With the arrival of autumn, the "JW2 Kingdom of Fire" figure hell has finally subsided. As I feared last time, I completed Mattel's "Blue." On top of that, I even got my hands on the "dinosaurs that don't appear in the movie," which are a regular feature of JP figures. Although there are a few items left to buy, I've pretty much achieved my goal! So, this time, I'm going to introduce them and reflect on the past summer and my vanished savings, but before that, let's talk about the Megalodon.

I went to see the movie "The Meg."
It wasn't the silly shark movie I feared (and secretly somewhat hoped for). The story incorporated the original novel well, and it was much more refined than the original. It followed many of the tropes of shark movies since Jaws, but there weren't many excessively bloody scenes. I convinced myself that this was because the Megalodon's mouth was simply too large, and humans would be swallowed before being torn apart. However, some shark movie fans might find it unsatisfying. The Megalodon's CG was well done, conveying its enormous size. Its color and skin texture also looked like a deep-sea shark, which was good because it wasn't just a giant great white. But to my surprise, it was almost entirely a Chinese movie. Jonas, the protagonist "rescue diver," is supported by a Chinese oceanographer and his brave and beautiful daughter. The beach attacked by the Megalodon in the climax scene is a Chinese beach crowded with an astonishing number of people.

I reread the original novel from 1997, which I had mostly forgotten. The protagonist, Jonas, is a "paleontologist," and the oceanographer and his daughter are Japanese. I was re-reminded of the power disparity between China, which has grown strong over the past 20 years, and Japan, which has faded into the background. But more than that, the original novel had this surprising scene:

In the prologue of the novel, a Tyrannosaurus attacks a herd of Shantungosaurus (as per original text) on the beach (dinosaurs from China and North America gathered in one place... where on earth is this?). The Shantungosaurus escape into the water, and the Tyrannosaurus, pursuing them, gets stuck in the sand. Then, a Carcharodon (as per original text) Megalodon, supposedly living since 70 million years ago, boldly attacks, and the poor Tyrannosaurus is eaten. To add insult to injury, in the next chapter, Professor Jonas gives a lecture asserting the survival of the Megalodon, claiming that "Megalodon, which survived the mass extinction 40 million years ago and was thought to have gone extinct 100,000 years ago, lives in the Mariana Trench," exposing the author's ignorance. (*The movie's dialogue seems to have corrected the Megalodon's period of existence.)

Even so... I want to see the time-traveling battle between T-Rex and Megalodon on screen. Even if not a Megalodon, similar giant species of mackerel sharks competed for dominance with mosasaurs in the Cretaceous seas, so pictorially, there's no problem. I really hope it happens in "MEG II"!

Thankfully, there are no figures from the movie. If there were, I would have spent a fortune again. There are several Megalodon figures, but they are hard to distinguish from great white sharks, so I arranged some diver figures instead.


The top part of (Image 1) shows a Megalodon from Favorite and a diver borrowed from the "Liopleurodon Diorama" that I briefly mentioned in the sea crocodile section the time before last. Below that diorama, the sea crocodile, Metriorhynchus, is on the bottom right. Models of jaws that are unmistakably Megalodon include a limited-edition item from the "Ocean Hunter Exhibition" introduced in New Treasure House Vol. 32, and a gashapon from the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium.

Now for the main topic. This is the conclusion of the JW2 figures. This time, for some reason, due to the sales strategy, figures of the same species, roughly the same size, and similar sculpts were released in abundance, yet with slightly different poses or gimmicks. As a collector, I had no choice but to accept the challenge. As a result, there are now 13 different types of Blue figures.


(Image 2) Blue, Part 2
In the back are prizes from Sega's crane game. Although well-made, they're too slender to look like Velociraptors. In front of them is Mattel's "Battle Damage Series," which is the most articulated and poseable this time. In the front row, from left, are "Baby Blue & Owen (Mattel)," two types of Takara Tomy gashapon "Stand Figure Collection" and "Desktop Figure," and the "Basic Figure Set (Mattel)." The two black figures on the right are Blue from the previous JW. I'd like to say they've matured and lightened in color over three years, but since "Baby" is light-colored, I can't force that connection. What a shame...

(Image 3) Rare Species
Occasionally, the JP figure series includes rare dinosaurs and ancient creatures that don't appear on screen but are rarely made into models (New Treasure House Vol. 25). This time, there are also such dinosaurs... From left, Proceratosaurus / Minmi / Protoceratops / Monolophosaurus / Herrerasaurus. The primitive tyrannosaurid Proceratosaurus also had figures from "CollectA" and the now rarely seen Chinese manufacturer "Dinosaur King." For the small Australian armored dinosaur Minmi, only "CollectA" had figures. Protoceratops is common, but I included this one because the tail's expression, resembling the "sail" on the neck of Amargasaurus, is interesting. For Monolophus, there's "Safari" and the garage kit from "SINZEN Modeling Laboratory" that I introduced previously (Treasure House Vol. 64). For Herrerasaurus, "Schleich" currently has figures, but I haven't seen any others.

(Image 4) Ceratosaurus and Ankylosaurus
Although Ceratosaurus did not appear this time, I felt a sense of familiarity when I saw it. It was indeed that red-faced Ceratosaurus that briefly poked its head out in JP3 during the scene where the phone rang inside the Spinosaurus's droppings. It's very well done. It wasn't released during JP3, and even during the previous JW, a similar Ceratosaurus figure was released, but it was a completely dissimilar toy. So, I'm happy with this Ceratosaurus.
And the Ankylosaurus. Its design evokes a sense of nostalgia. This calm demeanor is rarely seen in modern dinosaur models. It reminds me of those ancient Aurora plastic models (Treasure House Vol. 57). In fact, the leg poses are almost identical. The detail in the skin texture is also superb, making this another delightful piece.

(Image 5) Mosasaurus
The conclusion of the JW2 figures is, of course, this. The one in the back is a prize from Sega's crane game and is arguably the coolest of all the Mosasaurus figures this time. The others are Takara Tomy products: gashapon "Stand Figure Collection," "Desktop Figure," and "Ania." In the end, only the giant figure I introduced earlier was released by Mattel. This time, the Mosasaurus was a bit of a letdown. What kind of rampage will it show us in three years? I'm looking forward to it.