Jurassic Park Series 2: Alan Grant (Bola)

Year of release: 1993-1994

Accessories:

-Double-Barreled Bola Launcher with bola

-Bola Launcher harness

-Bola support stick

-Lycaenops hatchling

-Collector’s Card # 40 

 

Description: The second Alan Grant figure of the JPS2 toy line stands in a totally neutral position. He wears a grey jumpsuit, with brownish orange pieces mixed in around the torso and a scaly silver shirt underneath. On the left part of his chest he sports a silver badge with the JP logo. His pants carry pockets and an odd TV-screen like ornamentation (or is it a knee patch? If so, why doesn't he have one on his other knee too?). He sports brown boots, orange gloves, a big red arm patch over his left lower arm, and a small grey walkie-talkie on his back. Being Alan Grant, he naturally comes with a white cowboy hat. His eyebrows and hair are dark brown.

This set comes with a Bola launcher, a double bola, a harness to attach it to the figure, and a stick to support it while attached to the figure. The Bola Launcher is basically two big tubes stuck on a smaller triangular apparatus with a big grey button in the middle, a small hole at the tube's intersection point (for the support stick), hand grips on each side so Grant can hold it with his own hands and a bigger grey grip on the lower end to attach it to the harness. The weapon is painted entirely bluish grey (except for those parts described above). The double bola itself consists of two big silver darts, resembling claws, with a black string between them. The harness is a small silver pack that fits around Grant's torso and features points to attach the launcher to on both sides. The support stick, also metallic silver in colour, ends in two hooks on top and has a handle on one side for Grant to hold it. After loading the launcher, pressing the button causes the double bola to be shot away, hooking itself around any creature in its trajectory (though its range is somewhat limited and because of the length of the string between the two bola darts it's less effective on big dinosaurs).

This set also comes with a Lycaenops hatchling. This muscular dog like creature is sitting down, its short tail on the ground and its front legs stretched wide, assuming a relaxed posture. It has a big boxy head with a closed mouth, some of its upper teeth sticking out. Its underside (belly, throat, lower part of the tail and inner part of the legs) is white, while most of the tail and neck, its back and upper part of the head is black. The rest of the figure (most of the head and legs, flanks and the sides of the neck and tail are coloured brown. Very near the back of the head this baby has blue eyes with black, cat like pupils. Finally, a black JP logo is located on its right leg.

Analysis: for a second toy line featuring no less than 12 figures (even though five of them were made up for the toy line), one Alan Grant simply wasn't enough, so JPS2 featured this second Grant figure, sporting an entirely new, and definitely original, outfit. It seems to be a dinosaur-resisting suit, much more heavy and bulky in stature as the simpler outfit the other Grant figures wore, but still a neat design (and despite the obvious usefulness of some sort of protective helmet, still sporting Grant's famous white cowboy hat!), albeit asymmetric (why not a big red arm patch on the right arm as well?). Despite its odd looks, it's obvious this Grant is ready for close combat, not surprisingly since his Bola Launcher is a short range non-lethal piece of equipment.

This new weapon is one of the coolest accessories of any of the Kenner JP figures. It's a bit heavy, so it's a good thing it comes with harness and stick to support Grant when using it. When Grant dons the harness he can either keep the launcher right in front of him (supported by the stick which functions as a third leg to keep the whole set-up standing) to use on a charging dinosaur, or store it on his back when he's not using it. The Launcher works really well: pressing the button slings the bola away over a distance of roughly half a yard, hooking the darts around anything that comes in contact with the string between them. It's a great sight to see, though it's most effective on smaller dinosaurs (like the regular JPS1/2 Velociraptor or Dilophosaurus) which can actually be trapped by the bola. As for bigger creatures, it works decently well on their legs, but the bola is too small to wrap itself around their bodies. Of course, dinosaurs may get trapped by the bola, but they're not totally subdued and certainly ever aggressive. There is a likely theory circulating that the support stick is also a stun stick for stunning the captured dinosaurs. Grant would have get to come close to his prey, a task for which his armoured outfit seems well suited. All in all, this set seems quite functionally thought out in this regard.

As if the weapon isn't cool enough, a little Lycaenops hatchling completes this set. It looks very cute, almost like a puppy, but with a much bigger head and some vicious little teeth sticking out. It has a good paint job, much like the adult Lycaenops figure of the JPS2 line (but with blue eyes instead of orange). Like the Gallimimus hatchling it's sitting down, but in this case such a pose looks a lot better since its limbs aren't attached to its body. Even though it's a bit low to the ground, as far as hatchlings go this is a decent prey for the bola launcher, since the bola can hook itself around the baby's head. This is definitely one of the more attractive hatchlings of this line.

Playability: very nice. Grant comes with the usual range of poseable body parts (arms, legs and head). Baby Lycaenops offers no poseability. The Bola Launcher is a very good weapon, despite its limited range. It comes with a whole set-up to support the figure when using it, making it easy to fire for yourself. With some imagination, some of the additional accessories (the stick, and maybe the harness too considering its big points of grip) can also be used in other ways.

Realism: the only thing that really tells you you're dealing with Alan Grant here is his hat. His face doesn't resemble Sam Neill very much, nor is his suit like anything we've seen in the film. The Bola Launcher, though a bit on the bulky side, is not that far-fetched a weapon and certainly useful for trapping dinosaurs (though in reality such a weapon would be smaller so it's easier to carry around and handle). The Lycaenops is a close match to its adult counterpart, mostly because of the very similar paint job. Given the dog like nature of the adult Lycaenops, it's not surprising this baby looks like a puppy.

Repaint: no, this is one of the new additions to the JPS2 toy line. Grant's head sculpt is identical to the one from the other JPS2 Alan Grant figure though. Bola Grant (or at least his body, not his head) would be repainted as the TLWS2 Eddie Carr figure, as well as the Dino Tracker from the TLW Exclusive Dino Tracker Adventure Set. The latter set would also include the Bola Launcher with the same accessories as in this JPS2 set, which would in that case be reused, not retooled or repainted. However, a third set that came with this Bola Launcher, the JP III Exclusive Dinosaur Tracking Set, would feature a repainted Bola Launcher instead, again with all the original accessories (also repainted). The Lycaenops hatchling would stay exclusive to JPS2 Bola Grant though.

Overall rating: 8/10. Grant himself is a bit of an odd figure and slightly out of style with the other JPS1/2 figures, but he's not bad, and he comes with an excellent and original weapon, and a very sweet hatchling to top that off. This set seems to have been released in the USA only, but it's not rare in that country, making it relatively easy (and often cheap) to find on the web. All the better, because this figure definitely comes recommended.