall strong green tone and body structure (small, bipedal carnivore) make him identifiable as a Compsognathus.

Repaint: no. The Compy wouldn’t be repainted either, though the Dieter figure and the weapons would be repainted for JP Dinosaurs 1 (Young T-Rex & Dinosaur Adventurer). However, his head was replaced by a different figure’s head for that line.

Overall rating: 7/10. This is a cool figure with an interesting new dinosaur action. It has some downsides, most importantly the disappointing Compy figure, but it’s well worth your attention. It’s not hard to come by and certainly not very expensive either.