Jurassic Park Series 2: Young Tyrannosaurus Rex

Year of release: 1993-1994

Accessories:

-Removable Dino Damage wound patch

-Three pieces of capture gear

-Collector’s Card # 39

Description: this repainted Young T-Rex figure has not been retooled from its JPS1 counterpart. It stands in the same fully neutral posture, and still features “realistic” dinosaur skin (though there is no such thing of course, since we’ll never know for sure what dinosaur skin felt like), made of a more flexible and softer material than the regular hard plastic. The figure’s arms, lower legs and inside of the mouth are not composed of this rubbery material. On its right flank a piece of skin can be removed, revealing a dino damage wound underneath, showing white ribs and red muscle tissue. The wound patch itself is largely symmetrical in shape. The Rex’s small two fingered arms are the only poseable body parts. The jaws of this Rex, which can be opened by squeezing the creature’s neck, provide the main attack option.

This Rex has a paint job very different from its JPS1 version.. Except for the figure's underside (lower part of the tail, belly, throat, lower jaw and lower part of the upper jaw), which is painted sickly greenish yellow, the rest of this figure is coloured all dark and gritty. The upper part of the creature (upper part of the tail, back and neck) are full black, though this is at first glance hardly distinguishable of the dark blue paint job the rest of its body sports. This dark blue, which is most notable on the legs, arms and flanks, runs in several thick stripes over the yellow underside (especially on the tail and upper jaw). The dino damage skin patch is entirely dark blue. The claws on both the creature's hands and feet are painted black. Tiny yellow eyes with black irises are embedded in its black eye sockets. The Rex's mouth is adorned with nasty white teeth, a dark pink tongue and additional dark pink mouth detailing. This Young Rex sports a large yellow JP logo with the number .06 on its right lower leg, which is the same number as the previous Young T-Rex figure had.

Three pieces of capture gear complete this set. There's the required tag, which comes with all JPS2 dinosaurs, but is quite big in this case, and fits well around the creature's neck. It also comes with a leg restraint, which can hold on to both legs simultaneously. Lastly, there is a big muzzle which can go around the figure's jaws, effectively disabling them, while also covering the eyes, so the Rex can't even see what's going on. All three pieces are coloured in the same metallic grey paint job.

Analysis: though the JPS2 line featured new and fascinating weird creatures of all shapes and sizes, it would have missed out on the most classic dinosaur of all (and the real hero of the movie) when it turned out the new big Gulper T-Rex figure would not be released. This may have something to do with Kenner deciding to repaint the JPS1 Young T-Rex figure, so this line would at least have one big Rex figure (though it's still a 'smaller' big figure, the only dinosaur of the JPS2 toy line that would beat it in size was the fierce Utahraptor, and not by much). Even though this Young T-Rex is not as impressive as the huge Red Rex of the JPS1 line, it's still a good Rex sculpt, repainted or otherwise. Kenner made sure there was enough difference between the original sculpt and its JPS2 repaint by giving this second Young T-Rex a totally different paint job, much darker and grittier. It looks quite good, but unfortunately Kenner didn't use the same quality paint as they used on the other soft skin dinosaur figures (maybe they were in a rush producing the Young Rex figures), resulting in this T-Rex being highly susceptible to paint wear. And considering the new paint job is this figure's most interesting new feature, that is a huge disadvantage.

The other new feature this repainted Young T-Rex comes with is the capture gear. It does a very good job subduing Junior Rex, making it unable to walk, bite or even see. The tag that comes with it is a redundancy like all tags, since the figure already has a JP logo branded on its leg. Fortunately this tag is a fair size bigger, making its less easy to lose. Though the capture gear does a good job, its use comes with one downside: it only adds to the paint wear. Putting the tag around the neck where it's supposed to go, or even applying the muzzle which fits really tightly around the Rex's head, can cause some nasty scratches in the paint scheme. A real bummer, since the purpose of capture gear is to be put around a dinosaur figure, and these restraints are incompatible with almost any other dinosaur sculpts.

Aside from the paint job and the capture gear, this Rex still comes with two main action features. The first is the typical dino damage wound patch, which was found on most larger non electronic dinosaur figures of the first JP toy lines. Removing the Rex’s wound patch reveals a nasty wound, which makes one wonder what creature would dare attack a T-Rex (the bigger Utahraptor maybe?). The wound looks gory, but the shape of the wound patch is too perfect and artificial: it looks like someone just cut an almost symmetrical hole in little Rex, instead of him suffering from a vicious attack by a rival carnivore.

The second option applied to this figure is a biting action. However, these biting jaws are a rather cheap action feature, since it’s only because of the soft material the dinosaur’s skin is composed of that this biting action is produced. Various other big carnivore figures come with biting actions, but more work is put in those by adding inventive biting mechanisms instead, making this figure's biting jaws pale in comparison. Squeezing the neck does open its jaws decently though, while it can also be used adequately to trap unfortunate figures’ body parts between them. It may not look very appealing, but at least it works for the most part.

Playability: decent enough. Though only the arms are really moveable, the flexible material allows for additional poseability to some extent (including the jaw motion). The dino damage wound patch is easily removable and can also be put back with little difficulty, but when applied to the figure it’s stuck strong enough so it doesn’t fall off on its own accord. Though usually the figure stands well balanced, more worn out Rexes occasionally have trouble standing up straight. Since this figure's paint job is easily damaged, it's better not to play too rough with it, also given this figure's rarity. In fact, if you want to play with this sculpt, it's better to play with its JPS1 version instead of risking damage to this figure. You can always use the capture gear on the JPS1 Young T-Rex after all, so that action feature isn't lost.

Realism: though no Young T-Rex was seen in the movie, a juvenile Rex much like this one played a minor role in Crichton’s original novel. This figure seems to be based off the book instead of the movie. Its paint job also is very different from the other Rexes of the first two JP toy lines, and doesn't resemble the movie Rex's paint scheme at all.

Repaint: yes, this is a repaint of the JPS1 Young T-Rex (known as Tyrannosaurus Rex Junior in the European release). The capture gear is new however. This figure would be repainted a second time as a TLW Exclusive figure, and again for the first JP: Dinosaurs line, both times featuring the same capture gear as this JPS2 version.

Overall rating: 7/10. This still is a fine figure and it sports a good new paint job, but the high level of susceptibility to paint wear is a real let-down, since you might as well play with the JPS1 Young T-Rex instead of risking damage to this rare T-Rex. The capture gear is fun, but nothing special. This Rex figure is much rarer than its JPS1 predecessor, and usually fetches high prices, especially MIB samples. If you don't feel like spending a lot of cash on it, you better stick to the JPS1 Young T-Rex.