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.
Type: Oldies
Review: Trachodon (Edmontosaurus) (Marx)
3.7 (13 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)
2.3 (11 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.)
4.2 (33 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)
4.1 (13 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)
3.8 (10 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.
Review: Plateosaurus (Marx)
3.6 (7 votes)
When I originally started reviewing Marx toys I only had four lined up for review but between then and now I’ve collected a few more which will extend my Marx series for the next few reviews. Up until now all of the toys I reviewed were from Marx’s 1961 second series mold group, PL-1083.
Review: Protoceratops (Starlux)
3.5 (8 votes)
Review and photographs by Loon, edited by Suspsy
I know what you’re all thinking: “Another Protoceratops review by Loon? It must be a day that ends in ‘y’!” This time it’s the one from Starlux, which is around 40 years old.
Being made in the 1970s, it’d be incredibly unfair to judge this figure by modern scientific standards; what kind of idiot would do that?
Review: Woolly Mammoth (Marx)
3.9 (7 votes)
Why is a requirement that every line of toy dinosaurs includes the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius)? Even if said company otherwise ignores extinct mammals there is almost always a woolly mammoth and this is especially true with vintage companies. In the case of Marx there are only 3 mammals, but one of them is a mammoth.
Review: Smilodon (Marx)
4 (6 votes)
In addition to a diverse assortment of dinosaurs Marx also produced quite a few other prehistoric animals. Some, like the Dimetrodon and Pteranodon were obvious additions to the line; others like the Cynognathus are more surprising additions. Marx also produced three Pleistocene mammals (not counting the cave men) and you could probably guess what at least two of them were.