Jurassic Park: Dinosaurs 2: Triceratops with Dino Wrangler

Year of release: 2004

Accessories:

-Grappling Claw

Description: this four legged rhinoceros like dinosaur sports a predominantly brown paint job. Most of the animal (flanks, head and neck shield, legs, tail and back) is covered in a rather shiny dark shade of brown. The paint job accentuates the various lines and grooves in the creature's skin, making it appear this figure has more 'skin texture' than it did before. On its back, legs and tail, as well as around its eyes and on the shield, there are various different shapes of light brown (almost orange). Its underside (base of the tail, throat and belly) are coloured in a similar shade of light brown which gradually changes into aforementioned darker brown. The horny features on its head (beak, three horns and stumps on the cheeks) are coloured white. Its eyes are also brown and feature orange pupils, while the creature has a pink tongue. The claws on its feet are coloured black. On its left hind leg a white JP logo can be 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 front legs braced for attack. The end of its tail is bent slightly to the left. The animal has an attack action: when its right hind leg is moved back, his head raises considerably upwards, as if the animal is giving a head butt with its spiky head.

The Dino Wrangler sports a white shirt with a blue bandana, as well as black pants, a brown utility belt with silver clip, black shoes and dark grey gloves. He also has dark brown hair, and lighter brown eye brows and eyes. He stands in a fairly neutral posture, except his right leg is posed in a forward move as if taking a step, and his left arm is raised upwards a little. He comes with a grappling hook weapon,basically a large hand held contraption which ends in two comparatively small claws than can hook around dinosaur body parts. The claws are operated by a handle on its top side. It has a slightly shiny light brown colour, giving it a metallic look.

Analysis: another old TLWS1 toy that returned to stores with JP: Dinosaurs 2 is this fairly small Triceratops figure. It sports a rather conventional Ceratopsian paint job, brown with some more brown mixed in. Like with its previous incarnations, little has been done with the great paint scheme opportunities its neck shield offers. A shame, but the new and improved skin texture feel it looks more detailed than before, though that may only be an illusion. It makes the simple brown paint job stand out on its own to a higher degree though. At least some of the real details, like the claws on its feet and its tongue, have not been omitted, though the eyes would have benefited from a different colour, since now they're hardly noticeable at all. The white JP logo is a bit of a nuisance, but it's likely a darker coloured logo would not have registered much. The figure comes with the same typical Triceratops head butting action as before. It still works okay, though this time there's no capture gear involved. But its attack option is certainly sufficient enough to knock its human companion over.

Meanwhile, that poor Dino Wrangler is armed with one of the lamest and least effective weapons ever devised for a JP figure. The capture claw weapon never worked well on hatchlings even, and it certainly doesn't stop a rampaging Trike, even a smaller specimen like this one. At best, it can be clutched around one leg but there the “wrangling” stops. The Dino Wrangler, formerly known as Alan Grant for the JP III line, himself also doesn't help this set much with his rather dull paint job, which is basically just black and white. Using one of the smaller scale Hasbro human figures for this already small Kenner Triceratops figure does make the dinosaur appear bigger, more impressive than it is compared to this human. But otherwise, this is not much of a successful pairing.

Repaint: yes. This is a repaint of the TLWS1 Triceratops, which was repainted twice before for JPD1 and as a JP III Exclusive. The Dino Wrangler is a JP III Alan Grant repaint with repainted grappling claw. The Trooper would be repainted again for JP 2009 (including his weapon), but this would be the last time this Triceratops figure got released.

Overall rating: 6/10. This Triceratops features a solid and detailed paint job, but the figure itself is still so-so. The Wrangler is still a half decent figure with a simplified paint job and a terribly lousy weapon, which doesn't help the set much. Like all four dino/human two-packs, this is one of the more common JPD2 releases, and it can still be found without too much effort, usually for fairly low prices.