Marx #4672 'The Flintstones' Playset (1961) - Pt 19 Dinosaurs: Marx Mold Group PL-755 (Small Mold Group) x2

Marx included two sets of Mold Group PL-755 (aka the Small Mold Group) for a total of 14 figures. While all of them fall under the generic heading of 'dinosaur', in point of fact, two of them were not. The Dimetrodon and Sphenacodon are classified as Synapsids, a species of critter more closely related to mammals than they are dinosaurs. Living during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic, they cam w-a-y before the dinosaurs, which didn't appear until the Triassic period.

Ed

Here are the five different types of critters:

Dimetrodon (Synapsid)

Sphenacodon  (Synapsid)

Cynognathus (Dinosaur)

Plateosaurus (Dinosaur)

Triceratops (Dinosaur)

Flintstones Playset

As stated before, the Marx #4672 playset included two groups of 'dino's' for a total of fourteen pieces. The two groups would have come in either grass green, light mint-green, or light gray and were color matched, flat finish, soft plastic. I'm not aware of groups coming in two different colors in the playset. Each of these animals were covered in separate posts back in the November 2020 time frame and by using the 'search' function on the blog you can see more in-depth write-ups.

Unless you get a complete original Flintstones playset, or are able to acquire two complete sets of color-matched figures from somewhere, it may a bit tricky to come up with fourteen color-matched figures. While my playset was mostly complete, a couple of the dino's were missing and I had to flesh out the group with individual pieces.

Vintage Dino Profiles: Marx Original vs. Revised Dimetrodon

Okay folks, a real quick post to explain the difference between the Marx original and revised Dimetrodon's. After looking through my critters I don't have a revised one - all originals - but the difference is super easy to explain. Original = mold circle on belly. Revised = no mold circle on belly. Easy peasy. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

You can see the circle under the belly quite well in this photo, meaning it's an orginal mold casting

Vintage Dino Profiles: Marx Dimetrodon

Here's another dinosaur wannabe, the Marx Dimetrodon (meaning two measures of tooth). These, like the Sphenacodon (covered a few days back on the blog), lived in the Paleozoic era - that period of time before the Mesozoic (the Age of Dinosaurs). Specifically it reigned during the Cisuralian (Early Permian), around 295–272 million years ago. Confusing? Okay: 

-the Paleozoic was an era of time

--the Permian age was a portion of that time

---the Early Permian age is called the Cisuralian epoch. 

Kinda like a book: you have the book, then the chapters, then the paragraphs, then sub-paragraphs. I find it easier to just know these critters came before the dinosaurs LOL

Both Sphenacodon and Dimetrodon are classified as synapsids - not dinosaurs, but rather mammal-like reptiles - and in fact, Dimetrodon had already gone extinct some 40 million years before the coming of dinosaur's. According to Wikipedia: "Dimetrodon was probably one of the apex predators of the Cisuralian ecosystems, feeding on fish and tetrapods, including reptiles and amphibians." However, I saw an interesting BBC episode of "Walking With Dinosaurs" that showed them to also be canabalistic and quite ornery! While most fossils have been found in the southwestern United States, some have been found more recently in Germany.

Our toy Dimetrodon was also part of Marx's PL-755 Mold Group and measures 3 1/4" L x 1 1/2" L. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

"Dinosaur Playsets - Expanded Edition" by Jeffrey S. Pfeiffer and Marx Dinosaurs Mold Group PL-755

Finding myself growing more and more interested in toy dinosaurs the past couple of years, it only seemed natural to hunt down a book that covers them and I found about as good a book as there is. Jeffrey Pfeiffer's "Dinosaur Playsets - Expanded Edition" fits the bill nicely as a beginning reference. It covers the two giants of vintage toy dino's: Marx and MPC as well as Toy Street repops and some others. A lot of companies - especially those in Hong Kong and China - have made the little beasties over the years and those aren't covered here, but for those of us into the vintage scene, this book will fit the bill nicely.

Using the book as a reference I'm going to try and follow the dinosaur production based on mold groups: those groups of dino's all made at the same time in the same steel mold. I may jump around from production year to production year as I may not have all the dino's I need at the moment, but will do what I can. Along the way there will hopefully be some nice photos taken with scenery or perhaps Photoshopped - something to break the standard photo essay routine. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Marx dinosaur production started in 1957 with Mold Group PL-749, then Mold Group PL-750, followed by Mold Group PL-755 (all 1957) PL-755 is being featured first. Why? Because I'm still missing dino's from the other mold group's.

Mold Group PL-755 consists of:

-1 Triceratops

-1 Sphenacodon

-2 Plateosaurus'

-2 Dimetrodon's

1 Cynognathus

The colors for this group woud have been light pastel shades of greens, grays, and browns

We'll cover these more in-depth during the individual photo essay posts but this group is a good example of how Marx packaged these all as dinosaurs, yet only two of these were actually dino's (Triceratops and Plateosaurs)

ROAR! Dinosaur's Are Coming to Toys and Stuff

Welll, if I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times - I'm slow! Yup. Don't ask me why I haven't posted more dino's on the blog, but except for when I did the Playmates series of toys for Peter Jackson's "King Kong" back in 2011-2012, and some of The Flintstones cartoony type of toys, there's only been two other posts for dino's here on the blog. That's a bit odd seeing as how dino's were some of my favorite toys back in the day. We'll start with a pic taken for an earlier post, one I did on a Toy Street years ago. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Here's one of my favorite photos showing a group of Toy Street Dimetrodon's.

To clarify things a little, not everything I'll be posting is will be dinosaur's. Many of this genre of toys were sold in sets and header bags labeled 'Dinosaurs" but included creatures like Woolly Mammoths, Sabre Tooth Cats, and Cavemen! Assuredly not dino's but definitely Pre-historic. And some were dinosaur looking creatures but are not actually classified as such.

Case in point: Dimetrodon's (meaning 'two measures of tooth') are not dinosaurs. They came from the pre-dinosaur Paleozoic era (ca541mil-252mil years ago) and are classified as Synapsids. They lived during the Early Permian (Cisuralian) period of the Paleozoic era (298.9-272.9mil). 

Among the things I''m learning about the dino's and the dino toys is that the critters made by the toy companies span a very diverse range of years. Many of the creatures tossed into those bags and boxes would not be contemporary with each other and would have lived during different era's and ages. 

And, just for the fun of it, I s'pose a few more cartoonish dino's will find their way onto the blog again as I did when posting The Flinstones stuff

Toy Street, Inc. Dinosaur Playset

Jurassic World, the latest installment in the the Jurassic Park franchise, opened in theaters this past Friday and I thought it was high time to do a dinosaur post. I chose this playset for one good reason - it was easy to get to. The Cave has been a construction/destruction zone since January (and is likely to be that way for many more months because I don't have the time or energy or ambition to get out there and work every day) but this playset was still sitting in the kitchen after having bought it a few weeks ago. What attracted me to the set were the four mountain and volcano backdrops as nearly everything else in the set is common. The playmat is also unique to the set but I don't see me using it again for anything else like I plan to do with the backdrops. The set came without original packaging and includes:

-Playmat 24 1/2" x 19"  In general I really like playmat art and this one too is nice, although a tad cartoony. Playmat's almost all suffer from the same drawback, being just large enough to cram the playset contents onto but not large enough to really give someone a decent play area to work with

-4 heavy cardboard backdrops

-7 Palm trees

-32 dinosaurs:
       8 Pteranodon's (Late Cretaceous)

     8 Dimetrodon's (Early Permian Epoch)

      8 Plateosaurus (Late Triassic)

     8 Cynognathus' (Early and Middle Triassic)

-7 Palm trees

The dinosaurs and trees are essentially repos of old Marx offerings and most pieces in the set are well done, but the casting quality for the Pteranodon's and Dimetrodon's is pretty poor with lots of flash, cavities, and mold plugs sticking out. About 20 minutes with a hobby knife and box cutter cleaned them up well enough for play. Here's a couple of shots of the playset set up with all it's pieces:

Next, I took out the display board I made last year and started goofing around with the contents then taking the photos and having a little playtime in Photoshop. Enjoy! Opa Fritz and Oma Bettina

A Pteranodon's eye view of the landscape