JP3 HQ TAKES A LOOK AT THE SPINO
By Dan, Tuesday 24 April 2001 at 08:14 AM :: #16
Well, after e-mailing me to tell me that he had this toy in his hands and was preparing a review for it, it was very hard to keep quiet on this one! But their review is here for the Spinosarus and here's the highlights (go to jp3hq.com for the full review): The Spinosaurus comes in an open-air package, i.e. kids (or interested adults) can press all the cool buttons, play with the moveable parts, and generally mess around with it. Whether or not this is good or bad we do not know, but this does provide a good viewpoint to examine the overall dinosaur. So the detail level Good, but not great. It seems that with the increase in size, the attention to detail went down somewhat, but the average consumer probably will not notice or care very much. How about dinosaur detail? Im no dinosaur expert, but the spine on the Spinosaurus seemed awfully small our explanation would be that this is a juvenile, although the package does not say it is. Perhaps the most expensive piece to the set; the large ultra-realistic Spino-dino is the adult? Re-ak A-tak. Ever since we heard this new saying (last summer?) we have had high hopes for this series of product, and wondered what it would entail. Finally, we get an answer. Electronic dinosaur might have been enough to describe the Spinosaurus the A-tak (Attack) is simply pressing the button beneath the mouth, and the Re-ak (React) is achieved by pressing the button hidden in the dinosaurs wound. To some degree we can understand where Hasbro is coming from when they say it reacts and attacks, but it really is just a new name to an old feature. Not that the feature is bad the roars are crisp (more of a short high-pitched roar when compared to the past T-Rex toys), and the Spino includes a satisfactory amount of moveable parts. All in all, the Spinosaurus represents a good, solid toy; but it simply does not bring anything new to the table. HASBRO SALES HURTING Here's what the article had to say (go to excite.com for the full story): Hasbro said its quarterly global net revenues fell 40 percent to .3 million, compared with .5 million in the year-ago period. Sales from the Game and U.S. Toys segments declined year over year, chiefly due to slower demand for Pokemon trading card games and toys and the sale of its interactive unit. The article went on to say that there is still hope, "I don't think there is anything going in the toy sector right now to draw consumers into the stores, but there are bright spots," she said. In particular, market watchers said sales of toys related to the new Jurassic Park and Monsters Inc. movies could bolster Hasbro revenues. Thanks JP3 HQ!