Jurassic Park Series 2: Tim Murphy

Year of release: 1993-1994

Accessories:

-Retracting Snare

-Night Goggles

-Cage

-Parasaurolophus hatchling

-Collector’s Card # 54 

 

Description: Tim stands in a largely neutral pose, though his lower right arm is raised a bit, and his left leg is moved to his side, making him take on a relaxed stance. Tim’s hair, eyes and eyebrows are all painted in the same shade of light brown. He wears a yellow T-shirt with a blue collar. Around his chest he carries a (non removable) dark brown utility belt, while a light blue JP tag is found under this belt on the right side of the chest. He has bright blue pants on and wears white sport shoes and socks. His facial expression is rather goofy.

Tim comes with a retracting snare, which is basically a long red tube with a handle on the lower back side so the figure can hold it. A black string runs through the snare, attached to a removable red piece at the very end of the tube. The string can be roped around a creature’s limbs or neck after which pulling the red end backwards makes the noose tighten, thus trapping the creature. If the creature in question is small enough it might fit into the cage (coloured shiny metallic silver), though it was designed for the Brachiosaurus hatchling from the first toy line (but needless to say the new Parasaurolophus hatchling also fits in nicely). It has a hole in it for little captive dinosaurs to stick their neck out, but in some cases this might provide a means of escape. The cage can be opened and closed, but doesn’t spring open on its own accord. Tim also comes with night goggles, coloured all dark grey. They can be placed around his head, though it doesn’t always stay in place.

The Parasaurolophus hatchling stands up tall in a rather awkward and scientifically outdated way, as if it's one of those old pictures where you see a bipedal dinosaur standing up straight and dragging its tail on the ground. This tail is rather short and stumpy, as if it's partially broken off. On closer inspection, this hatchling sports more skin detail than most other JPS1/2 hatchlings. It has a small, gentile face and its head ends in a typical Hadrosaur crest. The paint job is largely light grey, with a brown stripe running from the tip of the nose over the neck and back to the end of the tail and smaller brown stripes running out of the larger one. Additionally, a thick purple stripe runs over its snout and crest. The creature has small yellow eyes with tiny blue irises, and a black JP logo on its left upper leg.

Analysis: like the other retooled JPS1 figures, there's not much new about this figure and the rest of the set. The new colours of Tim's outfit aren't very imaginative, and not very pleasant to look at either, though that's a matter of perspective. The new head sculpt which is supposed to look more like Joseph Mazello, isn't much of an improvement over the previous Tim figure in that regard, and the goofy look on this figure's face doesn't help either. Tim's accessories are identical to those from his JPS1 counterpart; no new paints jobs have been added. The muzzle remains a rather dull instrument, but the goggles and cage are still fun extra gadgets.

That leaves the new hatchling, the Parasaurolophus. It has definite pros and cons. The paint job and skin texture isn't bad for a hatchling, and the head looks pretty good with the extra colour scheme on the crest. The plump body is understandable for a baby dinosaur, but the tail is downright ridiculous: it looks deformed. It appears the main reason for this is the fact that it supports the figure, like a third leg, so it can stand in a tripod pose. Little Para fits in Tim's cage, but he sticks out somewhat, like he should have little difficulty from jumping out. It's clear the cage wasn't designed for this figure specifically.

Playability: same as JPS1 Tim. Tim has both poseable arms and legs and can move his head around. The snare does its job, though it doesn’t provide for as much action as most of the other weapons in this toy line. The night goggles and cage are mere extra gadgets, but quite neat. Like all hatchling figures, the little Para offers no poseability.

Realism: Tim still doesn’t resemble his movie counterpart (played by Joseph Mazello) much, whatever the toy designers had in mind. Nor does his new colour scheme make him look more like the boy in the film.

The retracting snare wasn’t featured in the movie, but is not an unrealistic piece of equipment. It looks somewhat similar to snares used by the InGen hunters in the TLW movie. The cage also seems a plausible instrument to contain small dinosaurs, but it too wasn’t seen in the film. The night goggles were of course featured in the first JP movie, but weren’t this monochromatic. Still, a nice extra gadget to tie in to the movie.

Parasaurolophus was very briefly seen in the first movie, in the scene were Grant and co. first encounter the Brachiosaurus. Sadly, neither Brachiosaurus nor Parasaurolophus have adult figures in the JPS1/2 toy lines, which seems to be a trademark for species that come with Tim Murphy figures. But in Para's case, this oversight would be corrected in the TLWS1 line which did feature an adult Parasaurolophus figure, which (coincidentally?) sported a paint job quite similar to this hatchling.

Repaint: like stated above, this figure is a retooled JPS1 Tim Murphy: new paint job, head sculpt, and hatchling, but other than that identical. Neither Tim nor any of his accessories would be featured in later toy lines.

Overall rating: 6/10. New, but not improved. There's nothing more appealing in this set than in the previous Tim Murphy set. It still has some arguments in its favour (cage, goggles, cute hatchling), but is overall rather bland. Unless you're a completist, you needn't bother with this set if you already own a JPS1 Tim. Especially since JPS2 Tim is one of the rarer JPS2 human figures and can be difficult (and/or costly) to get your hands on, more so in territories were it lacked a release.