Jurassic Park Chaos Effect: Land S.A.B.R.E.

Year of release: 1998

Accessories:

-Dino Grappling Arms

-Exclusive Eddie Carr figure

Description: this small four wheeled vehicle basically consists of a single cockpit on wheels equipped with two big arms on top for catching dinosaurs. The vehicle sports an overall white paint job, adorned with various blue and silver highlights (also on the arms). Its wheels are coloured dark grey while the driver's seat is black with a black handle on each side for the driver to hold on to. It features no glass or other protective layer over the driver's seat, so the driver is exposed to the elements. On top of the driver's seat there is a big metallic grey device, ending in two handles at the back so you can activate the big white grappling arms it has on the front side. These arms end in big 'hands', which can clasp a dinosaur between them real tight. The arms can move both up and down and side to side, though in neither case in more than an 80 degree radius. The Land S.A.B.R.E. Comes with various stickers as detailing, mostly smaller ones showing mechanical stuff or symbols, as well as two with the JP Chaos Effect logo on it, and two carrying the text 'no step' for on the arms.

This vehicle comes with an exclusive Eddie Carr figure, standing in a fully neutral posture. He wears a yellow jumpsuit, including helmet. The suit is covered in a black vest on his torso and he also sports a black belt around his waist, grey gloves with black armbands, grey knee patches and black boots. He carries some light green highlights and has a big blue console patch on his left upper leg. On his back he carries some sort of breathing apparatus over the black vest. His helmet, which is black on the inside, has no protective surface over the facial area, so his face is exposed. Eddie perfectly fits in the Land S.A.B.R.E.'s driver's seat, with his hands on the steering handles and his head just between the grappling arms.

Analysis: it's not only the dinosaurs of the Chaos Effect line that are overly wacky, the vehicles of this line follow the same oddball design schemes which makes them fit in perfectly in this line, but not so much in Kenner's other JP lines. This Land S.A.B.R.E. is undoubtedly the weirdest vehicle of the three that were released for the Chaos Effect line, and also the least appealing of the bunch. For starters, it has a rather bland paint job, making it look like something from a cheap science fiction movie. Another nuisance is the fact that there's only a few Kenner figures that really fit in the driver's seat. It's obvious this vehicle was designed specifically for the Eddie Carr figure that comes with it, so most other figures are incompatible. This Eddie isn't a very interesting human figure, and though it's supposed to be Eddie Carr, there's nothing on him that even remotely hints at the character of the same name in the Lost World movie (but he makes a decent Chaos Effect style nameless Park Ranger). Eddie wears the typical colourful outfit for a Chaos Effect figure, though it's not as far-fetched as the gear the Roland Tembo or Dieter Stark figures of this toy line carry. At least it looks like a decent protective suit, which is exactly what he needs given the lack of protection he gets from his poorly designed vehicle (though why his face is so blatantly exposed for dinosaurs to slash open is beyond me).

The Land S.A.B.R.E.'s only means of defence are the grappling arms, which fortunately do a good job of grabbing and holding dinosaurs. They can open wide enough to catch most dinosaur figures between the arms and they close tightly enough, but the 'hands' are too smoothly surfaced so especially smaller creatures easily slip out between them. The arms surely aren't shut strong enough to be able to lift dinosaurs in the air. All they can do is hold a dinosaur when it keeps standing still. And even if they were powerful enough to restrain prey that fights back, what then? This vehicle isn't equipped with something like a tranq missile launcher to fully subdue them and make sure they don't claw at the driver in his unprotected seat. A cockpit window or something like that would sure have come in handy for poor Eddie, since now he's just an easy prey for hungry critters. In cooperation with another vehicle or a set of weaponry carrying equipment that can really knock a dinosaur out this vehicle might do the trick, but it definitely doesn't on its own.

Playability: not all too good. Eddie has the typical poseable body parts, namely head, arms and legs. Even though the grappling arms still aren't up to battling dinosaurs, these are one of the better functioning sets of grappling arms we've seen on JP toys. At least they can also grab bigger dinosaurs, and they have a rather tight grip, while neither can be said for the bigger Trike Dozer vehicle of this toy line. Though the vehicle's wheels are a decent sort and the Land S.A.B.R.E. rides a fair distance when given a push, more flexible all-terrain wheels (like those of the JPS2 Jungle Runner) would be more suited for a small land based vehicle like this.

Realism: this is not the most applicable term on any Chaos Effect set, and the same goes for this vehicle. The Land S.A.B.R.E. is definitely one of the more bizarre and less likely JP vehicles, as well as poorly designed, leaving the driver open for attack by vicious mutated monsters. Though big grappling arms for grabbing dinosaurs aren't such a bad idea, they don't beat a good old rocket or net launcher, especially since you can' t fully subdue beasties with just these arms. The Eddie Carr figure looks nothing like the Eddie seen in the TLW movie, though the jump suit which covers all of him also has a hand in this. Only his face is revealed, and that at least isn't reminiscent to Eddie Carr. More importantly, Eddie Carr died in the Lost World movie, so what's he doing being alive here anyway?

Repaint: no. This vehicle was designed specifically for the Chaos Effect toy line, and would not be repainted for any later lines.

Overall rating: 4/10. A rather lousy vehicle, with a human figure that's of little appeal. Though the grappling arms aren't a total failure, they're not enough to make this a successful vehicle. This is one of the more common Chaos Effect sets, so if you feel the need to get one you can probably find it for a pretty low price, especially because it's – unsurprisingly – not highly sought after. However, it also doesn't come recommended, so you might want to skip this one entirely in favour of better designed vehicles.

The Lost World Series 2: Eddie Carr

Year of release: 1997-1998

Accessories:

-Tranq Bazooka

-Two missiles

-Backpack

-Tyrannosaurus hatchling

Description: this second Eddie Carr figure of the TLW toy lines stands in a totally neutral position. He wears an orange jumpsuit, with grey camouflage spots mixed in on the legs and torso, and a scaly shiny blue shirt underneath. On the left part of his chest he sports a yellow badge with the JP Site B logo. His pants carry several pockets and an odd TV-screen like ornamentation (a knee patch maybe? If so, why doesn't he have one on the other knee too?). He sports black boots, a shiny blue glove on his right hand (his left hand is exposed), a big blue arm patch over his left lower arm, and a small walkie-talkie on his back. Like the TLWS1 Eddie Carr figure, he comes with a cowboy hat, this time light grey with a brown band on it. He has black eyes and eyebrows and brown hair.

Eddie comes with a large bazooka, basically a black tube with a small box at the end and a big one up front. There's a small pin on the bottom of the big box up front, so Eddie can more easily hold this weapon. On top of the gun near the front end there’s a large red button. When the bazooka is loaded with either one of the two red missiles it comes with, pressing the button makes the missile be fired with force, with a firing range of almost two metres and a good impact force. It’s one of the more effective and powerful weapons Kenner ever produced. This set also features a black backpack with black straps so Eddie can carry it on his back. The pack has two holes in it, one for each missile.

The T-Rex hatchling is a cute little critter with large black eyes, standing tall on its legs. It stands in a walking position, left leg posed forward and right leg posed backward, with its head slightly positioned to the right as if something is attracting its attention. It’s coloured in a bright red paint job, with a large black stripe running from its snout all the way to the end of the tail, and with smaller black stripes running out of the bigger one. It has a white JP Site B logo on its right upper leg. It also has a bandage on its lower right leg, hardly noticeable because it’s coloured in the same red colour as the rest of the sculpt.

Analysis: despite being killed halfway through the movie, Eddie Carr is back in a second incarnation, wearing Urban Assault Gear, ready to take on nasty predators running loose in the big city. As such, he's sporting a very different, more elaborate outfit than his TLWS1 predecessor did. It seems to be a dinosaur-resisting suit, much more heavy and bulky in stature as the simpler gear the other Eddie figure wore, but still a neat design (and despite the obvious usefulness of some sort of protective helmet, still sporting Eddie's cowboy hat), albeit asymmetric (why not a big red arm patch on the right arm as well? Or a second knee patch?). Despite its odd looks, it's obvious Eddie is ready for close combat, with an effective weapon to match.

The best part of this set comes from the formidable bazooka. It works very well and has a great firing range for such a small weapon. It easily knocks over hatchlings, human figures and most smaller dinosaurs and even bigger ones (it partially depends on whether the targeted creatures are bipedal or not). It comes with two different missiles, so you have a choice, as well as a spare because with a range like this missiles tend to get lost. Both missiles can be stored in the backpack so you don’t have to let one of them lie loose when the other is loaded in the gun. Eddie's right arm is definitely the one to use for this weapon, since the big arm patch on his left arm gets in the way of positioning the weapon. Slight modifications have been made to this weapon for this TLWS2 figure, since it is a retooled version of the bazooka that originally came with JPS1 Robert Muldoon and was designed specifically for that figure, so few other figures could hold it (see the 'Repaint' section below). The retooling allows more figures to be capable of carrying it. Retooling not withstanding, this bazooka is still one of the best and most powerful weapons of all the JP toy lines.

The Rex hatchling is quite good, but has some minor balance issues. It falls down easily, which does make it a very good target for the bazooka, since that weapon is capable of knocking this little dinosaur over good and slinging it away a fair distance. The Rex's paint job isn’t very appealing and could have used some more work: it’s especially disappointing the bandage on its leg isn’t painted in a different colour, because it’s hard to spot the animal has a bandage there at all. Other than that, the Rex looks cute and cuddly, and is one of the more loveable hatchling figures made by Kenner.

Playability: just fine. Eddie has the usual poseable body parts, namely, head, legs and arms. The bazooka is an excellent weapon with a great firing range and a powerful impact force for such a small weapon. The new pin on its underside makes it compatible with more figures than it was originally designed for. Since there's two missiles, there's a back-up if you loose one, and to keep you from losing them you can store them in the backpack. The little T-Rex has no poseability of any kind.

Realism: 'Urban Assault Gear' would have been handy fighting the escaped Rex in the Lost World movie, but such an outfit, let alone a bazooka, was not featured in the actual film. More importantly, Eddie Carr was already dead in that part of the film, so he seems an unlikely choice to fight dinosaurs in an urban environment. Moreover, this figure doesn't resemble Eddie Carr at all, he looks more like a made-up character on Kenner's part. The Rex hatchling is quite accurate for hatchling standards, aside from the red paint job. It's not as close a match to the little Rex seen in the TLW movie as the TLWS1 Junior T-Rex figure, but comes close enough, right down to the (unpainted) bandages around its right leg.

Repaint: yes, this set is all repaints. Eddie himself has a repainted version of the body of JPS2 Alan Grant (Bola version)(which would also be repainted for the TLW Exclusive Dino Tracker Adventure Set), while his head sculpt comes from the TLWS1 Eddie Carr figure (so there is consistency in that regard). The Rex hatchling is a repaint of the baby Rex from TLWS1 Ian Malcolm. The bazooka, along with both missiles and the backpack, is a retooled and repainted version of the same weapon that originally came with JPS1/2 Robert Muldoon (this weapon, though not retooled or repainted, would also be featured in the TLW Exclusive Young T-Rex set). The differences between the original bazooka and this retooled TLWS2 version are:

-the little pin on its underside, allowing more figures to handle it;

-no hole at the back end of the bazooka;

-a slightly different paint job, still black with red highlights, but different, lighter hues of black and red. The missiles are also painted in a slightly different shade of red than the originals. The backpack remains unaltered though, and is simply a reuse. Despite the minor differences, the bazooka is effective as ever.

Overall rating: 6/10. So it's all nothing new really, but the figure got a pretty decent new paint job, the bazooka is still a kick-ass weapon and the hatchling is cute as ever. If you don't mind repaints, you might want to track this set down, though being part of the infamous TLWS2 toy line it's not the easiest set to get, having only had a limited release in the USA, and virtually no release in other territories. That said, this is probably the most common set of the TLWS2 toy line, so it's at least less hard to find than the other figures of this toy line.

The Lost World Series 1: Eddie Carr

Year of release: 1997

Accessories:

-Capture Claw Launcher

-Triceratops hatchling

Description: Eddie wears a beige overall with a lot of pockets, as well as a brown utility belt and a brown pair of boots. The upper part of the overall is green and has a rope wrapped around the right shoulder. A pair of black sunglasses are dangling on his chest, and a JP Site B patch is located on his left shoulder. Eddie has a light brown hat with some green adorning: underneath he has brown hair. He stands in a completely neutral position.

His large weapon is called a Capture Claw Launcher according to the carding: it’s basically a heavy grey gun with a large yellow claw shaped dart sticking out. The dart is attached to the gun by a piece of black string. On top of the weapon there’s a large yellow disc around which the string can be wrapped, as well as a yellow button for firing the weapon.

Eddie comes with an adorable Triceratops hatchling. It sports a dark green paint job with a white underside. The creature has three very small horns, almost stumps. A large white spot surrounds every eye: the eyes themselves are black with white pupils. The creature stands with one front leg raised and his beak opened, as if squawking for attention. It has a black JP Site B logo on its right hind leg.

Analysis: this figure is not bad at all. Eddie sports an interesting and detailed outfit, but the paint job could have been better. The numerous pockets are hardly noticeable and the rope around his shoulder is a bit cheaply done. Eddie doesn’t stand in any weird pose, but remains totally neutral adding to the playability. It’s a good figure, except for one thing: it doesn’t look like the movie Eddie at all. It might as well be another dino tracker or park ranger.

The weapon is quite cool, though it is a repaint. Despite its size Eddie can easily hold it with a single hand without falling down. It works well: pressing the button fires the claw and hits anything in its path with some force. The range is limited to about 70 centimetres by the rope, though people who prefer the weapon without the rope to increase the range will have no problem removing it from the weapon. It’s a nifty weapon, but there’s one downside: it’s called a claw, implying it can grab, catch or restrain things. However, when fired the dart doesn’t catch anything, it just knocks things over. This is just a minor point of criticism though.

The baby Triceratops is cute, like most TLW hatchlings. The paint job could have been better though: for one thing, its horns shouldn’t be green like the rest of the animal. Also, the white isn’t really aesthetically pleasing. Other than that there’s nothing wrong with this little Trike.

Playability: well enough. The figure has the usual range of poseable body parts and stands in a neutral pose. Like all hatchlings the baby Triceratops can’t movie in any way. The weapon provides some good shooting action, though one might say the string limits its potential. But that’s easily fixed.

Realism: this Eddie looks totally different from the Eddie we saw in the TLW movie. His outfit differs completely from the clothing Eddie wore in that film. Was Eddie even wearing a hat in the movie? The face also doesn’t resemble Richard Schiff as he played Eddie: most noticeably, Richard was bald. There was no Capture Claw Launcher in TLW either. It’s a good figure, but nothing about it reminds us of that guy that got ripped in half by a pair of angry Rexes.

The little Triceratops is clearly recognizable as such, even though its horns are pretty small (which was normal for baby Trikes). It still has a large crest on the back of his head, as well as a horned beak. It’s not very different from the contemporary view of young Ceratopsians’ appearance.

Repaint: the figure and the hatchling are new, but the weapon is a repaint of the double harpoon JPS2 Harpoon Harrison carried.

Overall rating: 7/10. It’s a good figure, but it’s a shame it just doesn’t look anything like Eddie Carr. The weapon (despite being a repaint) and the cute hatchling make up for it somewhat. This figure isn’t rare and shouldn’t prove to be very expensive when you find it.