Review: Jurassic World Amber Collection Owen and Blue Collector Figures

When Mattel took over the Jurassic Park/World toy license, one of the first things they did was set a consistent scale. Every dinosaur, every human in the main line would be sized relative to 3-3/4 inch main characters. However, this left much of the product incompatible with most popular mainstream movie figure lines right now. Star Wars, Marvel Legends, and until recently DC figures were all 6-inch. Mattel launched the Amber Collection as a way to target collectors of this scale, featuring detailed renditions of favorite actors and smaller dinos. Initially exclusive to Gamestop, the line recently expanded to online retailers like Entertainment Earth, which supplied these review samples. It’s not clear what if any future lies ahead. Right now, Owen Grady is only the second human in the line, while Blue is the third repaint of a super-poseable raptor sculpt.

Obviously, Jeff Goldblum as Ian Malcolm was going to be the first figure. But Chris Pratt’s Owen Grady is a solid choice for #2, as the lead actor of the most Jurassic movies (counting the upcoming next one). Like Goldblum, Pratt has seen figure form before in this scale via Marvel Legends, and the facial likeness is about even. Physically, however, Star-Lord represents the actor’s bulkier hero bod, while Grady appears taller and thinner. They may not be exactly the same scale, but the physical proportions are about right. In both cases, if you were to cut the figure in half right at the bottom of his belt, the halves would be about even in height.

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Blue, meanwhile, is comparable to the Kickstarter-funded indie action figures from Beasts of the Mesozoic. Though the latter are technically a different scale (1/6, closer to bird size) to the 1/12 Blue, that difference amounts to their being the same size in the end. The Jurassic raptors are larger than life.

Packaging is larger than it needs to be. For Owen, in particular, a whole lot of empty space fills his box. And the way the upper left corner of the box slopes looks almost like a mistake, as if it got smushed in transition, but no. Actual intentional fold. The cool thing for collectors is that as long as one carefully removes the tape, the box easily opens from the back to remove the figure. Blue is held in place with ties, but Owen is basically in a re-close-able package. Both figures come with “amber” stands — Owen has two footpegs (better than one!) while Blue has a clear post that plugs into her underside. Owen also comes with two extra hands, and a small knife that fits in a small sheath on the back of his belt.

Owen’s articulation includes ball-jointed neck, shoulders, and mid torso. Disc ball joints at his elbows, wrists, and ankles; cut waist and upper thighs, hinge-and-cut hips, and double-hinge knees. The raptor body features ball-and-sockets on her hips, tail joint, and at two places in the neck. Upper and lower jaws are hinged, with disc ball joints at the shoulders, elbows, wrists, and three joints in each leg. One toe claw on each foot hinges, and there’s a bendy wire inside the tail.

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While Blue’s body has been used before, the elaborate paint job is the sell here. Blue and white identifying stripes run down her whole body, and a subtler gray spotting/striping decrates her mid-torso and hips. Her eyes are shiny gold, and interior mouth bloody read. Overall, a fairly superior paint job and a dinosaur figure worthy of standing beside other collector figures.

Entertainment Earth charges $31.99 for Blue, which is $8 cheaper than they ask for Beasts of the Mesozoic. It’s also comparable to a NECA Ultimate, to which it favorably compares in quality. Owen, however, runs $26.99, which is more than most similar basic 6-inch figures. Considering Star-Lord figures are still fairly easy to find, a lot depends on how specific the buyer wants to be with their Chris Pratt. Rumor has it that Nedry (Wayne Knight) and a spitter should come next in the line, but no prototypes have surfaced yet and it isn’t clear the line will continue. At least we got one really cool dinosaur sculpt in 6-inch scale out of it.

Take a look at many more angles on these figures in our gallery below: