Show us your plastic dinosaur

[FB003]

Found these in the basement not too long ago. New York World Fair 1964-1965.

[Bobby Rico]

1 minute ago, FB003 said:

Found these in the basement not too long ago. New York World Fair 1964-1965.

Wow very cool. I would love them in my collection. 

[FB003]

13 minutes ago, Bobby Rico said:

Wow very cool. I would love them in my collection. 

They pop up on auction sites from time to time but prices are very inflated on the majority (in my opinion).

[siteseer]

4 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

Thank you for sharing.  i been to this museum many times it is wonderful. It a day out in it’s self Form the big totem polls, the dinosaurs and of course the Hall of African Mammals. The fossil galleries also have the art of Charles Robert Knight. 

 

Hi Bobby,

 

You asked why people collect fossils and things in general.  When I was around 10 and my brother was 7, we would find bottle caps of various sodas on the ground and we started saving them because of the different colors.  Not long after that, a family moved in one house over.  The kids were around the same age.  They had all kinds of toys and stuff like G.I Joe with several of the playsets like White Tiger Hunt and Shark's Surprise.  They had baseball and football cards and some Wacky Packages and Odd Rods stickers.  I had never seen those before so I started buying cards too and traded with them.  Back then, they were 10 cents per pack of ten cards.  I still have the baseball cards and other cards I bought in the late 70's-early 80's but don't know what happened to my football cards.  I did start buying some of the football cards again in the 90's as an attempt to replace what I had.

 

I think nostalgia like that is what drives a lot of people to collect anything.  They remember what they saw, had or wanted as child and now they want to have it or have it again to make them feel like a kid again.  It's a way to get transported in time back when friends/relatives in your life who have passed are still around and times seemed better or just simpler.  Maybe those things are just fun to have because you thought you wouldn't be able to find them.  If you watch "American Pickers," you hear a few people talk about their family being poor so the kids didn't have a lot of toys.  Many of those kids grew up to become both hard-working businesspeople and big toy collectors for the child they once were and still are to some extent.

 

There's an episode of "American Pickers" in which the guys go to Italy and are introduced to a collector who has all sorts of stuff and the collector becomes impressed by their interest in some of the items beyond their possible resale value.  He also got a little philosophical about collecting in general.  He offered that people who collect are trying to fill an empty space in their lives - a person who has lost a spouse or child or never married.  That's probably true in some cases but I think collecting is more about nostalgia - souvenirs of our lives.  The word "souvenir" comes from French, the verb "to remember."

 

When I was a kid, one of the toys I wanted was the Batmobile made by the Corgi company.  I saw it at the toy store but it was $5-6 which was usually $4-5 more than I had.  If I had a quarter or dollar, I generally bought baseball or other cards.  Years later (late 90's-early 2000's), I saw one of those Corgi Batmobiles for sale at a collectibles show and it was in great shape.  The dealer wanted about $250 for it.  Out of reach again! 

 

I guess they were in demand and expensive because a lot of people remembered seeing that at the toy store back then or they had it and lost it over time.  They became the people driving the price up later.  Looking online now, I see it selling for less.  People of the generation after me are now nostalgic about the action figures of the 80's-90's so some of those are expensive and hard to get now.

 

Jess

[Sjfriend]

7 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

BTW this museum looks cool with the big mammoth. 

I haven't been back in decades, since they were just starting to work towards that. It was a big deal (oh yes, that pun was intended )

[JohnBrian]

I got my first fossil in about 1967 or '68 (I was 9 - 10 years old). It was a hunk of limestone with lots of shells & gastropods in it. The beach was about 300 yards away from my house down a cliff about 50 feet tall in Shell Beach, CA. One section of the cliff had the limestone with shells & etc top to bottom and about 20 feet wide. I pried my hunk out with a screwdriver. Still have it but I'd have to search for it so no pics. And so began my love of fossils!

 

My second fossil (around the same time period as the limestone) was a flat hunk of mudstone or ? that I found at a lake near San Luis Obispo, CA. It had many shell impressions in it. Its packed away with the limestone otherwise I'd photograph it.

 

When I was 16 or 17 I found out about Shark Tooth Hill. It was owned by an oil company & they didn't care if you hunted fossils as long as you stayed out of the way, or so the story was back then. It was right next to a paved road so I parked out of the way and climbed up. I grabbed a few hunks of matrix and took them home. I processed the matrix over some window screen using a hose. The water broke it down very nicely. I found a lot of micro & larger teeth and bits of bone. Still have all of this somewhere. I went back a time or two but since I was a teen with a driver's license I had better things to do!

[thelivingdead531]

On 1/15/2022 at 5:05 AM, Bobby Rico said:

I completely understand your sentiment and to quote again Ferris Bueller “Life Moves Pretty Fast. If You Don’t Stop And Look Around Once In A While, You Could Miss It.”  Some days I stop and look at my collection, a Yorkshire ammonite I found or a Dimetrodon tooth a friend gave me and realise I am lucky to see this wonderful record of the past life of our planet. It is still very much magic to me.
 

Please show us your first fossil buys.

 

Cheers Bobby 

I completely understand the feeling. I'm still in awe of every fossil I get to hold. 

These are the two fossils that started it all for me. Not the greatest quality, but they hold a special place in my heart 

[Bobby Rico]

@siteseer great story thank you. We are very a like . We never had money as kids or holidays away from home. I did have a bmx and Star Wars toys . I collected Star Wars toys up until my 30’s . I was a collector of collections Vintage toys, music and fossils. I sold my toy collection because it was just to much stuff? My mother she was a collector of collections, my brother and my sister too, 

 

cheers Bobby 

[siteseer]

18 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

@siteseer great story thank you. We are very a like . We never had money as kids or holidays away from home. I did have a bmx and Star Wars toys . I collected Star Wars toys up until my 30’s . I was a collector of collections Vintage toys, music and fossils. I sold my toy collection because it was just to much stuff? My mother she was a collector of collections, my brother and my sister too, 

 

cheers Bobby 

 

Yeah, Bobby, like you, I could never focus on just one thing.  I have trading cards and stickers.  I have some comics, toys, and all kinds of odd things like a swizzle stick in the shape of a blue marlin, two versions of the Batmobile that Hot Wheels did ( the classic one from the 60's TV show  and the "Tumbler" from the Christopher Nolan movies), and a glow-in-the-dark Creature from the Black Lagoon.  My youngest niece once said when she was 5 that I have too many collections.

 

Someday, I'd like to visit Steve Stansweet's Star Wars museum which is not far from where my brother lives in northern CA.  I have some Star Wars stuff (cards, magazines, mostly) but I never went nuts.  There's a website created by a guy who concentrates just on cards.  There are kinds of them from all over the world.  I suppose a few people have tried to get most of it.  I'm happy just to have a sample of some of it.  I see some fossil collectors actively hunting down the rarer stuff now.  At some point you relax and appreciate what you have, letting go of a few things that you wouldn't have years ago.

 

 

[Keichhorn]

On the subject of why we collect I can share my reason. I grew up on Indiana jones, jurassic park, and a slew of older movies my grandma gave me, such as the land that time forgot. The obsession of adventure is what started it for me. After I grew up and figured out life is a lot diferent than the movies I became obsessed with certain things that bring those childhood feelings back to life. I started to learn leatherworking so I could make my own cool gear. I learned how to rock climb and scuba dive so I could go raid an archeological discovery(if ever given the chance), and I became obsessed with the history of things because when I do the research myself it gives me that feeling of discovery and adventure. Fossil hunting is my strongest addiction due to those feelings. I get to build my own gear, go out into wild places(sometimes lol) and discover new things. Although I have never found something totally new to science it may be new to me and that makes me go nuts. So I collect my figures, movies, and fossils to remind me of those amazing things I've done. Granted they may not be amazing to everyone, but it's amazing to me. 

For example, I learned how to make backpacks so I could build the perfect fossil hunting bag. Still learning that one!

I wanted a Gandalf pipe so I learned to carve by hand. There's several other skills I've acquired because of my obsession with collecting and creating. 

Edited January 19, 2022 by Keichhorn

[Bobby Rico]

@JohnBrian hi so sorry for late reply. Great story I have my first fossils it is a hash plate found in a stream in Wales. It was a school trip and I hated school so much I can’t remember how I was permitted to go. The geography teacher tried to claim it but he had no chance of that. I can’t remember the next fossils I found but it was up until I found my first trilobite before I has hooked. I add pictures tomorrow when I have better lighting.

 

thanks again Bobby 

[Bobby Rico]

On 1/19/2022 at 7:24 AM, Keichhorn said:

slew of older movies

Do you remember any of these movies was?

 

I think your bag is great you are very skilled person.

 

On 1/19/2022 at 7:24 AM, Keichhorn said:

So I collect my figures, movies, and fossils to remind me of those amazing things I've done.

This probably Is the essence of a lot of collections , to remember, relive or celebrate the past.

 

Sometimes

subconsciously I feel drawn to different unrelated objects or images that bring back nostalgia in a moment of revery. Like my love of scale tree fossils. They reminds me of wallpaper my mother had in her back room when I was a kid. 
 

Sorry for late reply and thanks for your story. Cheers Bobby 

 

Edited January 24, 2022 by Bobby Rico

[Bobby Rico]

 

Tijuana rex

Edited January 24, 2022 by Bobby Rico

[thelivingdead531]

Only one of our local Sinclair gas stations seem to have these adorable plushies. I decided to buy one today to put on display in my house. My son and I have decided to name him... wait for it...Sinclair. Yep, we're so original. 

 

[Yoda]

My Mrs got a gift from one of her friends in this gift bag

I said to her that the friends kid must have received some thing in it and she recycled 

 

 

[Rock Hound]

I don't have any old plastic figures, but I have quite a few modern ones.  An interesting thread idea.

[Rock Hound]

Spinosaurus stuff:

 

[Yoda]

My son received this card for his 17th birthday last week 

I should add - he has zero interest in anything dinosaur or fossil related 

[Peat Burns]

[Tidgy's Dad]

1 hour ago, Peat Burns said:

 

Brilliant! 

Is the rest of it on the other side of the wall? 

[Peat Burns]

3 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Brilliant! 

Is the rest of it on the other side of the wall? 

Haha.  I should have some broken  cinder blocks around the neck to make it look like he's breaking through.

[siteseer]

Here are three of the cards from the "Fossil Cards" 72-card set (Mostly Minerals, 1995) that was sold as a set.  It wasn't available in packs.  It was something I found at one of the venues at a gem/mineral/fossil trade show (run every year in late January-early February in Tucson, Arizona).  Shown are the fronts and backs of the first three cards in the set.  If you click on the image a couple of times, you can magnify enough to read the text on the backs of the cards.

 

I need to get more stuff together for this thread too.  So many threads to get back to.

Edited August 16, 2022 by siteseer
additional note

[Mart1980]

Not dinosaur but also plastic. Some of my Kaiyodo models with accompanying fossils in my display.

 

- Rutiodon, with Rutiodon ruetimeyeri and Rutiodon sp. tooth from Saint Nicolas de Port (54), France.
- Diplocaulus, with a Diplocaulus jaw found in Archer County, Texas, USA
- Eryops, with two Eryops jaw parts with teeth, from Waurika, Oklahoma, USA

 

Are there more people who collect Kaiyodo models with their fossils?

 

Edited August 26, 2022 by Mart1980

[siteseer]

17 hours ago, Mart1980 said:

Not dinosaur but also plastic. Some of my Kaiyodo models with accompanying fossils in my display.

 

- Rutiodon, with Rutiodon ruetimeyeri and Rutiodon sp. tooth from Saint Nicolas de Port (54), France.
- Diplocaulus, with a Diplocaulus jaw found in Archer County, Texas, USA
- Eryops, with two Eryops jaw parts with teeth, from Waurika, Oklahoma, USA

 

Are there more people who collect Kaiyodo models with their fossils?

 

 

Oh no, don't get me started with those Kaiyodo Chocolasaurs!  Those are a lot of fun.  I have some of those and remember when a friend brought a load of them from Japan to the Tucson show.  Black Hills Institute bought most of them from him and was reselling them at the Vagabond Inn (no longer a hotel and no show there any longer).  I bought some.  Then, one day, I was watching a booth for a friend during a a slow day at the show.  Every hour or two, another dealer and I would go over there and buy a few more because we were bored and those models are fantastic - great detail.

 

Years later, I saw some at a local flea market.  Someone had glued them together but I still bought them (they were super cheap).  You don't need to glue them because they snap together like some of the old model kits from when I was a kid.  I have Cladoselache in two different colors and one of the original boxes they were in too.  Oh yeah, that's fun stuff.

 

Edited August 27, 2022 by siteseer
typo

[Nimravis]

@Bobby Rico and @Troodon, thought you guys would like these. Not plastic, but pretty cool. My brother bought these decanters at an antique store for $100.00. He stated that they are the complete set and that is why he bought them. He has them displayed in a glass case that holds some fossils that I gave him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 7, 2022 by Nimravis