Jurassic Park III: Aqua Attack Spinosaurus

Year of release: 2002

Description: this figure stands in an attack posture, with its mouth opened, its head panned to the right, its long arms ferociously stretched forward, and its tail bent downwards. The mouth cannot be closed. Like all Hasbro sculpts it has a dino damage wound, located on the right flank: it shows some ribs and muscle tissue. The upper part of the middle rib is actually a button and activates a shrieking roar as if the creature is yelping in pain. The front part of the sail, next to its neck, is also a button which can be pressed downwards: when doing so, the Spino moves its arms up and down, as if making a slicing strike movement. It also causes an attack roar to be heard. The sounds are the same noises the Wave 1 Spino produced.

The bottom part of this animal is painted in a greyish white colour with some vague brown stripes mixed in. The upper part of the creature (upper jaw, neck, sail, back and upper tail) is mostly covered in a dark reddish brown paint job, with a slightly shiny look at some parts (mostly the sail). The sail is adorned with a row of 19 shiny blue stripes on each side. The dinosaur has black claws, and a black JP III logo is found on its right upper leg.

Analysis: this figure is an improvement over the Wave 1 Spino figure, but only slightly so. It still leaves some things to be desired and looks less impressive than the Animatronic Spinosaurus. The paint job is done well enough, but not great: especially the underside of the animal sports a somewhat dull colour and could have used more detail. It’s odd this paint job is so much different than the one the other Spinosaur toys (except for the Military Diver’s small Spino figure) featured: does Spinosaurus changes colour in water or something?

Like the Wave 1 Spino, this sculpt has almost no body mass, and consists mostly of limbs, sail and head. It’s very skinny, and naturally sports one of those irritating wounds Hasbro is so fond of. The position of the tail and the fact the mouth can’t be closed are also downsides. However, the figure has some good points too. For one thing, the sail is bigger and looks cooler, and the tail is also longer, and thus more realistic, than that of its predecessor. The dino strike action works well enough: it’s a shame it’s copied from the Wave 1 Alpha Raptor and Dilophosaurus actions though. The sounds are the same as those of the Wave 1 Spino, except the sound quality has been improved, making the roars louder and more imposing. Overall, this figure evokes mixed feelings.

Playability: not very good. The limbs are poseable, but the figure’s tail is bent in a very weird angle and also hinders movement of the right leg. The mouth is permanently opened (unless one customizes the figure): it wouldn’t have been so much trouble applying a way to open and close it at will? The figure is electronic, so if you wish to keep the roars in working order, don’t go playing to wild with this toy.

Realism: this figure resembles the Spinosaurus seen in JP III more than the Wave 1 Spino did, mostly because of the bigger sail and longer tail. There are still differences though: the paint job is again not the same as the JP III Spino sported, and the body is disproportionably small. Other than that it’s instantly recognizable as a Spinosaurus, mostly because of the sail and the unmistakably crocodilian head.

Repaint: no. This figure would not be repainted either, though a repaint was scheduled for the JP III Camo-Xtreme line (the infamous Desert Spinosaurus; only one of them is known to have ended up on the market. This means that technically this scuplt has been repainted, but since there’s only one it should be classified as unreleased and thus doesn’t count.).

Overall rating: 6/10. It’s not the best Spinosaur sculpt – that honour is still bestowed on the Animatronic Spinosaurus I’d say – but it’s better than the Wave 1 Spino figure and not all that bad to own. It’s a bit rarer than the Wave 1 figures, but not impossible to find, if you should want one.