Dave's Transformers Collaborative Rant: Jurassic Park

Tyrannocon Rex (retool of Kingdom Beast Megatron)
JP93 (Jurassic Park Ford Explorer)

Permalink: http://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Artifacts/JurassicPark

Yet another overpriced licensed set that I grabbed on sale. Not as
extreme of a discount in this case, merely $70 down from $105, but that was
reasonable for a retooled Leader and a brand new (and unavailable elsewhere)
Deluxe. Of course, while I was working on this review, it was a Prime Day
deal for $60.

https://www.eyrie.org/~dvandom/BW/Gen/LMegatronK - Megatron mold

CAPSULE

List price $105 or so, not that I ever saw it on the shelf. I got it on
sale for $70 from BBTS.

Tyrannocon Rex: Original mold mildly recommended. This is a good
redeco, although the new head is a bit floppy.

JP93: Really needed a better name. A decent mold, at least, although
like Tyrannocon Rex it suffers from almost all its paint budget being spent
on the altmode.

Set: A good homage, and definitely worth picking up if you can find it
on sale, but it isn't really worth the licensing tax unless you're a huge
Jurassic Park fan.

RANT

Packaging: A huge box with Tyrannocon Rex in beast mode stomping a
cardboard Jurassic Park vehicle and menacing vehicle mode JP93. A bit
confusing, since a non-transforming set of T.rex and jeep had very similar
packaging, so I kept doing a double-take when I saw it. Also, notably,
there's no images on the box of the robot modes of either toy. Then again,
this wasn't really a toy expected to sell itself on the shelf.

The box is 18" (45cm) wide, 8" (20cm) tall, and 6" (15cm) deep. The
front and top are "concrete at night" in a sort of homage to the Jurassic
Park gates, with ferns and other ancient plants growing around it, and
torches on the top. The left side is a closeup of the electric fence with
voltage warning sign, while the right side is the same but with a claw
starting to pull down one of the strands. The underside is footprints in mud
on a rainy night, with a T.rex footprint dominating. The back panel is more
nighttime mud with a single T.rex print, and then the lore info in five
languages plus various legalese (like the Ford licensing sticker). Lots of
Jurassic Park logos on various sides, the same dark corroded red Transformers
logo seen on Draculon (well, maybe a little less dark), and the usual
Collaborative logo. Along the bottom of the front panel are the names of the
characters, in Jurassic Park font.

There's actually a bit of lore this time, unlike most Collaboratives
which just sort of assume you'll figure it out (or have tie-in comics). In
five languages including English, it reads:

"Tyrannocon Rex is loose. Repeat: Tyrannocon Rex is loose. Do not
panic. Autobot JP93 has been dispatched and is equipped to handle the
situation. With state-of-the-art GPS tracking systems and all-wheel drive
for traversing bumpy jungle terrain, JP93 will track down the asset out of
containment and return her to her paddock promptly. If you see Tyrannocon
Rex, do not approach her. Please call Jurassic Park security when you are
safely out of range."

This, of course, only raises more questions. Why do they have an
Autobot working JP security? Why is a Decepticon being kept in a paddock?
Does she not KNOW she's a Cybertronian, which is why the smaller JP93 can
herd her with confidence? Will TFWiki snark about this? Well, that last
question has an obvious "yes" answer.

Inside, the backing tray has the electric fence along the pathway at
night, JP93 in vehicle mode on the right, and the interior dominated by beast
mode Tyrannocon Rex. She's stomping an upside-down partly wrecked Jurassic
Park vehicle. Opening either side flap reveals a picture of the DNA helix
mascot cartoon character on an inside flap. The instructions are inside the
folded over inner tray on the left side. The instructions have full color
photos of all the modes, but use grayscale with light red accents for the
actual steps. The inner tray itself has extra folded over bits, possibly
with the intent of looking good on display by itself?

DECEPTICON: TYRANNOCON REX
Assortment: F0632
Altmode: T.rex
Transformation Difficulty: 27 steps
Previous Name Use: None
Previous Mold Use: Gen:K

Yes, she's a Decepticon, not a Predacon. Although the box text doesn't
refer to either of those factions.

Packaging: Beast mode is secured against a plastic blister support in an
action pose, using six single ties and one double tie. Two long rubber bands
are wrapped around the hips and tail to keep the back end together in
shipping.

Color Swaps: The rubbery light purple plastic is now rubbery golden
light brown plastic, and the bone white plastic is now dark taupe. The rest
doesn't map simply, the robot bits are either bright red or black. Red is
used on the torso, the upper arms, the left forearm, most of the hinge pieces
in the left arm claw, the lower pelvis, the flap on the back of the beast
neck (hanging on top of the backpack), and the bracing of the center
back(pack). Black plastic is used for the head, left fist, some of the
backing of the left forearm armor, the rest of the tail claw hinge stuff, the
pelvis, thighs, cores of the hip pads, reinforcement of the thigh shells, and
ankles.

Paint Apps: In beast mode, there's darker brown airbrushed (disclaimer:
it may not actually be an airbrush they used, but it looks like airbrushed
work) along the back with even darker brown stripes, and light tan airbrushed
along the underside. A medium golden brown is airbrushed onto the fronts of
the thighs and lower legs, as well as the tops of the toes. There's a few
pieces that don't get paint, and that kinda stands out, but it's not
HORRIBLE. Very dark brown (almost black) is on the foreclaws and around the
eyes. The eyes themselves are yellow with round black pupils...that on mine
don't point the same way. They really need to improve their eye-painting
technique, so many concussed beasts lately. The teeth are ivory white, and
the tongue and inner cheeks are painted dark pink-gray.
There's red paint on the visor and the belt front, gloss black paint
down the center of the chest.

Mold Changes: There's a new head built on a helmet design with a visor
slit but no face. It doesn't seem to be based on any particular Dinobot,
more of a general knight influence like the Bayformer Dinobots had. It is on
a ball joint and can tilt back all the way, at which point it feels like it's
going to fall off, maybe a bit of a design flaw.

Other Notes: The thigh pads were much more securely attached than on my
Megatron.

Overall: Decent, but it has the same aesthetic flaws as Megatron when in
beast mode (lots of panel gaps).

AUTOBOT: AUTOBOT JP93
Assortment: F0632
Altmode: Ford Explorer in Jurassic Park livery
Transformation Difficulty: 18 steps
Previous Name Use: None
Previous Mold Use: None

Packaging: Vehicle mode is held to the roadway part of the inner tray by
four plastic ties and a small blister base to keep it from sliding out.
There's a rubber band wrapped twice around the rear wheels to keep the back
end from popping apart in shipping. The shotgun is held by two ties behind
the vehicle, and is easy to miss being dark on a dark background.

Altmode: This is Explorer 04, the closed bubble-top-mod Ford Explorer
from the breakout scene, that gets destroyed, not the "go faster" open-top
jeep from later. It has the brushguard and extra lights of the movie
version, as well as the little cages over the taillights. Other than a few
missing paint details (fog lamp lenses, license plate...although I think the
license plate is only in street legal versions used for promotional purposes,
and isn't on the movie versions) it's quite screen-accurate.
About 5" (12.5cm) long, it's around 1:38 scale. The colors are the
bright green, yellow, and dark red of Jurassic Park livery, with dark tinted
windows and clear roof. Bright green plastic is used on the nose end, the
doors, and part of the rear. Pretty much everything above the height of the
hood or rear of the front doors (well, halfway through the rear doors) is
clear smoky plastic. That's a LOT of clear plastic. Only the back windows
are opaque. The tires and the front brushguard are black plastic.
Yellow paint with a sort of airbrushy fade runs around the bottom edge
all the way around, and is also used on the wheel hubs and the wheel wells.
Some of the yellow gets onto the collars for the wheels, and in one case
seems to interfere with the spinning (even after I removed some flash, the
left rear wheel doesn't roll well, I may need to scrape some of the yellow
off too). Dark red paint forms stripes on the hood and upper sides, with the
back third of the roof being totally opaque with dark red paint. The
taillights seem to also be the same dark red paint. There's bright green
paint (good match to the plastic) on the panels that are clear plastic.
Matte black paint is used for the window borders, the side mirrors, the
windshield wipers, the cages on the taillights, the foglamps on the front
bumper, and the entirety of the back windows. The headlights are silver, and
the turn signals orange. No paint on the brushguard. The main Jurassic Park
logo is printed on the hood, while the sides have the larger font "JURASSIC
PARK" logo following just the dinosaur skeleton in a circle bit. The front
logo is yellow, red, white, and black. The side logos are more orange-ish,
and use ben day dots to fade from orange at the top to yellow on the bottom.
"04" is printed in dark red ahead of each taillight on the sides.
There's thin slots between the three rear-roof-mounted...vents? Lights?
Anyway, the shotgun can mount upside down in either of them, or on the
vehicle underside via a different tab and slot. There are no standard pegs
or sockets in this mode. The doors kind of open, but they don't bring the
windows with them, so it's kinda weird. Other than the one wheel I
mentioned, it rolls well.
The weapon is a no-stock shotgun sort of deal made of black plastic,
2.5" (6cm) long. The grip near the rear is 5mm, and the muzzle is about 3mm
wide. It has a pump action sort of racking grip molded onto the underside.
It is inspired by the gun Muldoon used when failing to hunt down the clever
girls.