Welcome back to Dinosaur Week, where we celebrate all things dinosaur—my most favorite animals in the world!
Ever since dinosaurs were first discovered to exist, these legendary creatures had a clawed grip on our collective imaginations. We wrote books about them. We built replicas of them. And to the delight of kids and kids-at-heart everywhere—we made toys of them.
Like actual dinosaurs, dinosaur toys have gone through their own evolution through the years. Riding the draft of science, technology, and pop culture, dinosaur toys managed to stay relevant in spite of their prehistoric roots. Let's take a look at how dinosaur toys changed with the times!
The simple, plastic, prehistoric era of dinosaur toys
Way back then, dinosaurs were confined to museums as scientific curios to ogle at. It wasn't until the 1950s when Marx Toy Company became the first to mass-produce plastic dinosaur toys, kickstarting decades of dino obsession in children.
Photo by Tom | Flickr
The first 14 figures they made in 1955 sold incredibly well, eventually expanding the range to include even the first prehistoric playsets by 1957 and beyond. They were not very scientifically accurate, since the sculptors of the time were working on what they know about dinosaurs so far.
But kids didn't care. The Marx dinosaur toys were colorful, cool-looking, and practically indestructible. These plastic dinosaurs were built to survive backyard fights, bathtub brawls, and other mud-caked shenanigans kids were up to in the 1950s.
It's cool to think that Marx would end up making some of the defining vintage dinosaurs of the era!
Mold-A-Rama dino-mania
In the 1930s, Sinclair Oil found the perfect mascot for a company selling petrol: Dino the Apatosaurus. Of course, we know now that crude oil isn't actually made of dinosaurs, but people back then didn't, and so Dino first appeared in Sinclair marketing in 1930, becoming so popular that the company registered him as a trademark in 1932.
In 1964, Sinclair brought Dino and his prehistoric friends to the New York World’s Fair, where they wowed attendees with their "Dinoland" exhibit, filled with life-sized fiberglass dinosaur models. And the fun part? Audiences got to take home those very dinosaurs via plastic models sold through Mold-A-Rama vending machines!
For just 25 cents (around $2.69 in today's dollaridoos as of this writing), you can watch the Mold-A-Rama machine inject Siclair's signature "Dinofin plastic" into a mold and then pop out a fresh plastic dinosaur figure of a Tyrannosaurus Rex or a Triceratops or an Ankylosaurus. Super cool!
Sinclair's dinosaurs are a great example of how dinosaurs became souvenirs, advertisements, and little pieces of pop culture history. And while Sinclair Oil has been out of the dinosaur game for a while, to this day you can still get a Mold-A-Rama dinosaur figure at certain museums. Now I know which museum I'm dropping by next!
From mold-injection to museum-grade
As the years passed and more info about dinosaurs was uncovered, it's no longer enough for dinosaur toys to be cool-looking; they had to be accurate too. By the 1980s, dinosaur toys became more of an educational tool, and realism became the name of the game.
Enter the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. In 1988, they partnered with toy manufacturer Safari Ltd. to produce the Carnegie Collection, a line of figures with museum-grade prehistoric animal models authenticated by actual paleontologists to ensure accuracy. The line was sold in the museum gift shop and ran until 2015, and for a while it was the gold standard of dinosaur figures.
The Carnegie Collection changed the vibe of dinosaur toys in the big way, turning plastic models of prehistoric monsters into replicas and learning tools for all ages. Parents can get kids an educational toy, and kids get a cool and accurate Stegosaurus to play with beside their G.I. Joes. Win-win!
Dinosaurs are X-treme
Big? Scary? Full of sharp teeth? Dinosaurs were built for the late 80s to the X-treme 90s.
With everything "X-treeeme!!!" being en vogue leading up to the 1990s, our prehistoric pals found a new lease on life in the toy aisle. Back then, every toyline asked one simple question: "What if dinosaurs did whatever the hell they wanted?" and let their designs follow suit.
In 1987, Kenner Toys released Bone Age, which featured dinosaur skeletons you can disassemble and reassemble into different things, like a T-Rex you can turn into a battle fortress of bones.
Not to be outdone, Tyco Toys made Dino-Riders in 1988, which had dinosaurs like the Brontosaurus or the Pachycephalosaurus strapped to the gills with armor and lasers. I'm surprised these companies had so much restraint.
Then there was 1997's Extreme Dinosaurs, which had roided-up, chain-wearing dinosaurs with bazookas and rode choppers while displaying their significantly defined chompers.
As a dinosaur fan during this time, I was eating good. But little did I know it could only get better from here.
Welcome to Jurassic Park
Then Jurassic Park happened.
Steven Spielberg's 1993 magnum opus changed the landscape of both cinemas and the toy aisle, turning what were once goofy plastic lizards to something big, bad, and dangerous.
And kids loved it. Kenner’s original Jurassic Park toy line became one of the most beloved dinosaur toy lines ever. The gimmicks helped—Snapping jaws. Rubber skin. Better articulation. Electronic and mechanical features. And who could forget the gnarly "dino damage", where you could remove a chunk of dinosaur flesh to show raw muscle and bone underneath? Apparently the 90s were completely fine with giving children a taste of body horror before their frontal lobes grew.
The craziness continued with more Jurassic Park lines, from Chaos Effect to The Lost World, each with their own signature spin on dinosaur toys and ensuring everyone and their mother got their hands on a dinosaur action figure.
Modern dinosaur toys: smarter and more real
Technology has advanced in leaps and bounds these past decades, and dinosaur toys followed suit. Today’s dinosaur toys are in a completely different ecosystem, like how Mattel's Jurassic World toys connect to digital play through scannable "DNA" codes, allowing you to use AR features, play games, and view them in your own virtual display cabinet.
Toy company Spin Master even put a new spin on dinosaur toys with their Primal Hatch line, which features a Jurassic World tie-in where you can actually hatch a toy T-Rex from a giant egg. It's the sort of tactile play we could have only dreamed of as kids.
We've come a long way from a classic green plastic Brontosaurus that just stood there while you imagined all the drama and action yourself, but the core magic is the same.
Dinosaurs all grown up
Toys used to be the purview of kids. But in the 2020s, the kids that grew up with the Carnegie Collection or the Jurassic Park toyline are adults now, with disposable cash to spare.
These days, adult collectors are cashing in on their childhoods and owning some of the most state-of-the-art dinosaur toys—or more correctly, collectibles—in the market today. Companies like Creative Beast Studios make highly articulated dinosaur figures that bring a new dimension to your dinosaur display.
Meanwhile, Chinese companies like PNSO, Haolonggood, and Nanmu Studios are stepping up with articulated dinosaurs of their own.
Now, we can play with dinosaur toys in a whole new way. And there's something awesome and pure about that.
Dinosaur toys are for everyone
It's cool how the history of dinosaur toys is basically the history of how each generation imagined dinosaurs. From Marx's prehistoric playthings to Nanmu Studios' museum-level collectibles, dinosaur toys evolved with the times.
These days, we have a surplus of dinosaur toys for every manufacturer available. We have dinosaur toys that can roar, chomp, transform, and sit on shelves as display pieces. There are Lego dinosaurs, Ikea plushie dinosaurs, STEM dinosaur kits, 3D dinosaur puzzles, Blokees and Bandai dinosaur model kits, and more.
I love that about dinosaurs. They've gone from prehistoric animals to pop culture phenoms, and fans like me can have participate in my fandom in so many ways. And yet, I as an adult am no different to a little kid when given the cheapest plastic dinosaur to play with.
We both have in our hands a tiny version of something that walked the Earth hundreds of millions of years ago, and you can bet we have the same thought—"Hell yeah, dinosaurs!"
I hope you had fun going on a nostalgic trip through time in the history of dinosaur toys for Dinosaur Week! What's your favorite dinosaur toy? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading and see you tomorrow as we continue to celebrate Dinosaur Week here at Behold the Geek!
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