Jurassic Park Chaos Effect: Ian Malcolm

Year of release: 1998

Accessories:

-Dino Mech Armor Claw

-Body armour

-Tyrannosaurus hatchling

Description: this highly unusual Ian Malcolm figure has black hair, as well as black eyes and eyebrows, but that's where every similarity with previous Malcolm figures ends. His trademark sunglasses (even though they weren't used in the Lost World movie) are absent. Instead, he wears a yellow jumpsuit, covered in various brown straps as well as patches (on both knees and the right shoulder). He also wears a brown belt around his waist and sports black gloves on both hands and black arm bands around both upper arms. His legs are covered in black boot like garments, which end right at the upper legs instead of under the knees. On his left lower leg, a black knife is attached to his boot. His left hand is closed into a fist, so he can only hold stuff with his right hand. Otherwise he stands in a fairly neutral pose, though his left arm is also raised upward to a small extent. The brown strap that runs over the left part of his chest sports a yellow JP Site B logo patch. Malcolm comes with a separate piece of body armour, coloured metallic grey, that fits around his torso, offering him front protection against the ferocious Chaos Effect predators (though his back remains unprotected).

Malcolm's offensive action is supplied by his Dino Mech Armor Claw, a huge metallic grey device that fits over his right arm (and only his right arm), and is equipped with two long thin claws (both of them painted light green), ending in small “teeth” which fit together like jigsaw puzzle pieces, thus capable of fully closing these claws, preferably around a target. On the back of the Armor Claw a long green button is found: pushing this makes the claws open, ready to grab any prey in its path by releasing the button. The claw piece of this weapon can be used separately from the arm piece, so it doesn't have to be attached to figures to use it.

This set is completed by a T-Rex hatchling, not much unlike other Rex hatchlings, except it has a smoother, less detailed skin surface, as well as overly big feet. This hatchling stands in a walking posture, left leg posed forward and right leg back, while its right arm is raised and his left arm lowered. It sports a two way paint job: the underside of the figure (lower jaw, throat, belly, arms, most of the flanks and legs and lower part of the tail) is coloured bright orange, while its upper body parts (upper jaw, neck, back and upper part of the tail) sport a dark red colour, which partially runs over the upper legs and flanks in triangular stripes. It has white teeth and eyes (no pupils), and carries a black JP Site B logo on its right upper leg.

Analysis: this latest Malcolm incarnation has the distinction of being one of the most unusual human figures ever produced, though not so much by Chaos Effect standards (since this whole toy line is basically unusual, making this Malcolm fit right in. In fact, compared to the Chaos Effect Roland Tembo figure, this Malcolm looks quite realistic!). His outfit looks very futuristic, and certainly not like something you'd see him wearing in the movies since it has a much more 'cartoonish' feel to it (not surprisingly, since a Chaos Effect cartoon was once on the drawing boards). The paint job is quite colourful, though not nearly as imaginative as some of the paint schemes seen on the dinosaur figures of this toy line. The most interesting part of his gear is his removable body armour, which isn't an unlikely tool in a dinosaur invested environment. In fact, it's surprising a tool like this wasn't seen on earlier JP figures (JPS2 Bola Alan Grant got pretty close, though his armour was not removable). The armour can be used by various other Kenner figures, but it obviously fits best around this Malcolm's body, since it was designed for this figure specifically. This figure is overall pretty decent if you can swallow the Chaos Effect premise. For those who can't, this Malcolm is definitely a hideous Jurassic Park figure.

Malcolm's Dino Mech Armor Claw is an interesting piece of equipment. Capture claws have been featured before in earlier toy lines, but never as a separate piece a human figure could hold: they were always missile like weapons that could be fired at dinosaurs. This is a more close range type of capture claw, designed to subdue a creature storming right at you (preferably a smaller animal, since it has little effect on bigger beasts). Though when attached to the arm piece the claw can only be used by Malcolm (since it's incompatible with other human figures as such), it fortunately can also be used separately. Still, its effect is limited: though the gripping mechanism is surprisingly strong for such a small claw, the arms themselves are too thin and the 'teeth' are too blunt to really grab a hold and restrain most dinosaur figures, even hatchlings. Even on the Rex hatchling that comes with this set it doesn't really work, since that figure has much too smooth a skin surface so it slips loose easily. This weapon could have used better and stronger claws to make it really work (and this toy line delivered some on its Land S.A.B.R.E. and Trike Dozer vehicles), but it's a nice concept regardless (and it certainly beats the lousy capture claw Hasbro designed for the JP III Alan Grant figure).

The Rex hatchling is a cute figure and given its smooth skin and huge feet it's easily recognizable as a Chaos Effect dinosaur, though its paint job isn't as elaborate as on most other dinosaurs of this toy line. It's actually a rather decent paint job, though it's a shame the big claws on its feet aren't painted and the Rex lacks pupils in its eyes. Given the abundance of orange on this figure, it's not too dissimilar a paint job to the big Omega T-Rex's paint scheme, adding some much needed consistency to this toy line. A nice little hatchling, but nothing too special.

Playability: decent enough. Malcolm provides the usual range of poseable body parts (arms, legs and head). His body armour is a fun gadget and can be used to some extent by other human figures (though it usually looks out of place on others). The Capture Claw may not be fully effective, it's a fun weapon to use and thankfully can also be used separately from the arm piece, adding some playability to it. The baby Rex has no poseability of any kind.

Realism: this is not a very applicable factor for any Chaos Effect figure and it's certainly not for this Ian Malcolm. It looks like something out of a science fiction Saturday morning cartoon instead of a Jurassic Park toy. It also has little similarity to Jeff Goldblum (who portrayed Ian Malcolm in both the first and second Jurassic Park movie), sporting a much younger and muscular look. The capture claw is also not something likely to be used in the movies, though body armour wouldn't have been such a bad idea. The Rex hatchling is recognizable as a T-Rex (or close relative) by its shape, but its paint job doesn't resemble the colour scheme of the Rexes seen in the movies, or that of most other Rex figures except for the Omega T-Rex of this toy line, which featured a truly bizarre colour scheme.

Repaint: no, this figure is all new and so are its accessories and hatchling. None of the parts in this set would be repainted for later toy lines.

Overall rating: 6/10. It's not the best of human figures (by far!) , but not as totally weird as some other Chaos Effect figures either. It comes with a decent and fun weapon and useful body armour, as well as a good enough hatchling, but overall this set is nothing really special. It's one of the more common Chaos Effect figures, so if you feel like you need one and can get it for a decent price you should get one, but otherwise you needn't bother.

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.

The Lost World Series 1: Ian Malcolm

Year of release: 1997

Accessories:

-Smart Missile Launcher (with missile)

-Tyrannosaurus hatchling

Description: this Malcolm figure sports a typical black outfit like Malcolm usually does. Shirt, trousers, gloves, sunglasses, belt and shoes are all black. He’s got some equipment on him, consisting of a green pair of binoculars on his chest, a brown knife on his upper left leg, and a JP Site B patch on his right shoulder. On his back he’s got a small black device: what it’s supposed to be doesn’t matter, since it’s there to support the missile launcher when it’s attached to the figure’s back. Malcolm also has black hair: depending on what variation of this figure you’ve got the hair is either smooth or curly.

The missile launcher is basically a red backpack (including pockets and rope on the sides) with black highlights sticking out, namely a button for firing the device, two straps for attaching it to the figure, and black supports for keeping the wings of the missile down. The missile is a large red sort of rocket with wings, which can be loaded on the upper side of the launcher.

The T-Rex hatchling is a cute little critter with large black eyes and white pupils, standing tall on its legs. It stands in a walking position with its head slightly positioned to the right as if something is attracting its attention. It’s coloured in a dull grey paint job, with a large green stripe running from its head all the way to the end of the tail. It has a black JP Site B logo on its right upper leg. It’s also got a grey bandage on its lower right leg, hardly noticeable because it’s coloured in the same grey as the rest of the sculpt.

Analysis: this is a good enough figure. It stands in a neutral position, but it tends to fall over easily because of the odd cowboy shoes. The black outfit is very Malcolm, but also a bit monotonous. The little gear details help to make it more diverse, but cannot be removed: Malcolm has no choice but to keep those heavy binoculars on all the time. The missile launcher can easily be attached to the figure’s back, but makes the figure get further out of balance, so it can only stand when the torso is really moved forward, making the figure stare at the ground. Despite these minor flaws it’s a pretty good sculpt.

The missile launcher is a neat new weapon and really works well. When pressing the buttons, the wings pop out and the missile is fired, hitting anything in its path with forceful impact. The colouring the weapon sports is a bit ugly though, and the weapon isn’t totally realistic. But it’s best not to complain too much over a weapon that works so well as this thing does.

The Rex hatchling is quite good, but also has some balance issues. It too falls down easily. Also, the 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, with a hint of potential to become the next Site B tyrant king.

Playability: pretty high. The figure’s pose is very neutral and all its limbs are poseable, so there’s no problem there. The weapon works well, though it’s better to use it independently from the figure: it’s guaranteed to knock any hatchling and most smaller dinosaur sculpts over. Like all hatchlings the Rex has no poseable body parts though.

Realism: though this figure is easily recognizable as being Ian Malcolm, mostly because of the sunglasses and black outfit, it looks more like the Ian Malcolm from the first JP movie than it resembles the one from TLW. Malcolm didn’t wear any glasses in TLW and could have used a shaving, but that’s not the case with this particular sculpt. Also, despite the colour this figure sports a somewhat different outfit: for example, Ian didn’t wear short sleeves and had no knife or binoculars. But it’s still definitely a Malcolm.

There was no missile launcher of this type in any of the JP movies, nor does it look much like anything that people really use to kill animals with. There was a T-Rex hatchling in TLW though, but it looked somewhat different from this one. The biggest difference lies in the paint job. Also, the head of this model doesn’t resemble its movie counterpart, and the overall creature is a bit smaller as well (but not much). Adding the bandage to the figure’s leg is a nice detail though, because the young Rex in the movie also had some leg problems: this makes the fact it’s hard to spot even more annoying.

Repaint: no, for the most part. The Rex hatchling, missile launcher and most of the figure itself are new, but the head (at least the curly variation) looks very much like the head sculpt from the JP Series 2 Malcolm figure. Also, the Rex hatchling would be repainted for TLW Series 2 (Eddie Carr).

Overall rating: 7/10. The figure has several minor downsides, but overall it’s pretty good and has a nice weapon as well as a cute little Rex. It’s not rare and it should be easy to get at an affordable price, so you might get one yourself.

Jurassic Park Series 2: Ian Malcolm

Year of release: 1993-1994

Accessories:

-Launching Tranq Missile gun

-Tranq Missile Dart

-Backpack

-Gallimimus hatchling

-Collector’s Card # 41

Description: Ian Malcolm is stylishly dressed in an all black suit, except for his shoes which are grey. He has a long sleeved jacket on which extends over the upper parts of his pants. On his shirt he has a silver tag with a black JP logo on it. He dons black sunglasses, has black curly hair and a rather smug look on his face. His pants are rather tight compared to those of other figures, making Ian look somewhat thin despite his broad shoulders. He stands in a largely neutral pose, except for his right lower arm which is raised a little, to facilitate him holding the big missile launcher.

The Tranq Missile gun is quite a big and bulky piece of equipment; when loaded it's almost as big as Ian himself. It's basically a big tube with protrusions sticking out. It has a small handle on its front underside and a big pin at the back, and a long extra handle sticking out its end. A small round button is found on top for firing the missile. It has small circular holes on the handles and the front part. It sports an entirely, somewhat shiny, metallic grey paint job. The missile is almost as long as the launcher itself. It consists of a transparent green tube with a tripod apparatus on top. It has a thick triangular collar, which is retractable. There's a small hole in the dart itself so it can be stored on the backpack.

The backpack is a very strange looking device. It's mostly black, covered with small holes and protrusions sticking out (including a big one for storing the missile. In the middle of the pack there are two tubes with a large hole sticking out on their lower part. These are coloured the same transparent green as the missile, giving the impression of a tranquillizer fluid of sorts, which the backpack “contains” so the missile can be “refilled” when attaching it to the pack. The backpack is quite flat by comparison, which gives the impression there's not as much to it as you would at first glance think due to its complex design. The pack has shiny metallic grey straps on it so Malcolm can carry it on his back.

Lastly, this set comes with a baby Gallimimus. This hatchling is sitting down, its limbs held close to its body and its tail raised in the air. It has a big head with a rather long snout and huge yellow eyes with black pupils: overall, the head has a very bird like quality. Its mouth is opened, showing a tiny red tongue. This creature has a mostly brown paint job: its entire body sports this colour, save for a big blue stripe running from the middle of its face over the neck and back down to the end of the tail. A series of eight small red stripes runs over this blue stripe. Concluding, little Galli features a white JP logo on its left leg.

Analysis: Malcolm is quite a neat figure, being almost totally movie accurate. Even though his paint job is rather monochromatic, he wears black with style, as Malcolm did in the film. In fact, the grey shoes, though adding some diversion, seem out of place. His unique style of clothes makes him distinct from the other figures. His jacket, which runs down over his pants and “hangs loose” next to his hips, isn't something seen on other JP figures. Basically, this dude is as cool as the coolness his clothing style exerts.

The same can't be said for his missile launcher. It too looks quite cool, but it's less special than it looks. The primary argument against it is the fact it's simply oversized. Malcolm has a very tough time holding it and being able to stand up straight, unless he leans backwards (something he can't do very well because the jacket gets in the way of the poseability of his legs). There's also not many places Ian can grip the gun, except for the small handle on the underside and the long one at the back of the weapon. The big pin on the underside, which one might expect would be the obvious place to hold the gun, is useless. Despite these negative points, the gun works: pressing the button launches the missile over a decent distance with a good impact force. However, in this regard it's inferior to Muldoon's bazooka, which also has the argument of originality in its favour. This Tranq Missile Launcher is basically the same type of weapon, just bigger and bulkier.

However, this gun has originality in another regard: interactivity. The missile can “interact” with the backpack. Not only can it be stored on a peg on the pack, the missile can be attached to the pack via the tripod protrusions on top of it. Moving the collar on the dart back and forth thus gives the impression of refilling the missile's tranq fluids. Of course, it's all make-belief, but it's not something seen on other figures' weaponry. As for the backpack itself, the straps should have been a little longer, since now they only fit very tightly on Malcolm, and putting the pack on his back isn't easy. Also, it would have helped if the pack was a bit bigger, since it would have helped both balancing Ian as he holds the gun, and it would have made it look more impressive: when you turn the pack around now it's basically hollow.

The baby Galli is quite a disappointing hatchling. Although it has a very nice head sculpt, looking plain cute and cuddly, its body is quite ugly. The way its limbs are attached to its body makes it look like a deformed foetus with legs that are grown together instead of apart. Its paint job isn't very good either: though it's identical to that of the adult Gallimimus figure of this toy line, which doesn't make it look bad, it causes an over-abundance of brown on this baby. Still, good to see the designers bothered to paint its tiny tongue. 

 

Playability: not bad. Ian has poseable arms, legs and head, though his legs can't move as far backwards as those of other figures because the jacket gets in their way. There's no poseability found on the little Gallimimus. The backpack has some issues when it comes to putting it on and taking it off of Malcolm, but has an interesting interactive relationship with the missile. The launcher has some design flaws, but works well enough.

Realism: this Malcolm figure is without a doubt the most movie accurate of all the JPS1/2 human figures. His outfit is largely identical, especially when it comes to the paint job (which wasn't difficult to screw up, because it's basically all black). The head sculpt is pretty accurate too, down to his smug grin and sunglasses, though his hair is a little bit too long. Malcolm's accessories weren't featured in the film, and they look a bit too elaborate to exist in reality. Gallimimus was seen in the film, but no hatchlings, adult Gallis only.

Repaint: no, unlike several other JPS2 figures this is a completely new sculpt, with unique accessories and a new hatchling. Though its head sculpt would be repainted for the TLWS1 Malcolm figures, the rest of the figure would not be, nor would any of his accessories and hatchling.

Overall rating: 7/10. A very good figure, but a lousy hatchling and half decent accessories. Malcolm himself is obviously the main draw of this set. This figure seems to have been released in the US only, but it's definitely one of the more common JPS2 figures: it's not hard to find on Ebay and usually doesn't go for very high prices either.