As I continued to traverse through this thing called life something occurred to me: I never learned how to play chess. Luckily, the folks over at The Noble Collection happened to have the perfect chess set for me.
Jurassic Park.
The Noble Collection is full of chess sets and collectibles from a number of different franchises—some of which will make you feel like you need to put them in a fancy sitting room where classical music plays in the background. The Jurassic Park set, however, is a lot of fun, with dinosaur-themed pieces that create an urge to roar with every move.
Yes, I did roar at least once while playing.
Here’s a description of the set:
Travel to Jurassic Park where dinosaurs dominate this chess match. Complete with 32 finely sculpted game pieces and full graphic chess board, this chess set will transport you right into the island where dinosaurs roam the earth! Will you come out on top as you battle your opponent among these predators?
This is probably the safest way to explore the park, that’s for sure. Also, if I’m gonna play Jurassic Park chess, imma be a dinosaur.
What I like about the pieces is that each of the dinosaurs is in a dynamic pose as if they really are getting ready for a fight. The Dilophosaurs, for example, is in its iconic “screeching at Nedry” pose. I’m gonna be honest. I definitely roared more than once while playing this.
The game itself does not come with instructions on how to actually play chess (bless my patient wife for talking me through it), but each dinosaur is labeled to let you know which chess piece it represents. As the description of the game says, the pieces are nicely detailed, looking like a miniature replica of the dinosaurs from the series.
The king is the Tyrannosaurus Rex, as to be expected because, I mean, it’s the T-Rex, the dinosaur that scared the shit out of us when we saw Jurassic Park as children (or maybe you thought the T-Rex was cool, I can’t tell you how to live your life).
The Queen is the Spinosaurus, which may come as a bit of a surprise due to that fight against the T-Rex in Jurassic Park 3 (spoiler: the T-Rex lost that fight), but hey, maybe they’ve settled their differences after all these years. Mario and Bowser do it all the time.
The bishops are Dilophosaurs, you know, the one you shouldn’t taunt, like, ever:
The knights are Velociraptors (seems legit), the rooks are Brachiosaurs (the Welcome to Jurassic Park we promise murder won’t happen here dinosaur) and the pawns are Pteranodons (one of these is a bad time, a swarm of them is a disaster).
While I know they’re for a chess set, the pieces look like something a Jurassic Park enthusiast would add to a dinosaur-themed collection. It feels like a collection I’d actually play with instead of feeling like something I shouldn’t put my hands on.
If you’re curious, I lost the chess match against my wife, but I did at least tell her I want to keep playing until I don’t have to look up which piece does what anymore. What can I say, I had a good time strategizing with a Velociraptor.
You can get your own set right over here (grassy background to make it look like you’re playing in the middle of the jungle sold separately).
(Image: Universal Pictures/The Noble Collection)
Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!
—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—
Published: Aug 20, 2021 03:49 pm