Jurassic Park Dinosaurs: Tanystropheus

Year of release: 1999

Accessories:

-Two pieces of capture gear

Description: this bizarre animal looks like a snake with four small legs, since it has an excessively long neck and a somewhat shorter tail sticking out of a relatively small body. When neck and tail are stretched to their fullest extent the Tanystropheus measures a good 30 centimetres in length. The creature stands in a walking posture, with its left hind leg and front right leg moved forward and the other legs posed in a backward stance. Its mouth is opened, revealing two sets of grizzly fangs and rows of smaller white teeth. The body and legs are made out of hard plastic, while the tail and neck are composed of softer material to accommodate the figure's flexibility for its constricting action.

Tany's top side is mostly green. While its underside (belly, lower part of the neck, lower jaw and tail) is painted black, the rest of this figure sports a murky, swampy green paint job, most notably on the torso and legs. A series of elongated yellow spots or shapes runs from the snout over the neck and back to the end of the tail, twelve spots in total. Around its small yellow eyes (no pupils) its facial area is coloured black, while additional clusters of small black specks are found between each yellow stripe on its neck, back and tail in seemingly random patterns. The claws remain unpainted. A black JP logo is located on its right hind leg.

This Tanystropheus 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 second 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 figure is bent in the right position.

Analysis: another old fan favourite figure is seen once more! The unusual Tanystropheus, though not actually a species of dinosaur, makes its third appearance in the first JP: Dinosaurs line, where it fits in easily. Its neck is flexible as ever, its tail a little less so (since the wire inside doesn't go all the way to the tip of the tail) and it features the same capture gear it was released with previously, in the blue Chaos Effect paint style, which does look odd on this figure; the traditional metallic grey paint job would have been preferable, considering it was used for most other JP: Dinosaurs figures too.

Tany's latest paint job is somewhat more intricate than on most other dinosaur of this line. Though it lacks some details, like the inside of the mouth and the claws, it at least has a differently painted underside. The yellow interacts fairly well with the green, while the groups of small black spots are an interesting and original addition, giving the figure a unique touch. The head could have used more work though. The lack of pupils gives this creature an overly sinister look, which it doesn't really need considering it's totally bizarre already. Because the tongue and mouth remain unpainted, the teeth (not counting the fangs) seem rather random, more like a row of white spots floating around the jaws. On close inspection, some of the teeth aren't even painted at all. A bit lazy, but only when you look really close which most people probably won't be doing. Other than that, this paint job differs enough from the ones seen on the previous Tanystropheus figures to make it stand on its own.

Repaint: yes. This is a repaint of the original JPS2 Tanystropheus, including its capture gear repainted in the same colour as the Chaos Effect Tanaconda's gear. The figure would not be repainted again.

Overall rating: 7/10. This is not a bad paint job, but not significantly special either and like most other JP: Dinosaurs figures, it could have used some more work. The figure itself is as good as ever, though the capture gear is still not the easiest to apply. Since this figure is a Wave 2 release, it is definitely harder to find than some other JP: Dinosaurs 1 figures, but it's worth a try, especially if you don't own any of the previous incarnations of this sculpt.