Review
By Roselaar:
Description: this repainted Young T-Rex figure has not been retooled from its JPS1 counterpart, except it stands reared upwards more than the original because of the way it is packaged. Asides from this, it stands in a fully neutral posture, and still features “realistic” dinosaur skin (though there is no such thing of course, since we’ll never know for sure what dinosaur skin felt like), made of a more flexible and softer material than the regular hard plastic. The figure’s arms, lower legs and inside of the mouth are not composed of this rubbery material. On its right flank a piece of skin can be removed, revealing a dino damage wound underneath, showing white ribs and pink muscle tissue. The wound patch itself is largely symmetrical in shape. The Rex’s small two fingered arms are the only poseable body parts. The jaws of this Rex, which can be opened by squeezing the creature’s neck, provide the main attack option, revealing a very bright pink tongue and inside of the mouth, and clean white teeth.
Apart from the noticeable pinkness in this creature's mouth, this Young Rex sports an otherwise dark paint job. At first glance it might as well be entirely black. However, on closer examination, this figure's paint job is made up of dark green with dark brown tones randomly mixed in all over its body, most notably on the tail and upper legs. Its underside (belly, throat, lower jaw, lower part of the tail) is of a lighter green than the rest of its body, but still very dark. The colouring on the lower legs and arms is much brighter, presumably because of the different material they're made of. These body parts are painted in a mixture of brown tones, one dark and one much lighter, making them stand out more. Especially the hind part of both legs and the underside of the feet are of a much different, brighter colour quality than the rest of this figure. Additionally, the dinosaur has black claws on hands and feet, as well as small white eyes with black pupils in black eye sockets. As is the case with the other TLW Exclusive dinosaurs, there's no JP logo found on this figure.
Three pieces of capture gear come with this Rex. There's a cuff like tag, which comes with most dinosaurs featuring capture gear, but is quite big in this case, and fits well around the creature's neck. It also comes with a leg restraint, which can hold on to both legs simultaneously. Lastly, there is a big muzzle which can go around the figure's jaws, effectively disabling them, while also covering the eyes, so the Rex can't see what's going on. All three pieces are coloured in the same metallic grey paint job.
The muscled Dino Tracker stands in a largely neutral pose, though his right leg is pointed outwards to some extent, making him look like he's bracing himself for something. Also, he holds his arms quite close to his torso, more so than other human figures. He wears short blue pants adorned with pockets, a belt and a knife at the back, all in the same colour. He also sports a black vest, revealing a muscular, bare chest underneath. The vest comes with green and red detailing and a JP T-Rex logo (black Rex skull and arms in a yellow circle) on the left part of his chest. Additionally, the Tracker wears black boots with blue socks sticking out, a black belt around his waist and a dark green baseball cap (which he wears with the flap at the back of his head) with a second JP Rex logo on it. His skin colour is somewhat lighter than on most other human figures. He also has black hair, a beard with moustache, black eyes and eyebrows, and a rather stony facial expression.
The Tracker is equipped with a large bazooka, basically a black tube with a small box at the end and a big one up front. On top of the gun near the front end there’s a large red button. When the bazooka is loaded with either one of the two red missiles it comes with, pressing the button makes the missile be fired with force, with a firing range of almost two metres and a good impact force. It’s one of the more effective and powerful weapons Kenner produced. This set also features a black backpack with black straps so the Tracker can carry it on his back. The pack has two holes in it, one for either missile.
Analysis: as if two huge Rexes, a hatchling and a Junior Rex weren't enough for the TLW lines, a repaint of the JPS1 Young T-Rex was issued as an exclusive set, expanding the Rex family so it incorporates tyrant king lizards of all ages. None of the TLW Rexes sport the same paint job however, and this Young Rex is no exception, featuring a rather dark, Gothic looking colour scheme. It's a rather original paint job, but looks quite monochromatic on first sight. However, those who take a closer look will find a very naturalistic and “life like” paint job, instead of one of the typical 'brown with black stripes' schemes that have been so overused. However, the arms and legs, and especially the idiotic pink inside the mouth feel out of place on this figure because they're so different, like the Rex sports an unsuccessful mixture of paint styles. But still, the effort to do something different should be applauded.
Apart from the paint job, nothing has changed on this figure, which has had two previous incarnations already. This Rex still comes with two main action features. The first is the typical dino damage wound patch, which was found on most larger dinosaur figures of the first JP toy lines (and is also present on several larger TLWS1 dinosaur figures). Removing the Rex’s wound patch reveals a nasty wound, which makes one wonder what creature would dare attack a T-Rex (a larger T-Rex maybe?). The wound looks gory, but the shape of the wound patch is too perfect and artificial: it looks like someone just cut an almost symmetrical hole in this little Rex, instead of him suffering from a vicious attack by a rival carnivore.
The second option applied to this figure is a so-called biting action. However, these biting jaws are a rather cheap action feature, since it’s only because of the soft material the dinosaur’s skin is composed of that this biting action is produced. Various other big carnivore figures come with biting actions, but more work is put in those by adding inventive biting mechanisms instead, making this figure's biting jaws pale in comparison. Squeezing the neck does open its jaws decently though, while it can also be used adequately to trap unfortunate figures’ body parts between them. It may not look very appealing, but at least it works to some degree.
This Young T-Rex comes with the same capture gear as its JPS2 predecessor It does a very good job subduing Junior Rex, making it unable to walk, bite or even see. The tag that comes with it actually has a function here, since it features a JP logo the Rex itself is lacking, so this dinosaur can be more easily identified as a JP figure. This tag is also rather large, making its less easy to lose.
Though it's still a good figure ans hasn't been really altered aside from the new paint job, there's one slight modification made to this Young Rex which has nasty consequences. It is packaged in such a way that it stands up more straight, which can cause damage to the material that holds together the two halves of this figure (the front part, which consists of the torso with arms and head, and the hind part, which covers the tail and legs). It's not unusual to see Young Rexes that have a big split in the middle, as if someone took a knife and tried to cut the figure in half but stopped halfway through the process. Therefore, if you don't want this to happen to your TLW Young T-Rex, be careful and don't play too rough with it. (This warning also applies to the JPD1 Young T-Rex repaint which often shows the same issue, but not to the JPS1/2 Young T-Rexes, both of which rarely feature this disability because they were packaged differently.)
This set comes with a nameless Dino Tracker figure, sporting less clothing than most other human figures have, which is obviously useful in warm jungle environments where ferocious dinosaurs have to be fought. It's a good new paint job on this figure (which is also a repaint), but the abundance of black doesn't balance well with the rather bleak skin colour on this figure, making him look somewhat sickly. This is especially true of his head, which sports a big black beard and moustache that look like they're fake. However, apart from this minor complaint (and feel free to disagree) this is not at all a bad figure, all the more so because he comes with an excellent weapon. The bazooka, which remains unchanged in paint job and design from the original that came with JPS1 Muldoon, is still a formidable weapon. It works very well and has a great firing range for such a small weapon, no doubt making it the weapon of choice for most JP toy fans. The set also comes with the same backpack to store the missiles in when unused. Both backpack and bazooka are still painted black, which does make this set a little monochromatic, since the Tracker himself sports a largely black outfit as well.
Playability: for the set as a whole, quite good. Though only the arms of the T-Rex are really moveable, the flexible material allows for additional poseability to some extent (including the jaw motion). The dino damage wound patch is easily removable and can also be put back with little difficulty, but when applied to the figure it’s stuck strong enough so it doesn’t fall off on its own accord. Though usually the figure stands well balanced, more worn out Rexes occasionally have trouble standing up straight and tend to stand in a tripod pose with the tail on the ground. Since this figure is easily damaged, it's better not to play too rough with it, also given its rarity. In fact, if you want to play with this sculpt, it's better to play with its JPS1 version instead of risking damage to this figure. The Tracker has the usual range of poseable body parts (head, legs and arms). The bazooka is one of the most effective and playable weapons of all human figures. It has a great range and strong impact force, comes with two different missiles for variety and the backpack provides storage space for both of them, be it loose or on the Tracker's back. The bazooka may not be strong enough to knock the Rex over, but it's always a challenge to try and shoot the dino damage patch off the dinosaur (in which case you need to loosen it a bit, otherwise it won't let go). A bit violent for kids maybe, but fun nonetheless.
Realism: though no Young T-Rex was seen in the movie, a juvenile Rex much like this one played a minor role in Michael Crichton’s original novel. This figure seems to be originally based off the book instead of the movie. Of course, that doesn't matter in this repaint's case, for which its medium size in comparison to the other TLW Rex figures might have been the main reason to re-release it. Its paint job is very different from the other Rexes of the various JP toy lines, and doesn't resemble the paint scheme of the T-Rexes in the movies at all. The Dino Tracker isn't supposed to look like anybody, being an invention on Kenner's part. The bazooka wasn’t featured in the movie, though it’s a more likely weapon compared to some of the other pieces of weaponry Kenner came up with for the TLW lines.
Repaint: yes, this set consists only of repaints. The Rex itself is a repainted JPS1/2 Young T-Rex, with the same set of capture gear as the JPS2 Young T-Rex featured. The Dino Tracker is a repaint of JPS2 Harpoon Harrison. His accessories originally came with JPS1/2 Robert Muldoon, and these have not been altered in any way. The Young Rex would be repainted (and retooled) again for the first JP: Dinosaurs line, along with its capture gear. The Dino Tracker would be repainted a second time for the JP III Exclusive Dino Tracking Set, but with different accessories. The bazooka, including backpack and missiles, would be repainted again (and retooled as well) for the TLWS2 Eddie Carr figure.
Overall rating: 7/10. On close inspection, this Rex has a very original and realistic new paint job, but it hardly holds up from more than a yard away. Other than that it's still a good figure, though the dino damage provides the only real action. The Tracker himself is a fine repaint, though the beard looks a bit silly. The bazooka is still one of the best weapons ever produced for a JP toy. This set is worth getting if you happen to find it for a good price, but since it's very rare (it was only released at Toys'R'Us in the USA) and usually fetches high prices, you might as well settle for a regular JPS2 Harpoon Harrison, Muldoon's bazooka and JPS1 Young T-Rex otherwise.
|
