With the recent release (and review) of Rebor’s Charles R. Knight inspired Mesozoic Rhapsody I thought it would be a fitting time to look at the very first Charles Knight inspired Tyrannosaurus toy, and one of the first Tyrannosaurus toys ever produced. I’m talking of course about the Marx Tyrannosaurus, a toy that isn’t just retro in appearance, but so vintage that it was produced at a time when it would have been considered reasonably accurate too.
Type: Oldies
Review: Triceratops (Dinoland by Sinclair)
3.5 (8 votes)
The Sinclair Triceratops might look quaint to collectors spoiled modern toy brands, but it’s a very finely-made little figurine that’s quite accurate for its time.
I wasn’t too aware of the history of dinosaur toys and collecting until recently, when I came into the acquisition of a few older figurines from my grandparents’ collection.
Review: Pteranodon (Marx)
4.2 (6 votes)
Today’s review marks a small milestone for the DTB as it’s the last review for a Marx toy in the Medium Mold Group, Pl-750. This mold group was released in 1955 and was the second wave of dinosaur figures produced by Marx. All in all, 17 out of 23 Marx toys have been covered thus far.
Review: Stegosaurus (Marx)
3.5 (6 votes)
The Marx Stegosaurus was first released in 1955 as part of Marx’s second wave of dinosaur toys, known as the Medium Mold Group, PL-750. The Marx Stegosaurus is based on the Stegosaurus painted by Rudolph Zallinger in his Age of Reptiles mural at the Yale Peabody Museum.
Review: Brontosaurus (Marx)
3.9 (8 votes)
Before we begin the review, I would like to take a brief aside and recollect for a moment, as the date of this posting has some significance to me personally. Today, July 16th, 2021, is my 10-year anniversary writing for the Dinosaur Toy Blog. It was on this day in 2011 that my first review was posted here, the AAA woolly rhinoceros.
Review: Trachodon AKA Edmontosaurus (Dinoland by Sinclair)
4.1 (12 votes)
Sinclair’s Trachodon captures a moment of history in dinosaur pop culture and science which is gradually growing farther and farther away, but its imagery remains pervasively iconic.
There’s always something new to discover in the collecting hobby – even when it’s technically old. In my case, the discovery in question was the identity of three old dinosaur toys I had recently taken in.
Review: Hadrosaurus (Marx)
3.9 (8 votes)
Although we are all familiar with the dinosaur family hadrosauridae it seems that the dinosaur that gave the family its name has been largely forgotten, despite being a historically important dinosaur. Hadrosaurus foulkii was first described by Joseph Leidy in 1858, from remains found in New Jersey’s Woodbury Formation.
Review: Ankylosaurus (Marx)
3.8 (8 votes)
No collection of toy dinosaurs would be complete without the “great fused lizard”, Ankylosaurus magniventris, and it has been that way since 1955 with the release of the first dinosaur toys ever mass produced, by Marx. The Marx Ankylosaurus was included in Marx’s second wave of dinosaur toys, known as Medium Mold Group, PL-750.
Review: Trachodon (Edmontosaurus) (Marx)
4.1 (10 votes)
Trachodon is, or was, a genus of hadrosaurid described by Leidy in 1856 for which the only material known was a mix of teeth from both hadrosaurids and ceratopsians. That’s not much to go by and Trachodon is now considered nomen dubium. During its day however, Trachodon was a household name and the classic “duck-billed” dinosaur of pop culture.
Review: Allosaurus (Marx)
2.7 (7 votes)
Originally released in 1955 as part of Marx’s Medium Mold Group, PL-750, today we’re looking at the Marx Allosaurus. This group of toys included the Allosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Hadrosaurus, Pteranodon, Stegosaurus, and Trachodon and was Marx’s second set of dinosaur toys.
Review: Dinosaurs (Tim Mee Toys by J. Lloyd International Inc.)
4.4 (29 votes)
Back in 2012 a representative from the toy vendor VictoryBuy joined the Dinosaur Toy forum looking for member feedback with regards to reissuing the Tim Mee set of toy dinosaurs, originally produced in the 1970’s. Flashforward to 2014 and VictoryBuy once again stopped by the forum, this time to announce the actual release of the set.
Review: Palaeotherium (Starlux)
4 (10 votes)
Bonjour all, and welcome to another review of the classic line from Starlux. I always admire this old line for the variety it provides. Long before CollectA and Safari ltd., Starlux produced a wide range of species, many of which have not been made by a major company since.
Review: Cave Bear (Prehistoire by Starlux)
4.2 (12 votes)
Review and photographs by Stolpergeist, edited by Suspsy
A lot of people feel a special connection to their local extinct Pleistocene megafauna, those mysterious beasts that once roamed where we stand along with the animals we see today. The majestic Irish elk among fallow deer, the American cheetah hunting pronghorns, the mighty giant wombat grazing alongside kangaroos, or the mega lemurs fending off fossa.
Review: Dimetrodon (Marx)
4 (8 votes)
This review marks a somewhat significant milestone on the blog with regards to Marx reviews. This is the last review for the toys released under the small mold group, PL-755; they’ve now all been covered here. There are still plenty of Marx toys left to write about but for this group in particular, we’re done!
Review: Triceratops (Marx)
3.9 (7 votes)
No line of toy dinosaurs would be complete without a Triceratops and that’s a fact that has remained true since the beginning of dinosaur toy production with Marx in the 1950’s. Sure, many other elaborately horned dinosaurs have come onto the scene over the subsequent years but Triceratops is a classic and like Tyrannosaurus can never be dethroned.