A Dinosaur Called Barney, Sumo Wrestling in Arenas and CD-ROM Stack Up as Some Big ’93 Trends

Looking at this raw, fresh new year, there are two things you can go to Vegas on:

First, at some point during 1993 you will feel as though you’ve fallen back 200 million years into the Mesozoic Era and, second, the image of a big, fuzzy, purple dinosaur named Barney will be slam-dunked into your consciousness.

And there’s more to look forward to in the realm of pop culture. This year will bring religious imagery back to the world of fashion accessories, hip-hop and grunge to the palaces of high style, funk and bump to the heartland and Sumo wrestlers to arenas everywhere.

How do we know his? We asked experts in a variety of popular realms to analyze data, markets and trends and then forecast--OK, guess --what would be the rage in 1993. Herewith, in no significant order, are their predictions.

Dinosaurs Will Be Bigger Than Ever

Mix recent news reports of dramatic finds such as the Utahraptor with the June release of Steven Spielberg’s film “Jurassic Park,” and half the global population may well learn to spell Tyrannosaurus rex. Museum directors, science teachers and merchandisers expect interest in the reptilian creatures to reach Elvis-like proportions in coming months.

“We’ve gotten more inquiries, more phone calls on (“Jurassic Park”) than any film we’ve done before,” says Marvin Levy, a marketing consultant who has worked with Spielberg since 1977. “We anticipate this being big all over the world.”

The film, an adaptation of Michael Crichton’s novel about dinosaurs and DNA experimentation, looks at what happens when a flesh-eating theropod pops up in modern times. The subsequent carnage will hold steady at a PG-13 level.

Sales of merchandise--ranging from T-shirts to video games--promise, however, to be nothing short of obscene. Fast-food chains have already lined up promotional tie-ins, and toy makers will have full lines ready for the summer.

One dinosaur that gained momentum moving into 1993 is Barney, a syrupy-sweet T. rex that sings along with a green Triceratops named Baby Bop in videos and in a PBS show and blows out of toy stores faster than retailers can reload.

Nobody can nail down exact reasons for Barney’s popularity among young children. All analysts know is that parents are expected to acquire $200 million in Barney paraphernalia (toys, bed sheets, lunch boxes, board games, videos) this year.

“Most adults just started hearing about Barney about a month ago,” says Sean McGowan, a toy industry analyst in New York.

“I guess the appeal is the cuddliness of the thing. Who knows? The TV show (‘Barney and Friends’) is badly made. It’s just a stupid-looking dinosaur--a person in a giant dinosaur head--on a set with a bunch of kids lip-syncing songs. But the thing is turning into a phenomenon. It’s crazy.”

The official Barney Fan Club recently began picking up more than 10,000 members each week.

“He’s becoming a cult thing,” says Jodi Levin, communications director for Toy Manufacturers of America, a New York trade association.

“It’s better that young kids adore Barney than Axl Rose,” adds Bob Solomon, chairman of Dakin, the maker of the stuffed dino toy. “He’s refreshingly naive and innocent.”

Barney or No Barney, Innocence Will Not Sweep the Toy Market

Solomon’s company also manufactures and distributes stuffed versions of Ren and Stimpy, the scurrilous characters from Nickelodeon’s cartoon series, which, experts say, will continue to grow in popularity this year. Solomon also expects Ren and Stimpy toy sales to be brisk.

For the uninitiated, Ren is a whacked-out chihuahua and Stimpy a plump cat that looks more like a cross between a Great White shark and a bulldog. In day-to-day adventures they encounter predicaments--like a battle against head lice--and often resort to violence.

“If Rocky and Bullwinkle had actually dropped acid, this is what they’d be,” says McGowan. “Some of it’s controversial. Like, one time Ren retched up a hairball. A lot of viewers weren’t too thrilled about that. But it’s real popular with college-age males.”

The Home Video Camera Will Continue to Be a Force in Television

For people who are entertained by videotapes of horses sinking in mud swamps, adult men losing their trousers in wind storms and bungee jumpers disconnecting from their bungee cords, this will be a tremendously engrossing year.

“Reality-based stuff will be hot,” says Tobie Pate, vice president of broadcasting and promotion for KNBC-TV in Burbank. Although decisions on fall schedules will not be made until later this year, programmers predict even more of these shows on the air.

Advertising Will Take You One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Be prepared to be asked to relive your personal good old days and then to pay for that feeling. Analysts say advertisements will take audiences back to emotional highs of yesteryear and inform them that a product can reproduce that feeling.

“Advertisers will want to associate an emotion with a product or service,” says Bill Nimtz, president of Clayton Quorum, a Wilmington, Del., ad agency.

“Motorcycle companies will ask viewers, ‘Remember the thrill you had when you rode a bicycle for the first time? You can have it again with a Honda, or whatever. Remember your first kiss? You get the same thrill with our brand of pomegranate.’

“It’s not rational; it runs much deeper. The ads will tell viewers or readers that it’s not just how you’re going to feel, but remind you how you used to feel. That’s powerful.”

You Will Be Able to Dress Like Nirvana, Garth Brooks or the Fly Girls

If freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose, the fashion industry has gone bust. Freedom is the fashionable word for ’93.

“It’s all about options now,” says Elizabeth Saltzman, fashion editor for Mademoiselle, a magazine for 20-ish women. “There’s not one attitude. It’s like, ‘Who gives a damn? I’ll do what I want to do.’

“You can have big hair, long hair, short hair, no hair. Fashion is a complete mix,” Saltzman adds.

One reason for the diversity, experts say, is the Balkanization of popular music. What’s perceived as cool can fall into any of many categories: rap, hip-hop, rave, rock, house, metal, speed metal, grunge, country, jazz and on and on. Even Islamic rock--called rai --has a following.

“All types of influences will come in,” says Michael Tomson, president of Gotcha Sportswear. “They will come in and become a part of the mosaic of youth culture.”

Tomson says that pocket-trends, like the grunge look, will be hot but that nothing will launch into a singular rage.

As for accessories, the big one this year will be chunky, earthy wooden beads.

“Love beads, religious beads (from Eastern religions such as the Hare Krishna), peace beads, beads that go to your knees and chokers all will be hot,” Saltzman says.

Hip-Hop and Grunge Will Run Headlong Into the World of Architectural Digest

Designers say the caldron of fashion is sloshing over to the realms of design and style.

“I see in hip-hop an unconventional approach, a whole mixture of things, but there’s almost something nostalgic about it,” says Van-Martin Rowe, an architectural and interior designer in Pasadena. “It’s not just out with the old, in with the new.”

Practically speaking, the hip-hop influence translates into brighter colors and a mixing of styles.

“There’s a new movement in interior design of mixing old with new, Japanese with Mexican, pieces of folk art with something your kid made in school,” says Rowe. “It’s a cross-pollination of things. No one’s slavish to one thing or theme.”

Because of the economy, Bryan Murphy, an interior and architectural designer in Santa Monica, says people will continue to spend less on big-ticket items and look for alternative ways to look at their habitat. He is an advocate of “ad hoc-ism,” taking materials out of context and making them useful.

“We shop in the reject pile and make it work,” he says. “You take something discarded and put it on a pedestal. It’s nothing mother would have done.”

Charles Atlas Will Meet Bobby Brown

Physical fitness in L.A. clubs has evolved from bounce-till-you-drop aerobics to low-impact and step aerobics to funk and bump jam sessions. Some aerobics classes look more like a scene from a P.M. Dawn concert than a traditional workout. This year, jamming will invade the entire country.

“Everyone wants to do it because it’s more fun than the Stairmaster,” says Liz Brody, associate editor of Shape magazine. “Instead of aerobics, pushups, pulse checks, you just bust loose for an hour. You sweat and learn to do hot moves.”

For the last couple of years, Reebok has pushed step aerobics; now the shoe company is promoting its new funk fitness program called City Jam.

“We’ve seen this whole theme for a couple years,” Brody says. “But when a big company like Reebok gets behind it, you know it will take off. There will be videos, clothing, shoes, and they’ll have a big tour. It will be hot this year.”

American Sumo Wrestlers Will Burn Fat as They Flabbergast the Nation

If you think you might enjoy watching snarling 400-pound men repeatedly slamming their stomachs into each other around a small mat until one falls down, you’re in luck. The American Sumo Wrestling Tour, featuring present and former NFL linemen, starts on Jan. 29 at the L.A. Sports Arena and actually expects sellouts in large arenas nationwide.

“There’s a lot of awareness in this country of Japanese Sumo,” says Bob Labat, the tour’s vice president of operations. “The hottest-selling Nintendo video game in the U.S. is a Sumo wrestling game. In Minneapolis, there are bars that show Sumo matches from Japan. Also, people--including women--will be interested in seeing the NFL players up close.”

The wrestlers will bump bellies for $1 million in prize money.

“There will be music and entertainment,” Labat says. “But the matches will be real.”

‘Man From U.N.C.L.E.’ Gadgets Will Reach Everyman

Video phones, combination watches/pagers, palm-top personal computers, hang-on-the-wall fax machines, pay-per-view satellite TV (with miniature satellite dishes) will be up and running for consumers this year.

One of the innovations expected to have a dramatic impact is CD-ROM, which is short for compact disc-read only memory. CD-ROM enables consumers to place information, like color photographs, on discs and then view the photos on a television or write copy around them on computer for use in a family album, greeting cards or in writing letters.

It also stores interactive video games, which allow players to change the story line as they play. It has a three-dimensional capability as well as sound quality that compares with CDs. All vital for the hard-core Nintendo generation.

“CD-ROM delivers stunning levels of performance and flexibility at low prices,” says Perry Solomon, president of High Technology Distributing in Van Nuys. “It’s positively stunning.”

“The amount of information needed to create that environment couldn’t occur on a floppy disc,” Solomon says. “CD-ROM creates virtual reality.”

By Dec. 31, 1993, we’ll know if we like all that better than Barney and his huggable pal, Baby Bop.