The Late Jurassic
in the Retro Classic style
from the Dinosaur Collector
Page 7 updated 0801506
In the 50's and 60's there were the Late Jurassic Dinosaur trinity available is play sets. Brontosaurus, Allosaurus and Stegosaurus. Later Marx style sets would include Kentrosaurus and Ceratosaurus from Monster in my Pocket, Brachiosaurus from un attributed Chinese sets and Diplodocus from the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum). Not really a big selection for a slice of 15 million years.
Brontosaurus was long the classic sauropod with a prominent place in the Yale. Sauropod skulls are very rare being small and lightly constructed. When a large robust skeleton was found it was assumed it must have a large head with strong teeth like Camarasaurus. The skeleton was reconstructed but there was no skull so a skull from a Camarasaurus found a few miles away was used.
These are Marx style copies of Brontosaurus by JARU custom painted Marx and MPC figures are still occasionally recast by successor companies. JARU markets a range of Marx/MPC style knock offs some are pretty awful but others are faithful retro classic figures. One interesting JARU variation is copying the Marx pose in several different sizes. PHOTO AND ART WORK BY....Fred R Hinojosa.
Over time it became apparent, with more fossils documented, that Brontosaurus had a skeleton more like Diplodocus which had a triangular shaped skull with weak pencil like teeth.
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A recast Marx Brontosaurus and MPC Brontosaurus custom painted. MPC actually got the head right. Where MPC pretty much imitated Marx for the other dinosaur figures this seems to be an original. It uses the same pose as the Smithsonian Jurassic Diorama Diplodocus. The later Carnegie Safari Diplodocus catches the posture. PHOTO AND ART WORK BY....Fred R Hinojosa.
The most common predator was Allosaurus, it was largely over shadowed by the later larger Tyrannosaurus. Originally it was assumed to be the ancestor of T rex and was generally reconstructed as a smaller version. Where Tyrannosaurus is slimmed down later by Marx and MPC there was no remake for Allosaurus. This reconstruction assumes a cold blooded reptile metabolism opposed a more bird like one popular today. The two legged stance wasn't easy to do as a crocodile so the kangaroo was the model. No one one questioned the damage that would do to the tail or that the track ways seemed to lack any signs of a dragging tail.
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MPC Allosaurus and Marx Allosaurus custom painted. PHOTO AND ART WORK BY....Fred R Hinojosa"..
Stegosaurus stenops was the most common of the stegosaurs in North America. There were several North American stegosaurs but S. stenops is the the only common toy representation. Marx Stegosaurus. The ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) figures are the best and last series figures produced in the classic style. Like Marx the figures were done in solid conservation browns grays and greens.
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ROM and Invicta are the high point
of the post Marx style. PHOTO AND ART WORK BY....Fred R Hinojosa. |
Marx Stegosaurus. PHOTO AND ART WORK BY....Fred R Hinojosa. |
Stegosaurs has been the subject of a variety paleontology legends. A macabre speculation popular in my youth was that Stegosaurus had two brains because the base of the spine was enlarged and that the actual brain was smaller than a walnut. The enlarged spinal area is analogous to similar occurrences in some living birds and is used to store fat. While Stegosaurus has a small brain it is bigger than a walnut, the original preparation of the skull failed to remove all the rock leading to idea.
MPC Stegosaurus custom painted PHOTO AND ART WORK BY....Fred R Hinojosa.
