What is or was your first Dinosaur toy?

[Gwangi]

The first I can remember is from this set by AAA. I vividly remember wanting toy dinosaurs for Christmas, so badly in fact that I got them as an early present. I must have been around four years old.


Not my picture. I lost them decades ago.

[Roselaar]

This was my first:



Good memories. I still have it, somewhere in the attic.

[Flaffy]

My first dinosaur toy huh, I'll go for 3, my first dinosaur toy that was bought for me, my first dinosaur toy that I wanted, and my first dinosaur toy that actually sparked my interest to do serious collecting.
1) early childhood chinasaurs from Toys r Rus. There was this one particular one that I really liked, it was a deep red retro Tyrannosaurus with surprisingly sturdy plastic. It's other counterparts included Ceratosaurus, Diplodocus, Parasaurolophus etc. But of course as a young naive little kid I always went for the big old rex first.
2) CollectA Liopleurodon and Hydrotherosaurus, around that time I was older, and was absolutely obsessed with the original WWD series. Then one day I found these 2 figures hidden in a glass cabinet filled with various other CollectAs, I didn't know which one I liked more so my parents bought both for me.
3) CollectA Diplodocus. I was walking around a book store and saw this impressive (at the time, to me) model at such a low price, I just had to get it as I was interested in general biology. I decided to do more research on the figure and stumbled upon the Dinosaur Toy Blog, where I discovered a multitude of dinosaur figures worth tracking down, from large to small, obscure to impressive, and from there it just took off.
I currently have over 100 (at least) figures in my collection, and I don't plan to stop. 

[Ravonium]

For me, it was the Schleich Triceratops (the junior line).

CollectA Liopleurodon and Hydrotherosaurus

Despite that, these two figures, along with the Tylosaurus, were the ones that got me initally into collecting dinosaurs (or at least, my first era of collecting dinosaurs.


Currently, the oldest (in terms of date of purchase) figure that I have in my collection seriously is the Carnegie Deinosuchus.

[Gwangi]

This was my first:

Good memories. I still have it, somewhere in the attic.

That Dor Mei Tyrannosaurus was a great toy. I even reviewed it for the blog. I don't have the one I grew up with but my daughter just sat her's on my desk. It's the daddy T. rex.

[Roselaar]

This was my first:

Good memories. I still have it, somewhere in the attic.

That Dor Mei Tyrannosaurus was a great toy. I even reviewed it for the blog. I don't have the one I grew up with but my daughter just sat her's on my desk. It's the daddy T. rex.

Plus it has a mouth you can stick your hand in as a kid. Or put other figures in, way before the TLW Bull Rex used that gimmick.

I also had a Triceratops and Edaphosaurus of the same line at the time, but this was my favorite.

[Shonisaurus]

I remember a dimetrodon of AAA and from the mid-seventies I have some dinosaurs that came in an envelope. It was a parasaurolophus, pterodacylus, plateosaurus, triceratops, tyrannosaurus and dimetrodon if I remember for a fact that I was a child it was an unusual finding since at that time it was impossible to find toy dinosaurs. 

[ceratopsian]

I have a memory of my father buying me three model kits - a Tyrannosaurus rex, a Triceratops and a Brontosaurus.  This would have been in the 1960s and I was quite a small child.  I suppose they must have been Christmas presents one year.  He lovingly painted them for me and (to my child's eye) made a superb job.  I liked the Triceratops best as an animal but liked the paint job best on the Brontosaurus.  (I suppose it could have been a Diplodocus - it's so long ago.)  I was entranced! Sadly I don't know what happened to them.  My best guess is my ever-vigilant mother sent them to a jumble sale without asking me.  (This was a habit of hers and she did this with my "Champion the Wonder Horse" annual!)  They were the only dinosaurs I had as a child.  I think this was also due to my mother, who was very hidebound about what was suitable for girls (not the train set my father wanted to buy me!) and what was suitable for little boys.  I don't know what make the models were but the boxes had wonderful pictures on the lid (to my child's eye at least).  I was better off for books than toy dinosaurs, as I could always borrow dinosaur books from the library.  Anyway, I'm well and truly making up for the lack of dinosaur toys now much later in life!

[Tylosaurus]

Great memories everyone

The oldest dino's I have here are these from the mid 1980's







Some funny ones in there, mainly that T.rex from Imperial from 1985 is my favorite of all of those.
That is also my 2nd T.rex toy ever as well, so yeah still has lots of sentimental value in that sense.

I even gave them names too, the Edapho's name is Edward, still have no idea why I named him Edward, that name always stuck well I guess xD
Edward is from Dor-Mei from the year 1987 as where Little Rex is from Imperial and from the year 1985, kinda cool to have dino toys that are older than most people I know from Steam rofl
And then how some react as well, as in omg ! that toy is way older than me! pretty cool reactions I get from friends

The T.rex from Imperial I nicknamed Little Rex, since I had the bigger one also from Imperial like the one Roselaar posted only  the one I had was brown and apple green
Roselaar has the re-release of the Imperial T.rex
As for the blue Anky thing, never had a name for that apparently.

Gotta love the classics right, Chinasaurs or not, all cool here

[Digibasherx]

I believe it was a clear plastic bucket of KO Marx and chinasaurus from Kresge's in '86.  I always wondered why that T-Rex had an oddly shaped foot, like a stretched out open palm. 

[Shonisaurus]

And to think that some of us (at least as far as I'm concerned) were much happier with these rudimentary dinosaurs than with dinosaurs and prehistoric animals (then except the dimetrodon it was unthinkable another type of prehistoric animal that was not dinosaur) Many of them are better elaborated and detailed than we now enjoy in the market, and they were extremely cheap.


For me a dinosaur in the style of those who comment was much more exciting to have it in my hands than the dinosaurs and prehistoric animals that are commercialized today in the market. It is my sincere opinion, in my case I think I am badly used as a collector.

[Digibasherx]

And to think that some of us (at least as far as I'm concerned) were much happier with these rudimentary dinosaurs than with dinosaurs and prehistoric animals (then except the dimetrodon it was unthinkable another type of prehistoric animal that was not dinosaur) Many of them are better elaborated and detailed than we now enjoy in the market, and they were extremely cheap.


For me a dinosaur in the style of those who comment was much more exciting to have it in my hands than the dinosaurs and prehistoric animals that are commercialized today in the market. It is my sincere opinion, in my case I think I am badly used as a collector.

I think it's less of a collector's mentality and more that we were kids and didn't care for accuracy.  We wanted something at the time we thought was interesting, colourful or looked cool.  It also depends if you acquire an item for display, or for play.  I don't play with any of the models I get now, but still fiddle with some Tyco dinos on my desk.  We get more sophisticated as we get older and our tastes change (but I for one has a soft spot for nostalgia, which is why I still have a lot of vintage stuff that I treasure, but are by large redundant or obsolete)

[Lanthanotus]

My very first dinosaur was a Mini "Ursaurier" by Schleich, though I deemed it an iguana lizard when I got it for my 4th birthday (1980) amongst other Schleich Minis.



I do not know from where I got it, but a Mini Bullyland Plesiosaurus was a beloved compagnion when I was still in kindergarden. I lost it somewhere and could not replace it ever, still looking out for that figure....



The next other "real" dinosaur I can remember I got several years later when I was in school, though I honestly can't recall who gave it to me or for which reason. It was a pack of (as I know today) Marx knock offs and weird Japanese whatsoever creatures. While figures of Trachodon, Styracosaurus and such were outdated (and I deemed the Allosaurus an Iguanodon until I joined this forum in 2015), the Tyrannosaurus was a real weirdo with spindly three fingered arms, big ears and dissimilar feet (the image does not show the exact knock off figure, but it was very much like that).

[Mini Minmi]

What a strange t.rex! Those squiggly arms, those stretched toes...

I don't know the brand but my first dinos as far as I can remember were given to my sister and I by our grandmother. My sister had the diplodocus, iguanodon, styracosaurus, ankylosaurus. I had the apatosaurus, triceratops, t.rex and plesiosaur. They were quite ugly, especially the t.rex who had a terrible toothy grin and a bit of an alien face. I loved playing with the plesiosaur in the bath and for some reason was very fond of the iguanodon so I kept borrowing it from my sister.

I'll have to look on eBay and see if I can identify them. I don't recall much except their looks. I know they were hollow from their light weight and their mouths were all closed. They were very simply painted generally with just one color (two if you count the base color of the plastic).

*edited to add*
A quick search on eBay revealed the brand to be Larami.

[Digibasherx]

That's the Marx KO I was talking about. Oh the memories.

[Tylosaurus]

Lotta beauties there! Nice! \o/ \o/
Great memories guys! keep 'em com''n!

[Tylosaurus]

I think it's less of a collector's mentality and more that we were kids and didn't care for accuracy.  We wanted something at the time we thought was interesting, colorful or looked cool.  It also depends if you acquire an item for display, or for play.  I don't play with any of the models I get now, but still fiddle with some Tyco dinos on my desk.  We get more sophisticated as we get older and our tastes change (but I for one has a soft spot for nostalgia, which is why I still have a lot of vintage stuff that I treasure, but are by large redundant or obsolete)

That is exactly how 90% of the kids thought well back then maybe even today, it's an other world out there now though..
Way back in the 1970's to end 1980's we had a thing called quality and that quality is greatly lacking these days, it's more about cheap to produce for mass production, that better quality was the one thing I am seeing as a  major miss these days.

But true back then most of us dino lovers bought the dino toys simply they looked cool and the more color differences the more reasons to collect the ones that had slightly different  color variations etc.
If a Stego toy was green and black and the other was light green and purple I would of bought the other release just such differences got me  in to dino collecting I loved the dino's as they were but accuracy, didn't know what that all meant and I didn't care either never did really, it was all about looks for my doings, mainly the coolness and the strange differences the rarity and all of that came at a later basis.

** Aye a double post, didn't even realize that, sorry for the troubles :X

[Halichoeres]

I had a tub of monochromes from Toys R Us that were probably Marx knockoffs, although I could swear one of them was a Chasmosaurus. Can't be sure, they must have disappeared decades ago.

[Dilopho]

My first was the JP 3 Re-Ak-A-Tak Spinosaurus!

I still regret losing it ;-;

[Huntsman]

Schleich  (Conquering  the  Earth)  -  Stegosaurus