Jurassic Park Series 1: Pteranodon

Year of release: 1993

Accessories:

-Collector’s Card # 7

Description: this creature is positioned in a neutral and almost symmetrical posture. It measures about 15 centimetres from the tip of one wing to the other. It has a small body with equally small legs and a tiny tail (if you can even call it that). It has a large head with a blunt elongated crest sticking out and a pointy beak with no teeth (which is accurate). Pulling the crest makes the beak open, while releasing it makes it shut with a snap. Like any Pterosaur it has a pair of large wings on the side of its body, basically arms (including fingers, bent inward) ending in one very long finger which holds the skin of the wing together. Each wing consists of two moveable parts. On its back the Pteranodon features a large button: pressing it makes the wings flap. The claws on its legs are posed in a gripping posture.

Pteranodon is painted in basically three colours. Most of the underside of the creature (lower jaw, throat, belly and underside of the wings) is light grey, while the upper parts of the animal (back, back of the wings, most of the neck, as well as both legs) are coloured dark grey. Additionally, most of the head (including the crest), upper part of the neck and the hands are painted light blue for variation. The creature has small red eyes with black irises. The inside of its beak is dark grey, no coloured tongue or anything. Its claws are not painted. On the underside of its right wing is has a dark grey (almost black) JP logo with the number .05 under it.

Analysis: though a memorable and recognizable figure of the first JP toy line, this is one of the lesser figures, both in paint job, design and quality. To start with the former, the colour scheme is just dull, there’s way too much grey and it’s distributed in unappealing proportions over the figure’s body (basically, the under side is all light grey and the upper parts dark grey, how imaginative). The blue doesn’t add much and isn’t really an aesthetically pleasing mix with the grey.

The overall design of this sculpt isn’t great either. The head is too big compared to the rest of the body but at least the snapping beak action works. Also, the beak snaps back with force and holds on tight to anything unfortunate enough to get clasped between its jaws. The same cannot be said for the claws, which are too small and not strong enough to really hold onto anything, let alone lift figures off the ground. Most irritating are the wings with their double jointed flapping mechanism. Though the flapping action works okay, it’s a very predictable feature and makes little sense since Pteranodon was a glider, not a flapper. Mostly, it just looks damn silly and unimpressive. If the wings had only one point of poseability, right next to the body, it might have been better, because now the wings just get in the way of the action. Also, the outward part of the wings isn’t connected to the rest of the wings in a very tight way. Over time as the figure gets more worn out, those parts of the wings tend to just fall off all the time.

Overall, this Pterosaur is just a poorly designed creature, certainly not as beautiful as the elegant beastie seen on the collector’s card it comes with. Kenner struggled with Pterosaur design for the TLWS1 line as well, again releasing a flawed Pteranodon. Interestingly enough, Hasbro did get it right multiple times, unlike with most of their other creature sculpts.

Playability: though the creature has a decent range of articulation points for a Pterosaur figure (legs, wings in four places, neck and upper jaw), playability could have been better. The large head tends to get in the way of the wings, while the wings themselves hinder other poses. Though the snapping beak action works, the gripping claws and flapping wings are a disappointment.

Realism: Pteranodon wasn’t featured in the Jurassic Park movie, so the toy designers had to work from scratch (which may be why this figure didn’t really work out). Overall, the creature is just too “compressed”, its body and legs are too small and the wings and head are too close too another. This Pteranodon just isn’t an elegant glider, but a plump pigeon like failure. It’s also somewhat undersized compared to human figures, considering Pteranodons could measure a seven metre wingspan, while this figure would be around four metres at best.

Repaint: since this figure is part of the very first JP toy line, it’s not a repaint in any way. However, it would be repainted for the first JP Dinosaurs line, but not for other toy lines.

Overall rating: 4/10. A poor design and lousy paint job probably make this Pteranodon the worst figure of the first Jurassic Park line. There may be some nostalgic values attached to it since it’s part of the classic JPS1 line, but other than that it’s not very appealing. Fortunately it’s not rare and can be found at low costs, should you really want one.