Year
of release: 1998
Accessories:
-Gatling
launcher
-Four
projectiles
-Ultimasaurus
hatchling
Description:
this figure looks quite odd, especially compared to other human
figures Kenner produced. As such it’s not easy to describe, but it
doesn’t hurt to try. Roland sports golden body armour over his
chest and back, adorned with technical detailing. It has purple
shoulder patches and wears large silvery grey gloves with purple dots
on them. His upper arms also sport additional grey pieces of metal
right next to the shoulder patches. Roland wears dark green trousers
with asymmetrical leg armour over them at the front side. On his
upper left leg he sports what might be a knife holster or some large
pocket. He wears big black boots. On his rather grim looking bald
head he has a black microphone headset (mostly around his right
cheek), and he also has black sunglasses of sorts. On his back right
behind his head, some sort of grey grid or other protrusion sticks
out for some unclear purpose. Maybe it’s just additional detailing.
Roland stands in a very butch and imposing posture. His arms are bent
towards his body, as if he’s flexing his muscles. His left hand
makes a fist. His legs are bent down somewhat, as if bracing himself.
The look on his face makes things seem very grim.
His
large gatling gun, which is coloured entirely black (unlike the gun
seen on the card, which features grey loading tubes) looks quite
detailed and elaborate with little feet and a handle to hold it
sticking out on the bottom, as well as binoculars on top, but its
basic design is simple. It sports four small loading tubes on the
front, so all four of the small orange projectiles fit in
simultaneously. On the back of the gun there’s a round knob, which
can be turned to the right, firing the projectiles in rapid
succession.
The
Ultimasaurus hatchling stands in an attack posture, its left foot
posed forwards and the right backwards, and its long slender arms
outstretched. Its head is turned to the left and looks up slightly,
as if the little creature is making a menacing move to an aggressor.
Most of the beastie is coloured grey, while its belly (from the base
of the neck to the base of the tail) is bright beige. Its feet
(sporting sickle shaped claws) and his Ceratopsid like head (with
horns and frill) are scarlet red: the latter includes small green
eyes and little white teeth. On its back, from the back of the head
to the very end of the tail, it carries segmented black armour,
similar to that of an Ankylosaurus. Also, the tail ends in a small
club, also black. On its left upper leg, a red JP Site B logo is
found: this is strange, since this hatchling is not a TLW dinosaur,
but Chaos Effect instead so it would have made sense to mark it with
a Chaos Effect logo. Maybe it’s just a production mistake.
Analysis:
this figure is without a doubt one of the most unusual and
“un-Jurassic Park” figures ever produced. Of course, this can be
said for most of the Chaos Effect line, but Roland here drives it to
its most extreme limits. He looks more of something out of a cheap
sci-fi action movie but no, the card clearly says he’s a Jurassic
Park figure.
Of
course, heavy armour would be useful when battling ferocious hybrid
dinosaur monsters. Roland Tembo, being a ‘dino hunt master’
according to the card, probably wants to be prepared for anything.
Judging from the gritty look on his face, he’s taking things very
seriously. Mess with his weird armour, and he’ll be forced to use
his gun on you (also because he has no action features of his own).
This
gatling launcher itself looks a whole lot less silly due to its size
and all black colouring. It’s an interesting new variation on the
standard rocket/missile launcher idea; it’s also clearly based on
real gatling guns, though its effects are less devastating (it’s a
toy after all). It works quite well and hasn’t much trouble firing
the projectiles over a respectable range in rapid succession, but because these are small
and lightly built they don’t do a lot of damage. They’re okay for
knocking over hatchlings but not much else sadly.
The
hatchling is quite interesting, since it’s the only released
Ultimasaurus sculpt. It sports almost the exact same paint job as the
adult sculpt would have featured, though obviously less detailed due
to its size. While still a baby, it looks quite nasty and it isn’t
something you would want to meet in a dark alley. In a Chaos Effect
way it’s also cute. Though the JP community is still mourning the
loss of the large Ultimasaurus sculpt, this juvenile at least gives
us a glimpse of what could have been.
Playability:
about average by the standards for human JP figures. Roland has
moveable arms, legs and head, like most human figures. However, due
to the way in which his arms are posed playability is hampered
somewhat. Also, his left hand forms a fist and as a result he can
only hold things with one hand. The Ultimasaurus hatchling isn’t
poseable in any way, which is of course normal for hatchling figures.
Its attack posture doesn’t help either. Qua playability, the most
important thing of this set is the gatling launcher, which works
decent enough.
Realism:
as is the case with almost all of the Chaos Effect line, realism
isn’t much of an issue with this figure. Roland looks in no way
like the Roland Tembo seen in the TLW movie as portrayed by Pete
Postlethwaite. The only similarity to that actor is the bald head.
This figure looks more like a cyborg than a human being, considering
the abundance of armour and metal. So by normal Jurassic Park
standards (if there is such a thing) this Roland Tembo is plain
ridiculous, but it fits in well enough with the rest of the Chaos
Effect toys. The same goes for his weapon, which actually is less
farfetched and resembles real gatling guns; so it’s basically a
good toy version of such a weapon. The baby Ultimasaurus, another
hybrid creature this line is so fond of, is a nice little addition to
the toy line. Never mind the weirdness of genetically mutated
dinosaur hybrids gone bad, this cross between a Triceratops,
Ankylosaurus and Velociraptor (or any closely related cousins of
these animals) looks pretty menacing, making the fact the adult
version of this monster didn’t get released even harder to bear.
Repaint:
no. This figure was most definitely designed for this toy line (which
is pretty obvious when you look at it) and wasn’t repainted for
later toy lines either. However, this entire set (Roland,
Ultimasaurus and gatling launcher) was originally planned to be
repainted for the Chaos Effect Night Hunter Series, in a set with a
repaint of the unreleased large Ultimasaurus even, but that whole
line was scrapped and so was the second Chaos Effect Roland.
Overall
rating: 6/10. Though the figure looks utterly ridiculous, it’s fun
enough. But the Ultimasaurus and gatling launcher are definitely the
best things in this set, which still isn’t overly appealing though.
This figure is somewhat harder to find than most other carded Chaos
Effect sculpts (especially in territories where the Chaos Effect line
wasn’t released), but not impossible to get your hands on: costs
may vary though.
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