#845 TOYS FROM THE PAST - MUSEUM (VIII)

See more of these entries here: http://toysfromthepast.blogspot.com/search/label/TFTP

See you next month!

Important notice: The items on display are NOT for sale.

 

#819 JURASSIC PARK - ALAN GRANT and ELLIE SATTLER (1993)

I have presented a few dinosaurs from this toyline based on the original Jurassic Park movie, but no figures so far. This is so, because the figures came with several accesories which are difficult to find, so completing figures costed me quite a long time.

Although they were great toys, I guess they didn´t sell very well. It was already a time were actions figures were decaying in popularity against videogames, and also being the movie a PG-13, I guess not many children bought the figures as Kenner may initially have expected.

The figures are copyrighted in 1992, and the movie was premiered in 1993, that is why the characters do not resemble the actors that played the roles. Also among the dinosaurs there are some which do not appear in the movie, so probably the toyline was made from the existing scripts before the movie was actually shot.

The two main characters with which the movie starts are Ellie Sattler and Alan Grant (Laura Dern and Sam Neill), two paleontologists specialized in dinosaurs. The third main character is Ian Malcolm (played by Jeff Goldblum), that did not appear as a figure in this very first Kenner release (Fail! - this character is actually the most remarkable in the first movie). The rest of characters can be considered as supporting roles. This would be correcte shortly afterwards in a second wave of figures which included repaints of all 5 figures plus 6 new ones.

In total there were 5 figures made, being the other three the bad-guy Denis Nedry, then the kid Tim Murphy and the Dinosaur Hunter Robert Muldoon, whose story is also quite secondary (many scenes were removed from the final cut?).

Most figures came with some action feature, not in the figure itself, but in the accessories. In this case, Ellie came with a firing missile launcher (well, not a missile, but a hook) and Alan came with a backpack that releases one flying sauria trap.

I took the figures out for the following diorama pictures. Hope you like them.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: ALAN GRANT and ELLIE SATTLER
• Toy Line: Jurassic Park
• Year: 1993
• Company: Kenner (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: Around 10 cm long
   

#675 JURASSIC PARK – VELOCIRAPTOR (JP03) (1993)

The velocirraptor was probably the "star" of the first Jurassic Park movie, the most remarkable dinosaur, and the one with the most impressive scenes, like the ending scene at the visitor's center.

The toy is very nicely casted and it even has an action feature. When pressing the legs to each other, the dinosaur opens the mouth and extends the head forward. This is called, according to Kenner “Dino-Strike Slashing Jaws”.

There were two versions of this dinosaur released by Kenner, a "sonic" one and the "ordinary" version. This dinosaur here is the ordinary version. I do not have the sonic version yet. Note that the tail tip is a bit fragile, sometimes it is broken or chewed.

The same dinosaur was also released in the "The Lost World" series only with a different eye colour (green instead of yellow) and some accesories (a dino-trap).

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: VELOCIRAPTOR (JP03)
• Toy Line: Jurassic Park
• Year: 1993
• Company: Kenner (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: Around 15 cm long

#611 JURASSIC PARK - COLEPHYSIS (JP04) (1993)

These small dinosaurs were sold together in a single blister pack, since they are much smaller than the other, so putting two togehter, Kenner could sell them for the same price than the others. It also makes sense to sell two together, since such a small dinosaur lived in groups and hunted other bigger dinosaurs attacking in groups.

The dinosaur does not appear in the movie, maybe in the book by Michael Crichton, which I haven´t read. In The Lost World, a group of Compsognathus kill one of the characters, but these were much smaller than the Coleophysis, and in the movie, the scene is more dramatic with the smaller "Compys".

The feature of this two creatures is that they are articulated and have a wire to articulate neck and tail. With this feature, the dinosaurs are really poseable, and really fun to play with. ("Sprinters - w/ Constrictor Bodies!")

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: COLEOPHYSIS (JP04)
• Toy Line: Jurassic Park (Wave 1)
• Year: 1993
• Company: Kenner (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: Around 11 cm long

#576 JURASSIC PARK - DILOPHOSAURUS (JP02) (1993)

 

After a long pause without showing anything from this toyline, I return with one of the two Dilophosaurus released in the first wave of the Jurassic Park toyline. The other one is the "Electronic" Dilophosaurus shown in entry #285.

This one is a much simpler toy. The dinosaur, if you can remember the movie, could spit venom. In the movie attacks and kills Dennis Nedry, and to add some visual effects, the dinosaur had a skin around the neck that could extend when atacking. This skin is an invention for the movie, because the real dinosaur did not have that.

To this extent, the "normal" dilophosaurus is more realistic than the "electronic" dilophosaurus. Morphologically is very accurate and the plastic used is also a softer one.

The dinosaur can spit water by pushing its belly, which is a very nice feature ("with Dino-Strike Venom Spray!"). It was also present in the figure of Dennis Nedry, which had some water-launching weapon.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: DILOPHOSAURUS (JP2)
• Toy Line: Jurassic Park (Wave 1)
• Year: 1993
• Company: Kenner (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: Around 13 cm long

#285 JURASSIC PARK – ELECTRONIC DILOPHOSAURUS (JP11) (1993)

I talked about this toyline before: about how did the film and its merchandise come to Spain and about my memories of those years. Find the previous article here: 

As said there, the first wave of Jurassic Park toys comprised several figures, dinosaurs, vehicles, and even the “Command Compound” playset. There were several categories of dinosaurs, each of them with some action feature.

There were 5 dinosaurs species made for this toy line in the "normal" size/price category: Dimetrodon, Dilophosaurus, Velociraptor, Coleophysis (2 units in one pack) and Pteranodon.  These were numbered JP01 to JP05 respectively.

Catalogue image of these two dinosaurs among some others. Taken from jptoys.com

There were also 4 "bigger" dinosaurs: the Young T-Rex,  the Stegosaurus, the Triceratops, and the great Tyrannosaurus-Rex, all with “realistic” plastic skin. These were numbered JP06 to JP09, respectively.

And finally, there were two small dinosaurs (Velociraptor JP10 and Dilophosaurus JP11) that were released in an alternate, battery operated version. These two came with some action feature, but also with a “Dino-Scream” or (what it is the same) an “Electronic Attack Sound”.

Mark in right leg JP11

Dinosaur plus removable frill

In my opinion the electronic dilophosaurus is much better than the normal version because it includes the colourful frill that the dinosaur opens before attacking. The normal version, however, could spit water. This frill is, apparently, fictional, and was invented for the film only. It’s good that the frill can be removed, in case you prefer to have a realistic version of the dinosaur.

 How do you like it most?

 

To activate the Dino-Scream, we have to pull one leg down. Together with the scream, the dinosaur opens its jaws. This feature is called "Striking Jaw" on the card.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: ELECTRONIC DILOPHOSAURUS (JP11)
• Toy Line: Jurassic Park (Wave 1)
• Year: 1993
• Company: Kenner (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: Around 13 cm

#184 JURASSIC PARK – DIMETRODON and PTERANODON (JP01 and JP05) (1993)

I was 13 when the first movie of this saga was premiered in cinemas, and I can remember all the merchandising, all documentaries and all advertisements made to promote the movie. This movie started promoting itself around one or one and half years before the premiere, and it created the so-called “Dinomania”. There were dinosaurs everywhere. When the movie was premiered, I was there, the first day, with my father and a neighbour.

Among the most important merchandise made for this movie was a series of action figures and dinosaurs depicting the original characters from the movie. Originally were 5 of them released plus 11 dinosaurs, but that was just the beginning…

By the way, since Kenner produced the first Star Wars figures ever made, they had good relations to Lucasfilm, ILM and friends... That explains that Kenner was also resposible for action figures made for Indiana Jones, Terminator, Batman, Alien and Predator, Robin Hood, Waterworld... and some other not-so-well known movies like Congo.

A second wave to the first movie was released shortly after the first, being quite difficult to find nowadays. A few new characters were included in this series, but the original five were repainted and re-released.

After such a hard preparation, the movie was a huge success, so to “Jurassic Park” (1993) followed “The Lost World” (1997, also two waves), and then “Jurassic Park 3” (2001). To each movie, more figures were released, and more dinosaurs. And I forgot to mention some vehicles! And if there was no movie at the time, a few more series were released in-between. I was surely a very profitable toyline for Kenner (or Hasbro from Jurassic Park 3 on). The interest of this blog focuses on the first two series: Jurassic Park and The Lost World, both made by Kenner.

As said before, the first series (Jurassic Park) had two waves. The first wave included only 5 figures: Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, Tim Murphy (the kid), Robert Muldoon and Dennis Nedry (what they were thinking when the left Ian Malcolm aside, I don’t know), 3 vehicles plus the huge playset “Command Compound” and the most important and best done in this collection: 11 dinosaurs (numbered JP01 to JP11).

The figures had only 5 points of articulation, but the dinosaur were far better done, in a more realistic way and featuring some interesting action or movement. That’s why I decided to start this line with two of the most common dinosaurs in this toy line (I guess they sold well, because they were two of the cheapest toys you could buy from this line). If they didn’t appear in the film was unimportant to the toymaker. As a matter of fact the toys were designed before Kenner would know what would appear in the film and what wouldn’t. I’m not sure, but at least the Pteranodon appears in Michael Crichton’s book.

Catalogue image of these two dinosarus among some others. Taken from jptoys.com

The Dimetrodon presented today came with Dino-Strike “Clamping Jaws” while the Pteranodon had Dino-Strike Jaws and Wings flap as featured action. To read more about this collection and to see the toys that were released in each series and each wave, we advice our readers to visit www.jptoys.com, where I got the catalogue image above.

 

  

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: DIMETRODON and PTERANODON (JP01 and JP05)
• Toy Line: Jurassic Park (Wave 1)
• Year: 1993
• Company: Kenner (U.S.A.)
• Size of the figures: Around 13 cm