Allosaurus Roarivores(Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom, by Mattel)

When ever I hear the theme from Jurassic Park it send chills down my spine and puts a smile on my face. That is the power of music combined with the nostalgic feelings that I have for the original Jurassic Park movie.  Ever since the original movie release, the franchises movies, music, and toys have had there ups and downs.  When I was a kid I did buy Alan Grant and a couple of the die cast metal figures but I honestly didn’t collect Jurassic Park toys. By the time JP Lost World came out I wasn’t buying toys anymore as I had grown up and headed off to college. When Jurassic World came out it was an opportunity for me to get into the movie toy spirit and I couldn’t wait to go to the store and hold them in my hands.  I ended up like many of you on the disappointed side.  The many years of neglect and poor handling by Hasbro had reached its  pinnacle of ineptitude.  I did buy quite a few Jurassic World toys (on sale) for myself and my kids.   I think I felt bad for the toys as it wasn’t their fault they were created so poorly.  Surprisingly none of them have broke!

The Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom toys by Mattel have brought back the joy and wonder that was missing for many years. The new toys have so far have brought back an overwhelming sense of happiness and excitement to the franchise.  The review today will focus on one of my favorite dinosaurs Allosaurus , who makes her Jurassic Park franchise film debut. “Applause”.  Whoops she tripped on her close up during the previews, must be the nerves.   Lets take a closer look.

About the toy:  When the figure comes out of the box it is not fully assembled.  Once you snap the tail on this figure it is 13 in (33.02 cm) long.  This figure looks ferocious and wait a second…do I detect a slight smile.  I daresay this is lady does have a smile and it looks kind of like the jokers smile (and I have an over active imagination).  I could almost see her walking up to a trapped Stegosaurus with its tail swinging back in forth preparing for a fight when the Allosaurus says,” Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?  The stegosaur cocks it head as the Allosaurus continues,” I ask that of all my prey,”  she makes a gesture with her hands and finishes by saying,” I just like the sound of it,” than throws her head down and grabs the confused stegosaur by the neck.  For those of you who don’t know where that quote is from, it is from Tim Burtons Batman. If you want a more current pop culture line, I’ll borrow a line from Heath Ledger’s Joker by having Allosaurus just ask the stegosaur, “Why so serious?”  Works either way.

Anyways the sculpt looks awesome.   She has muscular arms and body with thick veins and wavy skin folds throughout the body.  There are even some scars running across her snout.  Nice touch!   Is it scientific accurate? No. For example the inner most caw on the hand should be the largest, instead on this toy it is the middle claw.   Is it accurate enough to know it is an Allosaurus?  Yes.  Does it scale well with the other Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom toys?  Yes it does!  Look at it with the JWFK Stegosaurus, poetry in motion.

It is a rather stable toy. The stability is helped by the overlarge feet.  To remain upright, its left foot needs to remain foreword and the right foot back, if you flip the legs, the only way it will be able to stand is to have it rest on its tail. It is able to stand with its head at different heights which gives the figure multiple posing options.  It has good articulation in its arms and legs as they can rotate 360 degrees.  The arms are hinged and can swivel, which is a nice feature.  The legs can bow out a little at the hips which helps with stability.

The figure is electronic and pairs up with the chomping action feature.  The chomp action is smooth and quite easy to use.  When you press the button on its back, its mouth closes/bites (I know it would make more sense the other way) and makes one of four different sounds.  The four sound features are: 1. Stomp and roar. 2. Growl and roar, kind of like a t-rex. 3.  The Indominus rex snarl.  Not sure why that one is on it. 4. A quick roar.  The speaker is located on the belly.  The left foot has the Jurassic Facts app.

The colors on this figure are a not as vibrant as what is found on the Jurassic World B&B toy with the Ronald McDonald inspired colors.  The paint is a dull grey with some speckling which is similar to the rest of the JWFK toy line. The splotches and stripes are a creamy yellow and the eyes are yellow as well.  The crest is red and so is the skin flap at the jaws.  The claws on the feet are glossy black, but they forgot to do the nails on her hands as they are the same grey as the rest of the body.  The individually sculpted teeth are white and the tongue is blue.  Yep, that’s right, its blue.  She must have caught a Smurf for a snack or had a blue slushy to cool off after a hard days work.

Playability:  It is a fun toy to play with.  The articulation is good and is able to balance with decent stability.  The electronics are good with variable sounds.   The chomping action feature is smooth and fun.   As long as you don’t throw it in some water (not sure about sand) it seems to be able to handle regular play time adventures.  Recommended for kids.

Overall:  It is very similar to its fellow Roarivore Baryonyx in its layout and sound effects.  I would rate this toy around 4.5 out of 5 stars.  Why you ask?  Lets see….1. They got rid of the dino damage feature,  which made me happy, as I was never a fan of it.  2.  No screw holes.  3.  Descent paint job, though the blue tongue is strange.  4.  Good electronics even though the sounds are borrowed from other Jurassic World animals.  5.  Simple but effective action feature.  6.  It is stable and had good articulation. 7.  Scales with the other JWFK dinosaur toys.  Do I really need to keep listing, nah, I think you get the idea. If you are a fan of Jurassic Park and Jurassic World, than this figure is for you.  Nice job Mattel.