Dinosaur Spotting at Target

I'm going to get all Dinosaur Toy Blog on y'all today, as I took the liberty of snapping some photos of a few dinosaur toys at Target this week. forgive the lo-res quality of these. I've got a chintzy little Samsung, not some boo-boo iPhone or android. No instagram/ hipstamatic flavor here. Though the popularity of those nostalgiafying photo apps probably indicates that in a few decades, these photos will be perfectly fashionable.

Anyhow, the first three are from the Mattel "Prehistoric Pets" series. When I saw the first two, I wasn't even sure that they were intended to be dinosaurs. I was right about the first one, which turns out to be a heavily stylized Dimetrodon. Not sure that it's the best toy for a little kid, though, as it gives a surprisingly strong bite.



There's another which turns out to be a Carnotaurus, which takes the short snout of the abelisaur to an extreme, ending up with what looks more like an anurognathid pterosaur's kisser. Just mind that squirt alert, people.



The only other member of this collection in stock was the instantly recognizable, chimeric pterosaur thing "Terrordactyl," which is not to be messed with. I'm not sure I want to know what a "sticky grub projectile" is. It can't be pleasant.



Of course, you want to see these in action, don't you?





Finally, there's this blue Dilophosaurus, clearly inspired by the Jurassic Park depiction of the Jurassic theropod.



The toy was probably designed off the top of someone's head, as it's hard to imagine any image of it was consulted. The animal's titular crests have been pushed back to behind the eyes. The strangest feature, though, are those hands. They're correctly oriented, but they've only got two digits. If this was a tyrannosaur, we'd be in great shape. But it's not. So, you know. Recall time, Target.