Jurassic Park Series 2: Dr. Snare

Year of release: 1993-1994

Accessories:

-Dino Stun Gun, including blade and capture claw

-Dino Damage patch

-Carnotaurus hatchling

-Collector’s Card # 33

Description: Like Skinner, the other (released) Evil Raider, Dr. Snare, is a very tall and muscular character, sporting a very unusual outfit for a Jurassic Park figure. Most notable is his big grey trench coat, the top part of which is removable, revealing a dino damage wound underneath. The coat itself is not removable but is attached to the figure, though it hangs loose around his lower body, almost like a cape. On the right back part of the coat there's some beige rope (just for detail, it can't be removed). Snare reveals his naked torso underneath his coat, showing an impressive six pack, as well as a golden ammo belt. He wears dark brown pants, with a second golden ammo belt on his left leg. Around his waist he carries a belt of a lighter brown colour, adorned with a shiny red plate showing a dinosaur skull (similar to the JP T-Rex skull logo). A pair of green boots, covered in orange spots and made out of reptile skin (so it appears by their scaly looks), complete his outfit, along with a big dark green cowboy hat on his head with a black band on it. Snare has quite an ugly face, including an arrogant grin and tiny demonic red eyes, and blond hair and eyebrows. He stands in a largely neutral pose, with his right leg posed forwards. Snare's wound is quite extensive, running from the left part of his chest over his shoulder and covering most of the visible parts of his back. The removable part of his coat barely manages to hide it all.

Dr. Snare comes with three different accessories, all painted in the same brown colour, which can be attached to each other so Snare can carry the whole bunch in one hand. Most notably, there's the big stun gun, with a big aiming visor on top. It has two small holes in it, to accommodate the blade which can be stuck on its side. The blade is basically a stick with a big triangular knife on it, along with sharp edges. Additionally, there's the capture claw, which can be attached to the blade (it has a hole on top). It looks much like the tags (or cuffs) that come with the JPS2 dinosaur figures, except there's no JP logo on it and it has a long black piece of string attached to it, which is hooked on a smaller claw which Snare can put around his arm.

The baby Carnotaurus stands in a walking posture, its right leg posed forwards and its left leg backwards. Its arms are held pretty close to its body, while its head is slightly turned to its left as if it's looking at something in that direction, while its small tail is raised upwards. It has several rows of tiny bumps on its snout, neck, back and tail, but its most obvious features are the black horns above the eyes. Its boxy head is almost as big as its torso, and sports green eyes with cat like brown irises, as well as small white teeth. The animal is coloured entirely dark grey, except for a big red stripe running from its snout all the way to the end of the tail. On its left upper leg this critter carries a white JP logo.

Analysis: if you think the toy designers let their imagination run wild while designing Skinner, you haven't seen how far they went with his hunting buddy Dr. Snare (despite his title, you wouldn't want this guy to be your physician). He looks like a cross between a professional wrestler and a cowboy, even bulkier and meaner than Skinner, and showing off more skin despite wearing such a big trench coat. His coat is really the coolest part of his costume, made out of a separate soft material and only attached to his upper torso, allowing for some flexibility. An outfit like this is definitely original, and has never been featured on a JP figure later on, making Snare stand out and impossible to mix up with any other human figures. It's also quite neat the top piece of the coat can be taken off (and even used by other figures to some extent), revealing extensive scarring (but not blood or bone, even a figure as badass as this one doesn't come with such graphic a wound). Apparently Snare once had an unfortunate encounter with some ferocious carnivore that felt brave enough to turn on him, damaging his entire left upper torso (but oddly enough missing Snare's head, luckily for him). Obviously Snare got out alive, and we can only wonder what happened to his aggressor (maybe that's where Snare got the material for his funky boots).

Snare comes with some accessories that really fit his character's way of handling dinosaurs he feels like “ensnaring” (hence the name). There's the stun gun for, well, stunning dinosaurs from a distance (though it doesn't feature any missile firing like several other JP figures, since this weapon doesn't come with such an action feature). When Snare hits his target, he closes in for the kill, either using his blade to finish off his prey and make fashionable clothes out of it, or trapping it with the claw and rope. The claw fits around most smaller dinosaur figures (like the JPS1 Velociraptor) while the rope can be wrapped around the creature's limbs so he's properly restrained, and Snare can use the smaller claw to do just this. It's an interesting combination, something not seen with other figures' accessories.

Snare himself may look butch, but so does his hatchling, which makes for a perfect combination of hunter and prey. The little Carnotaurus, though not featuring as vicious and dangerous a look as the big Carnotaurus figure of this toy line, does appear pretty rugged (though still also cute enough, considering it's only a baby), because of his dark paint job with the big red stripe signalling danger, and the little horns for attacking anyone it doesn't like. Though this critter is quite cool, the paint job could have been better by adding some black to the now overused dark grey. But this is a minor complaint, since this is otherwise one of the most appealing hatchlings Kenner produced.

Playability: pretty good. Snare has the usual range of poseable body parts, namely arms, legs and head. The removable dino damage patch sure adds options to this figure (and can even be put on other figures, though that often looks silly and is never a perfect fit). Though the stun gun has no solid action features (in fact, the only real action of this set is supplied by Snare's wound), the fact it consists of three separate pieces that can be used in various ways and in accordance with each other, also helps the overall playability. The baby Carnotaurus has no poseable body parts, as is usual for hatchling figures.

Realism: Dr. Snare was an invention by Kenner's designers (and quite a neat one), and he wasn't featured in any of the JP movies so he's not supposed to look like anyone we know. His rather imaginative look doesn't make him the most realistic human figure (quite the opposite actually), but it makes for a smashing toy. His weapons aren't much unlike anything that might very well be used in Jurassic Park (apart from the blade perhaps), but also weren't specifically seen in the films. The Carnotaurus is very similar to the adult dinosaur figure of the JPS2 toy line, both in shape (especially the boxy head sculpt and the little horns) and in paint job. Like its adult counterpart, however, this figure shares the mistake of having overly long arms and three fingers instead of four.

Repaint: no, this figure was all-new. None of the parts in this set would be repainted for any future toy lines either, making this figure unique (and also a factor contributing to its popularity).

Overall rating: 9/10. Despite his completely fictional and somewhat ridiculous design, this is one of the coolest human figures of all the toy lines, featuring a very nasty dino damage wound, pretty good accessories and a terrific hatchling. Not surprisingly, this figure is also one of the rarest and most sought after human figures and can be difficult to find, having  only been released in the USA and (in very small numbers) in Europe. When you find one it may not be cheap, but it's likely it'll prove to be totally worth your money.