Year
of release: 2002
Description:
this figure stands in an attack posture, with its mouth opened, its
head panned to the right, its long arms ferociously stretched
forward, and its tail bent downwards. The mouth cannot be closed.
Like all Hasbro sculpts it has a dino damage wound, located on the
right flank: it shows some ribs and muscle tissue. The upper part of
the middle rib is actually a button and activates a shrieking roar as
if the creature is yelping in pain. The front part of the sail, next
to its neck, is also a button which can be pressed downwards: when
doing so, the Spino moves its arms up and down, as if making a
slicing strike movement. It also causes an attack roar to be heard.
The sounds are the same noises the Wave 1 Spino produced.
The
bottom part of this animal is painted in a greyish white colour with
some vague brown stripes mixed in. The upper part of the creature
(upper jaw, neck, sail, back and upper tail) is mostly covered in a
dark reddish brown paint job, with a slightly shiny look at some
parts (mostly the sail). The sail is adorned with a row of 19 shiny
blue stripes on each side. The dinosaur has black claws, and a black
JP III logo is found on its right upper leg.
Analysis:
this figure is an improvement over the Wave 1 Spino figure, but only
slightly so. It still leaves some things to be desired and looks less
impressive than the Animatronic Spinosaurus. The paint job is done
well enough, but not great: especially the underside of the animal
sports a somewhat dull colour and could have used more detail. It’s
odd this paint job is so much different than the one the other
Spinosaur toys (except for the Military Diver’s small Spino figure)
featured: does Spinosaurus changes colour in water or something?
Like
the Wave 1 Spino, this sculpt has almost no body mass, and consists
mostly of limbs, sail and head. It’s very skinny, and naturally
sports one of those irritating wounds Hasbro is so fond of. The
position of the tail and the fact the mouth can’t be closed are
also downsides. However, the figure has some good points too. For one
thing, the sail is bigger and looks cooler, and the tail is also
longer, and thus more realistic, than that of its predecessor. The
dino strike action works well enough: it’s a shame it’s copied
from the Wave 1 Alpha Raptor and Dilophosaurus actions though. The
sounds are the same as those of the Wave 1 Spino, except the sound
quality has been improved, making the roars louder and more imposing.
Overall, this figure evokes mixed feelings.
Playability:
not very good. The limbs are poseable, but the figure’s tail is
bent in a very weird angle and also hinders movement of the right
leg. The mouth is permanently opened (unless one customizes the
figure): it wouldn’t have been so much trouble applying a way to
open and close it at will? The figure is electronic, so if you wish
to keep the roars in working order, don’t go playing to wild with
this toy.
Realism:
this figure resembles the Spinosaurus seen in JP III more than the
Wave 1 Spino did, mostly because of the bigger sail and longer tail.
There are still differences though: the paint job is again not the
same as the JP III Spino sported, and the body is disproportionably
small. Other than that it’s instantly recognizable as a
Spinosaurus, mostly because of the sail and the unmistakably
crocodilian head.
Repaint:
no. This figure would not be repainted either, though a repaint was
scheduled for the JP III Camo-Xtreme line (the infamous Desert
Spinosaurus; only one of them is known to have ended up on the
market. This means that technically this scuplt has been repainted,
but since there’s only one it should be classified as unreleased
and thus doesn’t count.).
Overall
rating: 6/10. It’s not the best Spinosaur sculpt – that honour is
still bestowed on the Animatronic Spinosaurus I’d say – but it’s
better than the Wave 1 Spino figure and not all that bad to own. It’s
a bit rarer than the Wave 1 figures, but not impossible to find, if
you should want one.
