Jurassic Park III: Amanda Kirby & Spinosaurus

Year of release: 2001

Accessories:

-Missile launcher (including missile)

-Spinosaurus figure

Description: this figure, the only female sculpt of the entire JP III toy line, sports a blue shirt, with tan pants and brown boots, as well as a pair of dark brown gloves. The figure is very blond and has bright blue eyes. Her pants have one large scratch in it, like she has had a nasty encounter with some vicious prehistoric critter. She still looks very sexy and ready for action, with her left leg in a slight forward move and her left hand made into a fist, preparing to hit the first demonic animal that tries to harm her. Her weapon is coloured in a shiny gold metallic paint job, with an odd yellow missile, sporting three spikes at its end, one of which is twice as large as the others. The Spinosaurus figure is fairly undetailed: it’s mostly brown, with a greyish white belly, black claws and a darker brown sail adorned with purple stripes.

Analysis: this is quite a nice figure, especially for JP III standards. Though the figure doesn’t resemble the Amanda Kirby we saw in the movie much, it’s still a neat figure with a good paint job. One of the few female figures in any of the JP toy lines, this girl is quite sexy and nicely curved.

The same cannot be said for the weapon. Like the Military General’s bazooka, this weapon is both ridiculous and doesn’t work very nicely. It doesn’t appear very realistic, but merely like some toy designer just let his fantasy work and the company being lazy enough to actually produce it. Like aforementioned bazooka, the missile can be fired by sticking it into the gun and pressing on its end. It doesn’t get very far, easily gets off course, and when you’re lucky enough to hit something with it, like the Spinosaurus figure, it doesn’t have a very nifty result. It rarely knocks a dinosaur figure down.

The Spinosaurus is a lot more interesting. It looks a lot like the Spinosaurus chasing the protagonists in JP III, sporting a long snout with big, nasty, pointy teeth, as well as the sail that makes the Spinosaurus such an easily recognizable and bizarre animal. The paint job of this figure isn’t very special, lacking detail, but still not bad. The figure can hold figures’ limbs between its jaws. Unfortunately it doesn’t have any moveable body parts, but it stands in an almost neutral position (at least for a JP III toy), so one can live with that.

Playability: fairly good. Both the Amanda and Spinosaurus figures stand in relatively neutral positions, unlike most of the other JP III human figures and their dinosaurs, which usually take on bizarre poses. Amanda’s various limbs are decently poseable, though it’s a shame her left hand is closed: now she can only grab things with her right hand. The weapon isn’t all that interesting, but the whole set has a greater playability potential than most of the JP III human figures, so it’s a minor point of dissatisfaction.

Realism: this figure doesn’t resemble the movie’s Amanda Kirby (Téa Leoni) much. Both are women, blond and decently shaped, but that’s where it ends. This figure wears totally different clothing and has a much sexier look. The Spinosaurus appears to be a miniature version of the Spinosaurus from the movie, though much less detailed. It doesn’t look much like a hatchling. Its colours, especially around the sail, are also different. It’s easily recognizable as a Spinosaurus though, and not a bad figure at all.

Repaint: no. The Spinosaurus would be repainted several times though, twice for JP III CamoXtreme, and three times for the JP Dinosaurs 2/3 lines, and once again for JP 2009. A third repaint for JP III CamoXtreme was planned but unreleased.

Overall rating 7/10. Although the weapon sucks, the figure itself is quite good. The same goes for the Spinosaurus figurine, even though it has a bit of a weird face. This set isn’t hard to find, so you might get one yourself.