Two new Kenner toy pictures, thanks to Krunker418. Collect All 50!

Various Kenner toys.

More Kenner Toys.

Here's an interesting tid-bit. Supposidly there's been some confusion over two dinosaurs that appeared in JP2: the dinosaurs in the "round-up" scene that are refererd to as Mamenchiasaurus are really Apatosaurs. Here's info that Compy saw on the 'Net:

According to the script, The MAMENCHIASAURS were in a scene that did not make it into the film. They were supposed to be stumbled into by Sara, Malcom, Nick and Eddie during the escape from the attacking Stegosaurs at the teams first dino encounter at the island. The MAMENCHIASAURS are in the process of mating and the group hides under them to escape the Stegos. This scene obviously got truncated eliminating a scene that would have been fun to see although surely an improbable scenario.

Later in the script and in the movie, more sauropods appear during the jeep/bike chase by the hunters team. The script refers to these sauropods as APATOSAURS.

Well, I'm back from my college orientation at UMCP, which was kinda fun, despite being around 115 degrees at night inside an non-air-conditioned dorm.... Get this: I only have one class before 12 o'clock! Hahahaha! I noticed that the Message Board and Fan Fiction have been acting up again -- it's a different problem this time -- hopefully I'll get that fixed by the end of the day.

Here's an excerpt from an article on the Mercedes AAV from a promotional magazine from Mercedes. (thanks to Adam):

[The Lost World] was a great opportunity for a automaker to showcase a brand-new SUV (sport utility vehicle) in the film. Mercedes-Benz saw this as a chance to put its new M-Class in front of millions of movie goers,and made plans with Universal Studios and Amblin Entertainment to include the M-Class in The Lost World:Jurassic Park.

No one was about to believe that a stock ML320 (The M-Class) would be able to mix it up on a jungle island with the likes of T-rexs or a Raptor-- just look how the Ford Explorers were smashed in Jurassic Park. Clearly the Mercedes SUVs' would have to be armed for the movie.

Who better to take on the job of making the ML320 menacing that Mercedes Advanced Design Studio in Irvine, California, about 50 miles south of Universal's offices in LA. They had some competition. Steven Spielberg wanted various design opinions, and he asked Industrial Light and Magic to make their own drawings. Inspiration came from the famous John Wayne movie Hatari in which Waynes crew in Africa used SUVs' with outrigger seats to lasso and capture wild animals. It took a number of months to home in on the appropriate modifications to outfit the M-Class for its romp through the Jurassic Period.

One idea was to make a vehicle that the explorers could use to search for dinos, so the 1st Jurassic M-Class has a observation tower on it. As scientists , the expedition members needed a laboratory,so a 2nd M-class was made into a mobile lab. And one special model is a convertible. There are special bumpers, running boards, lights, fat tires and camouflaging. And its all real! With the paint barely dry, the Mercedes-Benz M-Class was ready for its Hollywood debut.

MTV Europe has reportedly started to air a commercial for The Lost World, it preparation for the July 18th release of the movie in England. (thanks to sHaRpKlaY)

While box office receipts are still rolling in, TLW has already become one of the most successful movies of all time, sitting in the 17th spot on Mr. Showbiz's "All-Time Box Office Leaders" list. Directly above it is "Mrs. Doubtfire" (219 mil), "Ghostbusters" (220), "Beverly Hills Cop" (234), and "Twister" (241) to name a few. At the top of the list is "Star Wars" (460 million), "E.T." (399), and then "Jurassic Park" (356). Although J.P. really deserves the first spot, considering the grosses for Star Wars and E.T. also include reissue grosses. (thanks to Adam)

I'll be gone until Wednesday at my college orientation at University of Maryland, College Park, so don't expect an update until then. : )

Some more exclusive "inside info" about the "San Diego" scene in JP2 and how it relates to JP3..Here goes: Supposedly, Steven Spielberg knew that Universal would want to make a third Jurassic Park film, just for the fact that it would make a lot of money, and knew he wasn't going to direct it. He figured that if there was a third one, there would probably be a scene like the infamous "San Diego scene", and "selfishly" (his word) put a similar sequence in TLW.

While this inside source hasn't heard anything about a third movie and/or book yet, he did say that Universal "knows the power of the almighty dollar" and "would be stupid not to do another one sometime in the future".

A few new toys have been spotted: A new Roland Tembo action figure with a "Dino Auto Restraint Transport" (looks like a moped), as well as a Nick Van Owen figure, that comes with a High Hide. (thanks to Malcolm144)

1. Men In Black - $84.1 million (breaks the 4th of July weekend record, previously held by Independence Day)
2. Face/Off - $16.1 million
3. Hercules - $12.2 million
4. My Best Friends Wedding - $10.8 million
5. Batman & Robin - $8 million
6. Out to Sea - $5.9 million (1st week)
7. Con Air - $3.8 million
8. The Lost World: Jurassic Park - $2.6 million

Attention Spielberg fans! You will no doubt be interested in a new biography of the man, the myth, the legend - Steven Spielberg, which includes 480 pages of memories, including how frequent moves, his parents' unhappy domestic life, as well as the anti-Semitism he encountered as a teenager, drove the introverted Spielberg to seek approval through filmmaking.

You can order this book through Amazon.com for $21.00, a 9 dollar savings off of the book's list price, right here

If you haven't checked out American Cinematographer's excellent story on JP2 yet (which features storyboards, pics, and movie info), do it now, as it may be going off-line very soon.

Last Week's Poll Results: The question, "Which ending to The Lost World would you have liked best?" garnered a few interesting results. While the majority (59%) felt that the "T-Rex in San Diego" was the best, a few (25%) thought that a "longer Raptor chase" would be cool, and even less (16%) thought that the "Pteradons attack the helicopter" would have been better.

This Week: "What is your favorite track on the Lost World soundtrack?" Vote Here.

Krunker418 spotted the "Dino Tracker Adventure Set", which consists of a "dino tracker" action figure, and two cancelled JP animals: Scutosaurus and Estemmenosuchus. It sells for $15.95.

The official Godzilla website is already up and running, with enough java, shockwave, and blinking text guranteed to crash Netscape multiple times. Check out the movie trailer, in streaming RealVideo format, here. (thanks to Kid4N64)

Have you seen the latest image from the Mars Pathfinder? Check it out:

Supposedly the new Godzilla trailer (seen before Men In Black) has a lot of little "JP influences", like the familiar impact tremor and music that sounds very Williams - like. (thanks to Bunuelo)

Agent_DN reports seeing some JP2 Puzzles at his local Target store. One is of two fighting raptors, while the other is of a few trikes with the High Hide in the background.

Some more info on the Playstation JP2 game from Chaos28: You play as a compy for the first level, a hunter for the second, a raptor for the third, and a rex for the fourth. You play as Sarah Harding for the last two levels -- The last one is the San Diego scene, and you have to avoid the rex on the boat, multiple times to win.

And talking about JP2 video games, a few Trespasser (the PC game) webpages have sprung up, and deserve to be mentioned: Keep Out! JP : Trespasser is probably the best I've seen. Reign's 3D Gaming Studio covers a wide array of 3-D computer games, including Trespasser.

Hope everyone has a great Independence Day!