The Lost World Series 1: Sarah Harding

Year of release: 1997

Accessories:

-Net Launcher (with net)

-Camera

-Stegosaurus hatchling

Description: Sarah sports short green pants, along with a beige vest over a red shirt. She has dark brown boots, a black watch on her right wrist, a black belt and a JP Site B patch on her right shoulder. She has a total of six pockets on her outfit. Sarah is red haired and has a pony tail, as well as a loose strain of hair running round her left cheek. She also has red eye brows, as well as very blue eyes. It has been said there is also a variant of this figure sporting red lipstick. Sarah stands in a rather neutral pose, except she has her arms raised upwards somewhat, especially her right arm.

This figure comes with a net launching device, which isn’t mobile, i.e. it can only stand on the ground and is to be used separately from the figure. It looks very mechanic and has more detailing than appears necessary, for it only requires pressing a lever on the back end to launch the net. The launcher sports a metallic shiny grey paint job. The net itself isn’t very big and thus only handy to catch smaller dinosaurs with, like hatchlings. The net is made up of two long red sticks with a black cloth like net in between. Sarah also carries a small camera, which can be hung around her neck. It too sports a silvery grey paint job, though in a lighter shade than the net launcher.

The Stegosaurus hatchling stands in a walking posture, with its head turned to its left, and the tail turned to the right. Its right front leg and left hind leg are attached to each other. The animal has tiny plates on its back and no spikes at the end of its tail, making it obvious this is a juvenile. The underside of the animal (most of the head and flanks, the belly, legs, lower tail and throat) are all pink, with the upper body (its back, plates, neck and upper tail) coloured in a darker tone, sort of brownish purple. In between the two colours there’s a dark red stripe, running from the back of the head to the end of the tail. The little Stego has black eyes and a black JP Site B logo on its left hind leg.

Analysis: being one of the very few female figures of the JP toy lines (not counting the dinosaurs), Sarah is probably the best of them. She looks very feminine and has a cool (and relatively tight) outfit, sporting a fine paint job. The designers probably had fun creating this sculpt, since they put some neat details on her: for one thing she has a unique hair style, with a pony tail and even a loose string of hair. She also has nails on her fingers. She stands in a good pose, though her arms could have been positioned more downward.

Her net launcher is less impressive. It looks rather bulky and heavy, and doesn’t work all too well. The net easily falls off the device and gets in the way of the lever, so that activating it isn’t all that easy to do. Also, the device is very lightly build and needs to be supported by hand in order for it not to flip backwards when attempting to launch the net. Even if launched, the net doesn’t go far: it’s range is about 30 centimetres at best and it usually doesn’t land on the spot you want it to, not counting a possible lucky shot. This net launcher just isn’t very well designed. The camera Sarah carries is a fine little addition, though it could have used more detail qua paint job. It can be hung around Sarah’s neck like a real camera, so that one can pretend she’s taking pictures of dinosaurs.

In that regard having this set feature a young Stegosaurus is a good choice, because this way the set is very much like Sarah’s first scene from the TLW film in which she tries to take a picture of a little Stegosaurus and all hell breaks lose with its parents. This baby Stegosaurus doesn’t look exactly like the one seen in the movie, but it’s an adequate replacement. Though it’s paint job isn’t very good, it does look really cute. 

 

Playability: well enough. Sarah has the usual moveable body parts, though her arms might have been posed in a more convenient manner. The net launcher isn’t really good and doesn’t work properly most of the times, but fortunately Sarah can hold the net herself and thus use it without the launcher. The camera gives her some extra options. The Stegosaurus stands in a fairly neutral position, but like all hatchlings has no poseable parts.

Realism: like stated above, this set is like a copy from a scene in the movie; it has Sarah, a camera and a Stegosaurus hatchling. Still, there are some differences between these figures and their movie counterparts. Sarah herself sports a different set of clothes in the movie, but this figure’s face looks very much like Julianne Moore as seen in TLW. I’m not sure whether the camera is the same type or brand shown in the film, but it’s close enough anyway. The Stegosaurus is also different, mostly in colour and size, since the baby seen in the movie was about as big as a human and mostly green. Still, because of the tiny plates and lack of spikes on its tail it’s clear we’re dealing with a hatchling here. And of course it looks cute, just as in the movie.

Repaint: no. None of the things this set consists of would be repainted for later series either.

Overall rating: 8/10. This is probably the best human figure in the TLWS1 toy line. Sarah looks very cool and her face resembles Julianne Moore’s a lot. The net launcher isn’t too good, but the net itself still comes in handy. The little Stegosaurus is just plain cute. Unfortunately this figure is definitely harder to find than the other TLWS1 figures, but not yet impossibly so. It usually fetches much higher prices though, so take that into account when looking for this one.