Lego Minifigures – Dino Tracker (Series 12)

When I first saw the Dino Tracker, I was pretty underwhelmed. A Dino Tracker with no dinosaur? I was calling shenanigans. But then some closer study revealed something else – this is actually Lara Croft! Not this iteration of the character – but this one.

So on this basis, the figure became much more enjoyable. She comes with a compound bow (presumably reused from Hawkeye) and a green syringe, which I assume is filled with dino knockout juice, though it could easily work with the scientist from the Research Institute or the Mad Scientist from Minifigures series 4. Several others are printed on the bandolier across her chest, too.
Particularly cool is the printed cargo pockets on the side of the legs -- very few minifigures have printing there, and it's always good to see Lego experimenting with tampo techniques.  

The hairpiece is apparently new; it’s a high ponytail piece, cast in brown. I daresay we’ll see it about quite a bit, as it’s generic enough to work with most female characters.    

She doesn’t really fit in with my wider collection, but I did really enjoy last year’s reboot of Tomb Raider, so it’s cool to have a (not) Lara Croft. Lego has been making some concerted efforts to produce more strong female characters of late, which I think is an excellent thing. Given that she’s technically a Dino Tracker, it would have been cool to get a baby T-Rex or something like that, but such is the nature of cost vs profit. Sigh…I might have to add some Dino stuff to the collection now…