1993, which was like a festival, passed, and in 1994, the world (in terms of dinosaurs) settled down... However, in the summer, the "World's Largest Dinosaur Expo" was held in Osaka, featuring the shiny black T-rex complete skeleton "Black Beauty" and exhibiting the results of the "Canada-China Joint Dinosaur Project." Dr. Philip Currie's book popularized the term "Dinosaur Renaissance" among the general public (including unlearned dinosaur fans like me). In July, "NHK Life 4 Billion Years, A Journey: Dinosaurs Chased by Flowers," which is still talked about among dinosaur fans, was broadcast. Regardless of the dinosaur situation in Japan, Kenner continued to release new JP figures overseas. The movie itself was already far in the past. I can't introduce everything, but here are some examples.

(Photo 1) Carnotaurus, a newcomer to the dinosaur world at the time. It was part of a slightly larger series, and it was fine that there were also Young T-rex (repaint) and Quetzalcoatlus.

(Photo 2) No way! Lycaenops and Tanystropheus.

Meanwhile, in 1997, "The Lost World: Jurassic Park" (hereinafter LW) was released. For me, it's a favorite dinosaur movie. The number of dinosaurs had increased, and I was thrilled by the majestic sight of the T-rex roaring against the San Diego nightscape.

*Incidentally, there are surprisingly few movies where dinosaurs run wild in the city. I can only think of "The Lost World" (1925), "The Valley of Gwangi" (more of a village than a city), and "Dinosaur in L.A." (2013) with its easy-to-make (but surprisingly well-done) CG.
However, contrary to dinosaur fans' expectations, the public treated it as just an average movie. There were no dinosaur events piggybacking on it (though there was "The Great World Dinosaur Expo" in Osaka featuring sauropods), and only a handful of TV programs related to LW, such as "Sekai Fushigi Hakken" and "Cinema Tantei." There were many dinosaur programs, but they focused more on Japanese dinosaurs, including the Tyrannosauridae teeth found in Izumi Village. It was truly disappointing that there wasn't a single tie-in movie.

Nevertheless, there were quite a few dinosaur-related articles in magazines:
"Only Dinosaurs Know the Fate of Humanity! Lost World Pre-release on Paper" (BART, June) / "Lost World/Jurassic Park Was Amazing After All!" (Weekly Playboy, June) / "Lost World Dissection" (Weekly Young Sunday, June) / "Why Did Dinosaurs Go Extinct?" (Weekly X-Zone, June) / "The Summer of Dinosaurs Has Begun..." (Josei Seven, June) / "Dinosaurs Are Back: Lost World" (Newsweek, July) / "Lost World" (Fangoria Japan, August) / "Is Tyrannosaurus Family Love Real!?" (Weekly Asahi, August) / "Great Dinosaur Exhibition"
(Weekly Bunshun, August) / "Great Extinction" (Rekishi Kaido, September) / "New Dinosaur Kingdom" (SF Magazine, September) / "Dinosaur/Fossil Business Frenzy" (Weekly Playboy, November). In addition, "Newton" published dinosaur-related articles every month during the summer, and model magazines, in addition to serialized articles by Mr. Araki and Ms. Shinobu Matsumura, had renowned diorama artist Takuji Yamada create dioramas inspired by movie scenes in the October issue of Hobby Japan.

LW-related books included "The Making Of," a children's picture storybook "Movie Version Lost World" using movie stills, and "Cinefex #14." The first issue of Amazing Movie, published in August, contained a fairly detailed "History of Dinosaur Movies."

(Photo 3) Covers of related books and magazines

Despite this much colder reception compared to JP, why is my house overflowing with LW merchandise!?

A full view of the LW merchandise shelf (Photo 4) and a close-up (Photo 5). Kenner's action figures are the main focus, but there are also inexplicable items like "Juradama."
While taking the photos, I noticed that for some reason, there are only two types of Compy, or Compsognathus. And one of them is a straw decoration... (Photo 6).

Considering the opening scene of the movie, it was probably the most impactful of the dinosaurs making their debut in LW. Perhaps Compsognathus isn't generally popular, as there are only three types of figures I know of outside of LW. One is from Aurora's Prehistoric Scenes, the Jungle Swamp (Treasure House Vol. 10)and the JP3 candy toy, which I will introduce later.

(Photo 7) shows Kenner's LW figures overflowing from the shelf. These were acquired later through auctions and the like. The incredibly cool Allosaurus is from the Dino Damage series, which has a mechanism that makes three parts of its body peel off to expose flesh and bone, making it unclear how to play with it. Kenner's JP figures often used these kinds of mechanisms from the beginning, but the Allosaurus is an extreme example. By JP3, almost all figures had damage, and the exposed parts were painful to look at. This incomprehensible trend has also been passed down to JW figures. The new raptor below it and the Baryonyx on the bottom right are fine, but with Estemmenosuchus and Ornithosuchus appearing, it's out of control. (The bottom row seems to be repaints released in 1999.)

"Serious" movie figures other than Kenner

TOYBIZ's huge, remote-controlled Pachycephalosaurus, probably 50cm long (Photo 8). It walks on two legs and headbutts. I was supposed to have collected all figures in this series, but they were buried deep in the closet and I couldn't find them. A series of walking photos of the Tyrannosaurus can be found in Treasure House Vol. 32.

(Photo 9) A playset from MATCHBOX, a long-established British model car manufacturer. It mainly features miniature cars of the vehicles used in the LW dinosaur hunting scene, but the bonus dinosaurs are also well-made die-cast models. (Please also see New Treasure House Vol. 5.)

(Photo 10) is similar but made of plastic and roughly constructed. This is a Kenner product. In fact, vehicles seem to play an active role in JW as well, and a large number of miniature cars have been released, but fortunately, they don't come with dinosaurs, so they are not part of my collection. That's a relief.

Tsukuda Hobby released a new LL-size raptor (modeled after the movie prop) (Photo 11). The previous three works were also re-released with repaints, but I refrained from buying them this time.

(Photo 12) shows stuffed animals from EQUITY TOYS. The raptor has a plastic head, hands, and claws, and the Stegosaurus has a plastic head and spikes, which is strange. The sauropod, which has wires inside that allow it to be posed, is the only Mamenchisaurus among the LW figures. It's a shame that it's only a stuffed animal, especially since the movie emphasized its enormous size, with scenes like motorcycles passing under its belly.

＊For model kits, please refer to Treasure House Vol. 65.

Then the century turned, and in 2001, to coincide with the release of "Jurassic Park III," a paperback novelization of the movie was published in July. The August issue of Eiga Hiho magazine featured an article titled "Jurassic Park III Dinosaur Picture Book." In October, "Jurassic Park III: Let's Go See Dinosaurs! Official Guide," a game strategy guide, was released. This was a dire situation. It wasn't that dinosaurs were out of fashion; rather, dinosaur candy toys, including Choco-razaurus, were flooding the market, a magazine called "Weekly Disney Dinosaur" was published, and Jurassic Park at USJ also opened. However, there were no major dinosaur exhibitions in the Tokyo metropolitan area.

Honestly, JP3 was a bit disappointing for me. The Ceratosaurus looked silly, the Pteranodon had teeth, and the confrontation between the T-rex and Spino wasn't exciting. I would have rather seen a T-rex versus Allo (Saurophaganax?). In Jurassic Park, a battle across different eras is possible... The raptor's halfway fuzzy head was also somehow unappealing, and to top it off, they returned the eggs and meekly went home. And above all, the "happy ending" where family bonds are restored was unacceptable. Dinosaur fans don't care about such things! I fumed, but still ended up collecting the merchandise.

A full view of the JP3 merchandise shelf (Photo 13) and a close-up (Photo 14). These include Hasbro action figures (Kenner was originally a Hasbro brand but seems to have been absorbed by the parent company), Kaiyodo's Lawson exclusive models, paper skeleton models that were probably bonus items with gum, and miniature figure packs released by Tomy.
For JP3 Spinosaurus, please also refer to Treasure House Vol. 33 and New Treasure House Vol. 20.

The Compy that appeared briefly in the movie, contrary to expectations, didn't cause any mischief.

Kaiyodo candy toy (Photo 15)

Other JP3 merchandise (Photo 16)

Now I am fully prepared for "Jurassic World."

The mystery of the raptor figure's sickle claw in JW, which I wrote about last time, seems unlikely to be solved until I see the movie.

I've obtained the actual items ((Photo 17): Charlie, Delta, Echo from left). Why was this important sickle claw, which was at the core of the dinosaur renaissance, deliberately removed? If it's just a simple mistake, it would be an unprecedented blunder, but I'm looking forward to finding out.

By the way, the recently translated essay "My Beloved Brontosaurus: Dinosaurs Reborn by the Latest Science" by Brian Switek (Hakuyo-sha) is full of the latest dinosaur information and the author's love for dinosaurs. It's a delightful book that any dinosaur fan would nod along to while reading. In this book, written in 2013, the author states, "If 'Jurassic Park 4' is made and Velociraptors appear again, they must be covered in beautiful feathers. This will be a test of Steven Spielberg's taste." Ultimately, Spielberg was deemed to have no taste, but since it's a sequel, perhaps it couldn't be helped to maintain consistency with previous works. However, a generation that first saw small dinosaurs in picture books covered in fluff must have grown up by now. When they see JW, they'll probably say, "What is this?"