Monsters in My Pocket was a toy franchise that started in the 80s that consisted of a series of small, rubber figures. These figures were each only a few inches tall and could each come in a variety of solid colors. What makes this toy line special is that each figure is modeled after a certain creature that exists in some sort of real culture. Some are from ancient mythology such as Medusa or the Minotaur, some are cryptids like Bigfoot, some are from famous literature like the Jabberwocky from Alice in Wonderland and some actually did exist in real life in some form. Here I have the Monster in My Pocket version of a very famous cryptid, the Loch Ness Monster, which according to alleged sightings is some sort of a plesiosaur.
When it comes to up to date scientific accuracy of real plesiosaurs, this thing is barely there. It has a long neck, flippers and an overall reptilian look but the scientific accuracy stops there. However, it does match alleged sightings of whatever people think they are seeing swimming around in Loch Ness. Some prominent features are the hump on the back and swan-like neck. Real plesiosaurs, however, show no evidence of possessing humps nor could they physically bend their necks up in that position according to what the bones tell us.
The figure doesn’t really have much detail. Its skin is overall very smooth. Judging by the fact that most other Monsters in My Pocket figures are really very nicely detailed it can be safe to assume that this lack of texture is intentional given that its supposed to be an aquatic creature. The flippers have some weird texture to them and the small teeth are actually individually sculpted to some degree. The tongue inside the mouth is also present.
The pose is dynamic. The neck is reared up and the mouth is wide open as if its roaring. The rest of the body seems to be sort of scrunched up. The front two flippers are visible but the back two are either covered up by the right flipper and long tail that’s wrapped around the back half of the body or they may not be present at all, thus making this rendition even more fanciful.
On the back of the figure there is a tiny “25” molded in. Every monster from this line had a “point value”. In the first series it went from five up to twenty five. Five being the “weakest” and twenty five being the “most powerful”. In Series two they raised the bar a little ranging the monsters from ten points up to thirty. Its actually a great marketing idea since certain figures could be made more rare than others. One pack of 12 monsters from series one, for instance would only include one twenty five point monster. It also makes it really interesting for kids who played with them. Seriously, who hasn’t wondered who would win in a fight between Nessy and Bigfoot? (Nessy would according to this logic in case you were wondering) In later years, Matchbox would essentially jump the shark and start making ridiculously stupid made up monsters that had point values well into the hundreds. Series one and two were essentially the best since they were the simplest and had the most well recognized creatures.
Don’t waste time or money getting this figure if you only care about realistically done stuff. This little guy is great for gags and such but is by no means a serious model. I personally love the toyline and have quite a large collection myself in addition to the two creatures featured in it that could actually be considered dinosaur-ish. Monsters in My Pocket died out a while ago but figures and groups of figures are always on ebay for reasonable prices.
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Brontozaurus: Yes they tried to revive the toys in 2006 I believe. I have the griffin from that line. They are the most detailed by far and not even recognizable as the same toyline when compared to the originals. I guess despite the “upgrade” they didn’t quite have the same charm.
Horridus: Yeah I have seen pictures of the dinosaur figure line online. they also have a bipedal monoclonius. What happened is that originally the series was just dedicated to real monsters from mythology and cryptozoology like I mentioned. But they kept getting controversial by making “monster” figures of Hindu divinities like Kali and Ganesha which after a lot of protesting against them, were removed from the toyline in certain parts of the world they were being sold. After that the series were safe by doing things like cartoon bugs, made up aliens and…you guessed it, dinosaurs. To me those aren’t really monsters in the same sense that the first three lines had and is partially why I’m not as much of a fan. When they started doing stuff like that I lost interest.
Credit where credit’s due Griff. I’ve looked into it a little and it turns out that yes, they did release a line of dinosaurs, followed by a line of the same dinosaurs that showed the skeleton when immersed in water. Looks like Ceratosaurus was one of the better ones – others included a bipedal Ankylosaurus (!!!). They might have been Europe only.
I remember they revived the series a few years back. I got two packs of monsters. There wasn’t a Tyrannosaurus, and there was apparently going to be Nessie in a later release, but I never saw any packs released beyond the intial ones.
They did release a line of just dinosaurs in the 90s. I believe they were only available in Europe though. I feel that by that time they were already starting to go downhill though since they were getting more and more gimmicky (skeleton showing under water and the multicolored paintjobs). They were cool to some extent but I personally feel that Series 1, 2 and 3(exclusive as cereal box prizes only so pretty rare nowadays) were the coolest. Thanks for the compliment on the review!
As a soulless, fun-sucking palaeo-nerd I naturally find such a foray into cryptids to be an affront to what the Dinosaur Toy Blog stands for. Down with this sort of thing!
…Nah, I’m kidding. Obviously. Great review, told me a fair bit about the Monsters in my Pocket series that I didn’t know. I remember seeing them around as a kid but I was never really into them. Some of them look like rather fun little figures to own. Didn’t they release a dinosaur line as well? I remember owning one MIMP-size Ceratosaurus as a kid, and when you immersed it in water you could see its skeleton.