Jurassic Park Chaos Effect: Tanaconda

Year of release: 1998

Accessories:

-Two pieces of capture gear

Description: this bizarre animal looks like a snake with four small legs (which is undoubtedly why there’s a snake element attached to this hybrid figure by claiming it’s got Anaconda DNA), since it has a very long neck and tail sticking out of a relatively small body. When neck and tail are stretched to their fullest extent the Tanaconda measures a good 30 centimetres in length. The creature stands in a walking posture, with its hind left leg and front right leg moved forward and the other legs posed back. Its mouth is open, revealing a set of grizzly fangs and rows of smaller teeth as well as a bloody scarlet tongue.

The lower body parts of the Tanaconda (underside of the tail, belly, legs, lower jaw and most of the underside of the neck) are coloured white. Its claws are not painted. The upper parts (upper tail, flanks, back and upper neck and head) sport a sickly green paint job, adorned with a total of 20 red spots with black rings around them. Small black stripes run out these rings but don’t cover the white colouring. Eighteen black spots are found on each side of the creature’s body between the red spots. The head is covered with black stripes, also surrounding the white eyes (no pupils). The creature’s throat and lowest part of the lower jaw are painted bright red. On the right hind leg a large black JP CE logo is located, along with the number .97.

Tanaconda comes with two pieces of capture gear, both coloured shiny bright blue. The smallest of the two is your average “cuff” piece, which can be attached to various body parts, like the neck, tail, or any of the legs. The other piece is substantially bigger and consists of a long piece of “wire” with a cuff at one end and another one in the middle, and a large muzzle on the other end. The muzzle fits over the creature’s head, while the two cuffs can be put around the midsection of the neck and tail respectively, provided the Tanaconda is bent in the right position.

Analysis: this is a decent repaint of the original green Tanystropheus figure. Though the white underside is rather dull it fits the pattern of unusual colour schemes featured in the JP Chaos Effect dinosaur line. The same goes for the artificial look to the rest of this figure’s paint job. The head’s colouring is quite neat, with its eerie small white eyes and the scarlet tongue, giving this beast a ferocious look, almost vampiric, like it’s not to be messed with.

Apart from the paint scheme there’s not much originality to this figure. Fortunately no changes have been made to the original design, nor does it feature new capture gear. Though that means this sculpt is still one of the more daring and bizarre figures Kenner produced, its original flaws are back too. The animal still can’t stand up easily, since it either falls down because the front part of the creature is heavier than the rest of the body, or it flips to one side when the neck is positioned in the same way it is carded. Also, because of the composition of the flexible material used for the tail and neck, paint wear is always around the corner.

The capture gear is still the same too. The small cuff serves no particular purpose and can be put around any of the creature’s body parts. The large piece does restrain the neck and tail but may cause paint wear. There’s no creature-breaks-free-of-restraints action involved. The original metallic colour of the gear was superior to the new blue paint job, which makes the restraints look too much like pieces of plastic (which of course they are, but it looks less realistic).

Despite these downsides this figure is still quite cool. The neck and tail, paint wear not withstanding, are easily bendable, providing the Tanaconda with the ability to wrap itself around figures and other dinosaurs, as if constricting them during a vicious sneak attack. This makes the figure a lot of fun and more flexible than most other dinosaur figures.

Playability: good enough. All four legs are poseable, though the creature looks best when they’re in their usual position. The mouth unfortunately can’t be closed. Both the tail and the neck are bendable, but it’s better to be careful when bending them, since they’re on the fragile side. Especially in the tail part it often occurs that the metal wire inside breaks through and sticks out. Also, the paint on the rubbery parts of this sculpt are vulnerable to paint wear. The capture gear is okay, but it only adds to the possibility of paint wear. If you want this figure to stay in good condition, you better not play rough with it.

Realism: since this sculpt is a repaint of the JPS2 Tanystropheus, the Anaconda part of this hybrid makes little sense. The package of the Tanaconda shows Tanystropheus to be a lizard like animal with a relatively short neck, but this is inaccurate since Tany did indeed have a stupendously long neck like the JPS2 Tany had and this repaint also features. If it wasn’t for the constrictor attack action (which the JPS2 Tany was equipped with) the Anaconda link would have been nonexistent. It would have been more appropriate had this figure been labelled a ‘purebred’ Tanystropheus, like the Raptor Alpha figure of this toy line was a purebred Raptor.

The capture gear isn’t able to fully restrain the animal. Though it might keep the neck, tail and head in check, the Tanaconda can make a run for it since its legs are still in free range. Some sort of limb restraints would be useful here.

Repaint: yes. This figure is a repaint of the JPS2 Tanystropheus sculpt, and comes with the same two pieces of capture gear, also repainted. The figure would again get a paint job makeover for the first JP Dinosaurs line, though including the same two blue pieces of restraints this Tanaconda comes with.

Overall rating: 7/10. This creature is fun as ever, though the new paint job is fifty-fifty and the capture gear still isn’t all that great. Additionally, the figure is still prone to damage. It’s not really rare in the USA, but can be quite hard to find in territories where the Chaos Effect line didn’t get a release. Ebay usually provides a solution, often at relatively low costs.