More Jurasic Park I’m afraid – although here we have a figure of an animal actually featured in the franchise. Dilophosaurus was last seen giving Wayne Knight a good seeing-to in the first movie, but proved so memorable that Hasbro were still releasing figures of it for the Jurassic Park 3 line. Two Dilophosaurus action figures were released alongside the first movie (well, three if you count the hatchling bundled with Nedry), this ‘Dino Screams’ electronic version and a more slender ‘water pistol’ version.
In terms of anatomy I’m going to shrug my shoulders again and point out that it could be worse. After all, this is an action figure for a movie, so it’s commendable that the toy can stand on two feet without any need for support, and all the limbs are articulated. The legs and neck could do with being longer, though, and the head is far too robust in addition to lacking the subnarial gap that gave Dilophosaurus its gnarly look. However, since the movie version also had a somewhat misshapen head this can probably be excused. The famous crests are present and correct, of course.
Pulling back on the left arm opens the dinosaur’s mouth and activates the TERRIFYING DINO SCREAM. Except that it’s less the blood-curdling shriek of a horrifying predator from another age, and more the plaintive rasping cry of a neglected goat. It’s a real shame, as the noise the creature made in the film (a composite of various animals, I believe) was as scary as hell. At least they were kind enough to give this Dilophosaurus a decent set of individually-sculpted toothy pegs and an oddly forked tongue (maybe they stuck some cobra DNA in there…would explain a lot). In fact, the level of detail overall is quite nice, with plenty of scales, the odd skin fold and nicely-rendered kness. Knees are important. Unfortunately, the claws aren’t painted, a bit of a trend in the original JP line – tut tut, Kenner.
The paintjob is otherwise…fine, predominantly a creamy-white with mottled green camouflage and a red patch under the jaw and throat. It’s a little plain – very different to the creature in the movie, and not as pleasing to look at as the smaller ‘water pistol’ toy. Which brings us nicely to the frill [does it really? – Ed]. Fortunately it’s detachable, so you can display the figure without it. This is indeed a Very Good Thing, as with its fashion accessory in place the figure looks very daft, not to mention far too much like this guy, as you can see in the photo below. The ruff is painted with an appealing jazzy pattern and has plenty of scaley detail to be sure, but I’m glad you can remove it.
In conclusion – let’s face it, Jurassic Park fans will be getting this figure for the nostalgia value. Many of us have fond childhood memories of chomping the strange Dennis Nedry action figure with it. People looking for a decent, affordable rendition of Dilophosaurus are better off plumping for the Wild Safari version – after all, my comrade Cordylus said it was “fantabulous”. If you would like to get hold of this figure then off you pop to eBay. It’s not at all rare and usually quite cheap – happy hunting.
Often available oneBay here
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The Dilo’s threat/ hunting cry is (predominantly)a red-tailed hawk. They not only said it in a behind-the-scenes documentary, I think, but I used to work with them in a small zoo and I recognized it immediately! So glad they used sounds from real animals.
[…] the figure. The Dilophosaurus toys from the original Jurassic Park line are a lot better [see here and here – Ed], and I recommend getting them and giving this figure a complete miss. If you still […]
[…] } Since I reviewed both Jurassic Park Dilophosaurus figures (the electronic one here and the other one here) it seems only right that I take a gander at the standard JP Velociraptor […]
Haha yeah just like in Toy Story.
Zach,
The squirt gun dilophosaurus was re-released for the The Lost World toy line in a gray and blue color scheme. In the JP series 2 line one of the human figures came with an orange Dilo hatchling but there was never an orange toy of an adult ever produced. Perhaps you saw a custom somebody made?
Yup, I had this one, too. I prefer the squirt gun model, too, although it couldn’t stand up. I seem to recall that the squirt-gun Dilophosaurus was re-released as a post-trilogy relaunch with bolder colors–black and orange, maybe?
This guy is pretty high up on my list of favorite JP toys. The one I had as a kid (and still have now) was worthy enough to have my initials written in permanent marker on the underside of its feet.
Like Woody and Buzz in Toy Story 🙂
Oh my God, that thing looks like it’s constantly able to see you, no matter where the photo’s taken from. As for the “happy hunting” bit, was that eant for us or for him? Good review, once again Marc 🙂
I really enjoy your Jurassic Park action figure reviews 🙂 I remember spending my birthday money on this Dilophosaurus back in the day!