Mattel has revealed their Jurassic Park exclusive for San Diego Comic Con (which begins on July 20) and it’s none other than acclaimed Hollywood director Steven Spielberg himself along with a Hammond Collection Dilophosaurus.
The set also includes a movie camera mounted on a tripod, a director’s chair, and an animatronic stand.
Review and photos by Prehistory Resurrection, edited by Suspsy
Mattel has made more ”Blue” toys (as well as other Velociraptors) than you can shake a stick at. Today, we will be taking a look at one of several incarnations of the beloved raptor: their Jurassic World Dominion Ferocious Pack version.
There aren’t a lot of dinosaur toys on the market that specialize in articulation (David Silva’s Beasts of the Mesozoic line being the main shining exception right now), so the announcement of Mattel’s Amber Collection for their ongoing Jurassic World line was reason for excitement. Beginning in 2019, Mattel began select releases of dinosaurs, and later human characters, in the 6.5″ collector’s scale, with higher quality detail and poseability than the standard action figures they produce.
It’s Blue the Velociraptor, as you’ve never seen her before! Mattel has taken the sleek, aerodynamic, and menacing Jurassic World Velociraptor design and flipped it on its head. What we have here is a version of Blue that has embraced domestication and spends her days lounging around Owen’s cabin, chowing down on dino-kibble.
I must confess. Although I credit Jurassic Park with introducing me to the magnificent group known as dromaeosaurs, and the very concept that birds evolved from dinosaurs, I have grown mighty weary of scaly raptors. Jurassic Park is almost 30 years old now and although the scientific image of Velociraptor and its kin has changed dramatically in that time, the pop culture image of it has remained frustratingly unchanged.
Review and photos by Faelrin, edited by Suspsy
Among my earliest memories were my first viewings of Jurassic Park. I was probably only four or five years old when I first watched it, but it quickly became one of my favorite movies from then on, and also helped to inspire my love for dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures.
Mattel’s Amber Collection has had a rocky release history, but before the line ground to a halt, Mattel decided to go out on a bang with the highly anticipated male Velociraptor design from Jurassic Park III. Fans were both excited and cautious: would this fan-favorite design be done the justice it deserved?
Review and photos by Faelrin, edited by Suspsy
The Destruct-A-Saurs line of figures is yet another reminder of how controversial the distribution for Mattel’s Jurassic World figures has been. They were originally to be exclusive to Toys R Us (in the United States at least), and with the stores closing nationwide, it is no surprise these would soon seem hard to get for those in the States, let alone elsewhere.
Review and photos by Charles Peckham, edited by Suspsy
I don’t own all the Xtractaurs, and I’m not sure if anyone does, but I feel I’ve been able to amass enough to give a decent overview of the series. Anyone who wants to review an individual Xtractaur for the Dinosaur Toy Blog, included in this review or otherwise, has my blessing.
I, Emperor Dinobot, recently posited a question around, and it was the following: Could Mattel be designing dinosaur figures and naming them afterwards? We already have an example: Roarivores Sinoceratops is actually a Pachyrhinosaurus, but it got a name change due to the fact that Universal wanted to market Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom to the massive Chinese audience, and Pachyrhinosaurus was substituted by Sinoceratops, a dinosaur which represented China.
Yangchuanosaurus is a genus of metriacanthosaurid that lived during the middle and late Jurassic in China. In appearance it would have looked very much like Allosaurus. Yangchaunosaurus shows up in the collectable market periodically and several figures represent the species, including the Safari Dinosaurs of China figure and a recent model by PNSO.
Discovered in the Moreno Hill Formation in New Mexico by a paleontologist’s young son (lucky kid!), Zuniceratops is quite a significant animal in that it is the oldest North American ceratopsian known to have possessed horns. Indeed, it appears to be a transition between the more primitive protoceratopsids and the more advanced ceratopsids.
