The Legion of Silly Dinosaurs: King Kong dino and archosaur!

 

Today's installment is a sequel, under another feature that I realized I should have used to begin with. Last week, we met the (terrible) King Kong figure released for the 2005 remake/ reboot, including the dino that came with him. I'm back with some more material, including the most interesting beast of the line. To start with, here's some better pics of the dinosaur, this time with some army man-style figures that came with them.

The most interesting thing for me was digging out the mini figures. I think I found about half the ones that would have come with the two sets I bought. Others would have included a native and Ann; I didn't even remember having the latter. They're pretty good quality, with a satisfying level of stylization. The pics should also show the good quality of the dino, and why I have kept him in much higher esteem than Kong. The toys and tie-in media called the creature Vastasaurus, and this one in particular was labeled  as a juvenile. Here's a pic of Kong with one of the little guys.

"Aw, it thinks you're... okay, a giant murderous ape."

My one other purchase from the line was the one that really interested me. It was sold with the name Foetodon, which should make it clear they weren't going out of the way to sell this one. It clearly isn't a dino, but it does look about right for one of their archosaurian ancestors and relatives, like the semi-famous Postosuchus. Here's some pics of him.

"The good news is, it's not a real dinosaur. The bad news is, it will still eat you."

All in all, this is a cool beast, but like Kong himself, there's an awkward pose built around a gimmick. in "normal" position, the body is strangely twisted with the head turned sideways. The legs also point in strange directions, making the beast look crippled. In pictures of the item in packaging, it's positioned to look like a bird's-eye view, but for anything like normal play (clearly a minor consideration at best), the jaws have to be turned 90 degrees, and it still looks like the thing is tiptoeing along. The big gimmick is that if a part of the back ridge above the hips is pressed, the whole thing goes limp like one of the old "collapsing horse" toys. There's a dial or crank in the belly that's supposed to tighten the mechanism and straighten things out. From what I can remember, it never worked that well, and I have little doubt it's worse now. Here's a shot of the thing in gimmick mode

Roll Over! Play dead! Uh... I don't think that's playing.

A decade and a half later, the Kong line is still charming enough. Like the movie they tied in with, they faded out of memory, to be replaced by newer incarnations. The line would definitely have benefited from more attention to real "play value". It should teach the further lesson that what's good to play with will also look good, even if most of the people who buy it are going to leave it in the box. To wrap up, here's a few more pics with the Truckstop Queen and Duchess.

"Let's keep this casual, okay? I just got out of a long-term relationship with an emotionally codependent vampire."

That's all for now, more to come!