He was manufactured by Marx sometime in the sixties and was originally available in boxed or bagged sets of prehistoric animals. Any boy who grew up in the sixties, seventies and eighties had tons of little plastic dinosaurs all over the place, and I imagine future excavations of our civilization will ironically yield tons of toy dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures.
The Sabre-Toothed Tiger was always my favorite prehistoric animal, next to old T-Rex himself. I mean, who wouldn't marvel at a giant feline with fangs the size of butcher knives!
Toys like these also remind me of the "good old days" when we thought dinosaurs walked upright, dragging their snakelike tails, lumbering like giant slow lizards. I recall hours and hours of play in the house and in the yard with handfuls of colorful plastic creatures. My era was a heyday for cheap plastic toys - army men, knights, fantasy creatures, dinosaurs, aliens - we had it all. If you can even find a set of cheap plastic toys nowadays you're lucky if they're army men or dinosaurs, and they have little charm after having been cast and recast and copied fifty thousand generations after the original molds.
Also, kids today seem to prefer the squishy rubber toy frogs and bugs and stuff which were solid or hard plastic in my day. Sheesh - kids!
"I want tuna, I want liver, I want a Mastadon, please deliver!"
No, he didn't roll over for a tummy rub - I'm just showing his markings which read "Smilodon" and "9' Long"
See, in my day toys even taught you something!
I remember they are cheap plastic toy for North and South civil war and cowboy and Indians toys.
ReplyDeleteA fine example of a Smilodon if I have ever seen.
ReplyDeleteDon't you love these types of toys? I mean simple and somewhat dated, but fun all the same.
That's right LEon, I forgot the ever common Cowboys and Indians and the oft released Civil War sets.
ReplyDeleteStill, there's little out there compared to when I was a kid.
I agree CB, these types of toys have so much personality and charm!
I had one of these!A the saber tooth was always one of my favorites too.
ReplyDeleteI think because they always drew him so cool in the science books.
We also had a set of knights to battle each other which included a working catapults.
I had a complete set of farm animals and the like which were "solid or hard plastic" and I loved them!!
ReplyDeleteLoved the post... readers get a little history delivered with a sense of fun.