Check out this scan of a contest form from a 1993 Ford Performance Magazine! This magazine was send to Ford owners in Belgium. The company, which had its Ford Explorer prominently featured in the 1993 film, gave away 1 Ford Maverick Jeep and 5000 tickets to go see Jurassic Park in the movie theatre.
Back in 1997 lots of companies wanted to have their brand associated with the Jurassic Park sequel. Even a big Belgian laundry detergent brand called Dixan jumped on the hype train. They released a limited edition barrel of their detergent with the logo of the The Lost World embedded in their layout. On the back of the box there were some facts about dinosaurs from the movie in both Dutch and French.
Kenner released a few Velociraptors as part of the “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” line but the Cyclops Raptor is probably the most remarkable one. Cyclops Raptor comes with capture gear. The head will move from left to right by swinging the tail. One of it’s eyes has gone blind, explaining its “Cyclops” code name. On its back there’s a large cut from a attack by a larger predator. It doesn’t resemble anything like the movie-version raptors, but yet there’s something curious about it. It feel likes it has an untold backstory and that makes me curious…
You know those limited edition Blu-Ray box sets like they did for Jurassic Park and Jurassic World and many other movies? That idea isn’t quite that new actually. Back in 1994 Universal Pictures released a special edition Jurassic Park VHS set. It was packed in a special DNA carry case and featured besides the Jurassic Park VHS, a booklet about dinosaurs and their DNA, a security pass, a 3D hologram watch and a Jurassic Park map. The map is quite interesting because the visuals seem like nothing that have been used before. It’s likely they were created just for this deluxe…
These 2 Jurassic Park souvenir cups were part of a larger set that were used at a Belgian restaurant chain called Resto-GB (now called Lunch Garden). They feature some nice artwork, likely produced for these cups. The artwork is very reminiscent of similar cups made for McDonald’s in 1993. The back of the cups features a description of the scene that’s printed on the front.
I have these Jurassic Park greeting cards for a long time in my collection. I got them from a dollar store while on vacation at the Belgian sea coast. There’s quite a few different ones, ranging from just regular “Happy Birthday” cards with a photo from the movie, to more complex card that transfer into a mobile or that feature stickers and buttons. Most of them feature some really nice artwork that looks custom made for this company.
My latest eBay purchases are these two: Triceratops and Velociraptor from the 1999 Jurassic Park: Dinosaurs line. I got them from 2 separate auctions and probably overpaid slightly, but you don’t find them MOC that often any more. These are actually my first MOC JP: Dinosaurs, because at that time I decided to invest in the older Jurassic Park toys that were never released here in Belgium, like the Gallimimus, Capture Cruiser and Utahraptor. The Velociraptor is with its English-only packaging clearly part of the Walmart / Universal Studios release. The Triceratops packaging however is slightly different and indicates this…
The Jungle Runner is a buggy-type vehicle part of the Jurassic Park series 2 Dino Trackers toy line released in 1994. It came in a small box with an awesome piece of art of Sgt. “T-Rex” Turner riding the Jungle Runner buggy with on the background the mountains of Isla Nublar.
The Jurassic Park series 2 Carnosaurus is one of the most popular Jurassic Park toys ever. They are very hard to find and when they do pop up on eBay, you’ll have to check your Paypal balance before hitting that “buy-it-now” button… Kenner released a second Carnotaurus dinosaur in 1997 for its The Lost World: Jurassic Park toy line. It looked nothing like the original Carnotaurus released a few years earlier. It’s a lot bulkier, no soft “dino-skin” and is painted in a boring brown color. The 2 horns above the eyes are unpainted, making them very hard to stand…
Today is the official release date of Jurassic World on Blu-Ray here in Belgium, and many countries around the world. I rushed to my local Carrefour supermarket (it’s our Walmart or Target) right after work to get my copy. Right at the entrance there was a big stand for the Blu-Ray release with a huge Indominus Rex cut-out. At the toy department I was very surprised to find the Jurassic World Matchbox sets… I hadn’t seen these before here in Belgium. And even a bigger surprise were the Delta, Charlie and Echo Growlers! I had no idea these were going to be released…
