I know what your thinking, do we need to see another Jurassic World toy review? Can this toy be any better than its predecessors? Even though I made up my mind not to review anymore toys from Hasbro’s JW line, for some reason I am compelled to give it another try and go down with the ship.
In Jurassic World, Charlie, Delta, Echo and Blue make up the fabulous foursome of Owen’s raptor squad. Blue is the leader while Charlie is the youngest of the group. When we first encounter Charlie, she is in the training arena, with her sisters, being trained by Owen. She has a minor role in the film and doesn’t make it to the finale as she is killed by a rocket launcher. She was the first in her pack to perish.
Hasbro originally only released the “Blue” electronic Growler, but now the entire pack has been made. I should say they made two, and gave each one a different paint job to represent the four raptors. Charlie and Delta share the same body and electronic sounds. Blue shares a body with Echo.
Interestingly, each of the Velociraptors have a different colorization in the film. It shows that they are each being modified and engineered differently, which is why they look different then the Velociraptors from the earlier films. Charlie is green with black horizontal stripes running down her back.
About the toy. It is a long toy at 9in (23cm) The pose is rather neutral with its mouth agape and its head straight ahead, legs staggered, and arms up and ready to attack. There is dino damage on its left flank that has some unnatural looking bones sticking out in the shape of a c. Just above the dino damage the back lowers into a little saddle before it rises again over the hips. The tail curves to the left. The teeth are barley there as they are small and blunt. There is some texture in the mouth and tongue, but not much. The pupil on the eye is a long slit. Overall it is much less detailed and textured than Blue was. Most of the body is covered in wrinkles with some pebbly skin on the lower jaw. Yes the screw holes and electronic slits are visible on the right side.
The hands are pronated with the claws apart. The legs have limited articulation, they move a little bit back, not quite to the tail, and they only go as far forward as its normal stance. The feet are small and legs are made from a bendy plastic. This makes the toy interesting to stand. Some will stand great and probably stay there for years, others, do not want to stand at all. If you can get it to stand, you might not want to change the leg position so it can remain standing.
On this toy there are some playful gimmicks. There is electric sound and a red glowing wound. The electronic growls are ok but not as distinctive or pleasant as it is on the Blue model. If you press the dino damage, it will glow red and issue a low growl. If you pull down the tail, the mouth will bite down and close. The electronic growl will only activate after the mouth is fully closed and the tail is released reopening the mouth. Once the tail is released it will then issue a strange growl. The biting action is silky smooth, one of the few things that are really good about this toy.
The colorization is Dark green with some faded black stripes from the neck down to the tail. Underneath is a bluish grey, and the claws are all painted black. Inside the mouth is pink and the teeth are painted sloppily. The bones on the dino damage are also sloppy.
Overall appraisal: It isn’t that bad of a toy, but its not anything to excited about either. The electronics are good enough for kids to play with, and the biting action is easy to use. It really is a silky smooth bite action. The arms and legs on the other hand do not have a lot of articulation. For collectors, if you are a JW completest, it make sense to get the whole pack, as they can look good together. Hasbro’s quality control seems to have taken lots of naps while these toys were being made, so you may get a good toy or you might get sloppy finished paint jobs, bent legs, and open seam lines. This toy is no better than its contemporaries that came before it. If you haven’t felt compelled or interested in any of the JW Velociraptors that came before this one, than I would pass on it.
Available on amazon here: JW Electronic “Charlie”
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You can easily see Hasbro’s of lack of ingenuity and interest throughout the entire JW line. There appears to be no attempt to make quality toys in the JW lineup. If they copied the black series idea from Star Wars, that might have shown that they were interested in making figures with some quality, but alas, they did not.
Those bones showing in the “dino damage” are quite odd. Clearly the design department didn’t put much thought behind them.