Deep Blue Tree? – LEGO Jurassic World Magazine, January 2022

Been a little on the slow side lately due to some pre-Christmas madness and health problems, so here at last is my somewhat belated review of the latest LEGO Jurassic World magazine, which technically is for January 2022.

The comics have become so repetitive you wouldn’t be wrong to bet money on yet another chase story, this time featuring the Dilophosauraus, Baryonyx and Carnotaurus. There’s really not much to say about the matter otherwise. It’s all so formulaic. At least this particular comic is much more colorful and dynamic than the last few times, though I feel that the rigid rectangular panels don’t necessarily support it making an impact.

The poster fits into the established pattern of the previous ones and adds one more entry to the gallery of species available in LEGO form. The alternate one on the backside also does not look too shabby, depicting one of the scenes from the comic, but nicely 3D rendered. This goes to show that if only they want, Blue Ocean can manage to crank out some decent stuff. Most of the time they’re just too lazy to invest the effort, it seems.

The extra is a rather unspectacular piece of jungle with yet another Blue in the wrong green version. It’s okay for a bit of play fun on the side, but if it wasn’t for the inclusion of the leaf elements it would look rather sparse.

All things considered, this is a bit of a letdown and by no means would I tell you to rush to your local newsstand to get it. It is okay for what it is, but does offer zero innovation and surprises nor any valuable parts/ minifigures.

Sinjin who? – LEGO Jurassic World Magazine, November 2021

The logic of the naming conventions of LEGO characters have always eluded me and while I’m willing to accept that not everyone is called Paul or Otto, Sinjin to me as a German is just a bit weird. Let’s see what the fuss is all about in the latest LEGO Jurassic World magazine.

Compared to what the theme potentially could allow, the comics in this series feel rather bland lately and this is no exception. It lacks all the dynamism I occasionally so admire in some of the panels in the Star Wars and City comics. Here’s not a single one that would come even close to that. The colors are drab, the chosen perspectives just boring like someone who never watched a good movie got to decide on them. In that lieght the ever same chase stories become even more dull.

The poster follows the same style as the last few, but I find it a bit unfortunate that they went with a green pattern. Somehow this begs for a deep, slightly darker red. this would have improved the contrast with the dark grey T-Rex and somehow I always associate it with this dinosaur species, anyway. Maybe the old Jurassic Park movies have done too good a job of ingraining it in my brain.

On to the oddly-named character and the extra we have yet another buggy/ quad like we’ve seen so many in the City mags in the last few months. Yawn-inducingly uninspired and repetitive. The character, apparently a bad guy from the Isla Nublar sub-series of the animated series is okay and funny enough wouldn’t look too bad next to the adventurer from the City magazine I reviewed just a few days ago.

Overall this is kind of a *meh* issue to me and somehow it really feels like they really didn’t make much of an effort, which sadly also in general seems the problem with LEGO Jurassic World. You know, aside from new variants of some dinosaurs barely anything really innovative. One can’t help the impression that they are frozen in place because they don’t dare exploring other venues while waiting for the next movie to come out…