I just BINed this 1981 Clover Sun & Brownie Brachiosaurus today.
Can't wait to see what color that vinyl really is!

Very happy with these.





You make life a song

Rainy day here. Thought I snap a few pics of my dinos as they stand. It's been a long time coming to get them in this display and I'm pretty happy with it. Probably could stand a little tweaking, but that will come. Enjoy!




A little bit of everything mixed up.

Mostly Marushin.

Marushin Mammoth . Looks like a lot of effort went into the display, and it's a pretty cool idea. Are the rock displays vintage as well?

Fantastic displays, particularly the Marushin dinos. You have a couple of the mid-sizes that I have never seen before- the green and yellow one next to the mammoth, and the green one with a yellow belly (T-Rex?) in the top row, center.

The amount of creatures produced by that company is pretty astounding. I think we have still yet to see the entire lineup (like the Pteranodon that you found a few years ago). I've often wondered whether these were sold alongside the licensed vinyls or whether they came from a completely different venue, like museum gift shops.

Superb collection Mark. I always knew you had some real gems, but seeing them altogether like that is just amazing. I will never get tired of toy dinosaurs. I really love the complete variety in size, sculpt, and colours of all these guys. But your display is especially killing me - how I wouldn't love to spend hours playing with that kind of rock face. Really, beautiful stuff man.

Thanks guys! The displays come from the Carnegie Dinosaurs line by Safari. They were given to me and I had to patch some holes where the original toys were torn off and repaint.

The guy next to the Mammoth is a Gorgosaurus. It is marked Marushin in katakana unlike all the others which have "Marusin" in English. The yellow vinyl w/ blue/green spray Diplodocus at left-center (facing left) is also marked like this. The guy top center is a Tarbosaurus. I know there are several I am missing including some you have, Daniel , some paint variations, and I am sure some I have never seen before. My guess is that they were a stand alone toy line sold in toy stores. The museum gift shop idea may have occurred also as the flier that comes with them is very informative. The Marushin side is also hiding the two Nitto dinos.

I still have no Ark dinos. Anyone...anyone...

AMAZING displays Mark!
Were there ever any cavemen made by any of the Dino makers?
Oh I wanted to mention how beautiful that bottom set of multi colored dinos in the second pic were!
Can you share who the company that put those out is?

Thanks, Ralph. Some of the Sun & Brownie/Clover dino packages throw in a caveman or two. You can see one in the 2nd pic right center. You picked out some of my favorite dinos. Unfortunately I really do not know anything about them. They are only marked w/ the dino name in katakana. They do appear to be a set although I picked mine up singularly and have never seen them packaged. I love the sculpts and the great colors. They have a Marushin aesthetic about them so I am guessing they are early '70s.

Ah, Gorgosaurus, thanks!

The marking variation is kind of a mystery with the Marushin dinos. In addition to the two that you mention, there are some marked "Marusin Toy" and at least one with no maker mark at all (Edaphosaurus).

But that Pteranodon is still really something...

If you ever have a chance to photograph the mark on the set of dinos that Ralph picked out, I can read the characters.

Mind = Blown.


A true thing of beauty, Mark!

Can not even aspire to such dino-ness. Great!

Lookit all of that eye candy!!! Mark, your dino collection is like a mantra, I could stare at it endlessly! I love the setup, in a way, it reminds me of an ant farm or a high rise "apartment" for the dinos.

On the left panel set, and on the right-side of the diorama, third level from the top--can you please tell me what that very pretty blue & black stripe aquatic dino is, and the maker? He sort of looks like a Liopleurodon?

Also, can you please tell me more about the mini dinos on wheels? Neat stuff!

The blue/black one is a Mosasaurus.

Below is an old photo I have of the Sun & Brownie and Clover (tagged) versions, for comparison. I believe the Clover version is older. I'm not clear on whether S&B is related to Clover, or if they just bought the molds, but they essentially reproduced the Clover dinos in the early 80s. The two Mosasaurs are not too different, but some of the other dinos feature noticeably different paint jobs between the original and repro versions. In either case, they're very nice models that straddle the 70s and 80s styles of toys.

Shit, those Morosauruseses are so fantastic! You get to see so few aquatic dinosaurs as it is, but damn, those are some of the best I have ever seen. I am now going to have to severly increase my dino hunting.

It is definitely interesting that the two you have shown there are so similar. I don't know about any connection between the companies, but it seems like an interesting story to learn if they are a separate entity that bough up all the molds and reissued the toys with their own take on them. The quality is just excellent too, from the looks of them. Just the right amount of detail and amazing paint. My inner child, and my outer child, are feeling some intense urges right now.

Dinos, dinos, and more dinos. This is far and away one of my favourite threads on SB.

Hi, Grace. How you been?
Daniel nailed the Mosasaurus ID. The Gorgosaurus and the Iguanodon to the left and the tiny cave man to the right of the Mosasaurus are also Sun & Brownie/Clover. I don't know anything about the relationship between these two companies either.

I've been meaning to post these for a while. These are from a few years ago and I did not win the auction. Have not seen another boxed set since. This might be the entire Sun & Brownie/Clover line-up (minus the cave men), but I am not sure.




I also saw these recently up for auction mint-on-card. Don't see any manufacturer on the packaging. When did the "Safety Toy" (ST) logo become mandatory on kids toys? That would at least give us a possible earliest date.

Oh Mark, you are killing me! It is not wonder you saved those pics, what an amazing set. I am sorry you did not have luck on the auction. I wonder if that was a display box for a store, or if it was intended to be sold all together as a set. Since there are just a couple doubles, albeit different colourings, I am not sure. If it was a store display though, I feel like the individual boxes would not have last very long (if displayed at all). I know I would have been tearing in to them to get the one I wanted!

Those other guys look like the typical pull-back racers, are they also sparkers?

EDIT: nevermind, I see now they are the same as the ones you posted before, it just kind of looked (especially on the T-rex) that there was the sparking mechanism in the mouth.

I think it is a gift set for a very special boy or girl.

That gift set is fantastic. It is the Sun & Brownie version, judging from the black boxes. The Clover dinos came in yellow or green boxes, from what I have seen.

After looking through my files, both versions of the dinos came with virtually identical neck tags; the Clover logo is just swapped for the S&B name on the repros' tags. This suggests to me that there was some sort of relationship between the two companies beyond the molds. Moreover, Clover went out of business in 1983 (according to TBDX), which was around when the S&B dinos were produced (I think).

Another weird side note is that this appears to be the same Clover that was better known for die-cast super robot toys.

Thank you Mark and Daniel! Your collections always make me sit up and take notice (if not a bit jealous too! ), and your toy knowledge is always so helpful! Hope you are both well and happy and scampering about with your toys! I really do wish I had a Way-Back machine! It would be so nice to go back and nab all of these beauties at the actual price, loooooong time ago! The colors are just so nice! You can just imagine the toys coming to life and swimming about on your floor.

I have to be very very careful with my toys and my "new" kittehs, Henry and Emma. They take an ACTIVE interest in all of my toys--they want to taste test each one of them

Mr. Humphreys and Mr. Bean, were a lot calmer with toys....

An old pic of Mr. Bean....

^^^ Hi Bean! Can I play too now?


Who wants to school me about these little fellas?

C'mon in! The fur is nice and warm!
Mark can you please enlighten us? I haven't unpacked my toy ledger yet... and Thank you!

i always thought they were edible.... you know, Dinosaurs, the new white meat!
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2 ... e-tastiest


ok, sorry for the diversion... now back to your regularly scheduled vintage!

Not much to tell about them. They are unmarked so don't know the manufacturer. Might be vintage but a few years ago there was a seller on YJA that was selling several bags of 50 so they might be reproduced. Someone suggested they might be cake toppers but I never found anything to support that. Have never seen original packaging. Picked mine up at Cosmo Knight Alpha. One of the few dino toys he had that were actually for sale. One thing for sure, they are damn cool and would look great stuffed inside a clear toy!