Dinosaur Toy Stories

[kreativtek]

Hi guys,

I bet many of you have very interesting stories to tell about your dinosaur figures: how they'd got into your possesion, who gave them to you, who was the previous owner, and so on. Let me start with a story about my Schleich Apatosaurus from 2008 - it's rather sad, but it's a start.

I wanted that figure since I saw it on the Internet a few months ago. It looked massive and powerful - just like I'd always imagined the real Apatosaurus. The level of detail on this particular Schleich dinosaur was exceptional and promised a great fit for my collection of Papo dinosaurus. So a few weeks ago I asked my girlfriend to get me this figure for Christmas. It was retired in 2010 so she could only buy it from a reseller on Amazon. Buying it was the easy part. We were lucky and the figure would come from Germany, which is not very far away from Poland, where we live. We hoped that the Apatosaurus would be here in a few days and my girlfriend will have plenty of time to wrap it.

Weeks gone by, but there was no sign of the parcel. I got impatient and sent an e-mail to the store where my girlfriend bought the figure. They checked and replied that the parcel arrived to Poland but courier returned it to Germany after three failed delivery attempts. The funny part is that I was home during the time when he "attempted" that delivery so I guess that he just sucks at his job. German store understood my problem and asked if I want them to send the parcel again (and pay additional shipping costs) or get a refund. Something told me that one try is enough and I asked for refund. But then my girlfriend said that because she knows how much I want this figure, she will pay for postage. Therefore, happy and excited, I asked the seller to send the parcel again.

That story would end here with me waiting for the parcel to arrive if it wasn't for today's shopping with my girlfriend. She was looking for a nice shirt so we went to TK Maxx. Guess what we found? Yeah, two brand new Schleich Apatosaurues with tags and human figurines attached to their necks. Not one, but two. They cost 80 zł each, which translates into 20 USD or 13 Euro. My heart stopped when I saw them. Including double shipping costs and the figure itself, my girlfriend paid for my Apatosaurus 200 zł, which is 50 USD or 46 Euro. I feel terribly sorry for her and I am scared that every time I look at my Christmas gift, I will feel guilty.

Now, what's your story?

[pylraster]

My story is about my JP Young Tyrannosaurus. Back in 1993, my grandma took me to see Jurassic Park at the theaters. Before going home, she asked me if I wanted to buy toys. I saw this really appealing Tyrannosaur with an open wound and she bought it for me without any hesitation.

I was seven then and this was the first decent looking dinosaur I had that time. Before that, all I had were Imperial and Dor-Mei chinasaurs. Back then, it was the biggest dinosaur I owned, until it was surpassed a few years later by the Tyco Tyrannosaurus which my godfather gave me. Miraculously, despite having moved 5 houses, and completely forgetting about the toy for years, I still have the Dino-Damage wound.

Young T-rex remains in good condition. It may have suffered a few paint rubs, its stripes are nearly gone, and overall it looks much paler and dirtier, but there's nothing broken. It's still here with me, 22 years later. Reselling it is out of the question as I decided to keep it forever. My only gripe was that I lost the card that came with it.

[PaleoMatt]

Earlier this year I waited a month for a Wild Safari Ramphorynchus to arrive from Amazon... Turns out I never clicked the order button lol

[Dilopho]

This was the first toy dinosaur I ever got, and is still my favourite even if it is entirely inaccurate. To me, this figure was the boss of all my dinosaurs. No-one messed with him. He was incredibly powerful and even my mighty 8" dilophosaurus figure was toppled by him in combat.
Now I'm older I see how inaccurate it is but it still remains the boss of my dinosaurs.
Ignore the Doctor Who stuff in the foreground.

[tyrantqueen]

My story is about my JP Young Tyrannosaurus. Back in 1993, my grandma took me to see Jurassic Park at the theaters. Before going home, she asked me if I wanted to buy toys. I saw this really appealing Tyrannosaur with an open wound and she bought it for me without any hesitation.

Movies and then toy shopping? You have a really nice grandma

Back on topic, I wish I had a special toy story to share but I don't. My childhood toys were second hand and some of them were chewed and dirty. I had the JP juvenile T. rex that had its tail completely ripped off and with many bite marks (probably from a dog). I think I played with them and then outgrew them, that's it really.

[amargasaurus cazaui]

I remember years ago I purchased a Battat stegosaurus from a seller in Canada. He explained to me he was a sculpter and had also done the set of Sue and Friends for the Field museum in Chicago...when I expressed a lack of familiarity with them he found a few examples of them , boxed sets and linked me up. I purchased the set as they were cheap and the entire thing seemed rather interesting.
     Years later here I am in a forum and chance to meet the sculpter for the wild Safari line...Doug Watson...the same guy who threw me the awesome tip to get the sue and friends set all those years ago. I still have them too, and can only smile when I see people trying to find and acquire the various single pieces. They are a great set and as usual Doug is his usual helpful self !

[Lanthanotus]

My memory may enhance or even disregard some details of the story, but that's how I remember it....

2nd grade of primary school back in 1984, mother of my best friend bought a bag of some no-name dinosaurs and distributed them to him, me and several others (not sure anymore about the occasion). The dinos were relatively small, like 5 to 6 cm (or 2 to 2.36 inches for those despiteous of the metric system ) and made of some orange/yellow rubber plastic with some red paint  sprayed on (most of them just on one side). Can't really remember how many there were, but there was only one of each species. The only species I remember are an Apatosaurus (back then Brontosaurus) which was mine, and a pterosaur (think it was a Pteranodon) which was my friend's. This was the one and only pterosaur figure anyone among all of us ever had seen, let alone owned (it was many years until Dino Riders came out in Germany), so it was of high worth.

As usual among kids, these dinos and all sort of other toys, mainly figures (SW Kenner and MotU for example), were borrowed, loaned, traded and so so on. But noone could come up with an offer to move my friend giving away that precious pterosaur. For days we played with these dinosaurs during school breaks and had fun with it, but one day my friend lost his pterosaur. He notified all of us and promised some big reward for the finder, but alas, it was autumn and as usual in the "good ol' times", lots of kids had mandarins and oranges in their lunchboxes. And as kids are, they threw away those peels where they stood, so the school yard was literally strewn with mandarin and orange peels.

You may remember the color of those dinos (and even while the pterosaur was no dino) which didn't add to increase the success of our search patterns. Long story short, the pterosaur was never seen among any of us. While it may have been that someone just picked it up and kept it, it's quite unlikely that anyone of us had found it. We stack together for years playing and it would have most likely reappeared in some toy box, in a trade as precious item or somewhere else...

[Dilopho]

My memory may enhance or even disregard some details of the story, but that's how I remember it....

2nd grade of primary school back in 1984, mother of my best friend bought a bag of some no-name dinosaurs and distributed them to him, me and several others (not sure anymore about the occasion). The dinos were relatively small, like 5 to 6 cm (or 2 to 2.36 inches for those despiteous of the metric system ) and made of some orange/yellow rubber plastic with some red paint  sprayed on (most of them just on one side). Can't really remember how many there were, but there was only one of each species. The only species I remember are an Apatosaurus (back then Brontosaurus) which was mine, and a pterosaur (think it was a Pteranodon) which was my friend's. This was the one and only pterosaur figure anyone among all of us ever had seen, let alone owned (it was many years until Dino Riders came out in Germany), so it was of high worth.

As usual among kids, these dinos and all sort of other toys, mainly figures (SW Kenner and MotU for example), were borrowed, loaned, traded and so so on. But noone could come up with an offer to move my friend giving away that precious pterosaur. For days we played with these dinosaurs during school breaks and had fun with it, but one day my friend lost his pterosaur. He notified all of us and promised some big reward for the finder, but alas, it was autumn and as usual in the "good ol' times", lots of kids had mandarins and oranges in their lunchboxes. And as kids are, they threw away those peels where they stood, so the school yard was literally strewn with mandarin and orange peels.

You may remember the color of those dinos (and even while the pterosaur was no dino) which didn't add to increase the success of our search patterns. Long story short, the pterosaur was never seen among any of us. While it may have been that someone just picked it up and kept it, it's quite unlikely that anyone of us had found it. We stack together for years playing and it would have most likely reappeared in some toy box, in a trade as precious item or somewhere else...

Are you sure no-one made it into a pair of earrings?

[pylraster]

My story is about my JP Young Tyrannosaurus. Back in 1993, my grandma took me to see Jurassic Park at the theaters. Before going home, she asked me if I wanted to buy toys. I saw this really appealing Tyrannosaur with an open wound and she bought it for me without any hesitation.

Movies and then toy shopping? You have a really nice grandma

Back on topic, I wish I had a special toy story to share but I don't. My childhood toys were second hand and some of them were chewed and dirty. I had the JP juvenile T. rex that had its tail completely ripped off and with many bite marks (probably from a dog). I think I played with them and then outgrew them, that's it really.

Thanks. My grandma really spoiled me. But that's the sort of thing that grandparents usually do

I had some dinosaurs too that met their demise in the jaws of a dog. Most notable was a figure that looked like this (this one's not mine though):


(I think this is Dor Mei because I remember them having D.M. stamped on the bottom of their feet. Could be Imperial though, not sure)

It was actually my search for that figure that led me to the old DTF... and eventually here .

[LophoLeeVT]

i once had a lego i rex ordered at a korean shopping site after jw lego was retired but i faied to buy it from3 different sellers i orderd it but received a messdage that always said that it had been canceled but guess what i foud in thestore 2 weeks later/ THE LAST LEGO INDOMINUS! i bought it 10000won reduced! now i am still very happy!

[Viking Spawn]

Hmm?   My dinosaur obsession dates back to the mid 70s as a child.  I used to have plenty of the old smaller plastic dinosaurs.  But one of my favorites was a Tyrannosaurus Rex bubble bath container that I used as an action figure to terrorize my other dino toys!  Oh what times that was! 

If it wasn't dinosaurs, it was Godzilla!  In a way, they kinda go hand in hand.  Just add radiation! 

[kreativtek]

My story is about my JP Young Tyrannosaurus. Back in 1993, my grandma took me to see Jurassic Park at the theaters. Before going home, she asked me if I wanted to buy toys. I saw this really appealing Tyrannosaur with an open wound and she bought it for me without any hesitation.

I was seven then and this was the first decent looking dinosaur I had that time. Before that, all I had were Imperial and Dor-Mei chinasaurs. Back then, it was the biggest dinosaur I owned, until it was surpassed a few years later by the Tyco Tyrannosaurus which my godfather gave me. Miraculously, despite having moved 5 houses, and completely forgetting about the toy for years, I still have the Dino-Damage wound.

Young T-rex remains in good condition. It may have suffered a few paint rubs, its stripes are nearly gone, and overall it looks much paler and dirtier, but there's nothing broken. It's still here with me, 22 years later. Reselling it is out of the question as I decided to keep it forever. My only gripe was that I lost the card that came with it.

This is a great story. You were so lucky to have such a wonderful grandmother!

i once had a lego i rex ordered at a korean shopping site after jw lego was retired but i faied to buy it from3 different sellers i orderd it but received a messdage that always said that it had been canceled but guess what i foud in thestore 2 weeks later/ THE LAST LEGO INDOMINUS! i bought it 10000won reduced! now i am still very happy!

Good for you. The I-Rex set is a precious one. Have fun putting it together!

So, who's next?

[sauroid]

story 1: about ten years ago, just graduated from high school in the states and my whole family had to move to another country for some reason, i was able to bring some of my collection with us but had to get rid of the others. there was a mall in the city and was able to buy several Wild Safari and Carnegie models. that store was on the second floor and about to close down due to bad business i guess. a few weeks later, that same area of the mall got bombed by terrorists (the management claimed it was a gas leak or something on the basement but the media knew better) and the whole section was destroyed (a lot of people died). we were lucky we werent there that day.
story 2: im lucky that my dad was a dino kid himself. i got some vintage dino toys from him.

[Halichoeres]

story 1: about ten years ago, just graduated from high school in the states and my whole family had to move to another country for some reason, i was able to bring some of my collection with us but had to get rid of the others. there was a mall in the city and was able to buy several Wild Safari and Carnegie models. that store was on the second floor and about to close down due to bad business i guess. a few weeks later, that same area of the mall got bombed by terrorists (the management claimed it was a gas leak or something on the basement but the media knew better) and the whole section was destroyed (a lot of people died). we were lucky we werent there that day.

That's a hell of a story! I have a similar one involving tie shopping and the department store whose security camera helped identify the Boston marathon bombers.

[Dyscrasia]

Great stories, everyone~!


This might be a rather depressing story...

Back in 2003 when I was serving the military, my parents cleaned out my room and told me that they will giveaway or throw out most of the stuff that "I no longer needed".

I agreed without any serious consideration (keep in mind that I was a low ranking soldier that has just finished basic training back then), and as a result, they gave away most of my dinosaur toy collection.

As I was more into music and collecting music CDs, it didn't actually bother me for quite a while.

But when my love of dinosaurs came back after seeing those awesome yet extremely pricey Sideshow dinosaur statues, I started collecting again.

And at that point, I was kind of devastated that I agreed with my parents of giving away my childhood dinosaur toy collection (although a majority of them were chinasaurs, I had a decent collection of Dino-Riders, Carneigie dinosaurs/prehistoric animals, JP dinosaurs from Kenner, and also some pretty rare vintage figures). The funny thing is as my dad was a fan of the Invicta dinosaurs, he personally kept them and that is why I still have them (minus the Dimetrodon and Lambeosaurus....) 



And another short, even more depressing story: Back in 2001, a kid I knew offered to sell his entire Battat dinosaur collection to me at a very reasonable price (he got them from the States back then).
I declined his offer as my interest in dinosaurs kind of wore off during high school (and up until my mid-late twenties), and to this very day, I feel like kicking myself in the teeth for losing the opportunity 

[Komododragon]

LOL. I really don't have much interesting things to say other than I buy my dinos off of lots in ebay. I do distinctly remember, this one time, I found these dinosaurs in this picture here. https://www.flickr.com/photos/baptistecoudert/14092602062 by chance at a thrift store, and new in the original package!!! It was just a cheap bag that said "world of dinosaur" or "nature world" or something like that, and I already lost the packaging.