Saturday, April 7, 2018

Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom Battle Damage Herrerasaurus



The mainstream Mattel line has several sublines, one being the Battla Damage series, which seem to be exclusive to Wal-Mart stores. The gimmick here is - you guessed it - the return of dino damage!











The box is a open try-me package like the Roarivore's box, but much smaller. Once you see it, you will be impressed at how small this dinosaur is.



At 8 inches long and 3 inches tall, the olive green and reddish brown Herrerasaurus, is well sculpted but horribly inaccurate. Herrerasaurus had five digits on both the feet and the hands. The hands are sculpted wrong with four digits and all in the wrong lengths, and the feet don't have digits I and V. The tail is kind of short. I am not sure if this animal is in the movie, but it looks a lot like the one in Jurassic Park: The game. Another Herrerasaurus without the dino damage will be released as well.



I do like it that the hands are not pronated.







Posed in a stalking manner, Herrerasaurus has six points of articulation: Ball jointed hips and shoulders, hinged neck and lower jaw.



As it is tradition with the new dinosaurs, the Jurassic logo is on the right foot, and the code sticker for the Jurassic World Facts app is on the left foot.



The battle damage is different than previous dino damage gimmicks. Instead of being a door panel as seen with the Jurassic World dinosaurs, this is a circular barrel that once pushed in, the skin bit rolls inside, revealing musculature. It is not trigger happy as it was with the Jurassic World figures, and it is just a much better feature.



The figure is disappointingly small in relation to Kenner's humans and even kind of small for Jurassic World humans. Herrerasaurus was rather large in real life.



It's about the same length as a Sprinter Coelophysis.



And here it is with the equally pathetic Schleich Herrerasaurus. While they are both fun toys, and while they sort of represent Herrerasaurus, they're...just...not accurate. Heck, the Schleich Herrerasaurus make a better JP The Game than this one. As I said, another Herrerasaurus will be released. Recommended for kids and completists.

Thursday, April 5, 2018

Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom Allosaurus



Continuing with my reviews of the Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom toys, today we turn our eyes onto the Allosaurus. Every toyline has a team of sculptors and designers working on several toys. It is obvious that the Allosaurus was not worked on by the same team that worked on Baryonyx. I could be wrong, but it just has a different artistic feel than to the other Roarivores I have reviewed thus so far.










I like the new packaging on these figures, which appear to be capture gear protecting the dinosaurs against an exploding island. They are ergonomic and are open for try-me shenanigans. They are skinny and save a lot of space.



The Allosaurus comes off as the coofier looking of the Roarivores so far. It seems to smile, and has teeth all over the jawline, which is wrong. It is generic enough to look like both a generic theropod and an Allosaurus, but we have seen better. Like the other two, it is sculpted in a posed form, tail swinging to the left. It is also the most aggressive looking Roarivore so far. What I do love about it are the colors. The body is sculpted in a lovely Cool Gray 90%, and it has light lime green splotches all throughout the body. The sculpting is well enough, mostly shrink-wrapped, depicting a very muscular, powerful imaginary animal.













The main feature as with the other Roarivores is that when you push the buttom on the back, the animal closes its jaws and emits four types of sounds, mostly involving battles with Tyrannosaurus. The bottom of the right foot houses the new Jurassic logo, and the left has the code for the Jurassic World Facts application for your cellphone. The animal is quite loud. Once again, I cannot stress enough the fact that I wish they had their mouths closed, and that pushing the button would cause them to open their mouths, not the other way around!



The hips and shoulders are articulated. The manual claws are unpainted. The theropod Roarivores have rather short tails, but Allosaurus has the shortest tail in relation to body size. Allosaurus is known to have had a rather long tail, so this is a bit of a let down. The tail comes apart from the figure and once opened, you need to attach it. The instructions (not shown) tell you how to run your Allosaur and tells you how to replace the customary three A76 batteries.



The best thing about Allosaurus is that it is in perfect scale with original Kenner human figures, as well as other Jurassic Park dinosaur figures. The figure is 12 inches long and 6 inches tall. John Hammond courtesy of Benjamin Asselin.



Of all three Jurassic Allosaurs, this one is my least favorite. It does not even resemble the one in the trailer. It is just a goofy looking Allosaurus. It is inferior to the former two Allosaurus which depict a true Allosaurus. This is a goofy Allosaurus, worthy of a million knock-offs.