The Lost World Series 1: Stegosaurus

Year of release: 1997

Accessories:

-Four pieces of capture gear

-Dino damage wound piece

Description: as is usual for Stegosaurs, the most noticeable thing about this creature is the double row of plates running from its neck to halfway over the tail. In total, this sculpt carries 22 plates (one of them on the dino damage piece), varying in size. Additionally, at the end of its tail there are the four spikes Stegosaurus used to defend itself with. These spikes are also the main ingredient of the action feature this sculpt is equipped with. Pressing the two plates next to the dino damage piece together causes the tail to swing around, giving this beast the opportunity to knock figures down. This mechanism works fairly well, though in some cases it gets damaged easily. As stated, this animal has a dino damage piece, located right above the right front leg: removing this piece reveals bones (including a shoulder bone) and red muscle tissue.

The Stegosaurus assumes a sort of walking posture, its left hind leg in a forward move and its right hind leg moved backward. Its front legs are neutrally positioned though. His head is posed to the right, as if the animal is looking at something on that side. Green is the predominant colour of this figure’s paint job. The entire upper part of its body (upper part of the tail, back, neck, upper part of the head) is painted dark green, including the plates on its back, though the larger ones on its back (not on its tail, since the figure’s tail section is composed of a different material to facilitate the attack action) are toned even darker, and a bit shiny, green. The creature’s flanks, side of the tail and head and most of the legs sport a lighter shade of green, while its underside (belly, throat, lower jaw, lower part of the tail, inner part of the legs) is coloured beige. The spikes on the end of the tail are painted dark brown at the base, which gradually changes into bright beige. The Stegosaurus has very small yellow eyes, and a beige JP: Site B logo, along with the number .24, is located on its lower right hind leg. The small claws on its elephant like legs are not painted in a different colour.

This figure comes with four pieces of capture gear, which can be assembled together to form a hind leg and tail restraint. It basically shackles the legs, which via a wire are connected to what can best be described as a box that goes around the tail, keeping the animal from using its spikes. Like most TLW dinosaurs, the attack option is also a dinosaur-breaks-free-of-capture-gear action: pressing the plates together makes the Stego break free of the box and smash it in two. It doesn’t get rid of the shackles though. All pieces of capture gear sport the same shiny silver metallic paint job.

Analysis: after the disappointing JPS1 Stegosaurus with its totally incorrect appearance, this differently designed TLW counterpart comes as a relief. Maybe it’s because the designers had the Stegosaurs from the TLW movie to use as examples instead of building it from scratch, but this figure came out pretty well qua design and realism. It’s relatively movie accurate and sports a good green paint job, not even that dissimilar from the JPS1 Stego which was also painted in green.

Additionally, where the JPS1 Stego featured a pretty lame attack option (if you can even call it that), they put a little more effort in this one, resulting in a superior tail swinging action. Though its range is limited, up to about ten to fifteen centimetres at best, it works quite well and provides for a lot of fun. It doesn’t always do a lot of damage, especially to larger dinosaurs and vehicles, but it should knock over most human figures and smaller dinosaurs.

Apart from the green paint job and tail clubbing option, a third function this Stego shares with its JPS1 brother is the dino damage piece. In this case, the piece is often a bit of a nuisance: it comes loose way too easily, whether you want it to or not. It doesn’t always stay attached to the figure, which also increases the risk of misplacing it. There is a positive aspect to this though: unlike with most dinosaurs featuring damage pieces, firing any kind of weapon on the piece makes it drop off, like the animal is shot to death. A bit gruesome, but good fun.

The capture gear is something the JPS1 Stegosaurus, nor any of the JPS1 dinosaurs, did not feature, and gives this sculpt some relative originality. It’s neatly designed, but like the dino damage piece, it too lets go on its own accord too easily. This does make it less difficult for the animal to liberate itself though. Other than that, the capture gear doesn’t add much.

Playability: little, unfortunately. Though at first glance you might take the hind legs to be poseable, they’re not. Apart from the tail swinging action, this sculpt does not have any moveable parts. The action feature isn’t bad, though it has a tendency to get easily damaged. The dino damage piece and capture gear add some minor playability options, but not much, since it can’t be used for anything else. On a side note, the tail section of this figure is composed of a different material than the rest of it, which is sadly more susceptible to paint wear.

Realism: this figure is a definite toy version of the Stegosaurs seen in the TLW movie. Although compared to human figures, it’s not as big as the creatures seen in the movie and it’s less fat or bulky, the shape and paint job are very similar to its movie counterparts. It’s also a big improvement over the JPS1 Stegosaurus figure, which wasn’t anatomically correct at all. Of course the capture gear this dinosaur comes with wasn’t seen in the movie, since in the film the InGen hunters used a large cage to keep the Stegosaurs captive. It would have been cool to see a cage come with this animal, but this is adequate at least.

Repaint: no. However, this figure would be repainted once, for the first JP Dinosaurs toy line.

Overall rating: 8/10. Despite its limited playability, this is a fine sculpt with a good paint job and a fun and original take on an otherwise predictable action feature. Fortunately it had a wide release and as such it’s not difficult to find, though maybe harder if you want it complete. Still, it shouldn’t cost you an arm and leg if you find one.