Review and photos by Charles Peckham, edited by Suspsy
Trying to find information about either the creator of these toys, a Chinese company named Yantai, or their American distributor, Learnplay Inc., isn’t easy. According to one of the few sources I was able to find, Yantai has been around since 2011 and their Halftoy line is just one of hundreds of designs they have made.
As a young child, I loved splashing around in the tub with my toys. Who didn’t? Most of my bath toys were sharks and whales and other aquatic creatures, but occasionally a plesiosaur would find its way into the mix. My older son, however, enjoys taking his bath with the Classic Big Four: Brontosaurus, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, and Tyrannosaurus rex.
Review and photographs by Loon, edited by Suspsy.
We return to the land apart from time to review the second Dinotopia plush released by Accent International in 1993, “Lil’ Hadro.” This is certainly an odd choice by Accent, as no character named “Lil’ Hadro” appears in any of the books.
Review and photos by Loon, edited by Suspsy
Released in 1992, James Gurney’s book Dinotopia follows the shipwrecked scientist Arthur Denison and his son Will as they journey through the titular island, where dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals escaped extinction and coexist with humanity. This book was extremely popular during the 1990s, garnering sequels, prequels, all sorts of merchandise, a computer game, and at one point, was going to be adapted into a Hollywood movie by Sony. That didn’t pan out, but Disney did end up producing a TV miniseries in 2002.
Review and photographs by Funk, edited by Suspsy
Parasaurolophus seems to be the hadrosaur with the most toy representations by far, no doubt due to its charismatic, iconic head crest. It just looks neat, design-wise, compared to, for example, Lambeosaurus with its weird hatchet, Corythosaurus with its dull plate, or Tsintaosaurus and the unfortunate way its crest used to be depicted.
