Noidea's Dinosaur Things

[Noideaforaname]

Hello there! I've been lurking for a while now and decided I really ought to join the fun.

Keeping this first post short and sweet: Utahraptors!



Wild Safari (1996) - a well-loved childhood toy. While I much prefer action figures to static ones, I dig how this is effectively a toy of Raptor Red.


Beasts of the Mesozoic - the kind of toy I always wish I had. For one thing, it can stand on its own two feet unassisted! 

Dromeosaurs have always been my favorite group of dinosaurs, and seeing them go from bird-lizards to lizard-birds only made them all the more endearing.

[DinoToyForum]

Welcome!

Those figures neatly encapsulate the striking change in both the appearance of 'raptors' and the quality of their toys over the past three decades!

[Halichoeres]

Welcome to the forum! That is a great bracketing of nearly three decades of Utahraptor reconstructions. Looking forward to seeing more of your collection.

[Noideaforaname]

Thanks! My collection is mostly going to be rather new or quite old since I've only semi-recently gotten back into buying dino toys.

And to further date myself:

TY Beanie Babies were a thing. Cute little collectibles and a lot of insane investment hype that sours the nostalgia....



Toothy the Tyrannosaurus sports a curious mix of feathers and a tripodal stance. It's genuinely impressive how he's actually standing and not just plopped on his butt.

The aforementioned "insane investment hype" means I was dweeb enough to keep those tags. How embarrassing. Enjoy the cutesy poems!



Tooter the Parasaurolophus -- depicted, surprisingly enough, as a quadruped. It's worth highlighting that this batch of Beanie Babies, unlike earlier assortments, make use of a variety of felt material that adds a bit of tactile appeal that's maybe not all that evident in the photos. It also helps Tooter look less like a uniform tan blob.



Hornsly the Triceratops is mostly made of a neat heavy scale fabric. Also, those aren't lips, the inside of the mouth is just oddly puff out.




Swoop the Pteranodon (heh) - his entire back side is actually green!



The bean bag buddies had their own Garbage Pail Kids-style parody in Meanies, by The Idea Factory. A bit hard these day to find any info on the line or company that isn't an auction. They covered a fair range of topics: gross out humor, puns, Star Wars, holidays, other popular toys, and even celebrities. Very much a time capsule of the late 90s.

Which brings us to.... Velocicrapper.

This hits a bit different now that we get things like Bite Club Triceratops or Hammond Collection Ellie Sattler (nevermind the poop emoji), but a defecating dromeosaur was quite a shock in a more prudish age.
Incidentally, he originally had a tag with a silly limerick, but what kind of silly billy keeps those??

And now to segue to another pair of prehistoric plushies....


Ice Age's Maelstrom and Cretaceous, from Nanco. I'm not quite sure what the original availability of these two were; I actually won them at an arcade, and their tags mention that they "may not be sold at retail."



I had always assumed these two were sea crocodiles of some sort, but apparently they're supposed to be an ichythosaur and a pliosaur? Ice Age isn't aiming for accuracy, but still, color me incredulous.

Of mild interest:

Purple's jawbone is outlined

While Greenie's rearmost digits lack a nail

[crazy8wizard]

My local museum has the Pteranodon plushie on a shelf in the prep lab!

[Libraraptor]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

[Noideaforaname]

Hammond Collection Figure from the Hell Creek Formation!


Tyrannosaurus "Rexy" - These days I'm sticking to 1/18 scale toys. The T. rex made me realize how much space this can quickly eat up!
Those eyes never not look like lifeless black doll eyes.




Tyrannosaurus "Junior" - Baby dinos are always fun additions!


And as a bonus: Tyrannosaurus "Junior" from The Lost World toyline.


DINO DAMAGE! You can dislocate its little leg, exposing a stringy bit of bone. IIRC putting on the toy bandage snapped it back into place, though nowadays it just pops back on its own after a few seconds. (Seriously, it was a challenge to take a photo!)





Triceratops - tinier than it could be, but I'm more disappointed by the lack of opening mouth.




Pachycephalosaurus - I bought two just to pose them butting heads!




Ankylosaurus - A bit surprising they went with JP/// colors over Bumpy from the cartoon or that one JW anky that valiantly fought back against the Indominus. But as someone who played like a zillion hours of JPOG, I approve!


Love the articulation, too. Might just be my favorite of the HC line.

[Noideaforaname]

October is spooky season, so this post is all SKELETONS!


A snap-together 9-part model kit Velociraptor by.... uh, I don't know. Possibly Mattel, given they released a 20-part version as a tie-in to Disney's Dinosaur:

image credit


Alas, the base that would've certainly contained relevant toy maker info has long since vanished.


Another unknown manufacturer: a Plesiosaur, originally housed in slime!
_{(or maybe I chiseled it out of a clear bouncy ball, I think it was the slime, though...)}


The black background's doing an excellent job at showing dust.


Kinder Joy Jurassic World Apatasaurus



The skeleton fits in the skin, but doing that means you only have one toy instead of two!


This batch are actually Transformers! When Hasbro redid Beast Wars a few year back, they also introduced a new set of characters called "Fossilizers" who (with one exception) change forms by completely disassembling then reassembling.


Vertebreak the Dracorex/juvenile Pachycephalosaurus. This one has a normal transformation.



Paleotrex the Tyrannosaurus


The fall-apart transformation mean parts of these guys can be used as weapons. For instance, Paleotrex's head makes an excellent mace.


Ractonite the Styracosaurus

There's a bit of leeway with how you can build the robot modes. Officially, Ractonite keeps the ceratopsian frill on its skull, but there is a dedicated slot behind his robot head to use it as a giant collar.


Wingfinger the Pteranodon (seemingly a female one, with an odd extra point in the crest)




The Fossilizers make use of universal connectors, so you can come up with all kinds of crazy combinations!

[crazy8wizard]

I've seen that little plesiosaur skeleton labeled as Cryptoclidus!

[BlueKrono]

I got that plesiosaur skeleton in slime, for sure.

[DinoToyForum]

I've seen that little plesiosaur skeleton labeled as Cryptoclidus!

That's my doing!    I labelled it as Cryptoclidus on the Plesiosaur Directory site toys page because it is definitely based on that genus, even if it was never labelled as such. Mine came in a slime egg too.

[crazy8wizard]

I've seen that little plesiosaur skeleton labeled as Cryptoclidus!

That's my doing!    I labelled it as Cryptoclidus on the Plesiosaur Directory site toys page because it is definitely based on that genus, even if it was never labelled as such. Mine came in a slime egg too.

We sell the containers of slime at my local museum but instead of an egg they're a sort of gemstone diamond cut shape. Still has the Cryptoclidus inside though.

[Noideaforaname]

Various Velociraptors


The Lost World's "Cyclops" - the faded scars, bent posture, and muted color scheme gives the impression of this one being the 'old man' of the JP raptor pack. Or perhaps he's just very unlucky - he's tagged as #13, afterall.



The Lost World's regular Raptor - nothing too fancy, just a nice generic dromeosaur to fill out the ranks. The teal throat is an interesting detail, though.


Chaos Effect's repaint of the above - a beautifully bold "Alpha" that's literally labeled #1! But as inflated as its ego is, it's just the same toy.    The belly has yellowed over the years - now it's a shade of teal not too dissimilar from the TLW raptor's throat.


Amber Collection JP/// Male Velociraptor - too bad we never got the female to pair with him

Also a shame that none of the Hammond Collection (much less the male raptor) are as nicely painted as this guy.

Well, that tear's concerning....


Amber Collection TLW Velociraptor - I do love the wry sense of humor on the packaging blurb:



Matchbox's TLW Velociraptor, from the "Garage" set

Originally it was attached to a building via a slider mechanism thing, but obviously I decided he ought to be free. He has since been living in the Milton Bradley TLW board game, having replaced one of the original raptor token that broke at the ankles.

We sell the containers of slime at my local museum but instead of an egg they're a sort of gemstone diamond cut shape. Still has the Cryptoclidus inside though.

Huh... I think that's how mine was, actually. An unusual theme for a fossil, but then again so is slime.

[crazy8wizard]

I can sort of understand the gemstone theming. Geology, mining, rocks, etc (especially in a museum gift shop.) The blue goo I can sort of understand too since it looks kinda like the sea but all the other colors is where it starts getting weird. I can't think of any good connection for a styracosaurus skeleton in purple gel lol.

[Noideaforaname]

Disparate Dromeosaurs


Primal Rage's Talon, by Playmates. There was both a regular action figure line as well as a Mighty Max-esque "Mini-Playsets." This little guy's obviously from the latter.

Notably, he has feathers! Just the 'hair', but still, pretty neat for a '94 arcade game.


No clue where this particular raptor came from, but its color scheme is remarkably similar to Megatron from Beast Wars.


Safari (1990) Deinonychus pack - the base says 1990, but I'd have likely had gotten it '96-ish.

The sloppy paint work on the mouths gives the whole pack a feral quality.


Safari (2002) Velociraptor - by contrast, this lone raptor looks rather sinister.


Extreme Dinosaurs' Haxx, by Mattel. If you've never seen the show, do yourself a favor and check out the theme song. It's the most 90s thing imaginable!


Haxx is a cyborg raptor with these gnarly attachable claws. As absolutely unhinged as this toy looks, Haxx was quite the goofy doofus in the cartoon.

A lot of the other "TMNT clones" have gotten new toys in recent years, perhaps Extreme Dinosaurs isn't far behind?

[EmperorDinobot]

Hello, Mr. Name. I am happy to see that someone else enjoys dinosaur action figures and plush. I hope you've read my reviews. I pretty much only review action figures at this point.

I have those TY plush dinosaurs. They are in a plush hamper in my room.

[DinoToyForum]

No clue where this particular raptor came from, but its color scheme is remarkably similar to Megatron from Beast Wars.

This one has definitely come up in the ID thread before, because I have it and raised it, and remember getting an answer. It's part of a mini playset, something like Mighty Max, but I can't remember off the top of my head exactly! I'll see if I can dig it out.

Edit, found it: "The company that produced the set with the raptor is called Blue Box."
The post in the ID thread: https://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=84.msg183384#msg183384

Found this pic online here: https://plastpalatset.se/nytt/hidden-adventures-dino-zone-playset-blue-box-1997-jurassic-park-knockoff

[Noideaforaname]

Oh WOW, I had that set but completely forgotten about it. Finding out this purple raptor has the same origin as the bendy tree and weird yellow-domed saucer thing buried in my desk drawers is a little surreal.

[crazy8wizard]

Oh hey, I have that little Tyrannosaurus skeleton.

[EmperorDinobot]

I have that, semi-complete, maybe complete. Came with a lot once, but I didn't know what it was. I'll be careful with the skeletons. Thought they were just dino fodder.