Jurassic Park III: Dilophosaurus

Year of release: 2001

Description: this dinosaur is a slender bipedal carnivore with a very characteristic head, sporting two ridges above the snout. Also, the large frill, which was a made up feature for the Dilophosaurus in the first JP movie, makes it easily recognizable. The figure stands in an almost stalking mode, with its body and tail bent, its legs wide apart, and its jaws open. The figure has a large dino damage wound, showing bones and muscles, on its left side, with a button in it, which produces a screaming hiss. Also, a lever is located on its back: when pulled the figure slashes its arms and makes another hissing and rattling attack roar. A black JP III logo can be found on its left leg. It’s coloured in various green tones, mostly dark green, but with several lighter green stripes. It has a large white stripe running from its tail to the crests on its head. Some minor grey can be found on its belly. The underside of the frill is coloured in almost exactly the same tone of darker green with lighter green stripes, while its upper side is a dazzling display of various tones of green, accompanied by four red twirled stripes. Its claws are black, and for once they didn’t forget to paint the tiny claws on the side of each foot.

Analysis: this is a damn crappy figure. Most of the positive aspects all have a negative aspect undermining them. The colours aren’t very bad, though the green gets monotonous. The head looks pretty cool, though it’s a shame the mouth can’t be closed. Not having forgotten to paint the claws is a positive point, but because of the hideous violent outburst of green it’s hardly noticeable. The sounds are pretty good, and very similar to the sounds the Dilophosaurus in JP made. But that’s where it ends as far as positive attributes are concerned. The rest basically sucks.

First of all: the pose this figure has taken on. Its legs are very wide apart and the figure stands in a bent position. This makes it hard for the figure to stand up straight, especially because the frill makes it heavier on the front side. The only way it can stand up is for the head to point straight upwards, making the figure look ridiculous.

Second of all, and most aggravating: the frill. It’s very disappointing, and sadly enough it can’t be removed (unless you slightly customize it, which I reckon a lot of people might have done). The only thing you can do with the frill is move it up and down the neck a bit. Strangely enough, the frill points outwards instead of inwards, unlike the frill we saw on the Dilophosaurus in the first movie, like they put it on backwards. Even worse is the fact the frill hinders the playability of the dinosaur action.

Which brings us to the third point: the dinosaur’s arm attack action. By pulling the little lever on the back the arms move up and down, but they are too short to stick out from under the frill, so it doesn’t look very scary, dangerous or convincing. A shame, because the accompanying sound is pretty cool.

Fourth and last point: the dino damage. Like all Hasbro figures sporting dino damage, it can’t be covered up, so this dinosaur has a large open wound on its chest all the time. Which is pretty irritating. The Dilophosaurus was a pretty cool dinosaur in the first movie, even though some of its features (its frill and its spitting venom, which we fortunately don’t see with this figure) were made up. But Hasbro totally and truly screwed this dinosaur up.

Playability: very limited. Like mentioned above the frill stands in the way of the dinosaur attack action and the position the creature takes on also isn’t a plus. Its arms and legs are poseable though, but that’s it. It would have been a lot better had Hasbro decided to make a removable frill, but for some reason which is totally beyond me they didn’t. Nothing a good pair of scissors can’t fix though…

Realism: despite all its flaws this creature is easily recognizable as the Jurassic Park version of a Dilophosaurus. Its head is a dead giveaway, and both the hissing sounds and the frill show us the designers of this toy didn’t forget the dinosaurs from the first movie. The colours are different from the ones that dinosaur sported though. As is the size, but the Dilophosaurus in JP was probably a juvenile, because a real Dilophosaurus could still grow to six metres in length. So in comparison to the human figures from the JP III toy line this figure isn’t far off as far as size is concerned. Real Dilophosaur fossils show no evidence of members of this species spitting venom or having large frills though: that’s all fiction. But the two crests are accurate. Incidentally, there was no Dilophosaurus in JP III.

Repaint: no. Not surprisingly, this figure wouldn't be repainted until JP 2009 came along (featuring an altogether different paint job, but sadly not improving the figure itself).

Overall rating: 3/10. Due to its ridiculous pose, awkward frill which can’t come off, and limited playability this sculpt is one of Hasbro’s worst dinosaur figures. Even the few positive attributes can’t help it be better. It’s not rare, so should you want one you’ll find it easily, but be warned: it’s not worth much. At all.