The Legion of Silly Dinosaurs: Odds and Ends?

It's time for another weekend dino post, which I realized will be almost a year to the day since I started this feature, and this is one time I've really got nothing. So, I decided to do what I've already been doing for my other features and cover some backlogged material, which in this case includes some actual pics I hadn't used. To start things off, here's a couple that didn't get into the Retro Raptors post.

Still more feathers than the entire Jurassic Park franchise.

Can't we all just get along?

Of this pair, the first is a museum gift shop find from the mid-2000s. On casual inspection, I was unable to find a manufacturer mark. What's somewhat interesting is that it has feathers, but only in a few places. On consideration, I'm somewhat suspicious whether this was the original plan or if someone modified an existing mold, but we've already seen how persistently manufacturers stick to outdated science. I found the second at a self-described "antiques" store maybe 5 years ago. The underside of the stand says Geoworld, which was enough to identify it as part of a line called Jurassic Hunters. Even interested sources (see Dinosaur Toy Blog) are hazy on exactly when these came out, but the trail seems to go back to 2012. I consider it one of the better depictions of the dino, if only because it gives some idea how small and lean it really was. It's a feisty little guy that captures the spirit of the original.

Next up are a couple almost fit for Mystery Monday. I got them along with a batch of MPC astronauts I got in middling 2020, which I went through in the last Rogues' Roundup, and considered covering them in the Diener dino eraser post. My best guesstimate is that they come from the 1960s, perhaps a bit later but almost certainly not much earlier. Just while writing this post, I matched them to a cereal premium by Lido (responsible for the draft dodger), reportedly from the late 1950s, but the dates are still sketchy.  (The most complete account seems to be from The Dinosaur Collector.) Barring a conclusive date, I am inclined to take them as a knockoff of the Flintstones (first aired in 1960), which gives them a measure of sense. Still, these are just not good, and time is not on their side. There's an extra level of baffling in the stego's head, which is too small even for the cartoon gimmick to pay off.

Also, here's a few more MPC items, I think. The most interesting of these is the bird, intended to be a Diatryma (see also the Walmart megafauna). I came close to ordering it several times, then got this one loose with some Marx items I still haven't covered. The other two might be either MPC or Marx/ clones, also mixed in with the MPC astronauts. I haven't tried to sort out which is which, but I am satisfied they're all 1960s.

That brings us to the centerpiece of the lineup, a dino I've lost and found several times just in the time I've been doing this blog. Back when I was first researching "army man" figures (see the patchisaurs), I found out that this guy was from a line called Dino Mites. He's perhaps the silliest of the silly dinosaurs, but still cool or at least endearing. Here's a few closeups of him.

Can't a guy smile???

And to wrap this up, here's another of the metal dinos I covered last time!

It turns out it's not easy staying green, either.

And with that, I'm satisfied with this anniversary post, and through more of my backlog. That's all for now, plenty more to come!