Dino-Riders Return! Sort of…

Harness the Power!

Dino-Riders were a short lived toy line and TV show that was made of a mix between Kick -Ass and Amazing. They were Amazing-Ass. Wait… that doesn’t work. Kick-Amazing? OK, nevermind. Dino-Riders brilliantly combined Dinosaurs with Sci-Fi and aliens. What could go wrong here? It’s perfect, like mixing Alcohol with an energy drink!

Four Loko

Geez, I am not doing well with metaphors today.

How about I just show you this picture that will perfectly ensnare the concept into your mind. This image PERMANENTLY BURNED into my 9 year old brain.

Dino-Riders Promo Image 1988
There are LAZERS firing from these DINOSAURS.

Get it now?

Yes, Dino-Riders were awesome.I have been wondering when they were going to make a comeback, what with most 80’s properties getting updated toylines, movies, etc. in a wave of nostalgia.

Well, I rounded the corner at the local Target and I saw them! Dino-Riders have returned!

Kinda.

The fisher-price Imaginext toy line has incorporated “Dino-Rider like” sets into their toy lineup, and if I had sons still in this age-bracket I would be tempted the pick them up.

We still have our “old” Imaginext toys, but those aren’t really compatible with these new ones. The old Imaginext toy series was a building system where you could assemble Castles, Police Stations, Pirate hideouts, and the like, with wall panels, floor pieces, towers, traps, ad nauseum.

fisher-price imaginext police rescue center

They were VERY cool and I have spent countless hours with my kids building things for and with them. Somewhere in the past few years, fisher-price dropped this building aspect to the toys, changed the figure size and stopped me from buying any more of these things for my kids.

I guess that is OK, because as I have said, my sons are leaving the suggested age range anyway.  Imaginext did some cool stuff by using the DC license to create a line to rival Marvel’s “Superhero Squad” scale of figures.  I guess they made Hasbro sweat. This year Hasbro is running it’s last line of SHS and introduced a line of toys in the same scale as the Imaginext stuff, but Hasbro has the wealth of Star Wars, Transformers and Marvel characters to draw from. Pretty neat, but I’m (and more importantly my kids are) really done with all of that.

So without further ado, here are the Imaginext “Dino-Ridery” sets, in glorious cell-phone in the toy-aisle quality!     Harness the power of Dinosaurs!

Imaginext Dinos Display

Imaginext Dino Riders on the shelf at Target

Imaginext Dino Riders on the pegs at Target

About Dug (Wugmanmax) 241 Articles
(AKA – Wug, Dug, Foug) Hailing from the Twin Cities, Wugmanmax is an avid toy collector, graphic designer, video producer, firefighter, and podcast co-host.

6 Comments

  1. I first saw these in the Knollwodd SuperTarget a little over a month ago, and my late 20s brain was immediately filled with childhood memories of watching and playing with Dino-Riders. I was thrilled at the sight, but at the same time, these new toys aren’t as coll as the originals. Needless to say, I was looking up Dino-Riders again today, and your post was the first thing I came across. Thanks for sharing.

  2. Thanks for the Comment, E! I loved the Dino Riders so much. I kept that T-Rex long after it was broken and all the pieces were missing. I remember getting it for Christmas one year and trying to save up for the Brontosaurus to go with it.
    Yeah, that never happened. 😀 I don’t think I ever saw the Brontosaurus in stores even.

  3. I was 4 or 5 years old. I got the Brontosaurus set as a present. My mom and aunt told me I had to wait for my dad to come home so he could put it together. They went to the kitchen for about a half hour and came back to check on me after they noticed I was being very quiet. What did they see? A completely assembled Brontosaurus in armor (or whatever you’d call it). All I had to go on was the box art since I couldn’t read the directions yet. I LOVE DINO RIDERS!

  4. Awesome, JJ! I hope someday we will see the majestic REAL return of the Dino-Riders. I wonder where these license rights went to? From MN too? Perhaps we have bumped into each other and never knew it…

  5. Ah, a quick federal Trademark search reveals that the Trademark of “Dino Riders” belongs to Mattel for toys, clothing and print. Tyco was folded into Mattel back in the 90’s.

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