What's New

2-28-97

Some more info on the JP2 toys from this month's Combo Magazine:

There will be four action figures, Ian Malcolm, Eddie Carr, Nick Van Owen, and Dietar Stark (who is Dietar Stark?), two deluxe action figures, "Malcolm with Glider Pack" and "Evil Hunter with dino snare dirtbike"
Several flavors of dinosaurs:
- The basic ones: Pacho and Raptor; "Biting Dinos": Chasamasaurus, Giant Pteranodon, and Spinosaurus;
- "Real-Flesh and Dino-Damage" dinosaurs: Pachycephalasaurus and Stegosaurus;
- "Egg Hatchlings", which are dino eggs that open to reveal baby dinosaurs inside: T-rex ,Triceratops, and Velociraptor; and the big-momma of them all, the
- "Electronic Bull T-Rex, featuring crunching and snorting sounds"
Other toys to look for include the "Dino Blaster Rifle" ,"Dino Hunter Belt with tools", and "Wrist Walkie Talkies".

Thanks to Joshua Fitch and "Woodman".

An official press release from Kenner:

"In 1997, kids will become expert dinosaur hunters, snaring them with capture gear, and witnessing fierce battles with the creatures in their own living rooms! Kenner is bringing all of the action and excitement from the movie to their line of action figures, dinosaurs and vehicles. Kids will be able to lead the "Dino Trackers" against the evil hunters to control the most dangerous, lifelike dinosaurs ever including Stegosaurus with "DinoStrike" Tail, Electronic Bull T-Rex with three electronic sounds, and more!"

Parker Brothers, makers of such popular board games such as Monopoly, are going to be making several JP2 games to correspond with the movie's release: "Players must control the ferocious, thrashing dinosaurs in THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK BATTLING RAPTORS GAME, or try their hand at hunting prey in THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK CARD GAME"

Just in case anyone was wondering (and I'm sure you were), I have been informed that Jurassic Park 2 Underwear is indeed on the list of official merchandise.

Video Game Spot has a preview of the upcoming JP2 Playstation game, "The Lost World: Jurassic Park". This also may be a good time to mention that the Dreamworks page for the playstation game is located here. (Thanks to W. Bradley Young)

Here are two pictures from my trip to Florida. The first is a picture of the construction area at Universal Studios where the JP2 ride will eventually reside. The second is a shot of the Ford Explorer and T-Rex from the first movie--yeah, I know that it has nothing to do with JP2, but it's cool anyway:

Kyle has provided some higher quality images from the JP2 (30 second) trailer in the media gallery.

The mailing list is broken again.

2-26-97

The Release Date: An e-mail from someone else who says he works at a movie theater confirms the fact that according to a list of "constantly updated" release dates of upcoming movies, The Lost World will be coming out on Wednesday, May 21. He also says that it "is not unusual for a blockbuster movie to come out in the middle of a week." Well, I guess I was wrong. (Thanks to Moonshiner).

Last nights Entertainment Tonight was a bit disappointing--they didn't show any new scenes from The Lost World, but they did say that the entire movie cost around 70 Million dollars. It was also stated that "[JP2] is so fearsome that it is going to have the big Memorial Day weekend virtually all to itself. The competition wants no part of going head-to-head in a contest on opening day with The Lost World: Jurassic Park". Remember the movie that opened the same weekend as JP1? Arnold's Last Action Hero? Hahaha.

It looks like the mailing list is working again. Everyone go sign up, if you haven't already!

Well, if you haven't found out, Harry's Knowles' excellent "Ain't It Cool News!" page is gone. It seems the reason is because his Internet provider complained that he's draining their resources. Until he finds another provider, it looks like we'll have to get our movie news from another source. Well, at least you know where to get your JP2 news, right? eh? : )

2-25-97

About 6 people e-mailed me to say that tonight's Entertainment Tonight will have an story about "the battle between the summer blockbusters", which will include The Lost World. Thanks to everyone who let me know.
An anonymous source who claims to be very close to the film sent me an e-mail saying that he is "tired of this confusion about the mainland thing" and wants to clear up the rumor about the possibility that the dinosaur's escaping to the mainland only happens in Malcolm's Dream". The scene that he goes on to describe has Malclom and Harding in a red convertible, Malcolm driving and Harding taking care of a baby T-Rex as they pull into a 76 gas station. People start screaming and running because coming down the street is a T-Rex. The Rex knocks over a van and the 76 ball, which comes rolling towards the convertible. Malcolm steps on the gas and peels out backwards. My source ends his e-mail by saying, "Does that sound like a dream?"
Release Date Info: Well, if there aren't enough un-certainties about this movie, I have learned that the release date may be incorrect as well. Someone on Usenet who claims he works for a movie theater says that JP2 will open on Wednesday, May 21, and not Friday as expected. The official word from Universal is "Memorial Day", which I figured was "Memorial Day Weekend", which, in the US, is May 23-25. Ack! According to the Internet Movie Database, the release date is May 23, and I will keep that date on my page. So there!
I noticed on Coming Attractions that they now say that Jerry O'Connell will be in JP2 (originally they had said that it was a "false rumor", but we didn't believe them, did we?).
General Mills and Nestle will be producing various JP2 food-stuffs, including "a special 'Jurassic Park Crunch' cereal, brownies with "dinosaur footprints" and dinosaur macaroni shapes in Hamburger Helper." The press release also states that "[JP2 has] a $250 million advertising and promotion budget and additional tie-ins to Burger King, General Mills, Hershey, Kodak and Mercedes Benz" The press release also corrected some action figure prices and names (see yesterday's "what's new") [Thanks to Brian and Katherine Davis]

2-24-97

According to information obtained by Brian, look for the following Hasbro JP2 toys to appear on store shelves next month:

"Regular Dinos" and people $5
Biting Dinos (with electronic roar sounds) $14.99
Trasher T-Rex (with "kid operated biting jaw") $29.99
Electronic Bull T-Rex (with attack roar, threatening roar, and crunching noises) $39.99
All I have to say is that I sure am glad I'm not a parent of a six-year-old. : )
There has been a rumor floating around for awhile that the week of shooting scheduled to be filmed in New Zealand was scrapped completely. Well, this has been confirmed by a real-life New Zealander, Wade, who saw on local TV that the filming was canceled.
Laura Croft (Tomb Raider?) e-mailed me to say that the Burger King tie-in with The Lost World will feature "dino-shaped chicken tenders!". Yum.
Thanks to a post on Usenet, I have finally found out that Cannes International Film Festival will take place May 1997, where The Lost World: Jurassic Park will have it's world premier!

2-23-97

Kyle sent along two pictures of the JP2 Topps products. The first picture is an ad for the JP2 trading cards, and the other is from the JP2 comic book:

Brad, an employee of a major photography chain in Canada, heard some inside JP2 info from his manager:
"Apparently one of the reasons people start snooping around for dinos on the second island is someone uncovers a roll of undeveloped KODAK film. When the character gets it processed they are shocked to find pictures of... You guessed it BIG NASTY BEASTIES! Naturally people try to trace the origin of the roll, and it leads them to the "lost world"."
His manager says that Kodak film will be a major promotional tie-in to the film, with special film canisters that KODAK will release with "rebates for toys and stuff".
More information from the beaches of Hawaii: Bob Jasper e-mailed me another possible scene from JP2:
"One of the scenes they filmed was going to be the opening scene in the movie. A young girl is running thru the jungle when she comes face to face with a baby dino. The dino just looks at her. She then turns around to look at her parents who are picnicing on the beach. When she turns back around to look at baby dino, she is surrounded by a large group of adults. She is then crunched, but she lives. "

There is a short tid-bit about JP2 in this month's issue of Tribute Magazine ("a short, free magazine with info on upcoming movies") according to Matt Boudreau. The magazine, available at many movie theaters, contains the following caption:
"We pick up the story four years after the hushed-up disaster at the dino theme park, with mathematician Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum). Malcolm comes to the terrifying realization that something may have actually survived the destruction on the island. Steven Spielberg is back to direct and Sir Richard Attenborough (who played park owner John Hammond in the first film) makes a special appearance."

The mailing list is still broken. I'm kinda getting fed up at the whole thing, and will try to get another list working soon. Maybe later today....

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