Jurassic World Rebirth is entertaining chaos hungry dinosaur enthusiasts in cinemas around the world, so Graham and Daniel are looking back at LEGO Jurassic World… before LEGO Jurassic World.
LEGO Jurassic World launch a decade ago in 2015, but the LEGO Group has actually had many dinosaur themes sets through the years, including some suspiciously close to the beloved dino franchise. There have been mutant dinosaurs, minifigures tracking down dinosaurs, beasts being held in enclosures… so Blocks Editor Graham E. Hancock and The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks author Daniel Konstanski are looking back at some of these prehistoric themed sets.
During their conversation, they touch on Dino Island (2000), Dinosaurs (2001), Dino 2010 / Dino Attack (2005-2006) and Dino (2012), the themes that served a precursor for the licensed LEGO Jurassic World theme that most recently launched a wave of sets tied into Gareth Edwards’ new Rebirth film.
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The pair talk about how Dino Island in Adventurers kicked off the LEGO Group’s focus on prehistoric creatures. “It kind of a set off a trend there. It was a popular subject matter,” says Daniel. “Concurrent with this we had the Steven Spielberg Movie Maker sets where they reused the Tyrannosaurus.”
They go on to discuss the LEGO Dinosaurs theme from 2001. “I think this is still the most thorough exploration of dinosaurs that the LEGO Group has ever done,” says Daniel. “There were a surprising number of different species. Styracosaurus there, is a perfect example, it’s the only time the LEGO Group has done it.”
“You can really see the limitations of just having the head and tail to reuse across different dinosaurs because these guys in the 770 sets are intended to be different dinosaurs but they are so similar, you can really see the early experimentation going on here,” says Graham.
Dino, which launched in 2012, introduced the style of moulded dinosaurs that continues today in Jurassic World. These creatures have a similar design style to the animals that exist in other LEGO sets such as the cow and the horse.
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