I've had a few Collaborative releases in the past, mostly from the franchises I'm pretty happy to delve into. Back to the Future's Gigawatt and X-Men's Ultimate X-Spanse, but I never got Ectotron, Maverick, Dracula, or the G.I.Joe crossover duo. And I'm doubting about getting that yellow Soundwave. But I did want to get the Jurassic Park set since I am a dino fan and was curious on how the two toys would turn out. I did love the BW Megatron mold from Kingdom, and I wondered if if the Ford Explorer would make for a possible Armada Red Alert pretool. Either way, let's see how this two-pack turned out months after its release as well as months after Dominion was released in theaters.
Let's get Tyrannocon Rex out of the way. She is the same quality dino mode that made Megatron and later T-Wrecks amazing in terms of sculptwork, anatomy, and engineering. It's amusing seeing the real colors found on Rexy applied onto this mold after being so used to the purple of Beast Wars Megs as well as the red that T-Wrecks has (which makes me think a lot of the Tyranno Zords that led every Dino season of Power Rangers) The deco on each figure is fairly different, between each figure, mostly the beast head has some black paint apps around the eyes and the crown of the head in order to make it look more organic, and her claws are painted black to match the talons of her feet. It's nothing too major compared to the decos of both Transformer characters, but it's able to match the look of Rexy in the movie. She even has pupils!
For a quick beast mode size comparison, if you haven't seen the reviews that featured Megatron in the past, she's definitely bigger than Skywasp, toy-accurate Terrorsaur, and toy-accurate Scorponok. No surprise there. Her realism stands out compared to the fictional colors of the other characters.
And yes, you can recreate the pose where she stands on top of the Explorer as she did in the movie, which was part of the display of the box. This also sums up how I feel about one figure and the other at the same time!
And for the robot mode, getting there is the same as always, though my copy's rubber parts don't seem to be cut at the right areas so they kind of make it annoying to transform. But yes, the robot mode is the same as with the other figures, though I feel that while the beast mode is nicely painted, the robot mode has about the same amount of color breakup as with T-Wrecks. Megatron's still the best-looking in robot mode, plus, he's Megatron, there's no competition. The solid red on Tyrannocon makes me think of the G1 Dinobots, but I wish she'd have a few more paint apps just so we can make her robot mode look like it was equally prioritized to her beast mode. To give her one benefit from T-Wrecks, she comes with a new head sculpt that is a weird mix between Grimlock's head and the mutant mask of the old Megatron toy. If only T-Wrecks had his snarling expression!
And once again, here he is with the other Deluxes in their robot modes. Once again, much taller than them all. Also a lot of red popping up this time around, kind of an amusing contrast to the mostly purple Predacons the original 5 Season 1 bad guys.
So now that we covered the first half of the set, here we have JP93 in its vehicle mode. Based on the Ford Explorer 04, this vehicle mode is licensed like some of the previous Collaborative figures in the past, which allows it to be as accurate to the movie as it wants. Like a lot of real-world vehicles on this scale, the details that are present in the movie are kept intact while making this figure, and I appreciate how the yellow doesn't look cheaply painted on, even with the rims. The red might seem dark at first, but it's like that on the movie. A lot of smaller paint apps, like the one fog light and the head lights, are picked out, too. And I dig the sunroof being brought over to the design as well.
The tampographs are surprisingly crisp, even with the text and logo, though because of the way the doors open, you are likely going to get ASSIC PARK instead of just PARK like on the real vehicle. Annoyingly, while the left side has the yellow paint applied on properly, the right side shows a few faded areas that need more coverage. It has snap-on wheels so it might not roll that well.
For a vehicle mode size comparison, here he is in-between Optimus Prime (regular Studio Series 05) and Kingdom Road Rage. The vehicle mode scale with the latter toy is not too bad, though I know that the Corvette should be smaller. And we all know Optimus needs to be bigger.
Transformation is pretty simple, to the point where it's probably on par with Legacy Skids. It's the typical hood-chest/door wing transformation that has the legs made from the back of the car, blah blah blah. I guess I shouldn't expect too much from a characterless attempt at making a robot out of this guy. Anyways, the design vaguely reminds me of Armada Red Alert, with the long legs and the chest design; I personally don't have much else to say about the transformation nor the design beyond that; it's kind of plain. The most interesting thing has to be the way you untab parts of the roof to free the ankles.
Head sculpt is another interesting part of the toy, as the hat and I guess shades help it resemble Alan Grant and Robert Muldoon. And I say shades because the light-piping doesn't work. His articulation has a ball-jointed head, shoulders that move front and back as well as in and out, ball jointed elbows, ball jointed hips, thigh swivels, knees, and ankle pivots. Was it too much to ask for waist and wrist swivels? His shotgun is alright at best, and might be blast effect compatible. Also, his knees bend lower than they should.
For a robot mode size comparison, JP93 is in-between the heights of Optimus (now in Premium Finish) and Road Rage, resulting in a scale similar to SS86 Hot Rod or Siege Ironhide. Not a bad height since he is an SUV.
Overall, this set is okay at best when you consider how one figure is an already quality product with a real world deco and another is a Deluxe-quality figure that might have been passable in a previous decade. JP93's simpler engineering doesn't really justify much if Tyrannocon's doing half of the heavy-lifting. I would much rather have more engineering applied onto him if it means reusing another figure that is better engineered by comparison. The lack of swivels on the wrists and waist is baffling, the ball jointed hips and elbows are unusual for an expensive toy, and the design is bland. I would not recommend this set at the price it went for initially. At $60-70, you at least get most of it towards a normal Leader price and a Deluxe price from way back then.
Final ranking: ⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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