#924 UNKNOWN MANUFACTURER - DINOSAUCERS PVC FIGURES (Around 1990)

In a previous entry (#629) I presented this bootleg series, and I already mentioned that there were only two figures/casts available. I also mentioned the figures in "rarer" colours (not yellow/orange). I even put some pictures of the second figure, but that figure was missing its tail.

Now that I own a complete figure, I will do another entry to show it. This figure’s body seems to be based on Bonehead, one of the main characters of the Dinosaucers cartoon, although, the head I would say belongs to Rex, the leader of the Tyrannos. It is difficult to say, because the uniforms that the different characters wear are similar to each other.

Unfortunately, the design is not very good, and the tail does not fit very well. Many second hand figures of this kind come without the tail. This was somewhat different in the figure shown before, in which the tail fits much better, and it is almost always complete.

Note also that this figure has one of the heads I was missing in my collection. It is similar to another one shown before, but this one has an open mouth, so I would say this one is Rex and the one with the open mouth is Bonehead. Now I am only missing one head (Ankylo, the Ankylosaurus) of the 6 available originally. As mentioned in the first entry. Each "body" came in a blister pack with 6 different heads.

Pic: Todocoleccion.net

The second figure shown in this entry is also made out of the same cast, but it is painted in a rare purple colour, and there is another picture on the Internet with green skin. All figures whose skin is not the classic light orange, is rare. Why didn´t the manufacturer use different base colours? In the TV series, the dinosaurs have different skin colours. This way, children may have bought several dinosaurs of each kind to cover more characters.

Interestingly, the base colour of the head is green, and the base colour of the body is brown. They had to use more paint and more time in the process of painting the figure purple than in the more common figures. Maybe the purple figures were a first release, and later they decided to cut down the costs by not producing these anymore?

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: DINOSAUCERS PVC FIGURE
• Alternate Names: ASTRO-DINOS (German)
• Year: Around 1990
• Company: Unknown Manufacturer (China)
• Size of the figures: Around 10 cm

#629 UNKNOWN MANUFACTURER - DINOSAUCERS PVC FIGURES (Around 1990)

 

This PVC dinosaur is a bootleg figure from the Dinosaucers series. The cartoon was never very popular, and there were never an official (licensed) line of action figures. The only vintage toy products I know were a series of PVC figures (licensed by Telecon  Inc 1988) and another PVC figures by Yolanda (monochromatic). This plastic figure is almost completely unmarked (China is the only word marked on the figure) and came in a blister pack which was quite simple. Each package included one body and several heads (5, I think). I remember I bought one as a birthday present for my neighbour, so I recall well the figure.

The toy could be purchased in the early nineties in the famous cheap stores in which everything costed 100 pesetas (0,60 Eur) today, these shops still exist but most products cost 1 Euro. These shops were a small revolution back then, and they had some quality toys at the beginning, like MC Toy scale cars or several figure bootlegs of MOTU, G.I.Joe and other popular lines. Later, the quality would decrease.

I guess the figure is older than that, since the figures always came later to Spain than to the rest of the world. The TV show dates from 1987 (65 episodes for 4 months) but also came later to Spain, by the early nineties again. The figures were probably available earlier in other parts of the world, although I have only seen then on Ebay Spain or Spanish auction sites. Some Dinosaucers collectors worldwide also wrote that they got their figures in Spain, so it is difficult to guess on this point.

There were two body casts available, each of them painted in many different patterns, including some exotic colours. Most dinosaurs have a base colour skin in yellow/orange and the colour of the uniform would vary, but these exotic figures have for example purple skin.



Second cast available. Tail did not fit very well and it is very often missing, as in the picture.

The heads available are not very well casted, so it is difficult to name the dinosaurs and the name of the characters that each represents. One of them is clearly "Allo", the leader of the Dinosaucers, which can be clearly identified because he is wearing a helmet.

Other are Styraco, Tricero, Ankylo (missing) and an unidentified one, which could be Stego, Bonehead, Bronto Thunder, Dimetro, Quackpot or Plesio. All these dinosaurs had similar heads.

FACTS and FIGURES:

• Name: DINOSAUCERS PVC FIGURE
• Alternate Names: ASTRO-DINOS (German)
• Year: Around 1990
• Company: Unknown Manufacturer (China)
• Size of the figures: Around 10 cm