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.

The Lost World Series 1: Glider Pack with Ian Malcolm

Year of release: 1997

Accessories:

-Ian Malcolm figure

-Glider Pack

-Missile

Description: Ian Malcolm sports a black jumpsuit, including black boots, gloves and of course sunglasses. From the shoulders down to the upper legs the suit is covered with blue and green straps, giving Ian a typical hang glider pilot look, though I don’t know much about aviation so I might be mistaken here. The suit has a yellow JP: Site B patch on the left shoulder. There are two variations of this figure, like with the regular TLWS1 Ian Malcolm figure: Ian’s hair is either smooth or curly, but in both cases black.

The Glider Pack can be folded in to look like a large backpack, but pressing the large blue button on top makes the wings fold out, in which case the glider measures a good 20 centimetres across. The wings are basically black cloth held together by a dark grey plastic frame attached to the Pack itself, which is also painted dark grey with light green highlights on top. The figure can hold on to the glider via two extendable frames, one which can be clamped around its waist and one which it can grab with its hands. Blue highlights indicate the various options of the Glider Pack: a large blue button for unfolding the wings, a smaller button for launching the missile, two clamps for attaching the figure to the pack and two additional clamps at the bottom for holding the wings together when they’re not folded out. The missile, a yellow dart, can be launched by pressing the smaller blue button on top of the pack: it has a firing range of almost two metres.

Analysis: this is a decent set, nothing too special, but fun enough. The Malcolm figure it comes with looks good, still sporting a mostly black paint job including sunglasses as is Malcolm’s custom. The paint job of the pack itself is a bit dull, but not annoyingly so. The yellow dart sticking out of it makes it look a bit odd, as if the two don’t belong together. The firing range is one of the largest of any JP figure’s weapons, though it does little damage from too great a distance. At close range it’s more lethal, though not as much as most other missiles since it’s so lightly built. Smaller dinosaur figures will easily be knocked over though.

The ‘unfolding wings’ system of the Glider Pack works fine, though when folded in the wings occasionally flap out on their own accord, since the clamps holding them together are a bit small. It also saves some space when the wings aren’t folded out and makes the cloth less susceptible too dust. The cloth is a nice touch and adds some realism. However, it’s more easily damaged then it would be if it was all plastic. You better not play too rough with it if you want to keep it intact. The figure can be attached to the glider in such a way it looks pretty realistic. However, its hands often slip loose from the frame it’s holding on to.

Playability: Malcolm has poseable arms, legs and head like most Kenner figures have. His hands are positioned in a forward gripping move to support him holding on to the frame of the pack. Therefore he holds things, like weapons of other figures, differently then usual. The pack itself doesn’t offer too much playability, though the wings unfolding increases the number op options. The missile launcher, though it has some setbacks, works properly.

Realism: like the regular Malcolm figure of this toy line, this Malcolm looks more like the one we saw in the first JP movie than the older Malcolm from TLW, but the black sunglasses are still a dead giveaway, so it’s hard to mistake him for another character. There were no hang gliders in the TLW movie, though originally the script did have a scene involving them. This was cut out before production of the movie started though. Still, it’s nice Kenner added this set to the TLW toy line as a reference to that scene, though they may not have done that consciously.

Repaint: Malcolm’s head is, for both variations, a reuse of the regular TLWS1 Malcolm figure. The head variation sporting curly hair is a reuse of the JPS2 Malcolm’s head. Other than that, this figure, as well as the Glider Pack, are news sculpts. Neither would be repainted for later toy lines.

Overall rating: 6/10. It’s a fun addition to the TLWS1 line, but nothing particularly special and certainly of less interest than the other small vehicles/play sets with human figures of this toy line. It’s not hard to find and shouldn’t be too expensive.