The Lost World Series 1: Glider Pack with Ian Malcolm

Year of release: 1997

Accessories:

-Ian Malcolm figure

-Glider Pack

-Missile

Description: Ian Malcolm sports a black jumpsuit, including black boots, gloves and of course sunglasses. From the shoulders down to the upper legs the suit is covered with blue and green straps, giving Ian a typical hang glider pilot look, though I don’t know much about aviation so I might be mistaken here. The suit has a yellow JP: Site B patch on the left shoulder. There are two variations of this figure, like with the regular TLWS1 Ian Malcolm figure: Ian’s hair is either smooth or curly, but in both cases black.

The Glider Pack can be folded in to look like a large backpack, but pressing the large blue button on top makes the wings fold out, in which case the glider measures a good 20 centimetres across. The wings are basically black cloth held together by a dark grey plastic frame attached to the Pack itself, which is also painted dark grey with light green highlights on top. The figure can hold on to the glider via two extendable frames, one which can be clamped around its waist and one which it can grab with its hands. Blue highlights indicate the various options of the Glider Pack: a large blue button for unfolding the wings, a smaller button for launching the missile, two clamps for attaching the figure to the pack and two additional clamps at the bottom for holding the wings together when they’re not folded out. The missile, a yellow dart, can be launched by pressing the smaller blue button on top of the pack: it has a firing range of almost two metres.

Analysis: this is a decent set, nothing too special, but fun enough. The Malcolm figure it comes with looks good, still sporting a mostly black paint job including sunglasses as is Malcolm’s custom. The paint job of the pack itself is a bit dull, but not annoyingly so. The yellow dart sticking out of it makes it look a bit odd, as if the two don’t belong together. The firing range is one of the largest of any JP figure’s weapons, though it does little damage from too great a distance. At close range it’s more lethal, though not as much as most other missiles since it’s so lightly built. Smaller dinosaur figures will easily be knocked over though.

The ‘unfolding wings’ system of the Glider Pack works fine, though when folded in the wings occasionally flap out on their own accord, since the clamps holding them together are a bit small. It also saves some space when the wings aren’t folded out and makes the cloth less susceptible too dust. The cloth is a nice touch and adds some realism. However, it’s more easily damaged then it would be if it was all plastic. You better not play too rough with it if you want to keep it intact. The figure can be attached to the glider in such a way it looks pretty realistic. However, its hands often slip loose from the frame it’s holding on to.

Playability: Malcolm has poseable arms, legs and head like most Kenner figures have. His hands are positioned in a forward gripping move to support him holding on to the frame of the pack. Therefore he holds things, like weapons of other figures, differently then usual. The pack itself doesn’t offer too much playability, though the wings unfolding increases the number op options. The missile launcher, though it has some setbacks, works properly.

Realism: like the regular Malcolm figure of this toy line, this Malcolm looks more like the one we saw in the first JP movie than the older Malcolm from TLW, but the black sunglasses are still a dead giveaway, so it’s hard to mistake him for another character. There were no hang gliders in the TLW movie, though originally the script did have a scene involving them. This was cut out before production of the movie started though. Still, it’s nice Kenner added this set to the TLW toy line as a reference to that scene, though they may not have done that consciously.

Repaint: Malcolm’s head is, for both variations, a reuse of the regular TLWS1 Malcolm figure. The head variation sporting curly hair is a reuse of the JPS2 Malcolm’s head. Other than that, this figure, as well as the Glider Pack, are news sculpts. Neither would be repainted for later toy lines.

Overall rating: 6/10. It’s a fun addition to the TLWS1 line, but nothing particularly special and certainly of less interest than the other small vehicles/play sets with human figures of this toy line. It’s not hard to find and shouldn’t be too expensive.