Tat Tuesday.

There are some toys, that you see as a kid, that you never get. For whatever reason they elude you. Maybe they are too expensive, or too rare. One of those ever elusive holy grails, for me at least, was Dino Riders. I remember going to a relative's house and seeing one of their kids playing with a Dino Rider. The sight of an armored dinosaur, with a miniature rider, that could walk gave me a toy boner. A toy boner, in case you don't know and you probably don't since I just made it up, is that feeling of utter jealousy and the realization that all of your happiness exists in a piece of plastic. I had that. I'm pretty sure I was drooling as well. But I never had a Dino Rider. In fact I don't think I ever even watched the show. Which is a shame. It must have been awesome. Even if it wasn't those toys were so awesome it didn't matter. Don't believe me? Take a look.

Before we look at the toys we should take a moment to talk about the cartoon that spawned the line. Dino Riders was a very short lived series, lasting only 14 episodes, that premiered in 1988. The series revolved around two waring species from the future that were flung into the past. These beings used technology to harness the power of the dinosaurs. The heroic Valorians befriended the dinosaurs while the villainous Rulons brain washed them. Using these giant beasts the two forces would clash. The show had a relatively large cast and is fairly well remembered. It was popular enough to spawn a comic and of course, the main attraction, the toys. Part 2 and 3 of the above video can be found here and here.

The toy line was released in waves. There were 4 in total. I'll look at a few figures from each wave and give my impressions of them. This way we get to look at more pictures.

For some reason villains always get the best toys. Take this for instance. The big Rulon set in the first series was this Tyrannosaurus that came with three Rulon figures. The T-Rex itself is a little stylized but it works. The armor and weapons aren't too over the top. Considering that it's already a killing machine it doesn't need all that much. As cool as the above picture is it fails at showing just how awesome this toy is. Why? Because the T-Rex had a mechanized walking feature. Imagine that. Imagine your armored T-Rex carrying three bad guys and walking around. That feeling you just got, that's a toy boner. You're welcome.

To combat the T-Rex, the Valorians had this Diplodocus set. Like the previous toy it came with three figures and had a walking feature. While it's nice, it's nowhere near as awesome as the T-Rex. To me it looks more like a transport unit than a combat ready death machine.

Wave 2 was released in 1989. It featured  eight new Valorian toys and three new Rulons. This imbalance is something that will plague the line for the rest of it's run. It is believed that certain features, such as an increase in figures and new weapons systems, were scrapped by Tyco to keep costs down. I can't vouch for that but as far as I can the tell the toys have lost none of their impact.

In a reverse of the previous series the best toy of the wave, as far as I can tell from these pictures, was a Valorian set. The Brontosaurus set above came with three Valorians and three smaller dinosaurs. It was the largest toy in the line at 34 inches long and 15 inches tall. It is also the toy I remember from that visit I spoke about earlier. The Brontosaurus has always been one of my favorite dinosaurs so seeing an armored version that is equipped with lasers and missiles is just about the most awesome thing ever.

The Rulons got shafted in this series. The biggest they got was the Kentrosaurus set you see above. It is a pale follow up to the T-Rex. It doesn't have the same appeal nor is it massive enough to make up for that. It would be a better suited rival for the Diplodocus from the first series than the awesome Brontosaurus. The only positive, aside from it being an armored dinosaur which is inherently cool, is that it could walk. Movement is always a plus.

Wave 3 was released in 1990 almost 2 years after the series aired. This was sadly obvious by the size of release. This wave was made up of 3 sets, one of which was a re-release from the first series.  Two or the sets were Valorians and one, the re-release, was a Rulon.

Once again the Valerians got the best of the Rulons. The biggest set of this wave was the Pachyrhinosaurus. It came with just one figure but had a walking feature. The choice of the dinosaur is inspired. Look at that thing. It looks like a Godzilla monster. I would do things to have that. That giant horn just screams bad-ass.

The Rulons had to make due with the Quetzalcoatlus set. The color scheme is cool and I like the idea of an aerial dinosaur. There is nothing wrong with this but I would have liked to see a decent follow up to the T-Rex.

Wave four, which isn't shown in the picture above, is really a sub-line to 3. This wave featured creatures from the Ice Age. It had a total of 4 sets all of which were Valorians. The Rulons

The biggest figure in this line is the Woolly Mammoth. It is also the coolest one. It has the motorized walking feature but falls flat on the armor. Would it have killed the designers to add something to the tusks or head? All it has is a saddle. It just looks weak. Oh but it gets worse.

The rest of the line consisted of a Giant Ground Sloth, a Sabre Tooth Tiger, and the above pictured Killer Wart Hog. Look at that. That just looks goofy. How do you go from the T-Rex and Brontosaurus to a killer pig? I'd call it a warthog but it doesn't even have tusks. It's just so lame. That is the end of the Dino Riders series. That stupid pig killed the line.

I almost forgot about the Valorian and Rulon figures themselves. When you bought one of the Dino Riders sets you got these as well. They are actually pretty cool in their own right. In fact a number of them were released on their own. Each wave saw a slew of carded figures. The main attraction of this line will always be the dinosaurs but as you can see the figures weren't just an after thought.

I know that this hasn't been the most informative of my Tat posts. It's really nothing more than be "oohing and ahhing" at toys. But I couldn't help it. Seeing these things made me feel like a little kid again. There is some sort of mystique when it comes them. I never had the chance to own them and as such they have been built up in my brain into something great. Looking at them from the mind set of an adult I am sure they were just as great as I thought.

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