Jurassic Park Series 2: Strike Cycle

Year of release: 1993-1994

Accessories:

-Firing Capture Claw

-Detachable sidecar

(Note: the reviewer is not an expert on motor cycles, so any incorrect technical terms or lack of detail in this vehicle's description ought to be disregarded.)

Description: this big and heavy motor cycle consists of the bike itself (two wheels) and a sidecar (one wheel) that carries the vehicle's main utility for taking on dinosaurs, the capture claw. Both the cycle and the sidecar sport a largely dark green paint job, covered with orange stripes, while all of its highlights (capture claw, steering handles with front gun, scope, firing button, parking breaks and pulley) are painted metallic grey, as is the chassis under the driver's seat, which is more shiny by comparison (almost silver). The wheels are all black; the seat is light brown, with space for only one human figure. The cycle itself is adorned with parts of a dinosaur skeleton (it appears to be a medium sized carnivore), the upper jaw and arms on the front, and its backbone at the back, all held together by small brown ropes (none of these parts can be separated from the cycle). The sidecar doesn't have ornamentation like this, but delivers the action features of this set instead (the front gun above the bike's skull is only there for show, it has no action options).

On top of the sidecar there is a grid with a scope on it, which can be flipped up, revealing a small button underneath. Pushing this button releases the capture claw, which is attached to the pulley at the back of the sidecar by a black string, allowing the claw a firing distance of some 40 centimetres (unless you remove the string of course). There's a little handle on the side of the pulley: rotating this towards you makes the claw being reeled in, along with any unfortunate prey it may have captured. On the bottom of the sidecar there are two little legs or breaks which can be retracted (only simultaneously), so the sidecar can stand on its own when it's not attached to the cycle. It also makes the whole set-up of bike and sidecar together more steady, though the cycle can't really move when the breaks are retracted.

Analysis: aside from the wide originality in prehistoric vermin JPS2 unleashed, this line also delivered more diversity in ground based vehicles. JPS1 featured two cars only (and a chopper, which isn't land based), while this line not only added a third car, but also a buggy and this motor cycle (the first JP cycle, but certainly not the last). It's a pretty cool vehicle, but could have been more inventive in terms of weaponry.

The design is quite butch and makes no mistake we're dealing with a bad guys' vehicle here. The poor dinosaur which was killed to make this bike sport a more nasty look shows the Evil Raiders' handiwork, while the paint scheme of 'military' dark green with sharp orange stripe patterns also hints at carnage and mayhem (dark red stripes would have left even less to the imagination but might have been too graphic). Skinner is the best choice to drive this bike (which is also why he's pictured on the box), since the other Raider, Dr. Snare, has a big trench coat that kind of gets in the way when he's sitting down on it. Most of the other human figures don't have enough space between their legs to really fit on this vehicle.

The detachable sidecar, which looks less menacing, carries all the action of this set. Even though the capture claw can also be fired when the sidecar is attached to the bike, it's more convenient when the sidecar stands on its own and the bike doesn't get in the way. The firing mechanism works really well and the claw has a decent firing range, but it's only fit for trapping smaller figures (like the JPS1/2 Raptor, also pictured on this bike's box). There's not much room between the claws' arms for bigger prey. It's not the most original weapon either: JPS2 Harpoon Harrison comes with a very similar piece of equipment (and the principle would be used in various following toy lines). However, the pulley which allows for captured prey to be reeled in is something we wouldn't see again, and adds to this capture claw's effectiveness. The scope on top, which also protects the firing button, is a nice extra touch as well, and the same goes for the little breaks on the bottom of the sidecar which allow it to keep standing up straight for use when it's not attached to the bike. A shame the cycle itself doesn't come with a similar device, since it can't stand up on its own when separated from the sidecar but lies down or has to be parked up against something.

Playability: pretty good. Though the only real action comes from the capture claw, the various little extra touches aid the overall playability. The wheels are moveable enough to push the bike a fair distance away when given a push. It's clear more thought was given to the sidecar then to the bike though, considering the cycle can't stand on its own without the sidecar and most figures don't really fit on it. Also, you can take detaching the sidecar from the main cycle as dino damage, even though it's not intended as such.

Realism: motor cycles weren't featured in the first JP movie, but neither were the Evil Raiders. The whole design of this vehicle comes from the imagination of the Kenner toy designers. Therefore, it's not surprising the bike features a bit of an over-the-top feel, with the dinosaur remains as ornamentation, the big capture claw gun, and another gun attached to the steering handles. It does fit in perfectly with the whole notion of the Evil Raiders though, given the funky design of those figures themselves.

Repaint: no, this is a new vehicle. It would not be repainted for later toy lines.

Overall rating: 7/10. This is a decent vehicle with various fun features, but nothing particularly special (and certainly less iconic than the JPS1 vehicles). It's one of the most common JPS2 sets, and can be found fairly easily, sometimes for low prices. As such, don't hesitate to find one of your own.

Jurassic Park Series 2: Dr. Snare

Year of release: 1993-1994

Accessories:

-Dino Stun Gun, including blade and capture claw

-Dino Damage patch

-Carnotaurus hatchling

-Collector’s Card # 33

Description: Like Skinner, the other (released) Evil Raider, Dr. Snare, is a very tall and muscular character, sporting a very unusual outfit for a Jurassic Park figure. Most notable is his big grey trench coat, the top part of which is removable, revealing a dino damage wound underneath. The coat itself is not removable but is attached to the figure, though it hangs loose around his lower body, almost like a cape. On the right back part of the coat there's some beige rope (just for detail, it can't be removed). Snare reveals his naked torso underneath his coat, showing an impressive six pack, as well as a golden ammo belt. He wears dark brown pants, with a second golden ammo belt on his left leg. Around his waist he carries a belt of a lighter brown colour, adorned with a shiny red plate showing a dinosaur skull (similar to the JP T-Rex skull logo). A pair of green boots, covered in orange spots and made out of reptile skin (so it appears by their scaly looks), complete his outfit, along with a big dark green cowboy hat on his head with a black band on it. Snare has quite an ugly face, including an arrogant grin and tiny demonic red eyes, and blond hair and eyebrows. He stands in a largely neutral pose, with his right leg posed forwards. Snare's wound is quite extensive, running from the left part of his chest over his shoulder and covering most of the visible parts of his back. The removable part of his coat barely manages to hide it all.

Dr. Snare comes with three different accessories, all painted in the same brown colour, which can be attached to each other so Snare can carry the whole bunch in one hand. Most notably, there's the big stun gun, with a big aiming visor on top. It has two small holes in it, to accommodate the blade which can be stuck on its side. The blade is basically a stick with a big triangular knife on it, along with sharp edges. Additionally, there's the capture claw, which can be attached to the blade (it has a hole on top). It looks much like the tags (or cuffs) that come with the JPS2 dinosaur figures, except there's no JP logo on it and it has a long black piece of string attached to it, which is hooked on a smaller claw which Snare can put around his arm.

The baby Carnotaurus stands in a walking posture, its right leg posed forwards and its left leg backwards. Its arms are held pretty close to its body, while its head is slightly turned to its left as if it's looking at something in that direction, while its small tail is raised upwards. It has several rows of tiny bumps on its snout, neck, back and tail, but its most obvious features are the black horns above the eyes. Its boxy head is almost as big as its torso, and sports green eyes with cat like brown irises, as well as small white teeth. The animal is coloured entirely dark grey, except for a big red stripe running from its snout all the way to the end of the tail. On its left upper leg this critter carries a white JP logo.

Analysis: if you think the toy designers let their imagination run wild while designing Skinner, you haven't seen how far they went with his hunting buddy Dr. Snare (despite his title, you wouldn't want this guy to be your physician). He looks like a cross between a professional wrestler and a cowboy, even bulkier and meaner than Skinner, and showing off more skin despite wearing such a big trench coat. His coat is really the coolest part of his costume, made out of a separate soft material and only attached to his upper torso, allowing for some flexibility. An outfit like this is definitely original, and has never been featured on a JP figure later on, making Snare stand out and impossible to mix up with any other human figures. It's also quite neat the top piece of the coat can be taken off (and even used by other figures to some extent), revealing extensive scarring (but not blood or bone, even a figure as badass as this one doesn't come with such graphic a wound). Apparently Snare once had an unfortunate encounter with some ferocious carnivore that felt brave enough to turn on him, damaging his entire left upper torso (but oddly enough missing Snare's head, luckily for him). Obviously Snare got out alive, and we can only wonder what happened to his aggressor (maybe that's where Snare got the material for his funky boots).

Snare comes with some accessories that really fit his character's way of handling dinosaurs he feels like “ensnaring” (hence the name). There's the stun gun for, well, stunning dinosaurs from a distance (though it doesn't feature any missile firing like several other JP figures, since this weapon doesn't come with such an action feature). When Snare hits his target, he closes in for the kill, either using his blade to finish off his prey and make fashionable clothes out of it, or trapping it with the claw and rope. The claw fits around most smaller dinosaur figures (like the JPS1 Velociraptor) while the rope can be wrapped around the creature's limbs so he's properly restrained, and Snare can use the smaller claw to do just this. It's an interesting combination, something not seen with other figures' accessories.

Snare himself may look butch, but so does his hatchling, which makes for a perfect combination of hunter and prey. The little Carnotaurus, though not featuring as vicious and dangerous a look as the big Carnotaurus figure of this toy line, does appear pretty rugged (though still also cute enough, considering it's only a baby), because of his dark paint job with the big red stripe signalling danger, and the little horns for attacking anyone it doesn't like. Though this critter is quite cool, the paint job could have been better by adding some black to the now overused dark grey. But this is a minor complaint, since this is otherwise one of the most appealing hatchlings Kenner produced.

Playability: pretty good. Snare has the usual range of poseable body parts, namely arms, legs and head. The removable dino damage patch sure adds options to this figure (and can even be put on other figures, though that often looks silly and is never a perfect fit). Though the stun gun has no solid action features (in fact, the only real action of this set is supplied by Snare's wound), the fact it consists of three separate pieces that can be used in various ways and in accordance with each other, also helps the overall playability. The baby Carnotaurus has no poseable body parts, as is usual for hatchling figures.

Realism: Dr. Snare was an invention by Kenner's designers (and quite a neat one), and he wasn't featured in any of the JP movies so he's not supposed to look like anyone we know. His rather imaginative look doesn't make him the most realistic human figure (quite the opposite actually), but it makes for a smashing toy. His weapons aren't much unlike anything that might very well be used in Jurassic Park (apart from the blade perhaps), but also weren't specifically seen in the films. The Carnotaurus is very similar to the adult dinosaur figure of the JPS2 toy line, both in shape (especially the boxy head sculpt and the little horns) and in paint job. Like its adult counterpart, however, this figure shares the mistake of having overly long arms and three fingers instead of four.

Repaint: no, this figure was all-new. None of the parts in this set would be repainted for any future toy lines either, making this figure unique (and also a factor contributing to its popularity).

Overall rating: 9/10. Despite his completely fictional and somewhat ridiculous design, this is one of the coolest human figures of all the toy lines, featuring a very nasty dino damage wound, pretty good accessories and a terrific hatchling. Not surprisingly, this figure is also one of the rarest and most sought after human figures and can be difficult to find, having  only been released in the USA and (in very small numbers) in Europe. When you find one it may not be cheap, but it's likely it'll prove to be totally worth your money.

Jurassic Park Series 2: Skinner

Year of release: 1993-1994

Accessories:

-Tranq Rifle (2 parts)

-Knife

-Ammo case

-Dino Damage arm patch

-Baryonyx hatchling

-Collector’s Card # 43

Description: Skinner is a very muscular, gorilla like guy, featuring a very butch and menacing appearance with scars to match. He has a darker skin tone than most other human figures and has a bald head, big brown eyebrows with small brown eyes, and a white circular beard and moustache on the lower part of his face. He also carries several scars and scratches on his face and head, but the biggest clue as to his dangerous life style is the huge claw marks on his left arm (which is probably why he wears a big arm patch over that arm). Skinner has a very evil looking facial expression, making it obvious he's a bad guy. This fact is also reflected in his attire.

He has a white necklace with what appear to be teeth (probably from medium sized predators) on it, over an orange 'netted' shirt, with a gold belt around his waist which carries a small white skull. He wears pants sporting two shades of green, the darker one being found on the more scaly parts, which look like crocodile skin. He also has a green gun holster strapped to his right upper leg, with a decently sized grey hand gun in it. Around his left knee he sports grey bandages, another hint at an unfortunate animal encounter. Skinner's outfit is completed by a pair of big brown boots, and a small red arm band around his left wrist. Additionally though, there's the removable arm patch, which also seems to be partially made out of scaly animal skin. It has a three-way colour scheme, brown on top, orange in the middle and brown below, being tied together by small green stitchings It was specifically designed to fit over Skinner's left arm, though other human figures can also wear it to some extent (but never a perfect fit).

Skinner comes with various accessories, none of them featuring an action option interestingly enough (it seems the dino damage is Skinner's main feature). He has a small knife, seemingly made from some carnivorous creature's lower jaw (though it sports a rather metallic and shiny paint job which doesn't make it look like bone), and also a big Tranq rifle (same metallic grey colour as the knife). This gun looks rather realistic, compared to the weapons of most other Kenner figures, since it's not overly big in order to accommodate some action feature. The only thing that looks out of place is the big handle at the end, so Skinner can hold it more easily with his big hands. The gun can be split in half at the middle, so it can fit in Skinner's ammo case. This case is just a big grey box, no ammo inside, which can be used to store both the gun and knife in. It has a handle up front so Skinner can hold the case.

A Baryonyx hatchling (though the exact typology of this critter is debatable) completes the set. It's a small and somewhat rat like animal, moving on four legs and being posed in a walking stance, with its left front leg raised as if taking a step and his left hind leg posed backwards. Its tail is positioned upwards, like he's wagging it like a dog would. It has a somewhat crocodilian face with big nostrils at the end of the snout and large red eyes (black irises) near the back of the head. He sports white teeth with a pink tongue between them. The underside of this figure (throat, belly, lower part of the tail, inner parts of the legs) are painted grey, while the upper parts of the head, neck, back and tail are coloured dark blue. Between this grey and dark blue the hatchling sports lighter blue colouring, most apparent at the head and flanks. On its left upper leg this Bary carries a white JP logo.

Analysis: this is a highly unusual JP figure. Obviously the Dino Trackers/Evil raiders are solely an invention on Kenner's part, so the designers got to use their imagination, and did so with pleasure. Hence this big hulking Skinner which looks more like a World Wrestling champion than a character you could see in a Jurassic Park movie. Nonetheless, this is quite a cool figure and a welcome addition to the range of bad guys. He looks very mean, certainly not someone you would want to mess with, though it appears several dinosaurs did just that and at least one of them got pretty successful. The Evil Raiders add an extra element to the JP line. Now you can pit the human figures not only against dinosaurs (which are of course the true heroes of the JP franchise and usually just kill the human figures), but also against other human figures. After all, poor Dennis Nedry was the only bad guy so far, but he seems likeable compared to these Evil Raiders, who are just out to kill dinosaurs for fun and greed. Like Nedry though, the Evil Raiders come with dino damage wounds, as punishment for their crimes. No tearing off limbs this time, just huge bite marks which can be covered up for decency.

Skinner comes with some nice, but actionless, equipment. The knife is just a gadget, though with an interesting design. The gun can be split in two: one could argue this can be construed as dino damage, but otherwise it just doesn't fit in the ammo case, which seems the main reason. The ammo case, again, is a nice extra gadget (and useful for storing small parts you might otherwise lose), but doesn't do much otherwise. The back of the figure's card shows the case being folded out and posed standing upright as some kind of hideout with the gun on top, so Skinner can hide behind it and shoot unsuspecting dinosaurs, but this is just silly, because Skinner is way too big a fellow to hide behind a box without going unnoticed. Skinner's stuff is probably some of the most realistic equipment of the various JP human figures, but a real action feature would have been nice.

The little Baryonyx is a mixed bag. He has a decent paint job, the interplay between both shades of blue and its demonic red eyes is quite sweet, though the grey is dull by comparison. His head sculpt is ugly though with those big nostrils and its grinning expression. Cute is not the word I'd use for this baby.

Playability: decent enough. Skinner has the typical range of poseable body parts, namely head, arms and legs. Even though this set lacks action features, the diversity of Skinner's tools and the dino damage provide enough options to use accordingly. Like other hatchlings baby Bary sports no poseability of any kind.

Realism: irrelevant in this case. Being an invention by Kenner's toy designers rules out the need for likeness to any particular actor. Realism isn't something the designers cared much for in Skinner's case, so they just went all out and came up with a cool looking bad guy, sporting an outfit which clearly makes him look like a bad guy, stereotyping as that may be. Skinner's accessories are pretty realistic by comparison (apart from the knife maybe). A rifle like this doesn't seem too unlikely to have been used in the JP movies, and an ammo case sure would have come in handy too.

Which leaves us with the controversial part of this set, the hatchling. It's usually labelled a Baryonyx (and it says so on the card of this figure too), but its only Bary-esque features are the long snout (resembling a crocodile) and the elongated third claw on each hand (a feature Baryonyx had in reality, and which is also found on the adult JPS2 Baryonyx figure). Other than that, this hatchling looks nothing like a Baryonyx, and certainly very unlike its adult counterpart of this toy line. However, this hatchling looks quite similar to the (sadly unreleased) JPS2 Ornithosuchus figure, sporting a similar blue paint job and walking on four legs instead of two. For this reason, the hatchling is often called an Ornithosuchus. However, since the card calls it a Baryonyx, I did the same here. Don't be surprised if you find both names to be in use when referring to this particular baby dinosaur.

Repaint: nope. No part of this set, neither Skinner nor his accessories, would be repainted for later JP toy lines. The Skinner figure would be partially repainted for Kenner's Congo toy line though.

Overall rating: 8/10. Skinner himself is a highly imaginative and fun figure with a cool dino damage wound. His accessories may not provide solid action, they're pretty good looking and something else from the oversized stuff seen on other human figures. The enigmatic hatchling is good enough, but nothing overly special. Skinner is one of the rarer JPS2 figures and can be difficult to find. This figure was released in the USA in lower quantities than most other JPS2 figures, and it only had a very limited release in Europe. Though this figure comes recommended to people who don't care much about movie accuracy (there's basically none to be found here), don't be surprised if you see this figure going for higher prices than you're used to on human figures.