Jurassic Park: Dinosaurs 2: Electronic Tyrannosaurus with Micro T-Rex

Year of release: 2004

Description: like many of Hasbro’s medium sized dinosaur models, this electronic T-Rex doesn’t stand in a neutral posture. It's posed in a bent position, head, arms and tail positioned to the right, as if circling potential prey. It has a large dino damage wound on its right flank, revealing red muscle tissue. Inside this wound a button is located: when pushed it activates a rather high pitched growl. A second button is placed on its throat. Pressing this button produces a fierce attack roar, and makes the jaws open. Both the arms and legs are fully poseable.

A typical 'three-way' paint job adorns this figure. The underside (throat, belly and first half of the lower part of the tail) are coloured greenish beige. The middle section (most of the head, sides of the neck, flanks, most of the arms and legs and middle part and tip of the tail) are coloured green. The top part (back of the head, neck, back, uppermost part of the limbs and top part of the tail) is painted brown. Black spots and stripes of various sizes run over the brown colouring, while additional black spots are found around the figure's eyes (red with black pupils) and the front part of both the upper and lower jaw. The Rex's tongue and inside of the mouth are painted red, in the same colour as the dino damage wound. The creature also has white teeth, black claws on both fingers and toes and a black JP logo on its right upper leg.

The Micro T-Rex stands in an aggressive posture, its head curved to the left and its arms outstretched as if attacking something. The tip of the tail is bent pointing upwards and to the left. The majority of this Tyrannosaurus figure is painted basic brown, while the belly, throat and base of the tail are coloured almost a yellow type of brown. A series of thick black stripes runs from the neck over the back and the first half of the tail, with additional black stripes on the head, black colouring around the eyes and small black dots on the lower jaw, as well as black paint near its knees and the back of the lower legs. On either side of the figure, a pair of long red stripes runs from the base of the neck almost to the end of the tail, while seven smaller red stripes are located on the upper legs. The facial area around its small yellow eyes (with black pupils) is also painted red with tiny small red stripes running out of it over the upper jaw. The inside of the mouth is not painted, but the figure has white teeth, as well as black claws on both arms and feet and a white JP III logo on its left upper leg. Its feet are supported by extra small plastic bases in the same dominant brown colour, so it can stand on its legs more easily.

Analysis: 'Once more unto the breach, dear T-Rex, once more!' Or in other words: 'here we go again'. Hasbro continues its practice of obsessive repainting with the third incarnation of this T-Rex, which features a rather uninspired paint job and a dull colour scheme. Also, it's not high on details, as the dino damage wound illustrates: the ribs are clearly showing but they're not coloured differently, they're just ignored. And while the black colouring around the red eyes may look dark and brooding, the black paint on the jaws makes it look like it has been sipping oil for some reason. Apart from the disappointing paint job, this figure offers nothing new: a not so easy to use biting action, decent and fairly movie accurate sound effects, and an annoying posture which hinders playability.

Its little play mate is even worse off, considering it's not even a repaint, but a reuse. The Lava Rex returns for no other reason but to save Hasbro designers time and the company money. The paint job is still okay, and might actually have gotten a little bit more detailed (though closer inspection on “actual” Lava Rexes reveals that none of them are a hundred percent identical, so this remains open for debate). This sculpt is getting tedious by now, and knowing how many times Hasbro used it in following lines only makes collectors more sick and tired of it. And apart from the black stripes on both figures, there's no connection between both Rexes whatsoever. They might as well be different species, the smaller one providing a meal opportunity for the bigger carnivore.

Repaint: yes. The Rex was originally released in the JP III line. It has been repainted before for Camo-Xtreme and would also be featured in JPD3 and JP 2009. The Micro T-Rex is more or less identical to the Rex figure from the Camo-Xtreme Lava two-pack. This sculpt was first conceived as a partner for the JP III Military General figure and has since been repainted excessively often for Camo-Xtreme, JPD2, JPD3 and JP 2009.

Overall rating: 4/10. Not much of interest here. The Micro T-Rex is a boring reuse, while the electronic T-Rex's new paint job isn't particularly imaginative or appealing. Like the other JPD2/3 electronic dinosaur figures, this two-pack was very common a few years ago, but has since become much harder to find, despite not being a very popular set. If you really want one, patience is certainly advised, though it doesn't necessarily require a lot of money when you stumble upon it.