Review
By Roselaar:
Description: this set comes with no less than two different prehistoric creatures (not dinosaurs!), each with its own distinctive paint job, dino damage, attack action and capture gear. Additionally, it comes with two sets of weapons, a Bola Launcher and a net launcher (the Aerial Net Trap). Lastly, a dino tracker figure completes the set.
Scutosaurus assumes a walking posture, with its left hind leg and right front leg moved back ward and its other legs posed in a forward move. It is reminiscent of a toad, with warts all over its body, a very short tail, a large plump body and a rather grumpy looking face. Its predominant colour is green, which is found on the entire sculpt save its underside (belly, lower part of the tail, throat, part of the lower jaw and tusks), which is all beige. The green is not all the same tone, since there are several hues of darker and lighter green mixed in. On its back the green is almost brown even, while on its flanks it’s much brighter green. The animal has yellow eyes, and two large white tusks or teeth sticking out of its lower jaw. Its claws are not painted. Quite noticeably, it does not have a JP or TLW logo anywhere on its body, which may cause some confusion among people who aren’t experts on JP toys; however, it most definitely is one.
Scuto comes with a head butt attack action. Pulling its right hind leg back makes the head raise upwards and violently flip back, as if the creature is attacking a foe with its tusks. Additionally, on its right flank, part of its skin can be removed, revealing a dino damage wound showing white ribs (though no muscle tissue, like the Scuto’s blood is green too). This figure comes with three pieces of capture gear, all painted shiny metallic silver: a typical hand cuff to put on any of its limbs, a piece of leg restraints that is supposed to stick to its right legs so the animal can’t use its head butt action, and a head mask, keeping people save from its tusks. There is no creature-breaks-free-of-restraints action involved.
The second beast this set contains is called an Estemmenosuchus. It is without a doubt one of the most bizarre JP toys ever produced (if not one of the weirdest animals ever to have walked the earth). It has a rather broad and thick body, with four small legs and a tiny tail sticking out. Its head is adorned with several odd protrusions: two large crests sticking out its cheeks, a small white horn on its snout, a row of bumps running down its forehead and two pairs of horns in a symmetrical pattern on its upper head. It has tiny yellow eyes. Its mouth is opened (and can’t be closed), revealing big white teeth, two on its lower jaw, five on its upper jaw. It also has a small pink tongue sticking out. The animal sports a sort of copper metal look over its entire body, being coloured in a dark grey paint job with bluish grey lines running all over it in a sort of ‘net’ pattern. It does not have a different paint job on its underside, like most JP figures do.
Estemmeno stands in a largely neutral posture, except for the tail, which is bent to the right. Its head is turned to the right as well, but this is due to the attack action this figure features. Pulling the right hind leg back makes the creature swivel its head to the left, as if it’s giving head butts to some unseen enemy. Like the Scutosaurus, it carries a removable dino damage skin patch, in this case located on the back of the creature. Removing it reveals white bones and tissue, again with no red mixed in. Another thing Estemmeno and Scuto have in common is the three pieces of capture gear with the same functions. Estemmenosuchus also comes with a hand cuff that can go on any of its legs, a piece of leg restraints that hinders the attack action, and a mask to keep its head from harming people. And like Scuto, Estemmeno does not feature a JP logo anywhere on its body, making it difficult to classify for a layman.
The dino tracker figure stands in a totally neutral position. He wears a blue sweater with green pieces mixed in and a beige shirt underneath. On the left part of his chest he sports a badge with the JP logo (not the JP: Site B logo, revealing this figure’s status as a repaint). He also wears dark green pants with pockets and an odd TV-screen ornamentation, green boots, bright green gloves (including a big one with a “harness” on it over his left lower arm) and a walkie-talkie on his back. He has a very bright pink/beige colour on his head, which makes him look ill compared to other human figures. His eyebrows and hair are brown, and he wears a dark green cap on his head with a yellow T-Rex JP logo on the back. The figure does not have any action features of his own.
The set comes with a Bola Launcher and Aerial Net Trap, repainted/reused from JPS1/2 figures. The net launcher is basically a large blue backpack with an arm extending from its back. The net can be put on this arm, and pulling the arm back and releasing it makes the net being launched. A change has been made to the way this net launching system works compared to the original Aerial Net Trap that came with the JPS1/2 Alan Grant figures: those net launchers featured a button on the back of the pack which caused the net to be launched. That system also worked better. Another change to this weapon is the straps which make it capable of being attached to the Dino Tracker: they are somewhat longer and have less holes in them, to accommodate the Tracker figure, since the original design would have made the backpack and figure incompatible. The Aerial Net Trap also comes with a small bomb, painted light blue, which still serves no particular function, but makes a nice little additional gadget.
The Bola Launcher is identical to the one that came with the JPS2 Bola Launcher Alan Grant figure. It has not been repainted or changed in any way. This set consists of a launcher, a double bola, a harness to attach it to the figure, and a stick to support it while attached to the figure. After loading the launcher, pressing the round button causes the bola to be shot away, hooking itself around any creature in its trajectory (though its range is somewhat limited).
All in all, this Exclusive Dino Tracker Adventure Set consists of a total of 18 pieces, making it hard to find in a complete condition (unless it’s MIB of course).
Analysis: though featuring several repainted or even reused elements, this is by far one of the coolest and most playable sets around, good for many hours of great fun. Both creatures sport an interesting look and adequate paint job (even original in Estemmeno’s case), as does the Dino Tracker figure. There’s also a lot of neat action features in this set. Both creatures are a huge boost to originality in the JP toy lines, so a lot of credit has to be given to the people that designed these animals. Both creatures are very bizarre and most people undoubtedly have never heard of them, partially because they were not seen in any of the JP movies. So if you want original, this is the set to turn to.
However, in some ways it’s totally the opposite of original. After all, it’s all repaints (though the creatures weren’t released before, making them fresh in some way). Also, both creatures, though totally different, share the exact same set of action options: head butts, dino damage, and three pieces of capture gear each which goes around the exact same body parts. But let’s face it: these creatures absolutely rock! Their overall look, action features that work well, and neat dino damage make for one of the best JP play sets around, so why complain about repainting? As far as repaints go, this set is not so bad.
Both creatures have a fun attack action. Their range is limited, but they work really well. Estemmenosuchus violently thrashes its head round, hitting people with its bizarre horns and crests. Scutosaurus defends itself from opponents by crashing its sharp tusks deep into their flesh. Both beasts make themselves perfectly clear: don’t mess with me… However, both of them have been messed with, judging from their nasty dino damage wounds. Interestingly enough, the wounds are composed of different material than the hard plastic these sculpts are made off: they’re sort of rubbery and flexible, reminiscent of the ‘real feel dino skin’ of the larger JPS1/2 dinosaurs. In both cases the wounds can easily be removed and put back, since they fit in perfectly. However, the wounds themselves could have featured a better paint job: there’s no blood or anything, making them seen a bit unrealistic.
The capture gear is nice too (especially the masks, which are as odd as the heads they’re supposed to restrain), though nothing really special. They don’t add much action wise, since there’s no dinosaur-breaks-free-of-restraints option involved. However, they do an adequate job at restraining the animals at least partially (though not all of their legs are restrained, but it would at least make them walk in circles).
The Dino Tracker himself is a perfect match for this set with his weird and colourful outfit, adding to the overall bizarreness of this set. He does not have any action features of his own, but his weapons make up for it. The changes made to the Aerial Net Trap are totally useless and only make it less appealing, though it’s good the Tracker can at least carry it on his back. Still, the slingshot system of the old version of this net launcher was superior to this clumsy variant. However, it is actually capable of catching either monster, though the net is too small to really restrain them. It does a better job on these animals than the Bola Launcher does. Even though the Bola Launcher fortunately has not been changed in any way and is still one of the most awesome and playable weapons of any JP toy line, it’s just not really effective on either of these reptiles. There’s just not many points it can hook onto. The legs maybe, but they’re quite small and close to the ground, so it would bump to the floor in stead of gripping itself around one of them. Estemmenosuchus does have a head with many spiky protrusions on it, so it’s at least partially usable on him. Scuto unfortunately can’t say the same, unless its head is reared up maybe.
Overall, this set is really great but does have some minor problems, some of which (like the Aerial Net Trap’s new makeover and the lazy paint job of the wounds) wouldn’t have been necessary if the toy designers just put that last bit of effort in it. But because of the sheer brilliance of both creatures, they can be forgiven for such small mistakes.
Playability: quite high. There’s a lot of features in this set, and the fact it contains a human figure, two creatures, weaponry and capture gear makes it really diverse. Both beasts have a cool attack action, though the range of both is limited and consists of head actions only. Fortunately, both monsters feature full poseability (all limbs and head for each), as does the Dino Tracker. The weapons are nothing new, but all work fine, especially the Bola Launcher which is undoubtedly still one of the coolest weapons Kenner ever designed. The capture gear does not come with any dinosaur-breaks-free-of-restraints action, but does a proper job of keeping people safe from the head butts of these ferocious critters from before time.
Realism: needless to say, neither Estemmenosuchus nor Scutosaurus appeared in any of the JP movies (sadly). Credit has to be given to the Kenner team’s nerve in producing such bizarre and unknown prehistoric animals (which is probably a reason these two didn’t get a release when JPS2 hit stores back in ’94). Though they did a pretty good job with this pair of ravenous reptiles, they still got a few details wrong. For one thing, Estemmenosuchus seems to be lacking a neck and has rather a short tail (and yes, Estemmenosuchus did really exist, back in the Permian period some 250 million years ago). Its facial features aren’t totally correct, but with a weird head like this you’re bound to get a few things wrong. Scutosaurus is almost correct, apart from those idiotic spikes on its lower jaw. Though the creature supposedly had tusks, they didn’t stick out of its chin and were much smaller. Still, in both cases the designers did quite a good job of adapting these animals to the toy realm.
The Dino Tracker isn’t supposed to be any particular character from the TLW movie, or other JP films. He’s purely an invention on Kenner’s part, which makes a welcome change to the list of human figures that are supposed to represent a certain actor/actress from the movies but look nothing like him/her, which has occurred on more than one occasion to say the least. Both sets of weapons and the capture gear are completely fictional as well.
Repaint: yes, all of it. Every part of this set is repainted from older sets from the JPS1/2 toy lines. The Dino Tracker’s body is a repaint of JPS2 Bola Launcher Alan Grant, while the head sculpt is a repaint of JPS2 Harpoon Harrison’s head. The figure would be repainted again for TLWS2, as the Urban Assault Gear Eddie Carr, but sporting a different head. The Bola Launcher set is also (obviously) reused from the JPS2 Bola Launcher Alan Grant, and it’s not even a repaint, sporting the same paint job. The Aerial Net Trap, as well as the bomb, are repaints however, from the regular JPS1/2 Alan Grant figures.
As for the creatures, both of them are repaints too, but they never made it to stores before. They were originally planned for release in the JPS2 toy line, but were eventually scrapped, along with several other figures, some of which did eventually get a release for the TLW lines like this pair did too (i.e. Ornithosuchus and Gulper/Bull T-Rex). Both monsters come with their original sets of capture gear and dino damage. The paint job of both animals is a lot different from the original figures, of which only very few survive. The Estemmenosuchus sported dark green and brown colouring, while the Scutosaurus came with a brown and beige paint job with blue spots and stripes and bright orange tusks. Still, the new paint jobs are not bad. On a side note: apparently something went awry when the Estemmeno got a makeover: his left front and hind leg were switched, so his legs now appear in a very odd position.
Overall rating: 9/10. Okay, so there’s a lot of repainting here. For once it turns out very well and at last gives us the fantastic Estemmenosuchus and Scutosaurus figures, which we were denied in 1994. Despite some minor issues, this set sports major playability, and two of the most wonderful figures of all the toy lines with neat attack actions and dino damage.
Now, here’s the catch: this exclusive set is one of the rarest sets of JP toys around, and can be a total bitch to get your hands on. It’s nigh impossible to find a loose and complete set (though you could of course mix the figures with some pieces of other sets that came with the same weapons), and MIB they don’t turn up everyday and have been known to fetch high prices. However, it may prove totally worth it, for few sets are as cool and original as this one. Good luck getting one…
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