As long time Joe enthusiasts know, back in 2009 Toys R Us was going to release another year's worth of exclusive "Jurassic Park" toys utilizing 4 brand new dinosaur molds and with figures using repurposed "G.I. Joe" tooling. For one reason or another, this line never saw the light of day and Joe collectors scrambled to pick up any leaked samples from Asia via ebay, often paying HUNDREDS of dollars per figure, complete or not. Skip forward to 2012 and 2 of these elusive sets have finally been released to mass retail!
I picked these 2 samples up this morning at the Totowa Toys R Us.
As you can see from the last pic, the bottom of the boxes show some of the other sets available in the exclusive line but 2 are blocked off by solid yellow stickers. I peeled the stickers off of 1 of the boxes to reveal a recolor of one of the old JPIII "Re-Ak-Attack" Trriceratops toys, but the other was yet another "unproduced" set with 1 of the newly sculpted dinos (stegasaurus) and another "Jurassic Joe" (this one with Zanzibar's head and Resolute Duke's body).
Here is what you get in each set:
The dinosaurs are most impressive with lots of points of articulation never before used in a Kenner/Hasbro "Jurassic Park" dino. The Allosaurus has ball jointed ankles, head and shoulders, swivel hips, a double hinged jaw and an action feature neck that thrashes back and forth when the right shoulder is moved forward and back. The Pachyrhinosaurus has more standard JP articulation with 4 swivel hips but makes up for it with a ball jointed head, hinged jaw and an action feature neck that thrashes the head up and down when the right rear leg is pulled back. The paint jobs are very nice, not quite as sharp as the ones on the back of the box, but much nicer than past JP offerings. the "Dino Damage" features are far superior to past JP offerings as the removable skin pieces are far thinner than the thick ugly "plugs" in the past resulting in shallower, more realistic looking damage.
The figures are what most of you are interested in, so here they are:
The figure on the left is "Gunner Gordon" and the one on the right is "Ash Skullstriker" and they are made entirely from recycled Joe parts and accessories. "Gordon" is made from Burn Out's head and a Resolute Cobra Trooper body/vest and his accessories are from Rock N Roll. "Skullstriker" is made from a Gung Ho body/vest and a head I cannot identify yet (people are saying it's Mercer's, but the Mercer has earrings), his accessories are mostly from an old Comic Pack Stormshadow (sound enhancing bow), Resolute Stormshadow (backpack and swords) and Spy Troops Shipwreck (pistol)- the packaging (both the photo on the back of the box and the paintings on the sides) show him with a neckwrap recycled from a "Star Wars" Sandstorm Han Solo but this accessory is not included in the package.
These figures look identical to the leaked ebay samples with 1 exception that I can see- "Skullstriker"'s tattoo on the mass retail release is different- the leaked ones had crossed arrows behind the dino skull while the mass retail version has both arrows running diagonally next to the left side of the dino skull.
Both of these sets shuld be available at your local Toys R us now for $29.99 each.
If anyone wants the accessories to complete their incomplete ebay samples, let me know as I do not want them and will be putting them in my Swap Shop.
