The Lost World Series 1: Electronic Parasaurolophus

Year of release: 1997

Accessories: none

Description: due to the position of the legs caused by the inflexible action feature (more about that later in this review) this animal stands in an active pose, as if it’s running. Apart from that it’s positioned in a totally neutral pose. The head, adorned with a bizarre crest at the back, seems a bit small compared to the rest of the body, but it’s pretty accurate regardless. Pushing the button on this creature’s back makes the head move back and forth and produces sounds.

The figure is covered in a mostly beige paint job, with its underside (belly, inner arms and legs, lower part of the tail, throat) coloured white. The head and neck sport red colours, with four long dark brown lines stretching from the back of the head all the way to the tip of the tail, stopping only around the button on its back. Additionally, spots and stripes of the same dark colour adorn the back of the upper legs as well as part of the lower legs, the arms and two fingers on each hand. The claws on each finger (8 in total) and toe (three on each foot) are painted brown. The beautiful crest on its head, which basically starts at the upper jaw, is coloured in an almost shiny variant of the aforementioned dark brown colour, with three beige stripes on top of it. A black JP: Site B logo is found on the right upper leg, along with the number .19. Its eyes are totally black.

Analysis: next to the disappointing Electronic Spinosaurus and the various repaints in the TLWS1 toy line, this wonderful sculpt once again proves Kenner hasn’t lost its touch at designing great dinosaur sculpts. This is without a doubt one of the best models in this toy line and a great addition to the range of herbivorous dinosaur species made for the JP toy lines. Though a hatchling Parasaurolophus was made for the JPS2 toy line, an adult model wasn’t created (unlike for most hatchlings of the two JP toy lines). This model redeems that error on Kenner’s part, with a vengeance.

The paint job is quite good and very reminiscent of the Parasaurolophus’ look in the TLW movie. It’s also pretty large, even for a medium sized model; considering the sizes Paras grew to in reality this is good, because the figure looks more impressive and realistic compared to human figures. The sounds produced by pushing the button on its back are also similar to the sounds these dinosaurs made in the movie, though a bit more simple. They’re a bit like the mooing of cows; a not too bad analogy, since these creatures where basically the cows of the Cretaceous period.

This sculpt features a dinosaur strike action labelled a ‘leg kick action’. However, when activated, it looks more like the dinosaur is running. This makes sense, since it’s probably what any Parasaurolophus would do in real life when confronted with a ferocious predator. It’s a fun feature, identical to the one the JPS2 Electronic Gallimimus sported. However, it comes with a major downside: unlike with the Gallimimus the legs aren’t poseable to such a degree that the figure can assume different postures with them. When moved and released the legs will swing right back, which also hinders the dinosaur’s ability to stand up, and makes it fall down easily. A shame, since it’s the only real flaw this otherwise great sculpt has.

Playability: though the legs of this figure are poseable, they move right back because of the action feature, which also doesn’t allow this figure to stand up easily. However, the arms don’t have this problem and can move about ninety degrees; the design of the body doesn’t allow them to be posed any further. Unlike most dinosaur figures, the head is also moveable and can be twisted in a full circle (though why anyone would do that I don’t know). This figure is of course electronic, so don’t play too rough with it if you want to keep those neat sounds working. All in all, the playability of this dinosaur isn’t that great, but for such a fine sculpt I’d say it’s acceptable.

Realism: this is one of Kenner’s most movie accurate and realistic sculpts. The people creating this baby definitely based it on the concept art and design models of the TLW movie. In fact, I’ve seen model pictures made for the film that show a Parasaurolophus model with the exact same pose and detail as this one. A good move on Kenner’s part, something I wish they had done for more of their toy sculpts. The paint job is similar to the colour pattern the Parasaurolophus in the movie featured, except less detailed (it’s a toy after all).

It’s also quite realistic compared to the scientists’ view of Parasaurolophus, though it’s a bit small: Paras grew to be almost as big as T-Rex. It’s arms may be a bit on the small side, since Parasaurolophus also used them for walking on (so they’re legs too to a certain extent): they weren’t used for running though, something this sculpt is good at. Additionally, it’s also nice to see this figure’s paint job being quite similar to the one the JPS2 Parasaurolophus baby (Tim Murphy’s hatchling) featured, adding some consistency between toy lines.

Repaint: no. This figure would not be repainted for later toy lines either.

Overall rating: 8/10. Great sculpt, nigh total movie accuracy, fine paint job and fun action feature. The only thing really bugging me is the position of the legs and the fact it makes this figure fall over more easily (it’s even causing slight paint wear!). Still, this dinosaur is definitely worth getting your hands on, though it’s not the easiest one to find and may prove more expensive.