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 Revised Triceratops

I managed to latch on to a revised Marx Triceratops this week. After getting this, it was easy to see the differences between the two as identified in my "Dinosaur Playsets" book. The easiest way to identify them is: the original's horns look like upside-down banana's, while the revised horns are straight and narrower in cross-section. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Vintage Dino Profiles: Marx Triceratops

I tell you what, dinosaur toys have come a long way since the late '50s when I was a kid. Toy companies are basing their replicas on the latest scientific research and making their miniature critters more realistic. But for those of us brought up in the '50s thru '90s pre-historic creatures were solid color, more-or-less anatomically correct monsters doing battle with our Little Green Army Men or just playing Caveman vs. Dino. But for me, nothing says dinosaur like a pastel mint green or gray Marx toy - and that distinctive plasticy odor (aroma). Today we'll look at their Triceratops in both colors. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Triceratops (meaning: three horned face) were herbivores living in the Late Cretaceous era ca68-66mil years ago. For purposes of setting up a display of any kind, its Late Cretaceous contemporaries were: T-Rex, Hadrosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Edmontosaurus, Torosaurus (similar but smaller than Triceratops), Ornithomimus, Dakotaraptors. Of course, not all of these toys were offered back in the day, but it's good info to know.

Early Marx Triceratops's were in shades gray, green, brown, and marbled (but no mettalic) changing to all colors of the rainbow in the '70s when Marx reissued them using a waxy looking non-lead based plastic. They measure  3 3/8" (8.57cm) L x 1 1/4" (3.17cm) H

The first Marx issue of the Triceratops was in 1957. In 1958 they started revising their sculpts and some revisions are - for me - a real bear to spot. The original sculpt had thicker horns, while the revised sculpt had more slender horns. I'm gonna call the green guy an original, because - viewing them in person, up close,side-by-side - the gray one does appear to have more slender horns. My search for original vintage Marx dino's goes on and I hope to have a complete set before long, but then again Weinachten is just around the corner so maybe things will have to wait a little.

"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)

1990 Triceratops Post Cereal Premium

Next in our line-up of Flintstones related Post Cereal premiums is this rather sleepy looking (or doofus looking??) Triceratops from 1990. One can see from the photos that these are 'flats', that is to say they're not fully rounded, fully fleshed out figurines being just wide enough to stand up on their own. Another whimsical addition to the line. Enjoy!