Return to the Crackington Formation

[Crackington]

Thanks very much for your kind words everyone and @ceratopsian , I have to say there was a lot of luck involved!

I've been very busy with work lately and not much time to peruse eBay or websites - I just had a quick look at "vintage dinosaur" on eBay and there they were. The photo showed them all en masse from above and they looked like a typical bunch of cheaposaurs (no mention of Marx). Not sure what made me look further, but when I opened the item there were many photos and I thought wow, wonder if any one else will spot them!!?

J @japfeif  - thanks very much for your post too and thanks for confirming that they are Marx. Your books are on my list for future purchases, so hopefully I'll be in touch in 2022!

One thing I am wondering though, they do seem to have an unusual colour and it is the same for all 32. Do you think the original owner could have bought them as some kind of set, or did they just keep searching for that colour?

[japfeif]

Thanks very much for your kind words everyone and @ceratopsian , I have to say there was a lot of luck involved!

I've been very busy with work lately and not much time to peruse eBay or websites - I just had a quick look at "vintage dinosaur" on eBay and there they were. The photo showed them all en masse from above and they looked like a typical bunch of cheaposaurs (no mention of Marx). Not sure what made me look further, but when I opened the item there were many photos and I thought wow, wonder if any one else will spot them!!?

J @japfeif  - thanks very much for your post too and thanks for confirming that they are Marx. Your books are on my list for future purchases, so hopefully I'll be in touch in 2022!

One thing I am wondering though, they do seem to have an unusual colour and it is the same for all 32. Do you think the original owner could have bought them as some kind of set, or did they just keep searching for that colour?

Yes the color is unusual for Marx. Can't quite tell what color yours are, as all monitors see color a bit differently, but they appear to be a sort of dark turquoise green with a slate gray tint, am I correct?
While I have seen this color on occasion (I have a couple loose dinos in this color), I'm not positive exactly where they came from. From what you have here though, a few generalities can be made.

They are not original early issue figures, based on, as you said, the mold circles & other details. They are the Revised & Second Series mold groups. Even though the Marx molds have landed in many different hands over the years, the last known use of the Revised Mold Group was by Spaulding (SDC) in the late 80s, and the mold of the Megatherium from the Second Series was damaged in the early 90s (so there were no Megatherium figures present in sets after this time), so since you have a Megatherium, they certainly came about before the 1990s.

Since they represent two complete mold groups and none others (no Small, Medium, or Large), it would seem that they were all sold together and not just as an assemblage of loose figures. While it's possible that they came out of a 60s playset as some sort of anomaly, the only Marx playset that had both the Revised and Second Series dinos in it was the Prehistoric Times #3398, and they did not come out of that set (colors are all wrong). Plus, they seems a bit too shiny to have come from any of the 60s "classic era" sets anyway.

Both groups were part of the Marx re-issuance of the 70s, but again, the colors are wrong, and no 70s set produced in the U.S. would probably have had both the Revised and Second Series dinos all in the same color anyway. The molds ended up in numerous other companies after the 70s ended, and most recently in Mexico, where they are issued in bagged sets in lots of odd colors. But again, the Mexican companies don't have possession of the Revised Mold Group or the Megatherium, so that's probably not where these  guys came from either.

A possibility is that they were released in Canada in some form. Marx had branches in Canada during the 70s (and would have still had the Revised Mold Group and the Megatherium mold), and oftentimes the Canadian folks would use odd colors for their figures (possibly to help distinguish them from their American counterparts), so it's possible these guys did come from Canada.

Sorry not much more help, unfortunately I'm more sure of what they AREN'T than what they ARE!.....every once in awhile an enigma pops up that is just a bit of a stumper! :-)

Great find though! Congrats on a cool purchase!

[Crackington]

Thanks very much for your thoughtful answer. Canada would fit with the T-shirt bag they were wrapped up in, although I appreciate that's only circumstantial evidence.

They are a very dark green colour, the flash on my phone makes them look lighter in my photos. The mammoth and the megatherium are in some shade in the first photo and are probably closest to their actual colour in the flesh.

I do have quite a few other Marx figures by the way and I think the only ones I need now are the Kronosaurus, Cynognathus, Hadrosaurus and the pot bellied Rex. This group got me the Parasaurolophous and Megatherium, so gradually getting there!

[Halichoeres]

Those are a great find! They look good in that color individually, and all together like that they're very striking. Congrats!

[Crackington]

Bit belated, but thanks @Halichoeres!

Next up, here's the 1972 Prehistoric Animals Brooke Bond tea card set I'd promised to feature in the thread earlier.



I have fond memories of collecting the tea cards as a small child. With an army of aunts, grandparents etc supplying them I was able complete this and other albums, as well as have doubles to swap.

Although the tea cards were aimed at kids, what's great about this one is that it doesn't talk down to them. Dr Alan Charig, a paleontologist from the London Natural History Museum, wrote the text, which is superior in my view to many of the more expensive books aimed at introducing kids to the science in the 1970s:



Charig was obviously on top of his game as many of the artist Maurice Wilson's theropods are in the modern pose, not the typical 1970s kangaroo pose. However, this album came too early for feathered theropods:



The album also covers other prehistoric animals and contains much other information on the history of paleontology and evolution:



The set is pretty well known among dinosaur collectors and is reasonably priced and available on eBay, at least here in the UK. I'd recommend it to members who like other memorabilia as well as models.

[Halichoeres]

These are very cool. They remind me of the Panini animal sticker albums they had in supermarkets when I was a kid. No tea included.

[Justin_]

I remember these cards from the playground at primary school, and managed to get a full set of loose ones from eBay a few years ago. A lot of the reconstructions are far more dynamic than in the books I had back then, but also the modernistic, almost slightly abstract style is quite unique. I'd love to know what size the original artwork was done at

[Crackington]

You must be of similar vintage to me @Justin I remember swapping PG Tips cards at school too, this one and later albums like the wildlife one. 

That's a good point about the artwork. The artist was one Maurice Wilson, but I bet he didn't paint at the tiny size of the cards. Hopefully the 50 original full size paintings will still exist somewhere, it'd be great to see them!

@Halichoeres - yes they are a bit like the Panini cards, but a bit smaller and not stickers. The text in the album for each card is also on the back of them, so the cards were informative even if you didn't have the album.

[Gwangi]

I see the Cryptoclidus there, I've always loved that particular painting.

[Crackington]

Yes that's a great painting isn't it @Gwangi .

I did a bit of digging into Maurice Wilson and he was a highly respected wildlife artist who also focussed on prehistoric animals.

I found a really nice story on him on the London Natural History Museum website about his Neanderthal family painting, which I recall seeing in a book many years ago, but not sure which one (not the one mentioned in the article).
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/natureplus/community/library/blog/2012/07/06/my-neanderthal-heritage-memories-of-maurice-wilson-1914-87.html

Will keep an eye out for his books and art in future. This makes the PG Tips album even more worth having.

[Crackington]

My patient mining of the old dinosaur toy seam on eBay etc has led to another find, again at a reasonable cost. An interesting group of Inpros in very good condition and Timmee Toys, which I didn't yet have in my collection:





There was also a nice surprise in the package which was not in the eBay photos or description, a pristine Starlux Diplodocus in original pose:



I'll provide more pics and info on them soon, it was an interesting haul.

[Shonisaurus]

I congratulate you, above all, that vintage diplodocus is for me the most attractive figure of the Starlux group, it is an ancient brand of capital importance for every collector.

[Crackington]

Thanks Shoni, yes it's a beautiful figure isn't it, and a complete surprise as it wasn't listed in the auction. Here's a better snap:



I did come across the figure before and gave it to Mrs Crackington as she took a shine to it!

This was an interesting purchase for me as there was also some packaging included for the Inpros and the Timmee Toys (more later).

I used to have Inpros as a child and liked to play with them, but although I had quite a few, I can't remember where I got them (presumably with my pocket money), or how they were packaged. This group also came with cardboard labels and plastic bags:



The labels state that they were made exclusively by Inpro for Zodiac Toys, presumably the distributor, but in smaller letters it says set B, C, D etc. I wonder if they were sold in pairs? Do other older members recall actually buying these back in the day?

[Duna]

Oh, you were very lucky to get that Inpros and specially the Saltoposuchus, that is one of the rarest and most expensive by far. Its price could be 5-6 times the others.
Sorry, I don't know that brand, I only know the Chivers, Dinocrats ... but not Zodiac toys. I have read the first were sold in cards in single pieces, and also loose (without cards, from a box you chose one) and then they were sold in bags.

Congrats for that pristine Starlux diplodocus. You have a nice gem there, in fact the grey version of the first version of that figure is rarer than the blue-green one. And their paint is damaged easily, as their skin is very smooth. It's a nice thing to have found one in such a good condition. My favourite is the grey version over the blue one, it looks more realistic (probably the author thought that, too).

[Crackington]

Thanks for your kind words @Duna and for the information on the Starlux Diplodocus. I've been really fortunate with my recent finds.

After losing all my original dinos in my teens (booh!), I was able to find many when I started collecting again in my 30s (hooray!). One of the first lines I re-collected were the Inpros and I managed to get all of them, including the Saltoposuchus, Brontosaurus and the is it or isn't it an Inpro, Plesiosaurus.

As I have doubles, I'm selling some on eBay now (please see my Swaps and Shops thread if anyone is interested).

Away from grubby hawking now, here's the snaps of the Timmee Toys from the same lot, which I recognised thanks to J @japfeif's excellent book:



The group did contain the cavemen, but also three other ones which were painted. Does anyone recognise these Lilliputian Cro-magnons?

They also had some original labels, Mammals of the Prehistoric Age:

[japfeif]

My patient mining of the old dinosaur toy seam on eBay etc has led to another find, again at a reasonable cost. An interesting group of Inpros in very good condition and Timmee Toys, which I didn't yet have in my collection:

Excellent find! Congrats! Especially on landing the Saltopusuchus, very rare, only available I believe on the Chivers foldout promo cards (as was the Trachodon), easily one of the more expensive of the Inpros!
And congrats on the bonus of the Starlux Diplodocus as well!!!!!
Thumbs up!!!!!!!

[Libraraptor]

Wow, an Inpro Saltoposuchus!

[Shonisaurus]

Nice additions of dinosaurs from Timmee Toys I congratulate you.

[Crackington]

Thanks very much guys, appreciate your comments.

My duplicate Saltoposuchus is actually up for sale  with the other doubles, so here's s cheeky plug:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Inpro-1972-Toy-Dinosaurs-x7-including-rare-Saltoposuchus-/255373547901?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0

[Crackington]

Following that cheap plug, I think it's time to refocus on the collecting and with the appreciation being shown to the Inpros, I think we can do a bit more for them on their fiftieth anniversary!

Here's my tribute to the "Controversial opinions on dinosaurs" thread (retro-phobes look away now):

INPROS ARE COOL!

How, I hear you ask, are these cartoon like ancient toys in any way cool? We'll here's my argument:

- Inpros were original sculpts and didn't just copy Marx like many of the other 60s and 70s toy lines chose to do. They also snuck in rarely produced species, then and now, like Saltoposuchus and Heteredontosarus (first company to do them I think).
- They were quite accurate for small toys aimed at kids. No screamers here. The Styracosaurus has the correct number of spikes (6) and the Pteranodon has pycnofibres, the first mass produced toy to do so I believe. It's 1970s peers by Aurora, Airfix and even Invicta failed to do the same, so credit to Inpro for that.
- Inpros were thus brave and innovative and further evidence is the Smilodon - no Charles Knight colouration for him, they chose a brown colour. As a kid, fresh from seeing Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger I thought "that's not right" - but now I see it as a courageous decision.

They are tough and eminently collectable, so let's raise a glass and say, nay shout:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY INPRO!