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.
