The Lost World Series 1: Ian Malcolm

Year of release: 1997

Accessories:

-Smart Missile Launcher (with missile)

-Tyrannosaurus hatchling

Description: this Malcolm figure sports a typical black outfit like Malcolm usually does. Shirt, trousers, gloves, sunglasses, belt and shoes are all black. He’s got some equipment on him, consisting of a green pair of binoculars on his chest, a brown knife on his upper left leg, and a JP Site B patch on his right shoulder. On his back he’s got a small black device: what it’s supposed to be doesn’t matter, since it’s there to support the missile launcher when it’s attached to the figure’s back. Malcolm also has black hair: depending on what variation of this figure you’ve got the hair is either smooth or curly.

The missile launcher is basically a red backpack (including pockets and rope on the sides) with black highlights sticking out, namely a button for firing the device, two straps for attaching it to the figure, and black supports for keeping the wings of the missile down. The missile is a large red sort of rocket with wings, which can be loaded on the upper side of the launcher.

The T-Rex hatchling is a cute little critter with large black eyes and white pupils, standing tall on its legs. It stands in a walking position with its head slightly positioned to the right as if something is attracting its attention. It’s coloured in a dull grey paint job, with a large green stripe running from its head all the way to the end of the tail. It has a black JP Site B logo on its right upper leg. It’s also got a grey bandage on its lower right leg, hardly noticeable because it’s coloured in the same grey as the rest of the sculpt.

Analysis: this is a good enough figure. It stands in a neutral position, but it tends to fall over easily because of the odd cowboy shoes. The black outfit is very Malcolm, but also a bit monotonous. The little gear details help to make it more diverse, but cannot be removed: Malcolm has no choice but to keep those heavy binoculars on all the time. The missile launcher can easily be attached to the figure’s back, but makes the figure get further out of balance, so it can only stand when the torso is really moved forward, making the figure stare at the ground. Despite these minor flaws it’s a pretty good sculpt.

The missile launcher is a neat new weapon and really works well. When pressing the buttons, the wings pop out and the missile is fired, hitting anything in its path with forceful impact. The colouring the weapon sports is a bit ugly though, and the weapon isn’t totally realistic. But it’s best not to complain too much over a weapon that works so well as this thing does.

The Rex hatchling is quite good, but also has some balance issues. It too falls down easily. Also, the paint job isn’t very appealing and could have used some more work: it’s especially disappointing the bandage on its leg isn’t painted in a different colour, because it’s hard to spot the animal has a bandage there at all. Other than that, the Rex looks cute and cuddly, with a hint of potential to become the next Site B tyrant king.

Playability: pretty high. The figure’s pose is very neutral and all its limbs are poseable, so there’s no problem there. The weapon works well, though it’s better to use it independently from the figure: it’s guaranteed to knock any hatchling and most smaller dinosaur sculpts over. Like all hatchlings the Rex has no poseable body parts though.

Realism: though this figure is easily recognizable as being Ian Malcolm, mostly because of the sunglasses and black outfit, it looks more like the Ian Malcolm from the first JP movie than it resembles the one from TLW. Malcolm didn’t wear any glasses in TLW and could have used a shaving, but that’s not the case with this particular sculpt. Also, despite the colour this figure sports a somewhat different outfit: for example, Ian didn’t wear short sleeves and had no knife or binoculars. But it’s still definitely a Malcolm.

There was no missile launcher of this type in any of the JP movies, nor does it look much like anything that people really use to kill animals with. There was a T-Rex hatchling in TLW though, but it looked somewhat different from this one. The biggest difference lies in the paint job. Also, the head of this model doesn’t resemble its movie counterpart, and the overall creature is a bit smaller as well (but not much). Adding the bandage to the figure’s leg is a nice detail though, because the young Rex in the movie also had some leg problems: this makes the fact it’s hard to spot even more annoying.

Repaint: no, for the most part. The Rex hatchling, missile launcher and most of the figure itself are new, but the head (at least the curly variation) looks very much like the head sculpt from the JP Series 2 Malcolm figure. Also, the Rex hatchling would be repainted for TLW Series 2 (Eddie Carr).

Overall rating: 7/10. The figure has several minor downsides, but overall it’s pretty good and has a nice weapon as well as a cute little Rex. It’s not rare and it should be easy to get at an affordable price, so you might get one yourself.