I've moved this to my Flickr account here:

http://flickr.com/photos/rogerharkavy/s ... 645827927/

Man those original figures really bring back memories of my childhood as well - thank you putting them up and guiding me down that happy road

Roger, that's completely crazy! I'm not surprised, dollar stores are complete enigmas.

From what I know of molded items they dont shrink from over producing. In fact its opposite. I work with plaster molds(everyday) and the more you cast an item from that mold the more the mold is worn down which in turn makes the casted piece bigger and detail is lost. I cant imagine how an item could become smaller over time no matter what material the mold is made from.
I think the best explanation is that they resculpted those designs which to me looks to be the case.
I'd say they are bootlegs.

-m

really cool to see you got your stuff back, and interesting to see the sculpts are the same. Thanks for taking the time for the pix and posting.

I have a tin full of those in a corner of my closet at my parents' house! I think we used them to decorate a cake for my birthday when I was about 5 or 6.

Hey these remind me of those little plastic bootleg Gundam figures. I won a ton of those from an arcade, and never discovered what they were for years afterward. I thought the Byg Zam was some kind of spider alien...

i had that exact same set as you when i was a kid. i chewed on the triceratops like crazy which is why i remember it

and my t-rex would never stand up

This is my favourite collection to date.

Cool post, Rog- I love to read stuff like this- it's so interesting to track this sort of thing. A few of my fave 70's childhood toys (my unlicensed King Kong bank (still have), my little candy-container skull-head man in a suit and tie, whose body was hollowcast (came filled w/ candy) clear vinyl (sadly, long gone; this toy was actually featured on The Uncle Floyd Show several times, as the character "Bones Boy") were manufatcured in the states, back when there were still some small vinyl manufacturers here and there (are there any left?)- I've often thought it would be fun to investigate the whereabouts of those molds...

very interesting. thanks for sharing!

Thanks, guys, glad you enjoyed this little walk down memory lane.

man , that takes me back . plastic dinos are one of the first things i collected as a kid along with dime store plastic monsters . still collect them they just happen to be vinyl now . thanks for the great post roger !

My husband stopped dead in his tracks when he saw these pics. Who knew they were so ubiquitous? He even remembered where he got his -- from the prize barrel at Casa Bonita in Denver when he was a tyke. (Anyone go to Casa Bonita? Food and fun in a festive atmosphere... Casa Bonita!)

Nice flashback Roger!

I think we all had those.

I had cavemen too, does that make me a Creationist?

Man,

As a kid I had an emtpy 5 gallon bucket full to the brim of dinosaur figs of all sizes shaped and colors.

I think I even had some nicely sculpted prehistoric mammals too.

I decided I was "too old" and threw them away in one big heap.

So funny that alot of those figure sculpts are based on innacurate museum models made in the 30's and 40's.


I also had these ones that were fake Kaiju style passed as dinosaurs.
Since i couldn't find any Kaiju toys then, they were a good subtitute.
I still have a few somewhere. I would love to see standard vinyls made of those ones. I wish I had pics

the fake dinos that were realy kaiju . man i got to dig those out and post a pic . thats if i can find them as all my stuff is put away again . have to find that kangaroo with a warthogs head . that one is kinda wierd . yeah i also remember the plastic sea creatures like the sperm whale and giant squid . post those pics paul memory lane awaits me . see what you started roger !

Wow, what a blast to the past. I absolutely loved those when I was a kid. I don't remember owning the the duckbilled one but I definitely had the t-rex, triceretops, brontasaurus and the ankylosaurus.

It's funny that you mentioned how much has changed about what we know about dinosaurs since then and I've had to throw out much of what I knew out the window.

Thanks for the pictures, brought back great memories but damn...I feel so old now lol.

this is a fun thread. thanks roger.

One thing I forgot to add: at the dollar store, there were a few baggies that had mastodons in them. No cavemen, though, unfortunately.

I see there are a lot of people who had these or very similar ones as a child. If you have pics, please post them!

Thanks to the sleuthing skills of Jeff Horne, I have identified the dinos. They were originally made by Processed Plastic, who still issues them in a big bucket:

http://www.processedplastic.com/ourtoys ... 14302.html

Since PP touts its products as American made, I'm guessing that my dollar store were knockoffs made by someone else. I have to track down more of these.

For more cool dinosaur toys, check out:

http://www.dinosaurcollector.150m.com/

some of those crazy monsters that got sold along with the dinosaurs . had these when i was a kid and that was along time ago .

seems in japan they would also mix in monsters with dinosaurs . this is the box they came in .

Pshaw.... you're always going to be a kid...
you're just a big kid now....

I've been searching high and low for one of these Processed Plastic dinosaur buckets. PP themselves tell me they don't have any left. If anyone can hook me up with one of these I would greatly appreciate it.

A follow-up:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rogerharkavy/5678012252/