Jurassic Park Dinosaurs: Triceratops

Year of release: 1999

Accessories:

-Two pieces of capture gear

Description: this four legged dinosaur sports a predominantly lime green paint job. Most of the animal (flanks, head including neck crest, limbs, parts of the tail) is covered in this type of green. On its back and top of the tail the figure features greenish brown shapes, with small additional spots of this colour on its flanks and the tip of the tail. The underside of its tail, throat and belly are coloured beige. On its face, the parrot like beak and spikes are coloured white, as are the eyes (with black pupils). The claws on its feet are not coloured. On its right hind leg a black JP logo is found.

This figure stands in a relatively neutral pose, though one might also say it stands in a defensive posture with its head lowered and legs braced for attack. The end of its tail is bent slightly to the left. The animal has a single attack action: when its right hind leg is moved back, its head raises considerably upwards, as if the animal is giving a head butt with its spiky head. The figure comes with two shiny grey pieces of capture gear which can be clicked together forming one head piece that can go around the Trike’s head yet stands on the ground, as if holding the animal’s head down.

Analysis: as was the case for the TLW Junior T-Rex and Cyclops Raptor sculpts, JP: Dinosaurs 1 also marks the first (but not the last) repaint of the small TLWS1 Triceratops figure. It too got a paint job that is not much of an improvement over its predecessor, but fortunately not as bad as on both other repainted TLW figures. It doesn't score high on originality, considering it uses the same paint scheme as before for the most part. At least it has a painted underside unlike most other JPD1 figures. The lime green and light brown colours go fairly well together, but the use of bright white on its head is a let-down; it just looks way too artificial, and it also makes the eyes look rather dead. Also, the figure severely lacks paint details. The unpainted claws can be forgiven, but the neglect of any different kind of colouring on its crest, or even the other bony head features apart from the three horns and beak is a damn shame. The original figure, though also a far cry from perfect, did a better job in these regards.

Aside from the paint job being a mixed bag, this figure is otherwise still pretty solid. It carries the same range of poseable body parts as before and retains its funky head butt option, which is always a predictable but fun-to-use action feature. The capture gear has not been changed in any way and does what it did before: not restrain the Trike in any way (it's just a loose piece around its head when applied) but make for a neat little creature-breaks-free-from-restraints option. All in all, this remains a fine figure with a not completely messed up new paint job.

Repaint: yes. This is a repaint of the TLWS1 Triceratops figure, with the same capture gear as that figure came with. The figure would be repainted again for JPD2 and for the JP III Exclusive Dinosaur Tracking Set.

Overall rating: 6/10. Not its finest paint job, but certainly not as bad as some of the other paint jobs of this line. And still a decent figure. This Wave 1 release is easier to find than most of the other figures of this line, usually for quite affordable prices.