JPToys - News

One of the better DVD review sites on the web, DVD Review, has just posted their overall positive look at the JP 3 DVD. They've also posted a nice little behind the scenes look at Stan Winston's Studio called "Creature Features." Here's a snippet from the article: “I am in awe every time I walk into this room, just as you are now,” an energetic Stan Winston says when meeting me and a number of other journalists in the company’s conference room, which is filled with life-size creature exhibits from the movies he worked on. From one corner a T-Rex is staring at visitors, while the Terminator lets you look down the barrel of his gun. A beautiful Raptor is eyeing you as you take a seat and a gorgeous “Small Soldiers” diorama reminds us of some truly great movie highlights. But that’s not all, above it all tower creatures and monsters, filling up every available inch of the room, all of them so realistic-looking that it can in fact become frightening." Both the behind the scenes article and the DVD review itself are great. So what are you wating for...check them out! That's about it for today and what a day it's been! We'll be back soon with more so stay tuned!

Here's a little something that's not really toy related but very cool nonetheless. The company "SERIOUS USA" is offering a very unique set of what they are calling "Jurassic Park CD Cardz." Here's a little blurb from their sire describing them: "Just as Jurassic Park 3 and the entire Jurassic Park trilogy box set comes to DVD/home video - raptors and T-rex will be unleashed onto computer screens this holiday season in a set of new CD Cardz. The Jurassic Park CD Cardz, based on Steven Spielberg's trilogy, highlight the latest installment - the box-office smash, Jurassic Park 3. Fully loaded with trailer, fossil dig site, observation room, screensavers, dinosaur sound effects, and packed with info on T-Rex, Velociraptor, Spinosaurus, Pteranodon." The set retails for $19.95 and in case you're wondering they do have sets for other movies like Planet of the Apes and the soon to be released Lord of the Rings.

First off, I want to thank the over 265 people that voted in our last poll! I'm pretty sure that's the most votes we've ever had here in one of our polls. In case you're interested in the results, here's what you most wanted to see in a JP/// series 2: Ultra Ceratosaurus (50) 19% Stegosaurus (4) 2% Ankylosaurus (24) 9% Gallimimus (15) 6% Maiasaurus (3) 1% Parasaurolophus (7) 3% Carnotaurus (26) 10% Ingen Laboratory (42) 16% Aviary (24) 9% Cooper/Nash/Udesky figures (61) 23% Other (7) 3%

Out of all of those it doesn't look like we'll get to see a single one in series 2. Which brings me to my latest poll question. What are your first impressions of series 2? Are they just a bunch of re-paints and re-issues or are you just happy to have anything at all? Be sure to let us know your opinion. One more thing to mention before I let you go. My good friend Carnotaur 3 has opened his own JP toy website and he wants everyone to stop by and check it out. So stop by and give that a look and we'll be back soon with more...stay tuned!

Since Saturday most of us have had some time to collect our thoughts on "Series 2". Could we have a new series on our hands or could this just be a bunch of re-paints from wave one & two? Theses are some of the many questions being pondered right now so I thought it would be fun to post some member reactions from our forums. Here's some of what's being said: Posted by Mr_Goodbytes: "Not all of them will be repaints. I bet it will be like JP series 2 was. Some repaints and a lot of cool new ones. Also, the 2 packs won't all be repaints. There are 4 Spinosaurs and 2 Rexs listed, but there were only 2 Spinos and 1 Rex." Posted by BlueWillow: I hate to say it, but I have this feeling we're all going to be majorly dissappointed.

So as you can see the opinions are pretty much split down the middle right now. Some people think this is nothing but a bunch of re-paints while others think it may be a mixture of both. We shall see but I just wanted to put it out here and let you get a feeling as to what other collectors are thinking. Remember to keep checking back for updates because we'll post any new information as quickly as possible.

Due to popular demand and our ever increasing membership, we created two new JPTC forums over the weekend, Dino Talk & Star Wars Talk. Our goal here is to please you so if that's the new forums you wanted then that's what you got! If you'd like to join us over on the JPTC forums, you can register and be posting in just a matter of minutes. We would love to have you!

You know it has to be some pretty major news for me to have a weekend update and this time it is! If you haven't checked the toy site "Entertainment Earth" recently then you probably haven't noticed that they have what apprently looks like a second series of JP/// toys up for pre-order. While the details are pretty sketchy right now, they did provide a list of what's included in each assortment: The "Ravage Dino 2-pack assormtent #1" ($60.99) includes the following: 4x Lava T-Rex and Velociraptor, 2x Arctic Spinosaurus and Stegosaurus, 3x Swamp Spinosaurus and T-Rex, and 3x Desert Spinosaurus and Velociraptor. The "JP3 Deluxe Biting Dino Assortment #4" ($77.99) will include: 2x Jungle Spinosaurus, 1x Night Raptor, and 3x Arctic T-Rex. Also available for pre-order is an Re-Ak A-tak Canyon T-Rex ($26.99). Everything they have listed shows a release date of February 2002 but they are quick to remind everyone that that date is subject to change. While this is new information and we don't have any photos (yet) you can be sure that JPTC will keep you up to date as more info. becomes available...stay tuned! (Thanks to Jurassic Toys & Alpha Carnotaur) Also, I just finished updating Steffi's dioramas with two more new ones. You can view them in the diorama section.

Is everyone having a great turkey day so far? I hope it's going great. I think even more so than in the past that this Holiday season should remind how very lucky we are to live in a great country like the United States. There's so many things to be thankful for that we usually just take for granted like freedom and our way of life. This year we were painfully reminded just how much that freedom can cost and I think America and Americans has responded very well. Now go on and enjoy that turkey & dressing but just keep in mind how very lucky we are and God bless the U.S.A!! Now on to the news, I have for you today a couple of brand new pages of dioramas sent in by Steffi Krug. You can view them here. Remember, if you'd like to submit your dioramas to JPTC just send them as .jpg's or .gif's and email them to us at: jptoyscentral@yahoo.com.

Premiere Props has recently started their auction on E-bay for pieces of JP/// movie memorabilia. Right now they have everything from Raptor eggs to toys to INGEN license plates! Be sure to check the auction daily as they will be adding to items in the coming days. Happy bidding! One more item to pass along your way for today, Darth Maul over at Ingen Ops noticed that the toy site "Toy Bliss" is offering at %10 off cupon good for anything in their store, The offer is only good through November 25th so you better hurry!

Before I let you go today, I wanted to let everyone know that I just finished updating the links section with three new sites. Two of them you are already familiar with but one you may not be. Over the weekend I received an e-mail from Steve who has just started his own site and I must say...it rocks! He specializes in finding some of the most rare photos (in several different categories) of Jurassic Park memorabilia that you have ever seen! I was very impressed and I think you will be to. The name of his site is Jurassic Park Memorabilia and you can get to it by clicking here.

How was everyone's weekend? Mine went pretty well despite the fact that my Seminoles were pretty much destroyed by the Florida Gators Oh well, there's always next year! On to today's update. Originally I planned on updating the diorama section with a few new photos that I received over the weekend but they were sent in the wrong format so we'll have to save that for another day. I did notice that Dan posted a story by Reuters which claims that Hasbro (the makers of the JP/// toys) stocks have hit record highs and they credit the JP/// toy sales as a big factor. You can read that full story here. Also, I updated the "About Us" section with Nick's bio so that page is now complete.

According to the Jurassic Park Institute, it looks like paleontologist Dr. Jack Horner may have recovered the largest T-Rex ever discovered! Here's a little blurb from the article: "Located in Montana's badlands near Bozeman, Horner describes the discovery area as being one of the richest fossil sites ever found. Digging in sediments 68 million years old, his team has recovered five T. rex specimens, several duck-billed dinosaurs, 50 Triceratops and a variety of other prehistoric materials that include crocodiles, turtles, and leaf deposits. Such plentiful and diverse discoveries will help Horner and his team to better understand the ecosystem that existed in this area 68 million years ago, which was just three million years before the dinosaurs vanished." Very cool indeed! And a big thanks goes out to one of our message board regulars Cool_Bambiraptor for pointing it our way! You can read the full story here or click here to view the video. We'll be back soon with more...later!

That's right! If anyone out there would like to submit photos of their JP toy collections to share with everyone else please send them to jptoyscentral@yahoo.com. The only thing I ask is that you limit the number of photos to three (or less). As soon as I receive enough submissions then I'll get started on posting them. I'll keep you updated on that as things progress so stay tuned. In other site news, I wanted to let everyone know that our "About Us" page is finally up and running! I think that you'll find this a helpful little resource whether you're looking to submit a news item of if you just want to find out a little more about your favorite JPTC moderator/reviewer I received some pretty funny stuff from some of the guys so make sure to check that out.

Our good man Tyrant took some time to review the series 1 JP Stegosaurus. He was also kind enough to include some custom photos, you can read his full review here. That's about all I have for today so I hope everyone has a great weekend and hey, if you don't have a favorite college football team, why not pull for my Seminoles this weekend? We're a huge 15 point underdog going into Gainsville to take on the Gators and I have a feeling it might get ugly very quick! But I have faith and I know that I'm going to need a lot of it!

Our latest look at the JP/// DVD is out, this time from the DVD Movie Guide. As a DVD nut I can tell you that they offer some of the most in-depth DVD reviews out there and this one doesn't dissapoint. So make sure you check that out. *Update* - while surfing around tonight I noticed that Ron Epstein over at the Home Theater Forum has posted his review also. His is the most positive review I've read so far! FYI, I'm still working on getting that "About Us" page up and running by Friday so stay tuned for that. I think it will give you the reader a little more background on those that help me out behind the scenes. Also, we have a new email address for those of you out there wanting to submit news, reviews, or articles. This should help me keep my personal email and the JPTC email a little more organized.

As you can already tell (unless you're new to the site) I've decided to go back to the old site layout for now. I just couldn't get use to the new design plus I received e-mails reguarly asking me why I changed it in the first place. Well, I'm not exactly sure but the original design is back for now and also, in case you haven't noticed, JPTC is now fully searchable! This should simplfy things for those of you out there looking for a specific item instead of having to wade through months and months of archives. I hope you find this feature as handy as I do! I'm also working on a little "About Us" type of page where you can get to know us all here at JPTC a little better (isn't that a scary thought?) Look for that later on this week. There's not really any JP toy news to pass along today but I do want to encourage those of you out there that haven't signed up as a member on our message boards to do so. With the toy news lacking these days, the JPTC forums are the place to be! Signing up is easy and painless so stop putting it off and come join us!

How about this...a weekend update! Well, it is pretty early in the morning and I'm still on-line so I figured what the heck! Anyway, Dan over at Dan's JP3 page wanted to let everyone know that as part of the JP/// DVD promotion, JP special effects wizard Stan Winston will be holding a press day Monday where he will apparently field questions. Dan will apprently have someone there representing his page so if you have a question for Stan then you need to head on over to Dan's and submit it in the comments section of the story titled "Ask Stan Your JP3 DVD Questions". In other DVD news, Dark Horizons has posted a review of JP/// written by Mark A. Rivera. Click here to check it out. That's about all I have for now so have a great weekend everyone and Go Noles!

Dan over at Dan's JP3 page posted the link for the re-release petition of the JP toys. Although I was a little dissapointed when I read that he thought the idea was "silly". Oh well, at least the word is spreading quickly and hopefully we'll start seeing some results soon. In other news, another JP/// DVD review has surfaced on the web. This time from DVDAngle.com. Even though they had some issues with the video quality, they seemed pretty happy with the disc overall. Here's some of what they had to say: "Even with that said, this DVD is well worth picking up. The commentary is marvelous, and the bounty of informative featurettes and vignettes are a pleasure to experience." Be sure to check out that new review and we'll be back soon with more. Stay tuned...

Did everyone have a great weekend? Mine went pretty good. Getting to watch my Seminoles beat the Clemson Tigers 41-27 in Death Valley was pretty awesome. And to top it off the Arizona D-Backs pulled off a great win (and their first championship) in thrilling fashion. It's just doesn't get any better than a game winning hit in the bottom of the 9th to win the world series. A big congrats goes out to Arizona and their fans. To NY, you've had your fair share so it's nice to finally see someone else win it. But never count the Yankees out, I'm sure they'll get another shot at it next year. Now on to today's update. I had a hard time this morning trying to decide what to ask in our latest poll. So I decided to take a stroll over to our message boards and visit some of the "hot" topics. One of the most interesting topics I found was one asking what you like to see in a JP/// series 2? Well, I took that question along with some of the most popular choices from that thread and there you have it...our latest poll question. So vote away and we'll be back soon with more...stay tuned!

Wow, I really didn't expect to see a review this soon but hey, I'm not complaining! Peter Bracke from DVDfile.com (one of my favorite DVD sites on the web) sat down and gave us our first review of the JP/// DVD which hits shelves on December 11th. From the review you could tell that this guy doesn't know his dinos to well (he spells Pteranodon, Pteredon) so I figured that the review might no be that great. To my suprise he gave JP/// some great marks including a 4 out of 5 rating for the audio and video. Here's some of what he had to say: "Quite a jam-packed DVD in terms of soundtrack options and supplements, the quality of this 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer is still surprisingly high despite all the content that had to be squeezed onto one dual-layer disc. Jurassic Park III has a visual look somewhere between the brighter hues of the first film and very dark first sequel, and this transfer renders it very well." Boasting both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround tracks on the same disc, as you would expect, this mix ain't no walk in the park. This is one aggressive, noisy and hectic mix that is all about dino-mite! Everything you'd expect from a Jurassic Park mix is here - excellent dynamics and fidelity, with an attention to detail that is impressive. Front soundstage separation is super with dialogue firmly anchored in the center channel, and surround use is aggressive in the big action scenes. The score is also nicely spread out among the fronts, though I would have liked a bit more surround presence." His main problem seemed to be with the way that the extra features were put together and I tend to agree with him. Most of the special features are broken up into 3-9 minute pieces instead of having one big documentary (like the first two discs). That aside it sounds like an awesome disc and I can't wait until December 11th to finally get it! He also took some time to review the bouns fourth disc, "Beyond Jurassic Park" which is broken down into 3 different sections (JP, TLW, JP///) and sounds great. You can read the full review for the bonus disc here or click here for just the movie review. That's about it for now so I hope everyone has a great weekend and Go Noles!