WELCOME TO JURASSIC PARK, WAIT A MINUTE...

I made the joke in the title for a specific reason. I was at Goodwill awhile back and found this pterodactyl figure. I almost left it because I was like it is just a Jurassic Park dinosaur and I can buy a new one. What is so funny is this was one of my grail items and I almost LEFT it! Thankfully something kept nagging at me and I finally decided to take a look at the copywrite date and saw it was not only fro the late 1980's but also from Tyco! I had a grail piece not only in my hand but it was available to be put in a bag with other toys I select for just $2.99!
So in the late 80's Tyco, a company known for its radio-control (RC) cars and trains decided to try their hand at making action figures. The result was "Dino-Riders!" They made figures that were around 2 inches or so, smaller than the 3 3/4 or 5 inch scales that dominated the 80s. I should note that M.A.S.K. was a similar scale, but that is the only action figure line that comes to mind but I would imagine that there were more. Anyway, I only had 3 of the dinosaurs (all grail pieces to me) as a kid, although I had a few of the 2-packs with a human and a Rulon (the enemy) and a few of the 2-packs with a caveman and a Rulon from the Ice Age line.
One of those three dinosaurs? You guessed it, the pterodactyl here. The other two were the heroic deinonychus (there were two I believe one for the heroes and one for the villians) and the anklyosaurus.
The pieces and the rider are missing but I do not care. As you can see from the hole on the bottom, it had a spot to plug in a glider that the hero rode on.
 He had no articulation whatsoever but is still a great sculpt. The dinosaurs were reissued in a Smithsonian line (and a few others were reused in the Cadillacs and Dinosaurs line) and those are cheaper than the Dino-Riders versions and might pick up some I did not have that way, but so glad to have this one! I still keep hoping that Mattel (who are the current holders of the license) will bring them back but with the fall of Matty Collector my guess is the only way that we will ever see them again will be if they make a cartoon or a movie, but with Hasbro finally working on their licenses like M.A.S.K. and Visionaries, anything is possible. For now though, I finally have yet another one of grails.
Hope you enjoyed this look at a toy that I loved as a kid (and still do). Next week is Star Wars week, 5 days of Star Wars articles (plus 2 extra articles are planned, the League challenge for that week and my haul for that Friday!) This is due to "Rogue Friday being the 30, the official date for the new merchandise for Rogue One! Then, October 1 begins my Halloween Celebration, which I call 31 Days of Halloween!

Comments

  1. It pays to double check those date stamps ;)Congrats on the find!

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    1. Thank You and yes it certainly does, I would have been so mad when I got home and realized that I left a Dino-Rider! lol. I mean the dinosaur here goes for $15 on Ebay and I got him in a bag of toys for $2.99!

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  2. Ha, sneaky Dino riders toys just blend in without the accessories

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    1. Yeah most of the dinos do. Shows how well sculpted they are to be mistaken for figures made a decade or more later.

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  3. Great find and at a steal of a price! Congrats! Does ebay sell the accessories by themselves should you decide to complete it later?

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    1. Yep and depending on the item some can be quite cheap.

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