Messemore & Damon from the 1933 World’s Fair Chicago and 1939 World’s Fair in New York and the traveling exhibit afterwards. As a tool to promote animatronic displays, Messmore and Damon had the figures produced in metal versions. In 1933 the hollow metal statues were sold exclusively as boxed sets at the Expo. At the 1939 World’s Fair the figures were sold individually unpainted. The dinosaurs and mammals were meticulously hand painted. They came in two different boxed groupings – a dinosaur set and a mammal set. Along with the French Mignot figures these are the first popular prehistoric figures.

update 110113


Painted 1933 figures

Messermore and Damon DInosaur Picture provided by Joe DemarcoThe figures in the Dinosaurs grouping as listed in the boxed set are:
1 Brontosaurus
2 Dimetrodon
3 Triceratops
4 Pterodactyl
5 Stegosaurus
6 Tyrannosaurus Rex
7 Glyptodon

 

 

 

 

 


 

Messermore and Damon Prehistoric Mammals Picture provided by Joe Demarco

The Mammals Grouping as listed in the boxed set includes:
1 Java Ape Man
2 Piltdown Man
3 Neanderthal Man
4 Cro-Magnon Man
5 Saber Tooth Tiger
6 Woolly Rhinoceros
7 Cave Bear
8 Ground Sloth
9 Woolly Mammoth
10 Platybelodon
11 Trilophodon
12 Mesohippus

 

 

 


Unpainted 1939 these are said to be more robust than the painted 1933 sets.

Messermore & Dampamon 1939

These figures are rare and very fragile prices for thge few sets that have come to auction are very high.