Jurassic Park III: Billy Brennan & Pteranodon

Year of release: 2001

Accessories:

-Pteranodon figure

-Hang glider

Description: this figure wears a grey sleeveless shirt, blue trousers with two scratches in it, and black shoes. He has brown hair and very bright blue eyes. He has some asymmetric black details, including belts, wristband (right arm), glove (left arm), shoulder cap (left arm) and a backpack with a hole in it so the glider can be attached to the figure. Most notably, his left arm can move differently from the average figure, not only forward and backward, but also up and down. The figure stands in an odd position with his legs wide apart and appears to be looking down. The glider is coloured bright red with silver highlights. It basically resembles a red triangle. The Pteranodon figure is tan brown with green spots and stripes, and an orange head. It’s got a black JP III logo on the underside of his left wing. It’s positioned with its claws open and its head looking to the right, its left wing raised upwards.

Analysis: this is an interesting figure. Though it still stands in an awkward position, like most of the JP III human figures, the left arm with additional movement possibilities is a plus. The figure is well painted, though the asymmetric detailing is a bit weird: why is he only wearing one glove and shoulder cap?

The answer lies in his relation to the Pteranodon figure, which can grab his left arm, so that it looks like Billy is holding it and looking at it, while the animal looks back at him. Sort of. It works nice when he’s holding him, but hinders playability options, since both figures are in an odd position when cut loose from each other.

The glider is nothing special. It’s little detailed and its colours are pretty dull. The glider can be attached to Billy’s back, but when it is, it doesn’t look like Billy is flying with it, but merely standing up with a large red triangle on his back. In fact, it looks very fake. The Pteranodon can also grab on to several parts of the glider with its claws.

Playability: it’s fifty-fifty in this case. Though the extra arm movement certainly adds some points, the fact that the figure stands with his legs wide apart and the odd pose of the Pteranodon takes some points away. The glider doesn’t add much unfortunately. Luckily Billy can hold stuff with both hands, though one hand is kind of pointing at something.

Realism: this figure does resemble the Billy Brennan (Alessandro Nivola) in the movie, even though his eyes are way too blue. However, this Billy sports an entirely different outfit than his movie counterpart. Billy’s lucky pack is unfortunately missing. There was no glider in the movie, but there was some parasailing equipment (like a parachute). It would have been a lot cooler if this figure has a parasailer instead of a glider, but that would have been harder to make, so undoubtedly Hasbro opted for this instead. Disappointing, but we’ll have to live with it. The Pteranodon looks similar to the adult Pterosaurs in the movie (except with more green), but doesn’t resemble the hatchlings we saw in the awesome bird cage scenes much. It looks more like a miniature figure of an adult Pteranodon. It also resembles the larger Reak-Atak Pteranodon figure released for this toy line, so at least there is consistency.

Repaint: no. Billy and his glider would be repainted once for JP Dinosaurs 2 though, and again for JP 2009, this time including the Pteranodon figure (making that its only repaint, unlike most other small Hasbrosaurs).

Overall rating: 6/10. It’s a fairly decent figure, and better than most of the JP III human figures, but as stated above it could still use some work in certain areas. It’s not really rare, so if you want one, you’ll find it relatively easily and probably not at huge cost. The only reasons I recommend it for are the cool left arm, nice paint job and the neat Pteranodon figure.