ok, so maybe these aren't old enough to meet everyone's definition of vintage, but i love this series nonetheless. i collect a lot of 90s knockoff kaiju series like Super Dino Monsters, Super Dinosaurs, Monster Meanies, Ultra Dinosaurs, Dino Fighters, etc., but this is probably my favorite of them all. these were made for and sold by the Archie McPhee company in the early/mid 90s under the name "Dino Family." here's a scan of the original 1994 catalog page:



and here are the figures. they are only articulated at the waist. i love the really oddball sculpts and bright colors, and of course the extremely loose definition of "dino."







as you can see in the ad, there are still 4 Dino Family members i don't have. if anyone sees or has any of these (ESPECIALLY the 2 headed one) please let me know!

i neeeddd these.

Pretty cool line, you can see a lot of character inspirations mixed up here and there in a few of the mini guys, but what interests me more, although it doesn't seem to be as much in the actual shots you have posted there, is I can (at least imagine) see a lot of design inspiration taken from the Marusan Original figures, which are some of my favourite vintage monsters. Oh to be back in the (not-so-distant) day when you could find these unwanted gems lying around on store shelves.

Great toys like these are yet another victim of the disappearance of actual toy stores. I don't know how kids these days do it, but then, I guess they don't care about toys at all in the same way anymore.

that's interesting to compare this line to the marusan originals line. never really thought about it, but now that you mention it i can see what you mean.

if only i could just go back to 1994 and just order all 12 for $17.50!