 Stegosaurus
One of Many - Store Versions Exist, Too
Definitely Dinosaurs Vinyl Figure
Item No.: No. n/a
Manufacturer: Playskool
Includes: A full dadgum meal, if you can believe it
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $2.99
Availability: ca. 1988
Other: Available in purple/gray, purple/blue and maybe others
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This Definitely Dinosaurs Stegosaurus was most likely given away with a Wendy's kid's meal nearly 38 years ago, but I can't be sure - the one I found at an old toy shop was without packaging. Molded in green with yellow paint, he has little red eyes and a jointed tail. He doesn't do much else other than look cool in his defensive pose. It's a hollow, probably roto-molded figure. These sorts of things used to be a lot more commonplace, but the toy industry has gotten a lot more interested in high-end injection molding and seems to have convinced/been convinced by collectors that this is the only acceptable way for an adult to buy a toy. Me, I found this lightly-used fellow and just had to have it. I have too many toys, but it was $5. If you see it on eBay, you know that someone won't even ship it to you for $5.
I had three of these guys since I was a kid, and I found a fourth about a year ago. I haven't yet bought any online, but I'll let myself snag one if I ever see it in person. A brand-new Jurassic World dinosaur usually starts at $9, so if I can get a middle-aged pre-Jurassic Park toy for less than the price of lunch? I gotta have it.
Click here to check availability at eBay.
At about 5 3/4-inches long, he's probably small by the current standards of Armorsaurs, Plannosaurus, and Jurassic World toys. By the standards of the 1980s, he was a pretty good size. Dime store bags of unpainted dinosaurs were pretty common, and Imperial Toy had some really big hard vinyl guys. A soft vinyl figure like this was rather unusual, and what's funny is how this bargain basement toy of its era is arguably high art today. Sofubi makers worldwide will go out of their way to mold something like this - simple, one moving part, a sprayed-on single color, and special eye deco. It is not fancy, but it is increasingly the stuff of artisanal designs. Or, at times, BanDai will still make $10-$20 toys like it for Godzilla or Ultraman or Gamera. There are also still very high-end figures... but I like the cheap stuff.
Little Stegosaurus here has an open mouth with a tiny tongue. His nostrils pop just a bit, and the finely painted eyes look great. The skin has lots of leathery creases and cracks, which are accentuated nicely by the sofubi-style spray on the plates and tail. The nice, deep sculpting cuts exaggerate teh detail a bit, which is what you want when dealing with a soft plastic like this. You get to see some really nice work done here, even if his plates are a little tiny, his spikes are a little small, and his feet are freaking huge. Maybe these are supposed to be babies, I don't know, nor do I care. I just found them incredibly cool as a kid, and any toy that sticks with you for multiple decades is either a sign of excellence, or hoarding.
With only a tail swivel, he's more or less a static toy. But, that's part of the charm - this was something that came for free with lunch, and his growling face and ready-to-fight-a-t-rex posture is something you don't see on a lot of these guys. Mattel's current dinosaurs look incredibly cool - but their poses aren't quite as specific. I know "action poses" aren't for everybody and were decried by the collectoratti of the 1990s, but today? I think they work. We're buying statues, and if you're willing to spend $200 on a high-end collectible with zero articulation, why not pay $5 for something that's going to look amazing on your desk and not be a target for theft? Are you afraid of someone making fun of you for playing with toys? Be a man! Or woman! Be proud to have cool plastic around.
It is such a rare treat to find one of these in the wild again. I don't stumble on them often, and when I do, they're pretty worthless. I wish there were more soft vinyl figures like this, priced like these, to be had at similar prices. Hasbro made a few Transformers Titan Guardians and I bought one - I should have bought more. But for $5? Why not? Toys should be fun and accessible to the masses, and even four decades later this remains affordable. Carded and packaged ones are dirt cheap, so give them a look if you're collecting sofubi kaiju and don't want to spend high-end collector prices. Maybe they'll scratch the itch.
--Adam Pawlus
Additional Images
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