Stegosaurus (Kleinwelka)

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In 1978 Franz Gruß, a German sculptor situated in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), began to build life size reconstructions of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals in his private garden in Großwelka, Sachsen. The garden was open to the public and soon developed to a tourist attraction. Few years later the garden was enlarged by use of neighboring public grounds and thus the foundation was lain for the still existing Sauierpark Kleinwelka. Somewhen probably in the early or middle 80’s the first Kleinwelka dinosaur figures were released.For those readers not deep into European history, despite its name, the GDR was no democracy at all, but the geographically most western communist state in Europe, part of the Eastern Bloc and satellite state to the Soviet Union. This was a direct consequence of World War II and the division of the former Great-German Reich by the Allied Forces. The economy within this political system was controlled by the state, so there was no “supply and demand” mechanism, but rather a central plan for the economic needs of the whole population within state. Luxury items such as toys were hard to come by and comparably expensive.This aspect renders the Kleinwelka figures a very unique line in dinosaur toys, there’s no other dinosaur toy line known to me with a background comparable to this. Each of those figures is a contemporary witness so to say and one can get a feeling for this, when holding one of those figures in hands. Each of them is surprisingly lightweighted for its size, despite not being hollow. Plastics being made from fossil fuel were rare and expensive in the GDR, so the material was mixed and thinned probably with some ground up plant fiber. There were 8 “dinosaur” figures (Brachiosaurus big and small, Diplodocus, Parasaurolophus, Stegosaurus, Anatosaurus, Iguanodon, Deinosuchus) and 5 African animals (rhino, hippo, elephant, camel, crocodile) released during the years. In 1989 the Berlin Wall fell and this led to the ultimate doom of the GDR in 1990. I am unaware of the year of discontinuation for the figures, but it was probably somewhen around this time.After all this long introduction, here’s what I want to review today: Kleinwelka’s Stegosaurus. Gruß’s sculpts were highly influenced by Zdenek Burian’s art and so it is little surprising, that the toy figures are aswell. However, unlike in Burian’s paintings, the Stegosaurus was made with pairing plates rather then alternating ones. I am unaware if this is true to the original Stegosaurus sculpt by Gruß, but back then different scientists and artists reconstructed Stegosaurus this way and that way. Other than that the figure is your typical old school Stegosaurus, low slung and with sprawled front legs. I do not go further into accuracy, what you see is what you get. The sculpt itself is relatively simple, but bulging muscles, thick shoulder plates, knobs along the sides, folds and creased aswell as vertical lines radiating from the bases of each backplate make the figure an attractive toy for its time. The Stegosaurus measures 20 cm long in direct line and stands 9.5 cm high. The belly shows an imprint with name of the species and “Saurierpark Kleinwelka Sachsen” which on later figures was abbreviated to “SKS”.Same as with Invicta dinosaurs, abrasions lead to a furry surface and look on the wounded parts. So when played, the figures soon loose a pristine look. Today it is near impossible to find these figures in a pristine condition and even finding bad treated ones of some kind can be a pain. Ebay and other German flea market sites are your best bets on luring out these elusive animals, the Stegosaurus itself is one of the more common ones, but that does not mean it is easy to find. Prices also vary greatly. However, if you are a collector of historic dinosaur figures, you’d probably not like to miss out on these.