TYCO

Dino Riders,

Smithsonian Museum Dinosaurs and

Dinosaurs and Cadillac's

from the Dinosaur Collector update 1/20/13

Tyco produced The Dino Riders series of action figures and prehistoric animal figures in 1/24 scale.  The Dinosaurs were used later by the Smithsonian dinosaur series  and finally as the Dinosaurs and Cadillac's actions figures.  Some of the figures are quit good, they are the first series of quality articulated figures, Bob Bakker was reputed to be associated as a consultant with the figures.  The figures are comparable to the Playskool Definitely Dinosaurs and Hasbro Jurassic Park figures.  There was also a set of 3 battery operated figures that while smaller had the look of the Tyco figures.

Use your mouse to click on the links to go to a diorama that uses the figure or the thumbnails to see full size figures.  The pictures are mostly from Ebay auction listings.

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Dino-Riders an Animated TV series from 1987. The Valorians, a race who land in Earths past and their enemies the evil Rulons. Both sides ride dinosaurs mounted with armor and weapons.   The figures were released as tie ins with the Cartoon series.  This was a dry run of the later successful Jurassic Park tie in for Hasbro Dinosaur toys.  

The Dinosaurs came with body armor, weapons and action figure riders.  Action figures were also sold separately and had weapons and other paraphernalia.  Sort a high tech version of Dinotopia.  For collectors getting mint sets with all the parts is a challenge  The original packaging is very attractive and lends itself to display.  Several of the larger Dinosaurs: Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Torosaurus and the rare Pachyrhinosaurus were powered by batteries so they could walk or in the case of the T rex roll around.   Styracosaurus, Monoclonius and Chasmosaurus shared the same bodies but had different heads.  Triceratops, Torosaurus and Pachyrhinosaurus also shared the same bodies.   There was also some rare color variations.  The was a rare mail away premium Pteradactylus/Quetzalcoatlus repainted.   In the final release series 3, all which are hard to find and may never have been released in the US, there is a repainted yellow and brown Quetzalcoatlus.   The was also a hard plastic  Tyrannosaurus and Quetzalcoatlus included with a play doh set.  The tyrannosaurus was hollow so that a Dino Rider video tape could fit in it.  The set allows you to make armor and two action figures to go with the 2 dinosaurs.  The scale is smaller than the regular series. 

The figures were released in series: 1 in 1988,  2 in 1989, 3  in 1990.   In 1992 some of the series 1 and 2 dinosaurs were marketed as Smithsonian figures.  The Smithsonian Institution dinosaurs can be told apart from their Dino-Riders counterparts by their slightly darker coloring and 1990 date stamped onto them. The motorized walking action has also been removed from the larger dinosaurs.  The was also some renaming, Ankylosaurus became Euplocephalus.  Pterodactylus has been renamed Quetzalcoatlus.  The Quetzalcoatlus has been renamed a Pterodactylus.  In 1993 some of the figures were marketed with Action Figures from the Dinosaurs and Cadillac's animated TV show.   The dinosaurs look pretty much the same but they have different harnesses from the original Dino Riders.   At some point the Struthiomimus was released holding an egg.  The series 2 were very modern reproductions for their time.

release 1  

Brontosaurus (Apatosaurus) 

Ankylosaurus/Euplocephalus	Diplodocus	Deinonychus	Monoclonius	Pteranodon

Pteradactylus/ Quetzalcoatlus	Quetzalcoatlus/Pteradactylus	Styracosaurus	Triceratops	Tyrannosaurus

Placerias	Dimetrodon and Styracosaurus	Torosaurus	Pachycephalosaurus	Saurlopholus

Struthiomimus and Protoceratops	Edmontonia	Kentrosaurus	Pachyrhinosaurus	Stegosaurus

release 3

Chasmosaurus	Saber Tooth Tiger (Smilodon)	Sloth (Megatherium)	Woolly Mammoth (Mamuthus primogenis)	Killer Warthog  (Dinohyus or Entelodont)

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                                                                       Dino Rider page at Toy archive                                                        

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