Jurassic Park Chaos Effect: Roland Tembo

Year of release: 1998

Accessories:

-Gatling launcher

-Four projectiles

-Ultimasaurus hatchling

Description: this figure looks quite odd, especially compared to other human figures Kenner produced. As such it’s not easy to describe, but it doesn’t hurt to try. Roland sports golden body armour over his chest and back, adorned with technical detailing. It has purple shoulder patches and wears large silvery grey gloves with purple dots on them. His upper arms also sport additional grey pieces of metal right next to the shoulder patches. Roland wears dark green trousers with asymmetrical leg armour over them at the front side. On his upper left leg he sports what might be a knife holster or some large pocket. He wears big black boots. On his rather grim looking bald head he has a black microphone headset (mostly around his right cheek), and he also has black sunglasses of sorts. On his back right behind his head, some sort of grey grid or other protrusion sticks out for some unclear purpose. Maybe it’s just additional detailing. Roland stands in a very butch and imposing posture. His arms are bent towards his body, as if he’s flexing his muscles. His left hand makes a fist. His legs are bent down somewhat, as if bracing himself. The look on his face makes things seem very grim.

His large gatling gun, which is coloured entirely black (unlike the gun seen on the card, which features grey loading tubes) looks quite detailed and elaborate with little feet and a handle to hold it sticking out on the bottom, as well as binoculars on top, but its basic design is simple. It sports four small loading tubes on the front, so all four of the small orange projectiles fit in simultaneously. On the back of the gun there’s a round knob, which can be turned to the right, firing the projectiles in rapid succession.

The Ultimasaurus hatchling stands in an attack posture, its left foot posed forwards and the right backwards, and its long slender arms outstretched. Its head is turned to the left and looks up slightly, as if the little creature is making a menacing move to an aggressor. Most of the beastie is coloured grey, while its belly (from the base of the neck to the base of the tail) is bright beige. Its feet (sporting sickle shaped claws) and his Ceratopsid like head (with horns and frill) are scarlet red: the latter includes small green eyes and little white teeth. On its back, from the back of the head to the very end of the tail, it carries segmented black armour, similar to that of an Ankylosaurus. Also, the tail ends in a small club, also black. On its left upper leg, a red JP Site B logo is found: this is strange, since this hatchling is not a TLW dinosaur, but Chaos Effect instead so it would have made sense to mark it with a Chaos Effect logo. Maybe it’s just a production mistake.

Analysis: this figure is without a doubt one of the most unusual and “un-Jurassic Park” figures ever produced. Of course, this can be said for most of the Chaos Effect line, but Roland here drives it to its most extreme limits. He looks more of something out of a cheap sci-fi action movie but no, the card clearly says he’s a Jurassic Park figure.

Of course, heavy armour would be useful when battling ferocious hybrid dinosaur monsters. Roland Tembo, being a ‘dino hunt master’ according to the card, probably wants to be prepared for anything. Judging from the gritty look on his face, he’s taking things very seriously. Mess with his weird armour, and he’ll be forced to use his gun on you (also because he has no action features of his own).

This gatling launcher itself looks a whole lot less silly due to its size and all black colouring. It’s an interesting new variation on the standard rocket/missile launcher idea; it’s also clearly based on real gatling guns, though its effects are less devastating (it’s a toy after all). It works quite well and hasn’t much trouble firing the projectiles over a respectable range in rapid succession, but because these are small and lightly built they don’t do a lot of damage. They’re okay for knocking over hatchlings but not much else sadly.

The hatchling is quite interesting, since it’s the only released Ultimasaurus sculpt. It sports almost the exact same paint job as the adult sculpt would have featured, though obviously less detailed due to its size. While still a baby, it looks quite nasty and it isn’t something you would want to meet in a dark alley. In a Chaos Effect way it’s also cute. Though the JP community is still mourning the loss of the large Ultimasaurus sculpt, this juvenile at least gives us a glimpse of what could have been.

Playability: about average by the standards for human JP figures. Roland has moveable arms, legs and head, like most human figures. However, due to the way in which his arms are posed playability is hampered somewhat. Also, his left hand forms a fist and as a result he can only hold things with one hand. The Ultimasaurus hatchling isn’t poseable in any way, which is of course normal for hatchling figures. Its attack posture doesn’t help either. Qua playability, the most important thing of this set is the gatling launcher, which works decent enough.

Realism: as is the case with almost all of the Chaos Effect line, realism isn’t much of an issue with this figure. Roland looks in no way like the Roland Tembo seen in the TLW movie as portrayed by Pete Postlethwaite. The only similarity to that actor is the bald head. This figure looks more like a cyborg than a human being, considering the abundance of armour and metal. So by normal Jurassic Park standards (if there is such a thing) this Roland Tembo is plain ridiculous, but it fits in well enough with the rest of the Chaos Effect toys. The same goes for his weapon, which actually is less farfetched and resembles real gatling guns; so it’s basically a good toy version of such a weapon. The baby Ultimasaurus, another hybrid creature this line is so fond of, is a nice little addition to the toy line. Never mind the weirdness of genetically mutated dinosaur hybrids gone bad, this cross between a Triceratops, Ankylosaurus and Velociraptor (or any closely related cousins of these animals) looks pretty menacing, making the fact the adult version of this monster didn’t get released even harder to bear.

Repaint: no. This figure was most definitely designed for this toy line (which is pretty obvious when you look at it) and wasn’t repainted for later toy lines either. However, this entire set (Roland, Ultimasaurus and gatling launcher) was originally planned to be repainted for the Chaos Effect Night Hunter Series, in a set with a repaint of the unreleased large Ultimasaurus even, but that whole line was scrapped and so was the second Chaos Effect Roland.

Overall rating: 6/10. Though the figure looks utterly ridiculous, it’s fun enough. But the Ultimasaurus and gatling launcher are definitely the best things in this set, which still isn’t overly appealing though. This figure is somewhat harder to find than most other carded Chaos Effect sculpts (especially in territories where the Chaos Effect line wasn’t released), but not impossible to get your hands on: costs may vary though.