Dinosaur Playsets

[Hepcat]

And here's a pic of the custom MPC set I made with the MPC Monsters alongside the MPC dinos.

MPC dinos are roughly about the size of Marx dinos, but most are a bit more slender. The Marx Sleek T-Rex, Pot-Bellied T-Rex, Brontosaurus, and Kronosaurus are a little larger than their MPC brethren.. maybe an inch to an inch and a half longer, and more bulky.

Here are some good replacement shots of horrorhunter's custom Ancient Dark Gods Playset:

[BigShadow]

Oh wow! Love those dinosaur trays. I'd use one today.

I have several metal trays, mostly for 80's cartoons such as G.I. Joe, TMNT, MOTU, and Transformers, but I really can't bring myself to use them.  Too afraid of ruining the artwork.  Would be cool to use my X-Men one with my Spiderman cereal bowl and cup, lol.

[Hepcat]

Rocketship To Venus Playset (Chaos Toys, 2015) is a pulp era sci-fi set involving an exploratory expedition to the hostile jungle planet Venus.

CONTENTS:

1 USAF Venus Expedition Rocketship (Green & Yellow, Engine Lights Up/Flashes)

1 USAF Atomic Bomber Rocketship (Blue & Silver, Engine Lights Up/Flashes)

1 Venus Expedition HQ Building

1 Atomic Fuel Depot

1 Launch Control Blockhouse

1 Launch Ramp

1 Muroc Testing Area Sign

1 Mountain (Light Blue Soft Plastic)

2 Rock Arches (Light Blue Soft Plastic)

1 Bi-Level Cave (Brown & Red Hard Plastic)

1 Venusian Swamp (Neon Green w/Various Nasty Things)

1 Chaos Beast

15 Venusian Dinosaurs & Giant Mammals

4 Giant Crawlers (1 Scorpian, 1 Spider, 2 Beetles)

6 Energy Ogres (Beige Plastic)

11 Person Exploration Team (30mm Figures in Gray Soft Plastic, 4 Spacesuited Humans, 1 Android, 6 Aliens)

12 Double Venusian Jungle Trees (Tan & Green Soft Plastic)

2 Double Carnivorous Trees (Green Soft Plastic)

3 Rock Piles

1 Background Information Sheet

Earth Base: Muroc Testing Area is the secret launch base for Venus Expedition VE1. The expedition is an eleven person crew consisting of five United States Air Force personnel (four humans and one android), and six aliens working under orders from the Air Force. The aliens were scouts from various planets sent to spy on the Earth. They were captured over the last few years and mentally reconditioned by the Air Force to use their greater than human abilities of telepathy, telekinesis, heightened strength and toughness, and enhanced senses to aid the Venus Expedition in exploring and mapping Venus. Small explosives were surgically implanted in the aliens' heads to insure loyalty.

Venus Expedition Personnel: Commander: Col. Trip Travers, Doctor: Maj. Lucy Buff, Pilot: Capt. Hunt Ripper, Pilot: Capt. Crash Connors, Mechanic: TechSgt. Andy Handy (android), Jelik of Venus, Throk of Mars, Kalin of Saturn, Elikarr-Kaas of Alpha Centauri B7, Bel of Luhman16 A4, Rayz-El of Sirius B9.
The expedition will travel to Venus on two rocketships, the VE1 and the VE2. VE1 is a green and yellow rocketship which will carry most of the personnel and equipment, and is piloted by Capt. Hunt Ripper.  VE2 is a blue and silver experimental bomber with heavy weaponry including conventional 2K lb. bombs and four atomic bombs (in case things get really nasty), and is piloted by Capt. Crash Connors. The primary mission is to explore and map Venus. Secondary missions include making diplomatic relations with any civilizations of intelligent life forms, and destroying any advanced technological weaponry of any hostile groups.

Arriving on Venus: Venus is a deadly Green Hell planet with steaming jungles and swamps, as well as giant predatory animals very similar to many that existed in Earth's prehistoric  past, only usually bigger and meaner. It's constant hyper bloodletting on a grand scale, eat or be eaten. In addition to the Venusian dinosaurs and huge mammals there are poisonous insects and arachnids bigger than cars called Giant Crawlers. Also there are hulking humanoids called Energy Ogres who absorb solar energy and can briefly expel it in a deadly heat blast. The top of the food chain is the towering Chaos Beast. Only the most powerful predators or groups can challenge it. Most of the vegetation resembles palm trees, but there are also carnivorous trees and plants in abundance. And, the glowing swamps have a type of floating algae-like growth which can strip the flesh off of more vulnerable life forms in seconds. Welcome to The Bloody Jungle Planet.

                                                                       CHAOS TOYS
                                                                       Route 666
                                                                       The GREAT ABYSS

This is a custom playset conceived and put together by me. The Earth Base pieces are by Clyde Childress. The box and illustrations are my work except for the illustration in the center of the box which is a '60s sci-fi paperback cover I found the art for on the internet. Artist is unknown.

Chaos Toys name and logo are by me. The company is fictitious, created to be the producer of this playset. The company may be an ongoing thing for more custom toys in the future.

Here are some good replacement shots of horrorhunter's custom Rocketship to Venus Playset:

[Hepcat]

Though, sometimes the lines blur between myth and historical fact. You never know what paleontologists will unearth next. They keep changing "historical fact" as they dig up more fossils. Remember the "tail draggers" from the '60s that were accepted as fact? And, the Brontosaurus which was later understood to be an Apatosaurus skeleton with a Camarosaurus skull?

I still like Brontosaurus and tail dragging dinos. They may not be "fact" today, but they were when I was a kid, and the toys from the time reflect that. Also, Brontosaurus is still correct regarding the Marx, MPC, and other figures of the time. They're labeled as Brontosaurus and by god they are Brontosaurus. 

Brontosauri are back! And with a vengeance!

Charles Choi - Scientific American

So once again Marx, MPC, Nabisco, etc. had it right all along and the so-called "learned" paleontologists couldn't tell a neck bone from a tail bone even if a Neanderthal hit them over the head with it!

[ravenloft]

I find it amazing that hobbies and interests often converge among groups. Monsters and dinosaurs are a natural pairing. You'd be hard pressed to find a fan of either who doesn't love both.
I have two MARX dino sets, 1978 (#4208) the one I had as a kid with the crazy blue and yellow colors, and 1971 (#3398) the reissue of the one my dad grew up with in 1963. I remember playing with parts of his MARX Flintstones dino set that survived too, especially the rock huts but am unsure which Flintstones set he might have had.  Of course I had all the MPC, Nabisco, Tim-Mees, DFC, Winneco, Hong Kong and imperial dinosaurs too. By junior high school I had some Dino-Riders from Tyco. Even had the cheap rack toy "chinasaurs" imaginary Kaiju that inspired Gary Gygax to come up with a few Dungeons & Dragons monsters that often had Marx knockoffs mixed in.

Now-a-days I collect PAPO, Schleich, MOJO, and Collect-A prehistoric animals and have hundreds of dinos in my dino collection. I learned a lot about toy dinosaurs because of this thread and of course Jeff Pfeiffer's book which I bought because of this thread. So thanks guys.

But I am frankly shocked that no one has yet mentioned my favorite dinosaurs from my childhood, the last of the great plastic dinosaur toy models before the new era of painted hyperrealism or action button activated roars, biting and walking came along.

INVICTA PLASTICS DINOSAURS 1974-1993 originally made for the British Museum of Natural History and distributed at Museums all over.

The are the last set of plastic mono-colored dinosaurs that had the realism and classic feel of the MARX dinosaurs that started it all. In my opinion they are even more beautiful (and bigger!), even if the postures don't reflect modern scientific reconstructions. They have a Harryhausen sense of style with the detailed simplicity of the MARX dinos. The last of the classic dinosaur toys.
I got mine at a few museums as a kid. We begged dad for the first ones we saw, then my aunt and uncle were pleaded with until they caved for more on subsequent trips. I live smack in the middle of the famous Dinosaur Diamond in the Western U.S. and have several high quality museums, national monuments, state parks, dino bone quarries and dino themed gift shops within an afternoon driving distance. My home state has produced a lion's share of many of the dino specimens whose names we all know today.

INVICTA DINOS were usually bought singly at the gift shop at a museum and were fairly expensive per toy, but they did have some boxed collection sets as well.
I have two, a small 4 piece set and a large 12 piece set that came with a poster of the box art. I've kept my originals all these years but have since added to my collection with eBay.




They are significantly larger than even the tallest MARX figures, about the same height/scale as the modern PAPO figures. Here is my INVICTA Tyrannosaurus rex looming over the MARX T-rexes (and others) even from the background


in fact size is such an issue that it is difficult to fit all 12 that originally came in the box let alone a few extras


The bottom of the box showed the scale in relation to a person. The collection even included a blue whale model for size comparison although it didn't come in this 12 piece set and I don't have it.


23 models total were made by INVICTA and I own most of them.

the magnificent T-rex (1977) and a Megalosaurus (1974)


the Diplodocus (1974)


Cetiosaurus (1985)


Brontosaurus (1987)


the mighty Brachiosaurus (1984)



Iguanodon (1980), Stegosaurus (1975), Muttaburrasaurus (1989), and Triceratops (1975)


some non-dinosaurs: Pteranodon (1978), Scelidosaurus ((1974), Icthyosaurus (1986), and Plesiosaurus (1978)


and a couple of mammals thrown in this set: Glyptodon (1975) and Woolly Mammoth (1975)


The INVICTA poster


I don't have the Stenonychosaurus (1988), Mamenchisaurus (1980), Liopleurodon (1989), Lambeosaurus (1993), Dimetrodon (1993) Blue Whale (1974) and Baryonyx (1989).

edit:
I guess HorrorHunter did mention INVICTA back on page 19 of this thread post #272. But his picture links are broken because photobucket sucks.

[ravenloft]

I don't know if your Sinclair gas stations dress up their dinosaur mascot out front, but in our area they all do for every holiday and occasion (Back to school)
Here are a couple of Halloween costumed Sinclair Dinos

[horrorhunter]

But I am frankly shocked that no one has yet mentioned my favorite dinosaurs from my childhood, the last of the great plastic dinosaur toy models before the new era of painted hyperrealism or action button activated roars, biting and walking came along.

I guess HorrorHunter did mention INVICTA back on page 19 of this thread post #272. But his picture links are broken because photobucket sucks.

That's a great post regarding Invicta dinos, ravenloft. I didn't buy the Invictas when they were sold new because for much of then I was in that unfortunate window of time that consumes us with things that lack in fun (early adulthood  ), but I purchased several of them a few years ago from an eBay seller in a big lot.

BTW, here's a link to the earlier post you mentioned: http://www.universalmonsterarmy.com/forum/index.php?topic=23582.msg467980#msg467980

And, here's one of the pics I posted of my Invicta dinos (albeit cluttered by wretched Photobucket):



The pic is visible to me though cluttered with some annoying lettering superimposed over the image. I assume others can see it...?

[Hepcat]

Uncluttered:

[Hepcat]

I don't know if your Sinclair gas stations dress up their dinosaur mascot out front, but in our area they all do for every holiday and occasion.

Sinclair gas stations aren't actually found in most places. I've never seen any in Canada and the ones I once admired in Detroit all disappeared by around 1970.

There are 2,607 Sinclair filling stations in 20 states in the Western and Midwestern United States.

By 2018, Sinclair gas stations were widely distributed across the United States with gas stations in Arkansas (1), Arizona, California (dozens), Colorado (dozens), Connecticut, Iowa (dozens), Idaho (dozens), Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota (dozens), Missouri (dozens), Montana (dozens), Nebraska (dozens), North Dakota, Nevada (dozens), New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma (dozens), Oregon (dozens), South Dakota (dozens), Texas, Utah (dozens), Washington, Wisconsin (1), and Wyoming (dozens).

Show the rest of us pictures of how they look these days!

[Wolfman]

I find it amazing that hobbies and interests often converge among groups. Monsters and dinosaurs are a natural pairing. You'd be hard pressed to find a fan of either who doesn't love both.
I have two MARX dino sets, 1978 (#4208) the one I had as a kid with the crazy blue and yellow colors, and 1971 (#3398) the reissue of the one my dad grew up with in 1963. I remember playing with parts of his MARX Flintstones dino set that survived too, especially the rock huts but am unsure which Flintstones set he might have had.  Of course I had all the MPC, Nabisco, Tim-Mees, DFC, Winneco, Hong Kong and imperial dinosaurs too. By junior high school I had some Dino-Riders from Tyco. Even had the cheap rack toy "chinasaurs" imaginary Kaiju that inspired Gary Gygax to come up with a few Dungeons & Dragons monsters that often had Marx knockoffs mixed in.

Now-a-days I collect PAPO, Schleich, MOJO, and Collect-A prehistoric animals and have hundreds of dinos in my dino collection. I learned a lot about toy dinosaurs because of this thread and of course Jeff Pfeiffer's book which I bought because of this thread. So thanks guys.

But I am frankly shocked that no one has yet mentioned my favorite dinosaurs from my childhood, the last of the great plastic dinosaur toy models before the new era of painted hyperrealism or action button activated roars, biting and walking came along.

INVICTA PLASTICS DINOSAURS 1974-1993 originally made for the British Museum of Natural History and distributed at Museums all over.

The are the last set of plastic mono-colored dinosaurs that had the realism and classic feel of the MARX dinosaurs that started it all. In my opinion they are even more beautiful (and bigger!), even if the postures don't reflect modern scientific reconstructions. They have a Harryhausen sense of style with the detailed simplicity of the MARX dinos. The last of the classic dinosaur toys.
I got mine at a few museums as a kid. We begged dad for the first ones we saw, then my aunt and uncle were pleaded with until they caved for more on subsequent trips. I live smack in the middle of the famous Dinosaur Diamond in the Western U.S. and have several high quality museums, national monuments, state parks, dino bone quarries and dino themed gift shops within an afternoon driving distance. My home state has produced a lion's share of many of the dino specimens whose names we all know today.

INVICTA DINOS were usually bought singly at the gift shop at a museum and were fairly expensive per toy, but they did have some boxed collection sets as well.
I have two, a small 4 piece set and a large 12 piece set that came with a poster of the box art. I've kept my originals all these years but have since added to my collection with eBay.




They are significantly larger than even the tallest MARX figures, about the same height/scale as the modern PAPO figures. Here is my INVICTA Tyrannosaurus rex looming over the MARX T-rexes (and others) even from the background


in fact size is such an issue that it is difficult to fit all 12 that originally came in the box let alone a few extras


The bottom of the box showed the scale in relation to a person. The collection even included a blue whale model for size comparison although it didn't come in this 12 piece set and I don't have it.


23 models total were made by INVICTA and I own most of them.

the magnificent T-rex (1977) and a Megalosaurus (1974)


the Diplodocus (1974)


Cetiosaurus (1985)


Brontosaurus (1987)


the mighty Brachiosaurus (1984)



Iguanodon (1980), Stegosaurus (1975), Muttaburrasaurus (1989), and Triceratops (1975)


some non-dinosaurs: Pteranodon (1978), Scelidosaurus ((1974), Icthyosaurus (1986), and Plesiosaurus (1978)


and a couple of mammals thrown in this set: Glyptodon (1975) and Woolly Mammoth (1975)


The INVICTA poster


I don't have the Stenonychosaurus (1988), Mamenchisaurus (1980), Liopleurodon (1989), Lambeosaurus (1993), Dimetrodon (1993) Blue Whale (1974) and Baryonyx (1989).

edit:
I guess HorrorHunter did mention INVICTA back on page 19 of this thread post #272. But his picture links are broken because photobucket sucks.

Awesome set! I love the box art on this, and the Wooly Mammoth with the white tusks! I'm quite sure I had the 1963 Marx set when I was a kid. Long gone now, just like the dinosaurs themselves. Lol

JP

[horrorhunter]

Sinclair gas stations aren't actually found in most places. I've never seen any in Canada and the ones I once admired in Detroit all disappeared by around 1970.

I loved Sinclair stations when I was a kid in the '60s. Here's a link to my earlier post in this thread covering my Sinclair dino stuff: http://www.universalmonsterarmy.com/forum/index.php?topic=23582.msg468034#msg468034

Dinokids love Sinclair! I would always bug my parents to get gas at Sinclair stations in hope that I might score some dino toys. In October 1966 we ran across the travelling Sinclair World's Fair exhibit on a Florida vacation and my generous parents bought me the bagged Marx-like Sinclair dinos and the bagged Mold-A-Rama Sinclair dinos (they couldn't tote the MAR machines I guess, so they made a bunch and bagged them in sets in those big plastic net bags). I was in Dinokid heaven on that trip.

[Hepcat]

INVICTA PLASTICS DINOSAURS 1974-1993 originally made for the British Museum of Natural History and distributed at Museums all over.



The are the last set of plastic mono-colored dinosaurs that had the realism and classic feel of the MARX dinosaurs that started it all.... The last of the classic dinosaur toys.

The INVICTA poster

Great post! Those INVICTA dinosaurs are fabulous.

[ravenloft]

You can see Jeff P. has a 4 piece INVICTA set hiding in the bottom left of this picture
in fact that whole shelf on the left looks like INVICTAS with the painted versions in the middle

Finally getting around to posting some of my Marx and MPC dinosaur sets (along with some knock-offs like Superior, Toy Street, SDC, etc.). Sorry about the not-too-professional pics and the crowded set-up!

Horrorhunter has the 3 long box sets from INVICTA (although sadly missing the box itself from one of them)

My Invicta prehistoric animals:





From the mid '70s to the mid '80s the British Museum of Natural History prehistoric animal figures by Invicta were state of the art. Then, in 1988 the Carnegie Safari figures surpassed them with most collectors. I still really like these figures. They're like a bridge between classic Marx dinos and the realistic looking scientifically accurate figures being produced today.

Above are pictured all three boxed sets with some dupes. The box for set #2 is missing. There are also some extra singles Invicta offerings: Brachiosaurus, Cetiosaurus, and the white one is a By God Brontosaurus. Says so right on his belly. Take that, Apatosaurus!  . Also pictured is the big fold-out poster and some other paperwork.

http://www.dinosaur-toys-collectors-guide.com/invicta-dinosaurs.html

And I have the 4 piece and 12 piece INVICTA box sets. I wonder if any other boxed sets were available. Very tough to find info on these boxed sets. I like the big box the best it is practically the same size as the later MARX boxed sets.

So did anybody here score a chocolate tyrannosaurus rex or other dinosaur over the weekend? You know something conveying the true spirit of Easter?

Is it my imagination or is that chocolate T-rex nearly the same as the INVICTA T-rex? The scalation on the tail is identical and unique to that model so it had to have inspired the chocolate mold somehow.


Horrorhunter, the older photobucket links of your dinos don't work at all, the more recent ones have the name superimposed across but eventually they too will disappear altogether.  How did you remove the photobucket watermark on his photo Hepcat?
I had a photobucket login for years before they lost their minds and tried to extort their clients. I lost most of my monster photos on UMA because of it. I switched to Flickr now all is right as rain again.

[horrorhunter]

Is it my imagination or is that chocolate T-rex nearly the same as the INVICTA T-rex? The scalation on the tail is identical and unique to that model so it had to have inspired the chocolate mold somehow.

I believe you're correct about the inspiration for the chocosaurus. BTW, that Invicta T-Rex is pretty damn cool.

Horrorhunter, the older photobucket links of your dinos don't work at all, the more recent ones have the name superimposed across but eventually they too will disappear altogether.  How did you remove the photobucket watermark on his photo Hepcat?
I had a photobucket login for years before they lost their minds and tried to extort their clients. I lost most of my monster photos on UMA because of it. I switched to Flickr now all is right as rain again.

My pics were hosted by ImageShack before I started using Photobucket, so those are the ones with broken links. Of course, the P-bucket pics could disappear anytime due to their ever changing extortion techniques. I use Flickr now as well, so it's okay as things stand currently. Eventually I may post more of my dino playsets, but it requires a lot of time and effort. Because of your great posts above, and Hepcat's steadfast interest in this thread, I may get involved with my dino stuff a little more as time drags ever onward. Again, really great effort on those INVICTA posts, ravenloft. And, it was big fun to see your Sinclair post too.

[Hepcat]

some non-dinosaurs: Pteranodon (1978), Scelidosaurus ((1974), Icthyosaurus (1986), and Plesiosaurus (1978)

I have a very serious problem with the newly hatched non-dinosaur concept. Way back in 1841 paleontologist Sir Richard Owen coined the term "dinosaur" from the Greek term "terrible, fearfully great lizard"  to refer to the "distinct tribe or sub-order of Saurian Reptiles" that were then being recognized in England and around the world. But his "distinct tribe" included pterosaurs, mosasaurs, ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and dimetrodon. Therefore not only was the word "dinosaur" coined to describe these animals, but these animals, e.g. plesiosaur, actually served to define the concept of dinosaurs. The word "dinosaur" immediately gained widespread currency to refer to this subset of ancient animals which included the ones listed above. Through popular usage "dinosaur" quickly became an accepted part of the English and other languages.

But many/most modern day paleontologists now seek to exclude pteranodons, plesiosaurs, dimetrodon, etc. from the "dinosaur" classification upon the premise that e.g. plesiosaurs are a "marine reptile". Well it's too late. Plesiosaurs were not only used to define the concept "dinosaur" but for 150 years the accepted meaning of the word in the English language included plesiosaurs. And languages are both shaped and defined by popular usage and not by scientific bodies.

Therefore if paleontologists now want to separate out pterosaurs, mosasaurs, ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and dimetrodon etc. from the other dinosaurs, they must coin a new term for the other dinosaurs. They can't mess with the word "dinosaur" since it already has an accepted meaning. Just because the meaning of a word becomes inconvenient to some special interest group is no reason to change the meaning of said word regardless of how much that special interest group agitates for a change.