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.
Painted 1933 figures
The 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
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.
These figures are rare and very fragile prices for thge few sets that have come to auction are very high.