Review and photos by Rebecca O’Neill, edited by Dinotoyblog.
This group of ten novelty, cartoonish dinosaurs were purchased on Ebay in 2018, and don’t seem to be available anymore. Very much in the style of The Land Before Time or Dinosaurs the television show from the 1990s, they are a variety of well known dinosaurs rendered in a caricature form.
They cover all the major dinosaur and other prehistoric reptile groups. The toys are not marked with the animal names but are recognisable as probably Tyrannosaurus rex (but note the three fingers), Dimetrodon, Pteranodon, an ankylosaur, two sauropods, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Parasaurolophus, and another hadrosaur of some kind (possibly Edmontosaurus). All of them have been given rather frog-like bug-eyes.
Their bright, acidic colours and poor application of paint evoke that era of disposable plastic toys, like something from an egg vending machine or from seaside penny-pushers in seaside arcades. They are a slightly malleable plastic.
All of the bipedal ones are leaning back onto their tails in an upright and outdated posture. The quadrupedal individuals, on the other hand, have a slightly more up-to-date posture, with tails held aloft.
Most of the animals are sculpted with broad fleshy mouths, more evocative of hippos and horses than prehistoric reptiles, and notably cute!
While they are poor rendering of the dinosaurs they are attempting to recreate, cartoonish or not, they do have a certain retro, kitsch charm in their favour.
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