Year
of release: 1993
Accessories:
-Compound
building with four pieces of dino damage (including catwalk door),
roof, catwalk, crow’s nest, hatchery with four eggs and electronic
talking computer with computer probe
-Six
pieces of fencing
-Main
gate with two pieces of dino damage
-Two
pieces of equipment
-Tranq
missile launcher with two missiles
-Net
Launcher with net
Description/Analysis/Playability:
(For
convenience’s sake I will describe these three categories together
to decrease repetition and redundancy, as well as to make this review
as short as it needs to be.)
-Compound
building: the Compound building itself sports a largely circular
design save for the window sticking out of the wall. It measures some
60 centimetres in height. It features grey walls constructed on a
dark green platform and includes a beige roof (removable, though only
for assembly purposes). Some parts of the walls are decorated with
sculpts showing dinosaur skulls and bones. On the front part there
are two protrusions: the fences can be hooked to these so they’re
attached to the building.
The
Compound consists of three levels: first, the ground level which
stores the computer and the hatchery and is basically the command
centre of the play set. On the left wall (from the inside that is) it
features a removable dino damage wall piece, allowing a ferocious
dinosaur to burst through the wall to attack the puny humans inside.
It’s randomly patterned and looks quite convincing, but it’s not
always easy to put back in place. On the other side of the room there
is another piece of dino damage, the window. The entire window can be
removed, again looking random and chaotic, like some large carnivore
just took a chunk out of the building. The window is easier to
replace. The hatchery, basically a large round dark grey device with
storage room for the four blue eggs it comes with, is located
directly beneath the dino damage window, so when suffering a dinosaur
attack the first thing to be knocked over when the window has been
chewed off is the hatchery. Interesting detail: two of the four eggs
sport a small Ceratopsian crawling out on top of the egg. The other
two eggs show cracks only, like the eggs are about to hatch. In the
middle of the room the electronic computer is located (see below).
The
second level is the catwalk, which runs from one side of the building
to the other, in about a 250 degree angle, giving the humans a wide
vista of the environment outside. It too features dino damage, in two
different places. Most obvious is the actual catwalk damage as
described on the play set’s box, on the front part of the catwalk
directly above the computer. A large enough dinosaur (say, the Red
Rex) attacking the building is able to break off a piece of the
catwalk in order to grab any human figures unlucky enough to stand
there between its jaws. Fortunately for them there’s a door (dark
grey with a round top sporting a JP logo sticker) directly behind
them providing them with a means of escape. This door itself can also
be called a piece of dino damage, though it’s not labelled as such.
Since the back side of the Compound is entirely open (so kids can
play with the building’s inside sections) dinosaurs can also attack
human figures from the other side, thus allowing a big dinosaur to
burst through the catwalk door unexpectedly and demolish both the
door and the catwalk at the same time. Fortunately, the catwalk need
not be totally defenceless, since it provides ample space for the
missile launcher (see below).
The
third level is the crow’s nest, right under the straw roof. It’s
basically a lookout station, allowing the human figures to see
dinosaurs coming from afar (though it’s also an obvious target for
an aerial attack). It has no actual options and provides room for
only a few figures.
-Electronic
talking Computer: this large dark grey computer module is adorned
with various computer screen stickers to make it look like the
computer is keeping track of the dinosaurs in the park. The computer
itself features four red buttons, the one which is located near the
screens activates the computer (at which point a voice is heard
stating ‘Jurassic Park Compound: secure!’). Pressing this button
always causes the same sentence to be heard, while the other three
buttons provide a multitude of different sentences, voices and sounds
(including various dinosaurs roars and damage sounds). On the back of
the computer there’s a hole: when the computer is put in its proper
place inside the Compound building it allows for one of the fences to
be attached to the computer. When this fence is moved (as in,
attacked by a dinosaur) it also causes sounds and voices to be
produced by the computer. The same applies to the computer probe
(which can be placed on a small blue arm sticking out of he dark
green base of the Compound) which is attached to the computer:
pressing the front part of the probe (which is actually a button)
activates additional phrases. The box states that the computer is
capable of producing over a 100 phrases, though I for one never kept
track of this. However, there’s sure a lot of them, so it might
very well be true. Apart from the sounds in some instances pressing a
button will activate the red light on top of the computer, which
flashes three times in a row, usually paired with a somewhat annoying
alarm sound. The light is quite strong and looks damn cool in the
dark. When no button has been pressed for ten minutes or so, the
computer says ‘Operator, please log in’, along with the red light
flashing without the alarm. If no buttons are pressed, the computer
shuts itself down some minutes later. Be careful playing with this
computer, you wouldn’t want to ruin it as it’s one of the coolest
components of this play set.
-Main
Gate: the gate stands some 30 centimetres tall and sports an all
black paint job. It basically consists of a small platform with two
large pillars on it, each holding a door and sporting protrusions on
one side so the fences can be connected to the gate, which are
attached on the top side by a large plate adorned with the JP logo.
It’s decorated with two small red flames on top as well as a large
Jurassic Park sticker on the plate (much like in the movie). On
either side of the top of the gate there’s a small platform with
room for a figure or small weaponry like the missile launcher. The
gate is also equipped with dino damage: it can be locked by closing
it with a large black bar (sporting ridges on the front giving it a
wooden look). However, when trying hard enough dinosaurs can split
the bar and break through the gate. The bar can be made whole again
by simply attaching the two pieces together.
-Fences:
this set comes with a total of six identical dark grey fences. Each
fence is made of a small platform with two large bars on each side
and rods and “wires” in-between. The fences can be linked
together (as well as to the Main Gate and the Compound building) via
the protrusions on each side. Each fence measures some 30 centimetres
wide and 20 centimetres tall. Some of them can be adorned with a
small sticker which can be wrapped around a wire on the fence, thus
forming a sign saying ‘Danger! 10,000 Volts’, like in the film.
The fences have no actual action features of their own.
-Net
Launcher: the net launcher consists of a small black platform
standing on three large black legs, thus forming a tripod. On top of
the platform a large grey contraption is located, with a red button
on the back and a huge black arm sticking out on top. Pushing this
arm down and placing the net on top of it springs the mechanism with
which to fire the launcher. Pressing the button launches the net, in
distances of up to half a metre. The net itself (black, with a small
grey weight on each end) is quite small, and since the launching
pattern is hard to predict it often misses its target (which makes
hitting the target all the more worthwhile). Thanks to the tripod the
net can easily be launched over the fences, and as such it’s a
useful tool (though not very accurate) for capturing dinosaurs on the
other side of the fence and guarding the Compound.
-Missile
Launcher: the missile launcher is coloured dark grey and is placed on
a blue arm (thus adding consistency with the two pieces of equipment
and the computer probe, which sport a similar design). It can be
rotated up and down. It comes with two different blue missiles, one
with a round design and one with a star like design. It can hold one
missile at a time, so the other is kept as a reserve, and is fired by
pressing the red button on top of the launcher. It has a good range
(up to 70 centimetres) and a decent impact force, enough to knock
over most smaller dinosaur figures.
-Equipment:
additionally this play set comes with two different large blue pieces
of equipment. Neither has an action feature, they both serve as extra
detailing of the set as a whole. One of them looks like huge syringe,
while the other is labelled a diagnostic screen. Apparently these
items can be used as aides in processing a captured tranquillised
dinosaur.
Realism:
the whole design of the building and it’s paint job make it a good
toy version of various constructions seen in the JP movie, i.e. the
Visitor’s Center (which is of course too big to make a more
accurate toy model of), the Jurassic Park main gate and the fences
found all over the park. The grey paint job with the sculpts on the
walls and the beige straw roof is an obvious nod to the look of the
Visitor’s Center as seen in the film, while the inside of the
Compound consists of both a control room and hatchery, so two
locations of this building have been joined together in this toy
model for convenience. The main gate with the flames on top and the
large doors is also a fine approximation of the gate seen in the
film, but smaller in size (the JPS1 cars only barely fit through the
gate) and with less detail (only two flames instead of the multitude
seen in the film) and a darker paint job. The fences are quite
different from their movie counterparts, smaller and more open
(allowing smaller dinosaurs to fit through and escape!), though still
recognizable as based on the fences seen in the film (the little
‘Danger! 10,000 Volts’ signs are a dead giveaway). The various
pieces of weaponry and equipment this play set comes with are made up
to add more playability to the set.
Overall,
the design of the Command Compound seems based on the design of the
Raptor Pit as seen in the film: a single building as a watchtower to
keep dinosaurs locked up inside the fencing in check, with a gate for
removing and adding dinosaurs to this prison and weaponry to make
people feel secure while dealing with potentially dangerous
dinosaurs.
Repaint:
as part of the first JP toy line the Command Compound is obviously
not a repaint. Some parts of it, namely five of the six fences, the
main gate, the missile launcher with both missiles and the net
launcher, would be repainted for Hasbro’s JP III Raptor Attack
Playset, adding some much needed Kenner feel to the disappointing JP
III toy line. The rest of the Command Compound play set would never
be repainted for later toy lines.
Overall
rating: 10/10. This play set is an absolute brilliant piece of work
on Kenner’s part, sporting a great design and numerous interesting
functions (though most of them not very original), loading it with
enough playability to keep you busy for hours, especially when you
add some human and dinosaur figures to the mix. As such, the Command
Compound is a real must have for any JP fan; fortunately it’s not
rare, though complete or MIB sets aren’t always easy to find. Costs
may vary, but this play set is definitely worth your money.
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