Jurassic Park Chaos Effect: Paradeinonychus

Year of release: 1998

Description: this medium sized electronic figure stands in a largely neutral posture, with its right leg slightly posed backwards. It features a rather small muscular body with a pair of huge legs sticking out, ending in stupendously large feet. It also has thin slender arms with long fingers. Its head is about half the size of its body and carries a distinctive short crest and a somewhat duck like mouth with large nostrils above. On either feet a toe stands upright, sporting a large sickle shaped claw. Its tail is quite short, mostly due to the fact that it’s incomplete. Part of it has been bitten off, so the tail ends in a dino damage wound, revealing red blood. The tail is also the basis of the attack option this creature is equipped with. Pulling it makes the arms move up as if clawing at prey, while the mouth opens, showing a large dark pink tongue and white teeth. Additionally, twisting the tail around makes the neck (and thus the head) do likewise. When the tail is pulled back, a gnarly attack scream, reminiscent of both dogs and birds, is heard.

Triangles seem to be the fashion in this creature’s case. Triangular shapes can be found in various body parts, including the claws, hands and head. Most obviously it is seen in the paint job. The beast’s primary colour is bright yellow, which is found on the entire underside of the figure (arms, legs, belly, flanks, tail, lower jaw/lower part of the upper jaw, throat, feet). A large purple spot runs from the neck all the way over the back to the end of the tail (at least, the end as it is now because of the wound), with a total of 12 triangular broad stripes running from this spot over the flanks, tail, neck and legs on either side of the body. The purple spot is entirely surrounded by a thin black line, which ends right above the wound on the tail and starts at the back of the head. The head itself is mostly black but for a few stretches of yellow and one blue spot (again triangular) around each orange eye, and a third on the underside of the crest. Two black spots can be found on either flank and both upper legs. The claws on both hands and feet are also black. A blue JP Chaos Effect logo is located on the left upper leg, with the number .54 alongside it.

This figure does not come with any accessories.

Analysis: this figure is not at all bad, but has several minor problems which make it less of a success. Aside from that, the paint job is just plain ugly. There’s an abundance of yellow and combined with triangular purple colouring this makes for an abominable colour scheme. The head, sporting a somewhat darker and grittier paint job, is more appealing.

The design of this monster is fifty-fifty. The bizarre carnivorous duck billed dinosaur’s head and the long slender arms and skinny body are quite effective in establishing this creature being a hybrid of herbivorous and carnivorous DNA, but the overly large legs and feet (which also make the figure rather heavy), in combination with the colourful paint scheme, make it look somewhat silly. Also, the dino damage on the tail is inventive, but it’s a shame it can’t be covered up (foreshadowing Hasbro’s reign of terror on the dino damage wound front).

The attack option is quite diverse, causing motion in the arms, mouth and even neck while producing eerie and aggressive screams. It’s interesting to see an action feature work on various levels like this, but it also has a downside in this figure’s case. The arms can only be posed in a limited range of positions. When they’re moved too far upwards, they hit the mouth when the tail is pulled, making it look like the Paradeinonychus is making funny faces to people. When the arms are moved downwards, it looks like they make swimming motions (which isn’t too unlikely considering the webbed fingers it features, as if it’s an aquatic animal). The most appealing way to position the arms for me is to keep one arm lifted up and the other one down. Twisting the head then makes the upward claw barely miss the mouth.

All in all, this figure suffers from several small design flaws, next to the horrific paint job of course. It could have been better, but now it’s at least adequate.

Playability: quite good. Paradeinonychus has poseable arms and legs. The arms are part of the attack option so they can only be positioned in a limited range of postures. The mouth, also part of the action feature, can be opened though it snaps right back. The neck can be twisted around by pulling the tail, adding additional poseability. The dino damage on the tail can’t be covered up unfortunately, but it’s not a huge nuisance. Keep in mind this is an electronic figure, so don’t play too rough with it if you want the neat sounds and attack options to stay in working order.

Realism: another dinosaur specifically made up for this particular toy line, it obviously never existed for real. Its design clearly betrays the origins of its DNA mixture, showing features of both the large herbivorous Parasaurolophus and the smaller agile predator Deinonychus. The animal’s size, and particularly the crest on its head reveal the Parasaurolophus part of this hybrid, while the slender body, thin arms, aggressive look and large claws (especially the sickle shaped ones on the feet) make it very clear there’s some small pack hunting predator involved. In the latter case the features don’t solely point to Deinonychus, since they apply to a range of smaller carnivores, including various Dromaeosaurids like the infamous Velociraptor. Still, it’s obvious this creature combines features of a large herbivore and a small and agile carnivore.

Repaint: no. Being an original sculpt made for this toy line, it would not be repainted for following toy lines either.

Overall rating: 7/10. It’s a good new sculpt, but it suffers from minor downsides, including attack action problems, overly cumbersome legs and a horrible paint job. Still, the funky sounds, fine playability and diverse attack options make this figure good enough. It’s not always easy to find, especially in areas where it wasn’t released, but can be found fairly easily on eBay.