We're back for part two of our Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary CAPTIVZ toyline review! Once again, I want to thank Rachel and Sheena at Playwise Partners for these amazing samples. Toymonster International has really turned out some great Jurassic Park toys! My granddaughters are already clamboring for "Papa's Dinosaurs", so I better hurry up and get this review completed!
As with the previous review, we'll focus on the Appearance, Accessories, and Affordability of these toys before giving them an overall grade at the end of the review. Let's get started with the Jurassic World Dominion CAPTIVZ Surprise Egg!
Jurassic World Dominion CAPTIVZ Surprise Egg
As with the previous Build and Battle Surprise Egg, the Dominion egg comes with two slime packages (Biosyn Blue Slime and Amber), a package of Prehistoric Sand, a Pop and Lock Pyroraptor, the battle card, a sheet of stickers, and the rule book/dino checklist. I really like the bright orange of the egg itself, a feature it shares with the Mega Egg, which is what separates them as the Dominion Edition. The lenticular "opening dino eye" is a great feature which looks really sweet, peeking at you from the egg itself. I hadn't opened the slime packs for the picture above, but the Pyroraptor is assembled and looks absolutely incredible! I was happy to open the packages to get the pieces out and find that, for the most part, getting the dinosaur out was relatively mess-free. The blue Biosyn slime was a bit problematic as it really clung to the torso and needed to be washed and wiped down after. As with the other Surprise Egg I reviewed earlier this week, I was tremendously disappointed with how badly the sticker sheet was crumpled and bent. I'm sure that you can flatten them, if you put them between books or other flat, heavy objects. That isn't the point though. The sticker sheets are really cool, and kids will enjoy them, but when they are bent and the stickers are starting to peel off because they are creased, a lot of the fun is ruined right out of the gate. The true star of this Egg though is the Pyroraptor.
I was very impressed with the Triceratops from the previous surprise egg and the dinos from the smaller Build N' Battle eggs were absolutely amazing. That being said, this Pyroraptor blows them all away! Once again, the designers at Toymonster show their skill in sculpting and paint details. Until you get to the feet, anyhow. Honestly, that's my only complaint and it's a minor one. For all of the amazing layers of paint detail on this piece, the feet were largely ignored. The sculpted design looks terrific, but even a bit of wash would have helped elevate the claws and the other details in the feet. Aside from that minor issue, though, the rest of the Pyroraptor is extremely nice. I don't even know how many layers of paint was applied to this, but there is a lot of color applied and, perhaps best of all, the blending appears so natural. There's nothing disjointed or distracting about how the reddish orange blends into the lighter blue on figure. For such difference in color, the transition is so seamless and flows beautifully. The washes are applied so cleanly, that it seems you can count all the sculpted scale details. The face and eyes are super detailed, though there was one area on the mouth that some of the pink seemed to be missing from. Once again, though, that's such a small detail that you really have to be looking for it, otherwise you'll miss it. This is roughly the same size as the Triceratops from the BN'B Surprise egg and really looks incredible standing next to that piece. This egg also retails at Walmart for the affordable price of $9.97. Take away the damaged sticker sheet and this egg easily scores high. With the sheet though, I have to take a point off and give the Jurassic World Dominion CAPTIVZ Surprise Egg a 9 out of 10.
Jurassic World Dominion CAPTIVZ Mega Egg
I'm reasonably certain that my eyes bugged out when I got my first look at this set! My Mega egg has a lot of great stuff inside, including:
● 2X Pop N Lock Dinosaurs
● 2X Battle Tokens
● 2X BioSyn Lab Slime
● 2X Zoom RIder
● 1X Game Mat & 1X Dice
● 1X Backpack Case
● 1X Collector Guide
● 2X Egg Vessels
● 12X Stickers
When I reached out to Rachel for the product sheets, I was surprised to learn that this egg should only have 1 Zoom Rider and 3 Pop N Lock Dinosaurs. Most likely just a small QC issue when packaged. I'm not complaining though as my granddaughters absolutely love the Zoom Riders and can't wait to play with them. I've already beaten the poor sticker sheets to death previously and you can see in the picture above how mine turned out when I opened the egg. The game mat is made of a nice vinyl, but unfortunately it, too, suffered bending and creasing. Before I show my granddaughter how to play the game I'm going to try to flatten it out. Naturally, the issue will re-occur when we put the mat away in the egg. Perhaps when packing, the maps can be folded into smaller squares to prevent some of the bending? That being said, the map is very neat. The object is to race your dinosaurs around the Jurassic Park planet from start to finish. Along the way, you will run into "DNA" spots on the map, which allow the players to battle their dinos, according to the specific trait they've landed on. I'm actually thinking that a fun way to modify the game would be when the players battle, the winner swaps places with the loser of the battle. So, in addition to taking their Battle Rank Points, the winner potentially puts themselves closer to the finish line. But, if you lose, you risk falling behind! The two dinos I got in this egg were both amazingly well detailed both in sculpt and paint applications. The Zoom Riders were kind of a neat addition too. They look like the Pyroraptor from the Surprise Egg, but without the overly long tails. Once again though, I cannot get over the paint detail on these pieces. I've collected action figures for a long time and have been suitably impressed with the work and care that goes into those and many of them are 1/12 scale or bigger. The work that goes into these dinosaurs though is uncanny. For how small they are, the amount of patience it must take to detail them so thoroughly. I would not mind, at all, meeting the artisans at Toymonster someday if possible. There is also a small "backpack" case that you can clip to your pack and keep your dinos in. It's a nice piece and the plastic seems to be pretty durable. The ultimate test will be when my granddaughter gets her hands on it. LOL
I can honestly say that I've been incredibly impressed with what I've seen from this line so far. With the Mega egg retailing at $19.99, you aren't going to break the bank and you ARE going to get a lot of quality and fun. Truthfully, I think adult collectors would enjoy these as much as kids do, so with that, I'll give the Mega Egg a solid 9.5 out of 10. Please fix the stickers and map packaging though and this would be one heck of a great collectible!
Jurassic World Dominion CAPTIVZ Collectors Case
The final amazing item from Toymonster International is this 16 slot Collectors Case. It comes with an exclusive Metallic Aqua Therizinosaurus. The case will easily hold multiple Pop N Lock Dinosaurs, including the larger dinos from the Surprise Eggs. The black case has a really nice gold deco of the Jurassic Park logo and the CAPTIVZ logo as well. The JP logo also has some great, textured matte black sculpted details, which really stand out against the gloss of the case itself. I particularly enjoy the cracked and weathered look of the logo as well. The next surprise came when I flipped the case around and noticed the notched spaces on the back which are designed to hold your dinosaurs Battle discs. I was pleased to discover that the discs pop in and are held secure, but also aren't difficult to remove for playtime. Opening the case, we are treated to a number of different backgrounds in each storage slot. Each background depicts scenery that should be familiar to anybody who has watched the Jurassic Park movies. There are eight slots on each side of the case, and each will hold more than one dinosaur. Unless you have the larger dinos from the Surprise eggs. The only real issue is that upon opening the case, your dinos will fall out. Laying it on the back doesn't help either as there isn't anything to restrain the dinos in place. However, this is really a minor issue and not indicative of anything other than just a notice to be careful when opening. The hinge is also done very nicely and looks to be fairly secure. I expect this will be quite durable, even in the hands of younger children. Perhaps the only real weakness would be in the latch. The case is held shut with a snap lock that pops into place but is very easy to open. In fact, it opens a little too easily, if not properly snapped shut, as I learned this morning when I picked it up to take pictures. Aside from that, this is a really nice case to either carry your dinos into battle or leave open as a standing display. As with the Mega Egg, the Collector Case retails at a very affordable $19.99. My issues are so minimal that I feel really good about giving the case a solid 10 out of 10. It's durable, looks great, and holds my dinos securely.
I do have to share one final thing though. As I was opening the rest of the Build N' Battle eggs, I stumbled upon the rarest of all dinosaurs. The Double Headed Triceratops!
So... if the ladies at Playwise or the crew at Toymonster happen to have an extra BnB Triceratops tail laying around, I'll gladly trade them my extra head for it!
Overall, I have to tip my hat to Toymonster International. They have really put together some amazingly well detailed toys, created an easy to learn and play game, and given adult collectors something new to drool over. In spite of the few issues we discussed, I'm really excited to give the Dominion edition Surprise Egg, Mega Egg, and Collectors Case a huge:
10 out of 10 ToyBoxes!!!
These are some of the neatest collectibles that I've seen. The work and craftsmanship on not only the dinosaurs but also the auxiliary pieces is detailed and really solid. Please figure out something with the paper-based inserts (stickers, cards, etc...) to avoid damaging them and this line will easily be a home run! Thank you, as always, to my readers! Until our next review... GEEK OUT!!!