Year
of release: 1993-1994
Accessories:
-Firing
Grappling Hook
-Beacon
Locater Backpack
-Ankylosaurus
hatchling
-Collector’s
Card # 55
Description:
Ellie stands in a neutral pose with her arms slightly raised. She has
long blond hair, tied in a knot at the back. Her eyes and eyebrows
are brown however, while her face has a rather emotionless look to
it. Ellie wears a dark pink shirt (no sleeves, short or otherwise)
with a blue shirt underneath (seen only under her neck). Her shirt is
tied tight around her waist by a black belt which sports a pocket on
the left side. She has brown short pants and a blue tag with a black
JP logo on her right upper leg. A second black belt, holding what
appears to be a small camera, dangles on her left hip, while a flash
light is found attached to her right hip. She wears white shoes with
blue socks sticking out. Above her left hand she appears to be
wearing some sort of wrist band, but it’s not painted in a
different colour than the rest of her arm.
Ellie
comes with a large weapon, called a Grappling Hook. It’s basically
a metallic grey tube with some protrusions sticking out, like a
handle and a spyglass. Attached to the weapon is a long black string,
which in itself is attached to a large orange dart with three curved
hooks on it. When loaded into the launch tube of the Grappling Hook,
pressing the orange button on the weapon makes the hooked dart being
launched, capable of being hooked around any target in range. Ellie
also comes with a Beacon Locater Backpack, which appears to be a dark
blue radio box with beige straps attached to it so Ellie can carry it
on her back. On top it has a small orange antenna. It looks
sophisticated, but doesn’t do anything.
An
Ankylosaurus hatchling completes this set. It’s a small round
turtle like creature, instantly recognizable by the big armour
plating on its back, as well as a club on the end of its tail. It
walks on four legs. Its head has a triangular shape to it, with a
sharp parrot like beak and small red eyes with black irises. The
underside of the critter (belly, throat, most of the legs, lower part
of the tail and club) are painted white, while the armour, upper
parts of the club and head are dark purple. In-between the armour and
the white colouring there is a very light shade of blue (only on the
flanks and head). A small black JP logo can be found on its right
hind leg. The animal stands in a slight walking pose, its mouth
opened and the tail pointing downwards.
Analysis:
being yet another retooled JPS1 figure, Ellie is still rather good
looking and remains fairly movie accurate (though her outfit is less
so than on her previous incarnation). Her outfit looks a lot like
what Ellie Sattler wore in the movie, though the original light pink
paint job of the JPS1 figure was a better match. Though she has no
action features of her own, her weapon provides some.
The
Grappling Hook is fun to play with, but has several minor downsides.
Fortunately it works quite well. Loading the weapon and firing it
makes the hook being launched with some force over a respectable
distance, though of course limited by the range of the string. It’s
a good weapon, but its new paint job is less appealing than the green
JPS1 version (which wasn't great either): metallic grey and orange
just don't match in a visibly pleasing way. Other than that, the hook
is also lightly build and has often trouble doing damage to figures.
Also, because the hooks are bend back pretty close to the dart itself
they often miss grabbing any parts of targets, so they usually don’t
hook onto something, unless by a lucky shot. They might hook around
the little Anky's tail, but otherwise this hatchling doesn't have to
fear being a successful target for this particular weapon. Also, the
string easily get entangled with itself, forming knots which are hard
to unravel. Apart from these issues, the grappling hook is a good
enough weapon.
Ellie
also comes with a radio transmitter pack, which is plain redundant.
It has no functions at all. It can be strapped around the figure’s
back, but is heavy enough to make her fall over and only seems a
burden. Its boring paint job also doesn’t help (this time, the
antenna is orange instead of green: not much of an interesting
change). If it had been left out altogether, it wouldn’t have been
missed. Apparently the designers couldn’t come up with a more
interesting extra accessory.
The
Ankylosaurus hatchling also doesn’t sport a very good colour
scheme. It would surely stand out in a crowd, or a primordial
landscape for that matter, which seems an evolutionary error, since
even an armoured creature like this would be an easily located prey
for all kinds of predators. Maybe an adult Ankylosaurus might be
strong enough not to have to care about being in plain sight, but
this seems less the case for a hatchling which is surely prone to
attacks by carnivores. Nonetheless, it’s still a very cuddly little
baby with an innocent but sheepish facial expression. It’s a decent
enough dinosaur figure, but not the best hatchling of this second toy
line.
Playability:
good enough. Ellie herself has the typical range of poseable body
parts, namely arms, legs and head. The Grappling Hook is a fine
weapon, though it’s hard to really grab anything and its range is
limited because of the string (which also has a tendency to get
intertwined with itself). Unfortunately the hooks are easily damaged,
often breaking off when handled to roughly. The radio transmitter
pack does nothing and is basically a useless burden to the figure.
The baby Ankylosaurus features no poseable body parts, which is of
course usual for hatchling figures.
Realism:
Ellie’s outfit is still reminiscent to what her movie counterpart,
as performed by Laura Dern, wore in the JP movie, but qua colour
scheme it's less similar. The retooled head does resemble her more
closely, but it's still a far cry from an exact match: nevertheless,
this is a very acceptable toy version of Laura Dern. Her weapon is a
bit over the top (especially the colours), but can be handy in
dangerous encounters with prehistoric vermin (though a weapon like
this wasn’t featured in the movie, nor was the radio pack).
Ankylosaurus wasn't featured in the movie (but would be seen all too
briefly in Jurassic Park III). Unfortunately, of all the hatchlings
of the first two toy lines, this species would be the only one not to
get an adult figure ever (Parasaurolophus got one for TLWS1,
Brachiosaurus for JP III Wave 2), making this the only released
Ankylosaurus in JP toys history (an adult Ankylosaurus was scheduled
for JP: Chaos Effect, but sadly remained unreleased). Lonely little
beastie...
Repaint:
as mentioned above, this is a retooled
version of JPS1 Ellie Sattler, featuring a new paint job (and this
time not only on the human figure but also repainted accessories), a
different head sculpt and a new hatchling. None of the parts of this
set would be repainted again for later toy lines.
Overall
rating: 7/10. Ellie is still a pretty decent figure (as well as the
only woman in the first toy lines), though the changes didn't improve
her that much. Her weapon is still fifty-fifty, as is the hatchling
(cute as it may be). JPS2 Ellie is definitely harder to find than her
Series 1 counterpart (though not exactly rare), apparently being
released in the USA only. If you feel you need a female action figure
and prefer this one over JPS1 Ellie, you'll probably have to look
online for it.
