Dinosaur Playsets

[Hepcat]

The #3398 from 1961 had the most prehistoric animals (36):

I'd be tempted to set up and run an American Flyer train set through a landscape populated by those prehistoric animals, minus the cavemen of course. A combo set so to speak!

[horrorhunter]

I'd be tempted to set up and run an American Flyer train set through a landscape populated by those prehistoric animals, minus the cavemen of course! A combo set so to speak!

Here's a huge setup using the Flintstones Train Set & Village:

[Hepcat]

Marx and MPC dinosaur toys are some of the most iconic of Monsterkid/Dinokid toys. Nearly all of us grew up playing with them....

In retrospect, it was probably easier for a baby boomer kid to get his parents to buy him one of the Marx or MPC dinosaur playsets than any specific monster toy quite simply because parents might think the dino playsets were "educational" in a fashion.

[horrorhunter]

In retrospect, it was probably easier for a baby boomer kid to get his parents to buy him one of the Marx or MPC dinosaur playsets than any specific monster toy quite simply because parents might think the dino playsets were "educational" in a fashion.

That could have played into it in some cases since in the late '50s and '60s Marx, and even MPC, dinosaurs were fairly scientifically accurate. But, for the most part, toy dinosaurs were marketed as "monsters" to monster loving kids at the height of the monster boom. Here's a pic of my MPC carded set to illustrate that.



This is another reason I'm surprised that seemingly nobody else in UMA collects classic dino playsets and related items. To most Monsterkids the dinos were considered monsters. Just look at iconic comics of the time like Turok, Star Spangled War Stories, and hundreds of dinosaur covers and stories in most titles. Dinosaurs were portrayed as gigantic carnivorous monsters, in some cases of kaiju proportions.

[jimm]

Wow love that layout with the trains

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[Scatter]

Here's a huge setup using the Flintstones Train Set & Village:

HOLY CRAP!! I LOVE THIS!!

[Hepcat]

Here's a huge setup using the Flintstones Train Set & Village:

Is that Flintstones Train Set & Village from your own collection as well?

[horrorhunter]

Is that Flintstones Train Set & Village from your own collection as well?

No, not mine.

When you mentioned setting up a train set to run through the dino playset I remembered seeing those pics on the net and fetched them for us to look at. 

[Scatter]

If I had that Flintstones train set-up, I'd never leave the house.

[horrorhunter]

Here's a scarce package type of MPC dinos from the '60s or early '70s:



The loose dinos are common and worth maybe 3-4 bucks each. But, sealed original packaging like this is highly sought after by collectors and fetches big bucks at auction. Prices vary widely because this stuff doesn't change hands often, but I would expect this item to sell for $200-$250 or maybe more. The common carded Marx and MPC sets in nice condition generally sell in the $150-$200 range now. Cheap rack toys when they sold new.. boy, how things change.

[horrorhunter]

Found this when I was searching for prehistoric playset ads. Evidently this is the mold groupings for MPC dinosaurs.

Series 1:


Series 2:


Not too sure about those dates though. I always thought the MPC dinos came out starting in '64. Maybe if Pfeiffer ever gets that book published he'll have more definitive info regarding that. I know that as a kid I started buying them around the time I was 5 years old, and that would have been '64. It could be that I just first started noticing them then, having been too young before. I know that some of the original carded MPC sets are dated 1964, like this one from my collection.

[Hepcat]

Not too sure about those dates though. I always thought the MPC dinos came out starting in '64. Maybe if Pfeiffer ever gets that book published he'll have more definitive info regarding that. I know that as a kid I started buying them around the time I was 5 years old, and that would have been '64. It could be that I just first started noticing them then, having been too young before. I know that some of the original carded MPC sets are dated 1964, like this one from my collection.

Were the MPC dinos not distributed with or in bags of Fritos Corn Chips sometime in the sixties? Could this have predated MPC packaging these dinos on cards as rack toys?

[horrorhunter]

Were the MPC dinos not distributed with or in bags of Fritos Corn Chipssometime in the sixties? Could this have predated MPC packaging these dinos on cards as rack toys?

MPC dinos were given away in these Nabisco cereals, but this was in the late '60s and would have been well after they began being sold as rack toys.



http://www.angelfire.com/biz/toysoldierhq/Premiums.html

The colors in the pic above are actually the standard colors. The pic below is of the MPC cereal premium dinosaur colors. (hot linking to eBay pic so it may not last long)



Anyway, the cereal premium colors are Red, Purple, Dark Green, Orange, and Yellow (Yellow ones were also sold in the big MPC dino playsets up into the '70s). I still have a MPC purple Diatryma that I got with cereal back in the late '60s. I'm not sure how long the promotion lasted but it may have been into 1970.

[Hepcat]

Anyway, the cereal premium colors are Red, Purple, Dark Green, Orange, and Yellow.

A gross deception. I clearly see a blue diatryma in the picture as well.

[horrorhunter]

A gross deception. I clearly see a blue diatryma in the picture as well.

Blue is one of the common MPC dino colors, but may have also been used with the cereal premiums. Yellow was used as a color for the common MPC dinos and the cereal premiums so maybe blue was as well. There isn't much good documentation to nail down the exact colors but that eBay pic is probably accurate from what I've seen and remember. The cereal premium MPC dinos seem to sell for about double what the common ones do, maybe about 6-8 bucks. But I wouldn't pay extra unless I knew for sure it was a MPC cereal premium dino, in other words unless it was Red, Purple, Dark Green, or Orange. The Red ones seem to be the most scarce and might fetch a little more.. say, $10-$12. These prices would be dealer to collector, of course. You could buy anything on fleaBay for a fraction of it's value if it's listed improperly or you get lucky with an auction. Those original cereal boxes could sell for hundreds of dollars if you could find them at all.