SPANISH vintage dinosaur collections from 50s to 90s (a few MORE new!)

[Duna]

Hello,

I finally decided to share with you everything I have learned about Spanish vintage dinosaurs, from the first ones in the 50s to the collections that showed up with Jurassic Park (1993), until 2000.
Please take a sit and enjoy this little journey.  CLICK ON THE PICS TO ENLARGE, if you want


JECSAN
JECSAN made the first Spanish 5 dinosaur figures in 1959, they were part of a set that was called "Animales Antidiluvianos". It's very special as it should be spelled "Antediluvianos", but "Antidiluvianos" was mispelled. In the box set also came 7 prehistoric men. The dinosaurs were made of hard vulcanized rubber that it's very fragile and very beautifully hand painted. Sadly the paint in most cases has not resisted well the pass of time and the rough play and it's very difficult to find figures in good condition.
What makes this collection so special appart from the age, is that while there may be a little influence by Burian style in some figures, the sculpt is unique and very well done for that time. And more, they are quite large and painted, while most figures from the 50s were made of monochrome plastic and smaller.
The dinosaur figures are so coveted that most go easily between 80-150€ each even in very bad condition. There is a set of only the 5 dinosaurs now on sale listed at 1000€. A complete set with the box would probably go for several thousands, but that would be amazing to see because I've never seen one on sale.
Here you can look at some pictures, they are not mine (credit to the authors from Todocoleccion and soldadosdeplastico.blogspot).


http://soldadosdeplastico.blogspot.com/2018/10/jecsan-antidiluvianos.html






About 30 years later, the manufacturer that bought the molds reissued only two of the dinosaurs in monochrome plastic: the triceratops and the tyrannosaurus. I know nothing more about how many were made and if they were distributed in other places apart from the supermarket chain that gave some of them away as special prizes. I wonder also why they didn't reissue the rest of the dinosaurs ... a mystery ....
I have been so lucky to own one dark green tyrannosaurus, (I got it as a prize in that supermarket when I was a child), and this year, I got three more: one light green marbled tyrannosaurus and two triceratops, one brown and one brownish red. I don't know if there are more colours but probably not as these are the only ones I've seen. The two molds seem to be in perfect condition despite the long time and the plastic material looks like the perfect choice.
They are quite large - the tyrannosaurus is a bit taller than the Papo velociraptor - and the sculpt is amazing and very detailed, the tyrannosaurus' teeth are individually sculpted and the head is a beauty. There is a lot of detail in the triceratops skin, too
So according to some collectors these two reissued plastic figures seem to be more rare than the hard rubber originals and there are none on sale but for a recently listed light green Tyrannosaurus on eBay, and that's the first I've ever seen.







LAFREDO
Unlike Jecsan, most of the rest of Spanish collections are not original in their sculptures. And in the 50s-60s, LAFREDO collection of 6 dinosaurs was released. And ... surprise! Yes, they look exactly like the British Cherilea, because they were produced under the license of it.
They are as coveted and as expensive as them, and the condition of most of them is similar, most have not aged well.






MONTAPLEX DINOSAURS
From the 60s to the 80s, there was a toy that was inexpensive and all Spanish children loved. These were surprise paper envelopes with small plastic figures inside attached to a mold, from a lot of different themes (mostly military and battles, boys and girls interest, sports, animals and of course, dinosaurs). There were four or more Spanish brands producing them, but the most famous, and from whom they have got the name, were "MONTAPLEX" by "Española de Juguetes S.A (ESJUSA)". They were extremely popular but disappeared in the 80s due to the most restrictive security standards for children toys. They were very cheap and above all, what made them so popular was the illusion to buy a new envelope and discover what it contained (because you didn't know until you opened it). And then, imagination to play for hours! I was born too late for these collections, but they are part of our history. The most known are of battles, soldiers, far west ... (but most were lower quality copies from other brands, mostly Airfix).

The Dinosaur set was called "Animales Prehistóricos" and contained 9 figures that were smaller hollow copies of the AJAX with a slightly different texture as bumps, lines and a "caveman" with a spear (that was indeed the "Tarzan" from the Airfix set). The set contains a complete "colada" (maybe in English we can say "mold" or "matrix") of the 9 figures attached to it, and you had to twist and free them. The colors varied, you could get that set in almost every color you imagine: red, yellow, pink, white, brown, blue, green ... As in Marx sets, the whole mold was of the same color as it was made at once from the same plastic.
There was a later "Dinosaurios" edition, the last Montaplex to be released in the 80s, but the artwork is much better in the previous "Animales Prehistóricos", a piece of art, literally. The two artists that drew and hand painted the artwork of the envelopes were one of the best I have ever seen. They were given free way to design whatever they wanted. I highly recommend to search for Montaplex artwork in Google.
The envelopes and the figures are difficult to find nowadays but not too expensive.




Here you can see the comparison between the original AJAX and the Montaplex. They are smaller lower quality copies and some of them are hollow.



EL CIGARRAL DINOSAURS
And other lovely very retro looking original collection are El Cigarral dinosaurs. These are true original sculpts and very good ones indeed. El Cigarral is a Spanish premium cheese company that in the 80s gave for free by buying their products a little package with 7 miniature "dinosaurs". There are 10 in total and 4-5 cm long. I've got two original packages and a few more spares. The rhamphorrynchus is the rarest by far. They were made of very hard indestructible plastic that floats in water and came in 6 different colors (beige, dark brown, dark red, dark green (and other two different shades of green), dark grey and light grey.






The species choice is a gem for us collectors.
First row: tyrannosaurus, iguanodon, ornithomimus, anatosaurus, triceratops.
Second row: stegosaurus, tylosaurus, megalania and rhamphorhynchus.


NILO
There's very little information about this Spanish brand from the 80s. The tiny figures are charming, wrinkled and very retro looking. The brontosaurus, tyrannosaurus and over all, pteranodon are probably inspired in Funrise. I know nothing about them, not even how many are in the collection. These are all I've managed to get.







DUNKIN (BOOMER chewing gum)
Dunkin was the first in giving away little plastic figures as soon as in the 50s inside a bag with a piece of chewing gum, so now everyone calls with this name all the different collections of mini plastic figures even in other countries. "Dunkin" figures are highly appreciated. The dinosaurs came out in the 80s and I think they were prizes from Boomer chewing gum (but everyone calls them Dunkin dinosaurs), and didn't came in a bag with the gum, but as prized winning stickers. The collection had 12 mini figures made in a shiny metallic plastic in 4 colours (purple, pink, gold and green). The detail of the figures is superb despite its small size.
The designs are quite original (and still outdated) but the Pteranodon is obviously inspired in Marx and others in Topps dinos. I suspect that these were manufactured by YOLANDA.
There are a lot of interesting species, I highly recommend this collection. 



The species are from back to front and from left to right:
Teratosaurus, ceratosaurus, hadrosaur, diplodocus
Parasaurolophus, tyrannosaurus, allosaurus, stegosaurus
Ankylosaurus, pteranodon, dimetrodon, triceratops
The four bipedal carnivores are easily confused between them.


MATUTANO "Kaijus"
These lovely figures were promotional products for Matutano, the snack company, probably at the end of the 80s or the 90s. I don't know how many are in the collection, but as they are numbered, at least I know the itchyosaurus has the number 14. Some of the sculpts are similar to some Hong-Kongsauruses from that time. The figures are made of soft rubber, not hard plastic and look very interesting and collectionable, anthropomorphic and retro looking. I myself had the diplodocus, but didn't know where it was from.



These very same sculptures in a vintage greyish-green rubber were given away also by Chupa-Chups, the famous candy company. Please check Snertus eBay seller for a closer look of a few of these.



YOLANDA
YOLANDA was a company that made rubber and hard plastic figures and most of them are highly apreciated. About the end of the 80s, YOLANDA company was bought by COMANSI, another Spanish and world famous toy company that now still rules the market of rubber figures and other toys. That's why a sticker with the COMANSI logo and slogan was placed on the packages of 1989 dinosaurs, although the stamp on the figures' bellies says YOLANDA 1989 M.S.C.V.V. (I have no idea of the meaning of those letters).

One of their first "dinosaur" figures were the very popular "DINOSAUCERS" from the animated TV series. They were released in 1988 in monochrome metallic plastic in four colors, the complete set consisted in 6 figures. These (or at least that's how I got mine) were given away inside "Dinosaurus" cookies.




Now I must talk about the cookies, too. The name is "DinosaurUs", not "Dinosaurs", in a clear way to make it easier for Spanish to pronounce. They were first made in the 80s by LU (from Danone group) which sold the brand to ARTIACH (another famous company that is over 100 years old). The design of the figures and the package followed the typical artwork from the 70s-80s. The original cookies are still being made with their 5 exact original molds from the 80s along with many other new products. I loved the Protoceratops, I remember how my cousin and I fought over it (though it tasted the same as the others, of course!). 



The package from the 80s and the actual.


DANONE PETIT SUISSE "DINOGOMAS"
Another collection I myself played a lot with and I couldn't forget to mention. Petit Suisse was a creamy sweet fresh cheese based on a French recipe of two flavours, natural sweetened and strawberry from the famous dairy company DANONE. Probably you can't find any Spanish adult that has not grown up without them.  In the 80s they gave away a collection of 4 erasers called "Dinogomas" ("goma de borrar" meaning eraser in Spanish). I still have my 3 figures, intact.
There are a lot of interesting curiosities about this collection: Dimetrodon, Pteranodon and Diplodocus are the same sculpts as Ajax, but Tyrannosaurus has a different sculpt. Dimetrodon was mispelled for DimetrEdon. The information in the cards has a lot of inaccuracies as: diplodocus "lived mostly in the water to escape from the tyrannosaurus attacks", who itself "hunted diplodocus", and pteranodon had bare skin. The artwork is very nice, typical from the 80s and I've left the best for the end: the front side of the cards of the four figures when put together display a bigger image. You can have a look at it in this webpage.. Danone Petit Suisse changed its name about more than two decades ago and now it's called "Danonino Petit Dino".





Yolanda 1989 and Cabosaurios
They released a quite chunky collection of a very free and retro interpretation of "dinosaurs" made of heavy rubber. There were 9 in the collection (pteranodon, deinonychus, brachiosaurus, and the rest (6) were also promotional articles of a processed meat company called CABO. These 6 were so called Cabosaurios. You got one Cabosaurio for free by buying "a piece of salchichón, chorizo or similar. The figures are quite big (17 cm) and heavy with some color variations as you can see here.
The "Cabosaurios" are: Apatosaurus (or diplodocus, I'm not sure), Tarbosaurus, Tyrannosaurus and Stegosaurus. The tarbosaurus is smaller than the T-rex and has a longer snout.
The non-dinosaurs are: Uintatherium and dimetrodon. The Uintatherium is really nice and the dimetrodon may be something like a hybrid of Inostrancevia and Dimetrodon with human hands. 




This is the original package (pics are not mine, found them in todocoleccion website, so the credit is for the authors). In the back there was a short piece of information about the species.




The other 3 dinosaurs are very rare, there are only a few in collectors hands and the 1989 Pteranodon is the rarest of them. I have only the brachiosaurus and the deinonychus.




This three rare figures but in a slightly smaller size were released in 1992 as official Jurassic Park/Amblin products along with a lot more of new sculpts, making 12 in total. Most of them didn't appear even in the first or in none of the movies, so they made very interesting choices. They were colourfully painted.

There were 3 different YOLANDA Jurassic Park collections:

- 1992 Yolanda Jurassic Park/Amblin key rings:
There were 12 figures, a lot of them. 6 of them based on the Jurassic Park film dinos, but with their own "touch". They are "muscular" and brighly painted, and in spite of their clown feet, most of them have standing issues, because the soft rubber warps easily.

6 of them were (and still are) very common to find, because they were given away as promotional articles, too. These were the Tyrannosaurus, Gallimmimus, Triceratops, Brachiosaurus, Velociraptor and Dilophosaurus. The velociraptor looks like a Deinonychus because it is based on the 1989 figure (before Jurassic Park), but the dilophosaurus is definitely faithful to the film. No tail draggers here



I've said they were also released as promotional articles ... and what can be even more collectable than a Jurassic Park article? Of course, Coca-Cola!  I have 5 of the 6 Coca-Cola versions, on one side the Coca-Cola logo, on the other side the JP.



These key rings (non promotional versions) were sold in a package like this:



But there were also 6 more key rings that even didn't appear in the Jurassic Park film (at least in the first movie). These were not released as Coca-Cola and others- promotional articles and are quite rare. They were: Spinosaurus, Edmontonia, Stegosaurus, Dimetrodon, Torosaurus and Pteranodon. I got the Torosaurus 29 years ago, and it was given free by buying something, but I don't remember what. I did to it what most children did, cut the ring and played freely with the figure. Most of the figures I got had the ring cut, too.


You can read 1992 U.C.S (Universal Central Studios - AMBLIN), the Yolanda logo, the CE symbol and and a warning not for children under 36 months.


Dimetrodon, Torosaurus, Pteranodon, Spinosaurus, Edmontonia and Stegosaurus.
Who could have wondered in 1993 that some of these other species would indeed APPEAR in a Jurassic Park/World movie?


- 1992 Yolanda Jurassic Park/Amblin pendants:
Some figures were also released in mini size with a ring to be used as pendants or similar. They were monochrome and I don't know how many there were. Maybe the 6 most common species from the film.




- 1992 Yolanda Jurassic Park/Amblin 6 figures:
The 6 figures from the film (Brachiosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, Dilophosaurus, Triceratops, Gallimimus and Velociraptor) were also released without the key chains. I have the feeling that the rings were cut in the factory after molding, that's why the place of the ring is still noticeable under the paint.
I was so lucky to get a collection in such a mint condition.




- 1992 Yolanda Jurassic Park/Amblin 6 monochrome figures:
Again the same 6 figures were released in monochrome rubber in the same size. Colors were pink, yellow, green and orange. They came in mixed bags but they could have been probably promotional figures, too, but I can't remember well.




Here you can appreciate the difference in size between the 1989 Deinonychus and the 1992 deinonychus velociraptor.





MINILAND
Miniland group is a Spanish company foundated in 1962 that is still on work. It is a leading brand for toys and educational materials that has become the most important in the Spanish market of educational toys and also a world reference.
When talking about their collection of dinosaur toys from the 90s, what I know is that there were 3 different: mini, small and large. All of them were also customized as promotional articles for food brands. The larger ones aren't too original, because the brand is known to have bought the molds of other disappeared companies (UKRD and Funrise) so some of their toys just look like the same in other colors. But we have to be very thankful for this, so we can even buy NOW some of this large figures in Amazon with such atractive retro sculpts. They were very nice decades ago and still are. Don't look for updated figures; they are just aimed to be playable nice toys.

Miniland minis (3 cm)
These came from "Dinosaurus" LU biscuits, 90s exclusive collection in green and yellow that came in a plastic egg. The ankylosaurus is probably one of my favourite figures
I really don't know how many there were. I found no information at all about this collection. I've only found 8 of them (the parasaurolophus has no name on the belly).


First row: tyrannosaurus, dicraeosaurus, camptosaurus, brontosaurus, parasaurolophus.
Second row: triceratops, stegosaurus, ankylosaurus, protoceratops.
Yes, it's amazing they went for such an obscure species as dicraeosaurus, but that makes it one of the few representations of this species.


In the belly you can read the name of the species and the stamp of Miniland brand.


There are also some other Miniland miniatures that some are just like the ones of LU biscuits and some are new. They came inside Tombola chocolate eggs (similar to Kinder Surprise). They probably were promotional articles, too. Some have the name of the species on the belly, some not. There are at least 3 different colors: grey with green top coat, greenish brown with dark pink and yellow coat. The new are: a mammooth, a quadrupedal velocirraptor, a pteranodon, iguanodon, gallimimus and a little dragon?




Miniland small figures (5 cm)
I've read that they were promotional gifts from Energizer batteries and PMI cereals. They are a bigger version of the miniatures. They come only in these colors, but there is also a grey and green iguanodon.


First row: brontosaurus, velociraptor, tyrannosaurus, parasaurolophus, iguanodon, camptosaurus.
Second row: corythosaurus, pteranodon, protoceratops, ankylosaurus, triceratops and stegosaurus.

The velociraptor has the same mold as the UKRD 1993 mini. On the belly they have the species name, but some have the Miniland logo and some not.




Here you can compare the difference in size of the two collections:




MINILAND large and Pascual Cereals.
In the 90s, Miniland reused the molds of other Chinese companies as UKRD 1993 and Funrise. In some of them, they made little resculpts (mouths opened, changed feet positions ...). Miniland as its own released a collection of some figures, mostly Funrise: mammooth, brontosaurus, tyrannosaurus, stegosaurus, triceratops and  UKRD 1993 velociraptor (with open mouth). These figures only have the M (of Miniland stamp) on the belly.




They used these 6 Funrise with 7 more (mostly from UKRD 1993, making 13 in total) as promotional articles for PASCUAL (a dairy and cereal company) that gave away inside each cereal box a medium sized dinosaur. Each cereal brand (Ñampa Zampa, Boskys and Trogloditos) had its own collection of 4 figures (Ñampa Zampa had 5) with the stamp of the brand on the belly. There are two tyrannosaurus (one for Ñampa-Zampa called Tyrannosaurus I using the Funrise mold and another one for Boskys, called Tyrannosaurus II using the UKRD 1993 mold). There are 2 Velociraptors using UKRD 1993 mold (called Velociraptor I and Velociraptor II for Boskys and Trogloditos, one with its mouth opened). There are also 3 pteranodons (one for each collection, based on Funrise mold) that are quite difficult to tell appart. One is modified to be standing up and between the other two the only difference is the belly colour (one is dark grey, the other lighter) and the stamp of the cereal brand.
The Pascual cereals versions are coveted nowadays, unlike the "normal" Minilands.
The lovely dinosaur figures didn't have the power of saving the cereal brands, as they were not as tasty as Kellogg's. They were all retired forever shortly after that.

[


"Trogloditos" collection.


"Ñampa-zampa" collection.


"Boskys" collection.

Here you can see the underside of the figures (in this case, Boskys) with Miniland logo (M), the species name and the collection "Cereales Boskys".



Miniland didn't stop there, and with the Jurassic Park boom on its side, they also released other set as promotional articles for Embutidos TELLO (another meat processing company). The collection was called "Dinosaurios del periodo jurásico" (Dinosaurs from the Jurassic Period), which is funny because neither were all dinosaurs and not all from the Jurassic period, either. The dinosaurs chosen for this set of 12 figures were mostly the UKRD 1993 molds but instead of the dimetrodon, they took the 1992 Pteranodon. You can have a look at the set and the nice information cards that accompanied them: https://coleccionismo80-90.blogspot.com/2015/08/embutidos-tello-dinosaurios-del-periodo-jurasico.html


Nowadays, Miniland still takes advantage of these lovely molds and still sells (you can buy it in Amazon, too) an educational set of 12 figures (some UKRD 1993, some Funrise and a UKRD 1992 apatosaurus).





1993 DANONE JURASSIC PARK
Just like everywhere, Jurassic Park and dinosaur fever filled everything with lots of figures in 1993.
Amblin and Universal Studios joined with the dairy company DANONE to release an official Jurassic Park/Amblin Collection in 1993 that was a total surprise. First, the species choice, as most of them didn't even appear in the film (and in any others), second, the design of them, as they were decidedly retro, some of them obviously based in John Sibbick's artwork. And third, nobody knows which company made these figures, a surpring mistery.
A single figure was given for free with the pack of 16 yoghourts.
The 12 figures are made of monochrome hard plastic, almost in two dimensions, with only the eyes painted in red, which made most of them look quite scary. Some of them didn't have the eyes painted. The name of the species was written on the figure, usually on the tail. Most species were released once and again in the same colour, and some of them have marbling, so are unique. There are few different colour versions and are quite sought after.
This is one of my favourite collections and I highly recommend it to you, too.




Just for the curious, two pictures (they are not mine but from todocoleccion website) so you can have a look at the original plastic package that was placed between the two rows of the yoghourts.

On the top part of the card it says: "1 Dinosaur for your collection". On the margin of the card it said: "TM (c) 1993 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS INC. & AMBLIN ENTERTAINMENT INC. Licensed by ELG".



Some examples of the colour versions:



The bactrosaurus is not only a perfect representation of the artwork from the 80s, but the only figure of this species by now. I can't believe no one has done another one in almost 30 years!

Here is a video review (not mine) I found in English of the collection. Some of the two color versions appear in it, too!

https://youtu.be/z89apI0zWHY



MATUTANO minis
By the time Yolanda released its rubber minis, all after the boom of Jurassic Park, Matutano did the same with their very own collection of hard plastic miniatures in neon colors (green, pink, yellow and orange). These are very interesting, because I suspect they were done by the same company that made the Danone dinosaurs. If you look closer, you can realise that the Bactrosaurus, Triceratops and Parasaurolophus are almost identical to the larger Danone JP versions. The dimetrodon and stegosaurus look very alike too, but the rest of them are new sculpts, and very well done. I really like the Pteranodon, though I've never seen any on sale.





TOMBOLA CHOCOLATE EGGS
Another collection from the beggining of the 90s, I won't explain too much about it because the figures were the same as the Panini. In Spain they came inside Tombola eggs (very similar to Kinder Surprise). The Spanish Tombola collection were made of the same very soft rubber, too, but had slight differences in the color of some figures, for example, the stegosaurus was brown instead of purple, the camptosaurus was grey instead of green ... I only got 3 when I was a child, but I have managed to finish the collection recently. I have the paper that came inside the plastic egg, too. The Spanish collection had only 23 figures (not 24, missing the brontosaurus) and in the leaflet they are numbered in no logical order, because the figures have the same number as the Paninis, so totally illogical ...
Later versions or reissues  of these figures are easy to tell apart because are harder and shinier and some even smaller.





PHOSKITOS "HuevoX" (Dinosaur transformer eggs)
Phoskitos is a brand of a very tasty "swiss roll" cut in portions and covered in chocolate, individually packaged. All children loved it (it is still being sold, but with a "healthier" recipe, not as tasty, though) and from the very beggining, it gave away toys and collectible cards. There are some other articles from Jurassic World, but I won't cover them here.
One of their most famous toys were the "HuevoX", that came first in 1999. The first series were 5 animals and were incredibly well done and with a lot of articulation. The second series (not as nice as the first) were the 5 skeleton-like dinosaurs with a special glow-in-the-dark figure. There were posterior releases of robots, monsters ... each one of the releases of a much poorer quality.






SALVAT EDITORES magazine
In the 90s-2000s, Salvat released in Spain, Portugal and Brazil a series of 42 magazines that came with a dinosaur figure (quite large most of them). That would have been wonderful news, but the figures were indeed copies or highly inspired (too highly) versions of other companies: Bullyland, Carnegie, Toyway and Schleich.





If you want to take a better look at this collection, I highly recommend this video from Patrick Krol:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg79UMLhe4E


Hope you have like it, I will keep it updated if I found any more information or if I recall something more. 

[BlueKrono]

Thank you for putting together this fantastic overview. Very well done. The eBay seller Snertus is a good source for these figures. I just bought 7 of the Bactrosauruses from him this week, lol!

[Duna]

Thank you for putting together this fantastic overview. Very well done. The eBay seller Snertus is a good source for these figures. I just bought 7 of the Bactrosauruses from him this week, lol!

Agree, he is the best source.  I bought many of my figures from him, too. Have you been the one that has bought the BLUE bactrosaurus?  When I saw it, it was already sold, sadly. That figure is a true collector gem.

[Bowhead Whale]

THANK YOU FOR THIS WONDERFUL CONFERENCE!!!

[Libraraptor]

Thank you for the effort of putting all this together.  Very interesting indeed!

[Roselaar]

This is an amazing overview! Thanks a lot for compiling it, it's a wonderfully educational read!

[Faelrin]

Very interesting look at all of these, and a good resource as well. I think of all these I find the JESCAN ones the most charming.

[Bowhead Whale]

Have you considered putting them on Toy Animal Wiki?

[Duna]

Have you considered putting them on Toy Animal Wiki?

No, I haven't think about that, would it be interesting to put there? But the rubber Jecsan pics are not mine.


By the way, I've added three more collections, please check them up! They're very interesting, too ...

- 60s-80s Montaplex envelopes.
- 1988 Yolanda Telecom Dinosaucers.
- "Dinosaurus" cookies (why not, I played with them as if they were toys!). 

Hope you like them!

[Fembrogon]

This is a splendid write-up; thanks for sharing! It's great to have another corner of the hobby's history get some coverage.

[Halichoeres]

This is a really impressive compendium. It'll be a great resource for any vintage collector. Thanks for putting all this information together!

[Roselaar]

- "Dinosaurus" cookies (why not, I played with them as if they were toys!).

I'm curious, did your Lu Dinosaur cookies ever came with actual dinosaur toys as well? They did in the Netherlands for a brief time, around the release of the first JP movie back in 1993. Never since unfortunately. I'm curious if the same is true for other countries.

[Duna]

- "Dinosaurus" cookies (why not, I played with them as if they were toys!).

I'm curious, did your Lu Dinosaur cookies ever came with actual dinosaur toys as well? They did in the Netherlands for a brief time, around the release of the first JP movie back in 1993. Never since unfortunately. I'm curious if the same is true for other countries.

Yes, they did, they came with the Miniland yellow and green minis (inside a yellow plastic egg capsule). Before that, in 1988 or so, they came with the Yolanda Dinosaucers. I don't know any more other figures that came with them. Before Dinosaucers, in the box you could cut and collect information cards about dinosaur species, one per package. I used to collect them, too.
So you too had the LU Dinosaur cookies in the Netherlands? How cool!

Thank you @Fembrogon and @Halichoeres 

[Bokisaurus]

Very fascinating thread and a good resource as well.
Oh those Salvats! What an interesting line, brings back memories of the time when many of us were scrambling to secure a few figures 🤣

[Duna]

Very fascinating thread and a good resource as well.
Oh those Salvats! What an interesting line, brings back memories of the time when many of us were scrambling to secure a few figures 🤣

Oh, yes ... the struggle was real 


By the way, I've added a few more collections! Please check them in their cronologic place as they are very interesting, too! 

- 80s DANONE "Dinogomas"
- 80s-90s MATUTANO and CHUPA-CHUPS "anthropomorphic dinosaurs/monsters"
- 90s MATUTANO hard plastic minis (after JP)
- 90s TOMBOLA eggs "Paninis"
- 2000 PHOSKITOS "HuevoX"

Enjoy them! 

[Roselaar]

- "Dinosaurus" cookies (why not, I played with them as if they were toys!).

I'm curious, did your Lu Dinosaur cookies ever came with actual dinosaur toys as well? They did in the Netherlands for a brief time, around the release of the first JP movie back in 1993. Never since unfortunately. I'm curious if the same is true for other countries.

Yes, they did, they came with the Miniland yellow and green minis (inside a yellow plastic egg capsule). Before that, in 1988 or so, they came with the Yolanda Dinosaucers. I don't know any more other figures that came with them. Before Dinosaucers, in the box you could cut and collect information cards about dinosaur species, one per package. I used to collect them, too.
So you too had the LU Dinosaur cookies in the Netherlands? How cool!

Ah, I seem to have skipped over that bit of information above, sorry about that.
But very interesting to see you got different figures with your cookies than we did in the Netherlands, even though it's the same brand of cookies. We got an unspecified line of small rubbery figures (very reminiscent of the Panini figures, but slightly smaller and less detailed). Fascinating to hear about these differences!

These dinosaur cookies are still being sold here to this day, though now by a different brand. Also, while still available in their original form in Belgium, in the Netherlands they're only sold in mini variants. A shame, because I have much more fond memories of the originals.

[Blackdanter]

Great thread Duna.

There are packaging variations for the Danone Premiums. Some were bagged and some carded.



Also, whilst in Spain visiting relatives some years ago, I discovered Salvat's for the first time. They were right at the back of a little pottery shop and racked (like Schleich are sold). No magazines, just figures. The owner said that they'd had them for years but had barely sold any and they were thinking of getting rid of them out. Needless to say, I bought quite a few. The Therizinosaurus is huge in comparison to the safari one.

I also have the El Cigarral figures.

[SpartanSquat]

You gave me a lot of nostalgia with this. I was a kid that I was born in early 90s in spain!

[DinoToyForum]

What an interesting, thorough, and useful post! Thanks @Duna!

BTW, I've had those biscuits before, they're nice! In fact, I wrote this silly article about them a loooong time ago during the "Dinosaurs and their Biscuits" phase of my life: http://dinobiscuits.blogspot.com/2006/08/jurassicookies.html

[ceratopsian]

I missed this post when it first went up but caught up with it recently.  What a lot of work and an invaluable resource, @Duna.  Unlike our @dinotoyforum, I have never come across dinosaur biscuits.  Wish I had!!  They really caught my eye.