Jurassic Park Series 2: Electronic Gallimimus

Year of release: 1993-1994

Accessories:

-One piece of capture gear

-Collector’s Card # 47

Description: this bipedal dinosaur features a rather plump body, a long neck, and an elongated bird like beak. It stands in a largely neutral posture, with its beak opened (it can't be closed), revealing a long thin tongue. Despite its big round torso and comparatively short tail, it can stand quite well balanced on its slender legs, also thanks to its big feet (though these have very short claws). Gallimimus comes with a leg kick attack action: a large button is found on its back, which, when pushed, causes both legs to move back and forth. This also activates screaming noises, three identical screeches in rapid succession.

This figure's predominant colour is light brown, which is found on its flanks, the sides of the tail and neck, all of the arms and legs and parts of the head. Its underside (belly, lower parts of the tail and neck) is coloured beige. A big blue stripe runs from the back of the head over its neck and back all the way to the end of the tail. Red stripes run over this blue colouring, three on the upper part of the neck, seven on the back and eight more on the tail. An additional red stripe runs on each side of the neck under the blue stripe. The red paint on the neck and head is of a slightly darker shade than the red stripes on the other body parts. The upper jaw is also red, while the inside of the mouth (including the tongue) is pink. This creature has small black eyes. Its claws are not painted, and it comes with a red JP logo on its right upper leg, next to the number .24.

Gallimimus comes with a single piece of capture gear, namely the typical cuff like tag that accompanies every JPS2 dinosaur. It's quite small, though the circular part above the cuff that carries the JP logo is bigger than on the other tags of a similar size that are seen in the JPS2 toy line (for example, those of the Pachycephalosaurus and Tanystropheus). The tag fits best around the lower legs or the neck.

Analysis: after being left out of the JPS1 toy line completely, Gallimimus finally got a figure of its own (as well as a hatchling) for the JPS2 toy line, no doubt because Kenner was bold enough to produce figures of little known prehistoric creatures, and Galli belongs to that category, even though it was seen in the actual JP film. The Gallimimus figure turned out pretty well, featuring a decent enough paint job, though additional stripes or spots on the limbs and painted claws would have made it better. It has a neat design, though it looks a bit fat and has weird feet and a beak that looks plain ridiculous (and unfortunately can't be closed to make the animal appear less silly). An interesting aspect of this sculpt (as well as of the Baryonyx figure of this toy line) is the fact that it is a fair size bigger than the JPS1 electronic dinosaurs (the carded ones, not the big figures like the Red Rex). This trend of making medium sized electronic figures would be continued into Kenner's TLWS1 toy line.

Gallimimus most original feature is its action option, which is labelled a 'leg kick attack' action, though when in use it seems more like he's making running movements than doing any kicking (after all, he's not nicknamed 'Speeder' for nothing: running away was his main role in the JP movie). Also, you have to hold your Galli in a weird angle if you want it to actually kick its victims. Legs are not often equipped with a main attack feature, so this was a new concept on Kenner's part, which would be occasionally repeated in following toy lines. The TLWS1 Parasaurolophus uses the same system, but that figure has one major flaw the Galli does not have: the Galli's legs are capable of being posed independent from another. So it's not like when you pull the left leg back the right leg moves along, they can be used separately (which is why the figure can stand up straight, unlike the Para, which has issues in this regard), but they are both moved back and forth when the button on the figure's back is pushed. Whether you apply it to running or kicking, the Galli's leg mechanism works well. It also activates the screaming noises, three in a row. They're high pitched screeches, which fit well on this creature (in fact, they're nigh movie accurate).

A single JP tag completes this set, but it's a totally useless accessory. The whole notion of tags carrying the JP logo to indicate they're JP dinosaurs is redundant considering the dinosaurs are already marked by JP logos on their bodies. The JP tags are often a nuisance because then tend to make complete figures harder to find, and this is notoriously true in the Galli's case: the tag of the Gallimimus is so small it's easily lost, and therefore complete loose samples are very hard to find. The best way to get a complete Galli figure is to get one MOC, but those are almost equally rare and usually fetch very high prices, effectively shutting a lot of collectors out from getting complete Gallimimus figures. Fortunately, not all collectors are obsessed completists.

Playability: just fine. Galli has poseable legs, which can be posed separate from another despite the leg kick action which makes both legs move. The arms are also poseable, but they look odd in most postures because of their 'hanging down' stance. The leg movement action feature works fine and can either be used for kicking aggressors or running them over. The single JP tag doesn't really add anything though, except annoyance over the fact that most Gallimimus figures have lost theirs.

Realism: unlike most JPS2 dinosaur figures, Gallimimus was actually seen in the Jurassic Park movie (as well as in The Lost World). It did resemble this figure a lot, but it's not a complete match. This sculpt has shorter legs, a plumper body, a shorter neck and a bigger beak, but the basic shape is not too dissimilar. The paint job is not identical (no red and blue on the movie's Galli), but the overall brown scheme looks relatively the same. This figure's screeching noises are quite similar to the sounds the Gallimimus made in the movie, and surprisingly so, since none of the other JPS1/2 electronic dinosaurs produced noises that were even close to movie accurate (which was especially disappointing on the Rex and Raptor figures).

Repaint: no, this is a new sculpt. It would not be repainted for later toy lines.

Overall rating: 7/10. This is a fun new figure, with a decent enough paint job and an interesting (and up till this point, original) action feature. It has some minor design flaws though, most notably its goofy head sculpt, and it comes with one single accessory whose main function seems to be to annoy collectors. However, it's worth getting your hands on. That is going to be a challenge, since this is one of the rarest of Kenner's dinosaur figures. Even for loose samples prices are often high, while they tend to soar to astronomical heights for MOC figures. If you decide you want one, be sure what you get yourself into.