Ever since I was a child, I have been interested in dinosaurs. When I had children
of my own, I had an opportunity to indulge in buying books about dinosaurs. It is the secret reason
that adults have children: so they can buythe neat stuff they would want and say it is for their kids.
Anyway, I learned there are a lot more kinds of dinosaurs than pictures of the skeletons. It seemed to
me that you could design a toy using the underlying bone structure for guidance.
DP_0001-$7.50
Protoceratops was an ancestor of the more familiar triceratops. It was relatively small
low to the ground, and heavily armored. When I designed the toy, I made the legs short and reinforced
them with wire to keep them tight to the body. The tail is not articulated but gradually curves
downward. The bony face plating interested me. I could visualize it in toy as a quilted face piece.
The eyes are inset into the plating and are sweetly appealing when you look it in the face.
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Dimetrodon was also low to the ground but he had a longer tail that dragged on the
ground. The most interesting aspect of this dinosaur is the sail. It actually had bony rods that
held up the sail and would use this expanse of skin for regulating its body heat. Since the sail is
actually taller than the body, I had trouble getting it to stay erect on the toy. I tried several
different methods of quilting the sail so it would maintains its shape but finally used what the animal
used. Inserted in each channel of the sail is a strip of plastic canvas that joins with a piece that
acts as the spine to hold all the strips in the body.
DP_0003-$6.50
Tyrannosaurus has always been popular because such a massive predator has great fright
value. But I have always thought they were old looking. Why have such puny arms in comparison to the
massive head and muscled legs? Designing the toy based on the skeleton, I ran into the same mechanical
problems. The tail has to balance the toy in order for it to stand properly. But the tail didn't have
enough resilience to handle the job. So I created a "spine" for the creature by inserting heavy elastic
down the back and tail. This gave the tail a tension so that it can support the large head. It was
definitely a bit of whimsy and an aversion to fright that lead me to add the scarf and hat to the
Tyrannosaurus to turn him into a Texassaurus. The massive mouth and upright stance reminded me of country
western singer. All he needs is a microphone.
