How the Tapejara ever became a toy in the Jurassic Park toy line is puzzling when you look back at the turbulent time before Jurassic Park III was released. Hasbro downsized after the failure of the JP Chaos Effect toys, and the lower than expected sales from Star Wars Phantom Menace toys.
Coming up with something to review for Jurassic Park’s much hyped 30th anniversary was no easy task, simply because we’ve been reviewing Jurassic Park toys on this blog steadily for the last five years, thanks to Mattel. What could we possibly feature on the blog that would live up to the grandeur of toys like the Legacy Brachiosaurus and Hammond Collection T.
Without much fanfare, late 2023 saw the release of a whole new line of Jurassic World products from Mattel. Dubbed Bite Club (Get it? Like Fight Club?), these figures are sculpted in the chibi style that is common in anime and manga. The chibi art style originates in Japan.
“This one was always my favorite when I was a kid. And now I’ve seen one, it’s the most beautiful thing I ever saw.”
Those words from Alan Grant resonated with me upon my first viewing of Jurassic Park, because like Alan Grant, Triceratops was my childhood favorite too.
First released under the Lost World label in 1997, this Triceratops is rather small compared to the massive 1993 version. Its short horns and length of only 20 cm indicate that it is meant to represent a juvenile.
Review and photographs by Funk, edited by Suspsy
After so many years of the DinoToyBlog examining every obscure corner of the dinosaur toy landscape, you’d think all older products in the Jurassic Park franchise to have been fully covered. That mainly seems to be the case for the beloved Kenner lines, but there are still many strange toys by other companies left unexamined, including the subject of this review.
“Greetings and salutations once again, fellow dinosaur lovers! It is I, the one and only Dr. Bella Bricking, along with my trusty and ever-faithful companion, Beth Buildit! And today is a truly momentous occasion, is it not?”
“Yup, sure is, Doc. Exactly 30 years ago, a certain little movie called Jurassic Park opened in theatres worldwide and basically blew up right from the get-go.
Review by GiganotosaurusFan, edited by Suspsy
We take a different path today, not down a path of dinosaurs, but a dinosaur/robot. On September 17, 1984, lightning struck as one of the most popular children’s cartoon shows of all time debuted: The Transformers. 12 years later, a different path was taken with Beast Wars, where the Autobots became Maximals, and the Decepticons became Predacons.
Review and photographs by Sketchy, edited by Suspsy
Over the course of Kenner’s Jurassic Park line, three figures used the same Lycaenops sculpt. The first one was made for Series 2 in 1994. The second one was for the 2000 Jurassic Park: Dinosaurs line under the bizarre name of “Lynx.” And finally, Kenner made the third one for their Chaos Effect line, but called it the “Tyrannops.” Crazy.
Despite being the most popular of all dinosaurs, with multiple figures to its name released per year, everyone is still on the hunt for what they consider the “definitive” T. rex. Companies have tried to deliver it with mixed success. At various points over the last several years the title has been held by Safari, PNSO, Rebor, Beasts of the Mesozoic, PNSO again, and this year we have the long awaited Eofauna Tyrannosaurus hitting the scene.
