Welcome To Jurassic Park

One of my favorite movies of all time is Jurassic Park, and with it being back in theaters (in 3D no less!) I decided to dig through the boxes in my toy room and show off my JP collection.  Some of the figures are pretty worn in, but they've been well used!  Not only is JP one of my favorite movies, it's one of my all time favorite toy lines.

I've also done something a little different with the pics this time that I may or may not do again, depending on how these go over:  Speech balloons.  I've wanted to try them for a while, but the paint program on my MAC is pretty sad, so these took a lot of time and effort.  There's not a TON of voice balloons, because that would have taken forever.  Any way, let's dig in!

This is Ellie Sattler, one of my most used figures.  I didn't have as many female figures as a kid, so she was in pretty much everything me (and my friends) played.  From the neck down, she's right out of the movie.  The face looks nothing like Laura Dern, but pretty much all the figures from series 1 have heads that don't look like their respective actors.  That was fixed in series 2.

I've lost all of Ellie's accessories, except for this cute li'l guy.  Or girl, I suppose, since all the dinos in Jurassic Park are female.  Until they decide to change, any way.

With the loss of Dennis Nedry a while back, Robert Muldoon here is my only other series 1 human figure.  Again, he looks nothing like the actor that played him (in this case, the late Bob Peck).  But, one of the things I love about  JP line is that the figures can be used for a wide range of stories.  They make excellent "normal guys", they have enough crazy gear and accessories to be used for sci-fi, they're pretty much your action figure "everymen".  I even remember throwing some soft goods on them from other lines and using them in fantasy settings.  And averaging at 4"-5" tall, they can adequately cross over with most of the other toy lines I love.  They're just great versatile figures.

As with Ellie, most of Muldoon's accessories have been lost over the years.  But I did manage to hold on to his little dino!

This is Tim Murphy from series 2.  He might be the only one that still doesn't look like the actor that played him in this series.  He looks better than the first figure, but I don't know if I see "Tim" in him.

As a later addition to my collection, I've been able to keep track of all of Tim's accessories.  He's got some kind of weird rope bazooka (a lot of JP accessories are strange), a cage for his dino...

... And his dino!  In series 1 Tim was packaged with a baby brachiosaurus, but this time around he comes with a l'il parasaurolophus.  Lastly, Tim's rounded out by his trusty night-vision goggles from the movie.

I never had Dr. Grant from series 1, but I recall him having one of the better head sculpts.  I dodn't even remember if it changed for series 2, but whatever the case this version looks a lot like Sam Neill.  His outfit on the other hand is another story.  While everyone else from series 2 just had their series 1 bodies repainted, Grant here was given all new duds.  I'm not sure what this new gear is supposed to represent, but it looks like he could be training attack dinos.  He has a heavily padded left arm and what appears to be chain mail under his clothes.  Come to think of it, Grant did have another series 2 figure that reused his series 1 body, and it might be nice to get either that one or the original, but I can't deny that this one stands out!  Oh, and from a quick online search, I can confirm that the series 1 Dr. Grant did have a different head.

This Grant came with a baby Lycaenops, which wasn't actually a dinosaur.  The JP line would do stuff like that a few times.  As far as weapons go, Grant came with a giant "bola launcher" that requires a harness to wield.

And if all else fails, he can always just use his taser to tase the dinos.  In the head.  Tase 'em right in the head.

All this talk about series 1 and series 2 figures looking like this or that, do I have any characters from both series?  Yes I do!  Here's Robert Muldoon again, this time looking much more like Bob Peck.  He's been repainted in a dark green that he doesn't wear in the movie, but at least in this case it still makes sense.  Sometimes repaints just go off in some random direction (like Tim's colors shown above).

For his second figure, Muldoon actually comes with a raptor!  This makes much more sense than the T-Rex from series 1.  I guess Grant has a history with raptors too, but if a dinosaur kills you in the movie, your figure might as well come with one of them.  Just like his series 1 version, this Muldoon comes with some of the most useless accessories ever.  He's got a spring-loaded bazooka that he can just barely hold, the back of a bazooka shell that doesn't really fit into the back of his weapon, and a backpack that holds its straps shut so tightly that I snapped a nub off trying to open it to display on the figure.  Good thing I'm not an accessory guy.

Moving on.  The Lost World!  Just like the first Jurassic Park figures, Dieter Stark here looks nothing like Peter Stormare in the movie (and this time there was no series 2 version to correct his head sculpt).  Sadly, I've lost all of his accessories (even his dino!).  One difference between Dieter and the other JP figures is the inclusion of a waist joint.  Dieter's action feature involved a magnet in his dino's mouth that would connect to a magnet in Dieter's chest.  He can thrash around at the waist to try and knock the "compy" off.  But without the compy, he's just a guy with a secret magnet in his chest.  I'd like to point out the tattoo on his left arm.  inGen?  He's got the logo of the company he works for tattooed on his arm!  That's loyalty right there.  Too bad he's a jerk.

Speaking of guys who look nothing like their actors, here's Eddie Carr!  First, I need to say that I was less than impressed with The Lost World: Jurassic Park.  It was nothing like the book, even down to the characters.  I've come to enjoy the movie, mostly because it reminds me of the old toys (what with the crazy gear and the good guys vs bad guys).  Eddie here was actually in both the book and the movie.  He didn't fair well in either.  In the movie, Eddie saves everybody from two angry tyrannosaurs.  Too bad nobody saves him and he ends up dinner for both of them (they each take half - see, dinosaurs share!).  I used to think this was a boring figure, and I guess compared to the others it still kind of is.  But he was a heroic character, and the toy makes for good "everyman" figure.

In keeping with the theme, I've lost all of Eddie's accessories but his dino.  I might have a lot of these accessories in a box I still have to organize, but who knows when I'll get to that.

The three Dino Trackers from Jurassic Park series 2 are technically connected to the first movie, but they were all made specifically for the toy line, so I always pictured them coming to the island after all of the original stuff went down.  This first Dino Tracker is the leader of the team, Sgt. "T-Rex" Turner.  He's also my least favorite.  He's an ugly gap-toothed mother with a weird pose and a little turd for a ponytail.  At least his hat is cool.

Turner comes with a repaint of Ellie's baby triceratops, and the colors are pretty nice.  I'm assuming this little guy is actually the toughest figure in the pack.  The Jurassic Park toys are known for their giant guns and accessories, so Turner decided to shake things up with a bow and arrow.  I guess it's a big bow and arrow, but he can barely hold it.

And thanks to this bow, Turner is permanently stuck in an archer pose.  So when he's not holding the bow, you can make him... clench his chest.... or cry?

The other two Dino Trackers fair much better than Turder.  I mean Turder.  Turner.  This is "Harpoon" Harrison, and he looks like he could take on a dinosaur with his bare hands.  Like this:

I've said a few times how the Jurassic Park human toys make great "everyman" figures.  Harrison here could easily be used as the hero.  It would be awkward to see him walking around all bare-chested in Jurassic Park, but stick an uzi in his hand and you've got an 80's action hero!  Maybe even a 90's one!  That sounds like a snarky put-down, but it's not.  I really like him because of that!

Harrison comes with this colorful little brachiosaur and a giant spring-loaded harpoon.  And a claw if harpoons aren't your thing.

Rounding out the Dino Trackers team is "Jaws" Jackson.  While Harpoon Harrison looks like a guy who enjoys his job, Jackson is all business.  He's the everyman figure's everyman.  You could use him as "Jaws" Jackson: Dino Tracker, or as any number of background JP workers.  He'd make a decent Dr. Harding.  But if you really want Jackson to take care of business, you need to give him his tools:

Jackson's called "Jaws" for a reason.  He walks around with a bear-trap-for-dinos on his back!  He doesn't even have another weapon.  No bows, no harpoons, no bazookas.  He's got a flashlight/hot iron, but that's it.  Jackson sets his trap and takes care of business.  What does taking care of business look like?  It looks like this.  I looks like:

BUSINESS TIME!

Jackson also comes with this wild looking baby dilophosaurus.  Other "spitters" spit poison; this guy probably spits fire.  That's Nedry's green spitter in the second pic.  I might not have Nedry any more, but his dino is still around!

Yikes, this is getting long.  I was hoping to get all the humans done in one go, but it's probably better to just split them into two posts.  I think most of my word balloons will be showing up in the next post as well.  At least you got a taste of things to come!

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love spitters.