Legion of Silly Dinosaurs: 1/72 Dino Riders?

 

It's time again for a weekend dino post, and this time, I have a relatively recent acquisition that I've had around for a little while. I've previously covered the Dino Riders line (and why Definitely Dinosaurs were definitely better). Since then, I have checked on and off for any good offers. For the most part, they remain outside my price range, as they seemed to be when they came out. Lately, however, something new popped up which I knew I had to look into firsthand. It turns out someone has finally revived the line, in army man style, no less. I only waited maybe a few months to order it. To get things rolling, here's the box.

For the background, this set appears to have surfaced around October 2020. As can be seen on the box, the release is from Mattel, which bought out Tyco in 1997. Everything is clearly designed for the adult collector, particularly the choking-hazard figures (more on that momentarily). In keeping with the army-man style, everything is sculpted in monochrome, with the easily-lost saddles and weapons of the original line being sculpted onto the dinos. I'm still not familiar enough with the original to say much more about how they compare, though I definitely find the style of the dinos more interesting. Here's a full lineup of the set.

What I personally found most intriguing are the figures, scaled at 1 inch tall. I count 14 of them, 8 of which are sculpted as riders. The free-standing figures are blatantly modelled after army men, complete with bazookas and mortars. Here's a lineup with the Galaxy Laser Team commander and "mini" figure.

Inevitably, the centerpieces of the set are the Diplodocus and the T. Rex, as in the original line. These were already strangely scaled in the original line, as the sauropod was about twice as long as the tyrannosaur. (That T. rex lived closer to our time than the Diplodocus's is an issue we're long past.) Here, if anything, they look undersized. On top of that, the sidegunner seats (which held 2 or 3 on the original!) look deep enough to intrude into the body of the dinosaur, with all the gruesome implications that entails. I already showed the pair as the "header" pic; here's a few more shots.

Meanwhile, I took more interest in the smaller dinos, which was how I felt even about Definitely Dinosaurs. There are a total of four secondary creatures, but only three of them are compatible with the riders; these are a Deinonychus, a Parasaurolophus and a somewhat generic ceratopsian. Here's a few pics of the group. I admit I forgot to include the hadrosaur in the first few, and I didn't try to use the pics I took of a pterosaur in the set.

"Wait, these aren't a pair of bongos???"

Finally, here's a couple scale shots. The first is with the Marx-clone brontosaurus I'm sure I got with a patchisaur set. I was moderately impressed to find that they're about the same length, though the Marx sculpt is clearly more robust.

"Big is never outdated."

And here's the T rex with the add-on therepod from the Walmart Marx-clone set.

In closing, what lingers in my mind is that my limited impressions of Dino Riders as a kid were more favorable than what I now know of the reality, which in turn definitely figures in my mixed feelings about any kind of "reboot". As far as I remember, I always assumed the setup had something to do with time travel. As I grew up into a relatively mature sci fi fan, that came to conjure up the idea of a war between alternate timelines, where the villains might conceivably represent an Earth where dinosaurs gave rise to sentient life. Of course, I have long since confirmed that the storyline was instead a standard fight between alien civilizations where the unquestioned "good guys" happen to look exactly like us. (I think it crossed even kid-me's mind that the "bad guys" had to represent multiple species and planets that presumably sorted out their differences somehow.) If anyone had the inspired insanity to try something as dark and morally ambiguous as my half-formed scenario, I would absolutely be behind it. As it is, I find it better remembered than relived, and with that, I wrap this up. That's all for now, more to come!