#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

#183 PIATNIK – OPERN QUARTETT and STÄDTE QUARTETT (Ref. 286 and 287) (1957)

These are two Piatnik decks of cards. I have them since a couple of months, and are among the oldest decks in my collection. Curiously they have consecutive reference numbers and they were originally released in 1957.

The Opern Quartett is very similar to the Blumen Quartett that I showed in a past entry (#95), since they share the same type of slipcase (in German is known as “Schuber”). These type of case, as well as another “book” case are among the oldest models used for this type of card decks.

In comparison, the “Seifenbox” or “soap case” looks really modern. The Cities Quartett is clearly a reedition of the original set from 1957 (it was also available in slipcase and box-case), but when was it exactly? I cannot make any estimation, since this deck was probably sold maybe during 20 or 30 years nonstop.

The case is made of carton, and has an inner part and the outer sleeve. This outer sleeve includes a drawing taken from one of the cards, the name of the company at the time (“Ferd. Piatnik and Söhne - Wien” or “Ferd. Piatnik and sons - Vienna”) and gold bands at the sides. It is quite curious to me, that Piatnik’s horse logo does not appear in this cover, every other quartet by this company I know was decorated with it. The name of the company is slightly different in both sets.

 The decks consist of 36 cards divided in groups of 4, where each card has a drawing (made by W. Mayerl) of a composer or a scene of a famous opera, or a drawing of a monument in a city. The City Quartet also has at the back of the card (which I forgot to photograph) a short text about the land and the cities depicted in the cards, to make the game more educational.

As I usually do when presenting card games, here is every single card in the game:

OPERN QUARTETT:

Peter Iljitsch Tschaikowskij and W.A. Mozart

Giuseppe Verdi and Richard Wagner

Giacomo Puccini and Richard Strauss

 

Karl Maria von Weber and Jules Emile Frédéric Massenet

Albert Lortzing

STÄDTE QUARTETT:

Austria and Switzerland

Germany and Spain

 

U.S.A. and England

 

France and Italy

 

Sweden

 

Instructions for the City Quartet

Update - Older Städte-Quartett with London Bridge on the cover and the cardboard box.

FACTS AND FIGURES

• Name: OPERN QUARTETT and STÄDTE QUARTETT (Nrs. 286 and 287) („OPERA QUARTET“ and “CITY QUARTET”)
• Year: 1957
• Company: Piatnik Wien (Austria)

#182 MICRO MACHINES – BLAZE AND ROAR COLLECTIONS #4 (1990) and #4, #5 and #6 (1991)

Each Blaze and Roar collection is made of exactly one Micro Machine which has sound and also lights. There were only 7 collections ever made, each of them twice (the same 7 vehicles in two decorations each). The first 7 blisters came out in 1990 and included one vehicle and one building, while the second row appeared one zear later and included only the vehicle. The light was provided by a red led, while the sound came from the inside of the car. On the chassis there are a few holes to allow the sound off the car. Some vehicles came with two leds, some other just with one led.

There are two kinds of bases, the one to the right corresponds to the Blaze and Roar models packed individually (from 1991), while the one to the left corresponds to the models packed with one building (from 1990).

The vehicle in collection #4 from 1990 is a Ford Box Van, with Police "171" decoration. Other vehicles in the "Blaze and Roar" series are tanks, police vans, ambulances and fire engines. The feature is activated by pressing the vehicle down.

The circuitry inside of the cars is very simple, but (as every other toy circuitry) it is difficult to find in a good shape after so many years. The first and most common problem is that you (or the previous owner of the toy) left the batteries inside the toy. Batteries "explode" after a certain time and release some acid that corrode metallic parts. Electronic circuits and batteries are also damaged by water.

The car can be opened by removing two screws, that reveal the circuitry and allow the replacement of the cell batteries (2x LR932)

UPDATE: Collections #4 and #5 from 1991

Micro Machines, Blaze and Roar, Collection #4

Micro Machines, Blaze and Roar, Collection #5

 

 

UPDATE2 (Jan/2026): Collection #6 Toxic Waste Clean-Up from 1991

FACTS AND FIGURES

• Name: Micromachines Blaze and Roar Collections #4, #4, #5 and #6
• Scale of the cars: 1:150 aprox.
• Year: 1990 and 1991
• Company: Galoob (U.S.A.)
• Size: approx. 3 cm

#181 1. DEUTSCHER ÜEI PREISKATALOG 2000 (JÜRGEN AHRENS)

(English: First German Kinder Surprise’s Toys Catalogue Guide)

As any other kid, I liked Kinder Surprise eggs. I got one from time to time, and of course, I kept the toys in a small paper box. More or less at the same time I received my first micromachines, so if the surprise in the egg was some kind of vehicle, I could use it together with the rest of MMs in my Travel City playsets. After a few years, I missed them all, and sometimes I find parts of these toys in drawers and boxes. I never thought about them before that.

It was short ago that I started geocaching, and through this new hobby, I sometimes found figures I liked, and I kept them (leaving something else in its place). Now I own a few (maybe 10 or 20) very nice figures, cars…

This book was not interesting to me, but I found it in a charity flea market and decided to buy it. It was published in the year 2000, so it’s completely outdated. I didn’t care about this, and the book was cheap.

I started reading it and watching the pictures, and I discovered many of my old toys, as well as many others that are great designs, and that I’d like to see sometime. The book covers everything from the very first figure to the year 2000 releases, as well as toys from other surprise eggs like Tombola, Nestlé, and many more apart from Kinder/Ferrero. Promotional Ferrero toys are also there, so it is quite a complete guide.

Figures are sorted by type, like for example: cars, trains, plastic figures, puzzles,… so it’s easy and funny to search through it. If you like plastic figures you should at least own one of these guides, maybe a more actual one. My guide has around 800 pages...

This part belongs to the non-Ferrero toys

By the way, sorry for the quality of the pictures, it's a thick book and therefore difficult to photograph.