Edmontosaurus has been a staple in dinosaur toy lines since the very beginning of dinosaur toy production with Marx in the 1950’s. It’s a quintessential dinosaur, right up there with Triceratops, T. rex, and Stegosaurus, even if it was historically regarded as nothing more than theropod fodder. Although I have a few Edmontosaurus sitting around in my own collection, I...
Before starting this review, I want to extend my thanks to Happy Hen Toys for generously offering this review sample for the Blog. Happy Hen Toys has, in my experience, become on of the most reliable sources for extinct & extant animal brands alike in the United States. Be sure to check out their website at happyhentoys.com; more links will...
The Basic line of Mattel Jurassic World figures is a line of budget friendly toys that are trimmed down in virtually every aspect. They don’t have any action features, the articulation is exceptionally limited, and the paintjobs are typically simplified. So far, they don’t have a presence on the Dinosaur Toy Blog, but today we’re looking at one of the...
The two valid species of the North American hadrosaur Edmontosaurus, E. annectens and E. regalis, are known from multiple fossil specimens. Taken together, they make the genus “fully known.” But while a complete skeleton can give us a reasonable idea about an animal’s appearance in life, it is not necessarily a full or accurate one. This was made abundantly clear to us back in...
The Definitely Dinosaurs line by Playskool was a series of dinosaur toys produced in the late 80’s and early 90’s. For those unfamiliar with them they were basically the more toddler-friendly version of Tyco’s Dino-Riders. Some of them, like the Stegosaurus, were eerily similar to their Tyco counterparts. If you were a dinosaur obsessed kid during this time period you...
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...
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. This...
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. Flashforward, yet again, to...
Review and images by PhilSauria, edited by Suspsy In a nutshell, Edmontosaurus could be described as one of the larger species of hadrosaur, with adults ranging from 9 to 12 meters long and weighing in at about 4 metric tons, with a very wide distribution across western Canada and the U.S. Thanks to the considerable amount and quality of fossil...
Edmontosaurus (AKA Anatosaurus, Anatotitan, Claosaurus, Thespius, and Trachodon) is the quintessential “duckbilled dinosaur,” the one many of us grew up seeing and reading about in books when we were kids. E. annectens is probably the more familiar of the two known species, considering that it was one of the very last non-avian dinosaurs to have existed, and that it has...
Review and photographs by Charles Peckham, edited by Suspsy Before we get into talking about this toy, I think it’s worthwhile to discuss the history of the genus that we’re calling Anatosaurus, especially since this is the first review of a toy labeled with that genus on this website. In 1942, the classification of hadrosaurs was a mess. Trachodon, Claosaurus,...
Of all the product lines offered by stalwart manufacturer Safari Ltd, the “Toob®” line gives them the freest rein to explore unusual taxa. I’m personally fondest of the Toobs that furnish small versions of small animals that might scale well with Safari’s full-size figurines. We’ve reviewed some of their most interesting Toobs featuring “alive” animals here, here, here, here, and...
