Return to the Crackington Formation

[Crackington]

Thanks for the considered replies @Duna and J @japfeif  - getting to the bottom of the Inpros sure is difficult and perhaps impossible, but I think we're having a decent stab at it!

For this afternoon's photos, I had to dig them out of various parts of my collection as they are rather spread out. The good thing was that I was able to have a good look at them and I think it mainly bears out Japfeif's points with the "first wave" of them. Some observations:

The Trachodon doesn't have the (shall we call it?) Inpro stamp on it, i.e  the dinosaur name and 1972 Inpro Hong Kong, but I certainly had it as a kid, so was one of the originals.

Curiously, my plesiosaur just says that and nothing else, no company name, Hong Kong or China.

My Heteredontosarus, Corythosaurus, Protoceratops are all made of softer plastic, fitting in with Jeff's comment on the later issue. They all just have the name printed too (Heteredontosarus spelt wrongly as pointed out by @Halichoeres in another thread!).
We still have a mystery as to who Zodiac Toys were on the labels, perhaps an early distributor bearing in mind the 15p price tag?

Two points of (slight) disagreement, I still maintain that the plastic used for the 1972 models is not brittle. I've had a few accidents with them and they're fine, whereas drop a Starlux!

I had a "knock-need" Allosaurus until recently, which was made out of the soft plastic. I thought it was a knock off!

Anyway, great to have a chat on these old beasties, so here are some more photos from today as promised.

First, a shot from above which shows the variant colours of the Ankylosaurus and the Smilodon quite well:



A sideways shot which hopefully captures more details. Note the different paint jobs on the Pteranodon:



More soon!

[japfeif]

Thanks for the considered replies @Duna and J @japfeif  - getting to the bottom of the Inpros sure is difficult and perhaps impossible, but I think we're having a decent stab at it!

For this afternoon's photos, I had to dig them out of various parts of my collection as they are rather spread out. The good thing was that I was able to have a good look at them and I think it mainly bears out Japfeif's points with the "first wave" of them. Some observations:

The Trachodon doesn't have the (shall we call it?) Inpro stamp on it, i.e  the dinosaur name and 1972 Inpro Hong Kong, but I certainly had it as a kid, so was one of the originals.

Curiously, my plesiosaur just says that and nothing else, no company name, Hong Kong or China.

My Heteredontosarus, Corythosaurus, Protoceratops are all made of softer plastic, fitting in with Jeff's comment on the later issue. They all just have the name printed too (Heteredontosarus spelt wrongly as pointed out by @Halichoeres in another thread!).
We still have a mystery as to who Zodiac Toys were on the labels, perhaps an early distributor bearing in mind the 15p price tag?

Two points of (slight) disagreement, I still maintain that the plastic used for the 1972 models is not brittle. I've had a few accidents with them and they're fine, whereas drop a Starlux!

I had a "knock-need" Allosaurus until recently, which was made out of the soft plastic. I thought it was a knock off!

Anyway, great to have a chat on these old beasties, so here are some more photos from today as promised.

First, a shot from above which shows the variant colours of the Ankylosaurus and the Smilodon quite well:



A sideways shot which hopefully captures more details. Note the different paint jobs on the Pteranodon:



More soon!

Cool collection! I like the color variants...I'd not seen a yellow Ankylosaurus before! And the variant of the Smilodon is quite nice also...I only have the "basic" colors I think! haha

What is the dino on the far right in the first row? I can't really make that one out.

On the "brittle" thing....I maybe didn't word that correctly....I meant that the plastic was hard, much more so than the later "soft" ones. By "brittle" I did not necessarily mean "fragile". I guess I should have just left it at "hard plastic"!

I don't know if you caught this or not, but in my longer post from earlier, I accidentally implied (actually I said as much!) that "all" of the hard plastic originals were in the Chivers foldout. Obviously, that should have read "6 of the originals were in the Chivers foldout".  The point I was trying to make was that ALL of the dinos in the Chivers promo card were in the hard plastic, but not that all of the hard plastic dinos made it into the Chivers card! I probably should proofread my posts!

But yeah, I'm still thinking that all of the 1972 originals to my knowledge were in the hard (omit the word "brittle!") plastic, unless I'm wrong.

And thanks for jarring my memory....I knew that at least one of the originals didn't have the inscription but I couldn't recall which. Yes the Trachodon doesn't have that info on its body like the others. But he is still DEFINITELY in the series, as you said.

As I said, the Plesiosaurus is problematic. I've had some that had only the animal name on his belly, one that only had "China", one had the animal name and "Toyway", and one that has the animal name and "Dinocrats". A bit of a confused critter! 

[BrontoScorpio]

Here's my complete set of Inpros, and my Chivers promotional display:

I sometimes see the Plesiosaurus introduced as Inpro -
But, on other occasions as Toyway and, when ever looking for markings - it says 'Dinocrats' not Inpro.
Do you know what's the story behind the origin of this perticular Pleasiosaurus ?

OK, Let's conclude : The Plesiosaurus is NOT Inpro !

[Duna]

OK, Let's conclude : The Plesiosaurus is NOT Inpro !

Acording to one collector, Mike Howgate, in his old Dinosaur newsletter number 22 (as stated in Dinosauriana), the Plesiosaurus was part of the set. And in 1976-77 it was dropped from set. That could be proved if there would be any hard plesiosaurus with that old paint. But I haven't seen any.

As I said, the Plesiosaurus is problematic. I've had some that had only the animal name on his belly, one that only had "China", one had the animal name and "Toyway", and one that has the animal name and "Dinocrats". A bit of a confused critter!

Maybe your Dinocrats with the name is the original thing, or the one with the name on the belly (the one that says China definitely no, because Chinese versions were later). Were those other two made in a harder plastic? All 3 plesiosaurus I have have TOYWAY printed. One from Hong Kong, 2 from China.

[Crackington]

The plot thickens...so the plesiosaur could be an Inpro after all.

Wow @Duna Mike Howgate, there's a blast from the past!

Mike and his Dinosaur Collectors Club were a big reason for getting me back in the hobby back on the late 90s. Unfortunately, my run of his Newsletter starts from Issue 23! I'll post some pics of the DCC in the near future, but Mike really knows his stuff about the vintage figures, so it could be right.

J @japfeif - thanks for clearing up the Chivers promotion and for sharing your snap of it earlier. You also asked about the dino on the far right of the front row my pics. This is one of the Inpro imposters I mentioned earlier. It came in an earlier haul and at the time Duna had queried whether it was an Inpro. In hand, it's not really like one, very rubbery and in fact with a hollowed out belly, rather like some MPCs. However in photos it does have that cartoony Inpro look and who knows, if they had made a Brachiosaurus, it would look something like it:



Duna's query led me to keep it as a curio (thanks!). It's also a friendly looking critter and we need all the friends we can get!

[UK]

I've had a number of plesiosaurs in various guises including just plesiosaur as the narrative. From memory one was far more rigid and harder plastic. I might have some photos somewhere including the blue alternative version.

I'm sure when I was allowed to spend my pocket money in the 70s, they Inpro were being sold as that and not dinocrats. At that time, the plesiosaur was not included in the display box as I would have nagged for that one.

My recollections of the items for sale were T-Rex, brontosaurus, triceratops, Smilodon , pteranodon, orange ankylosaurus, dimetrodon, mammoth. The mammoth also seems to have softened from the original releases which seemed far more solid.

[UK]

Searched though some old photos. Blue and green plesiosaurs. They seem to be slightly different sculpts. Probably due to rigidity.

[japfeif]

The plot thickens...so the plesiosaur could be an Inpro after all.

Wow @Duna Mike Howgate, there's a blast from the past!

Mike and his Dinosaur Collectors Club were a big reason for getting me back in the hobby back on the late 90s. Unfortunately, my run of his Newsletter starts from Issue 23! I'll post some pics of the DCC in the near future, but Mike really knows his stuff about the vintage figures, so it could be right.

J @japfeif - thanks for clearing up the Chivers promotion and for sharing your snap of it earlier. You also asked about the dino on the far right of the front row my pics. This is one of the Inpro imposters I mentioned earlier. It came in an earlier haul and at the time Duna had queried whether it was an Inpro. In hand, it's not really like one, very rubbery and in fact with a hollowed out belly, rather like some MPCs. However in photos it does have that cartoony Inpro look and who knows, if they had made a Brachiosaurus, it would look something like it:



Duna's query led me to keep it as a curio (thanks!). It's also a friendly looking critter and we need all the friends we can get!

Ah, okay thanks. Yeah I thought it looked like a sauropod of some sort but couldn't for the life of me figure out what it could be! haha (and I like your makeshift foam rubber holder for the invicta Blue Whale...those stands are a bit hard to come by sometimes!)

As far as I have always known (and I hope I'm correct because I said so in my book!) the Plesiosaurus IS part of the Inpro line, if a bit of an oddball. And yes, I agree with Elena,  I do believe that the original Plesiosaurus is the one with the "Dinocrats" name embossed on its belly, even though even THIS guy is in the soft plastic (but not as rubbery as the "Toyway" ones). I have never seen a Plesiosaurus in the hard plastic and don't believe they ever were made that way (just as is the case with the Styracosaurus, Protoceratops, Heterodontosaurus, & Corythosaurus)

I've had several of each and all of the Toyway ones are quite soft, even rubbery feeling in the neck & tail, and are often a blue color, while the "Dinocrats" originals are more of an olive green, with just the name of the animal and "Dinocrats" present on the belly.

[Crackington]

Thanks @UK  - great photo of your Inpros, love the background too.

J @japfeif  My Plesiosaur is pretty hard plastic, but not as hard as the originals (I e. those with 1972 Inpro Hong Kong on them). It's tail is a bit bendy, particularly in comparison say with Brontosaurus.

From memory, I think as a child I had the Allosaurus, T-Rex, Dimetrodon, Triceratops, Mammoth, Smilodon, Orange Ankylosaurus (never saw a brown one back then), Pteranodon, Trachodon and Saltoposuchus. I think I might have had Corythosaurus and Protoceratops too, but my memory is hazy. I don't think I would have got any after say 1980 and like Steve, never saw the Plesiosaur back then. Doesn't mean it didn't exist though...

On another note, just wondering if all of these Inpro posts could be put into a separate Inpro thread, in the brand's section? I checked for an Inpro thread but it doesn't look like the Forum has one. I'm thinking that all of the contributions and photos etc here would be a good resource for members to find out about them and a place for people to post on them in future.

@dinotoyforum would it be possible to move these Inpro posts into a discrete thread? Not to worry if it would be too much hassle though!

[DinoToyForum]

@dinotoyforum would it be possible to move these Inpro posts into a discrete thread? Not to worry if it would be too much hassle though!

I can do, but the conversation seems to be mixed up. Which post numbers shall I migrate - a specific post and everything after it? 

[Crackington]

Thanks @dinotoyforum , it is a bit tricky as Reply 90 on Feb 6th is where we started discussing Inpros, though of course there were Timmee Toys and Starlux also commented on.

However, there is some info in the earlier posts if not included might puzzle a later reader if we started at a later post?

Could we migrate from Reply 90 but edit the first post in the new Inpro thread to add that it started from a discussion in a collection thread?

Alternatively, if we did start later, then the post where I say Happy Birthday Inpro might be a logical starting point instead (with any editing necessary).

What do you think Dr Admin?

[Crackington]

Dr Admin - on reflection, probably best to leave the Inpros pics where they are - thanks!

I think it's now time for more vintage prehistoric animal cards...we've had tea cards, we've had, erm, baked beans, so what could be next? Well, milk cards obviously!



This is a 1963 set of cards from the UK Milk Marketing Board, who were actually a large body promoting Britain's dairies back in the day.

I actually obtained a set of the cards separately a while back for more money (cards are more expensive not put in their albums, rather like unbuilt model kits), so will show these photos first:







As you can see, 25 nice bright coloured cards for the kids to collect, though no idea how they were attached to the old British milk bottles! Perhaps the milk man handed them out!

Sharp eyed members will spot quite a few Neave Parker pictures lurking among them, interesting to see them in colour!

More pictures soon!

[Halichoeres]

That's pretty good variety for a food premium! Some mammals, a trilobite, even an amphibian. Is that a Dinichthys in the bottom photo all dressed up as a tadpole?

[Crackington]

Yes that's right @Halichoeres , it is Dinicthys. The amphibian is Eryops. I think the selection gives a pretty good indication of what was well known or popular in the 1960s, albeit UK centric with Megalosaurus and Cetiosaurus. The works of WE Swinton appear to be the inspiration, which might explain Neave Parker's artwork appearing too.

Here are the cards from the back, each has some explanatory text, in line with cigarette and tea cards:



The album itself is rather bland in relation to the later PG Tips Prehistoric Animals set, which made  better use of the space to provide further information. The animals themselves are rather randomly spread out rather than placed by eras or families. The benefits of milk get an airing though!





Finally, the back of the album has a rather stencil like Stegosaurus on it.



All in all a nice retro album which can be picked up quite cheaply on eBay etc,  with a bit of patience.

[Crackington]

Time for another update from the Formation  and it's another book (will post some toys/models soon I promise!). This was a birthday present and quite an interesting one. It's a bit battered but it's a first edition of a W.E.Swinton London Natural History Museum book from 1954:



Swinton, a Scottish palaeontologist and Director of Fossil vertebrates at the museum, is an important figure in our hobby, as he introduced the Invicta models to the museum. In later life, he then did the same with the ROM models in Canada.

His books, whilst now dated, are nonetheless very interesting and a snapshot of the science of the time. He doesn't dumb down at all either though it is a popular science aimed at the general public.



The book also contains some fantastic artwork from Maurice Wilson (the artist responsible for the UK Brooke Bond tea cards upstream in the thread):





More soon!

[Crackington]

Some more snaps from W.E.Swinton's book and fab Maurice Wilson artwork. This extract shows how he didn't dumb down, though he strangely snuck a Ceratosaurus skull diagram into an earlier chapter on crocs:



Maurice Wilson seems to have set the tone for Neave Parker's Megalosaurus which appeared in Swinton's later Natural History Museum book on the dinosaurs. Curiously, artists got the non-kangaroo pose right way before the dinosaur renaissance, yet the text always makes clear it was a less advanced theropod:



I thought @Duna might appreciate this next one, thinking about her recent snap of her excellent icthyosaur models. This is a beautiful painting and my favourite in the book:



Finally, I'll finish on a curio, a picture apparently pasted into the book by a previous owner, which appears to be do with World War 2 air raid warnings. The book was early 1950s so I wonder if this early owner kept a leaflet from the war and then glued it in?

[Blackdanter]

Great stuff Crackington.

I too have collected a fair bit of paper ephemera, I love the old illustrations in those NHM publications.

On the subject of Inpro's. I was a child in the late 60's and 70's, there really wasn't much for dino obsessed kids in those days in terms of toys. Invicta you got from a visit to the NHM, Timpo's were rarely to be found in toy stores but appeared sometimes and Inpro's were sometimes available from toy shops. You could also find model kits by Aurora, Pyro and later on, by Airfix. I got my first Inpro's in the cinema lobby when 'The Land That Time Forgot' was released. The Chivers set was obviously a premium gained by collecting tokens from the jelly packets and mailing them off to the company. The Plesiosaur is of Inpro origin. It was either another premium promotion or write in promotion with the company, I'm afraid that I can't remember for sure but it's also said to have been available as a museum only item (someone on another forum who was around at the time remembers buying it at Manchester (I think) museum). As far as I'm aware, all original Inpro's were hard plastic with the re-issues and knock off's being in softer plastic. Inpro's were sold on racks like Britains animals in toy shops. I can still remember the rows of Brontosaurus on the rack in the little old fashioned toy shop I used to visit with my parents.

[Crackington]

Thanks for sharing those memories @Blackdanter - it reinforces what I think our earlier discussion revealed that the original Inpros were in hard plastic and that the plesiosaur came later and was not available with them.

Wish I could remember where I got mine from, though I well remember the toy shop in my home town selling Auroras and Pyros and me plotting how to get my hands on them!

I also remember going to see the Land that Time Forgot when it came out, Doug McClure's finest hour!

[Halichoeres]

That's a cool book, sounds like something I'd have loved if I were young at the time. I do get the impression that many science writers now (maybe always, with Swinton as an exception) underestimate their audience.

[Crackington]

Time for some dino figures and with the new Jurassic World film out, thought I'd show an interesting group of figures I collected some 20 years ago, the die-cast metal Jurassic Park figures by Kenner:





I came late to the Jurassic Park and its merchandise as the film came out before my  re-engagement with the hobby, though I did enjoy it when I saw it, I think around 1997.

These Kenner models were small, well-made and not too expensive, so they were right up my street! There were fourteen figures altogether, sold in packs of two in a blister pack. Here's some shots of them split into non-dinos, theropods and "veggiesaurs":







The figures also came with cards, here's the ones I have:





This blister card back shows the figures available:



They are still relatively easy to come by on eBay as they don't seem to be particularly sought after. Not sure why they are so over-looked, they are nice little figures.