Dino Riders was one of the most unique and obscure 1980's franchises known to man. A great concept with a cool cartoon series and awesome toys from TYCO, Dino Riders will always have a cult following but it will never get the true recognition it well and truly deserves.
So the Valorians are a peaceful race of humans from the way distant future who have been chased from their home world by an evil race known as the Rulons. The chase goes all the way through time were they all end up slap bang in the middle of the Jurassic period. The Valorians befriend the dinosaurs and become allies with them while the Rulons use brainwashing techniques to manipulate the other dinosaurs for their own good. So what do we have? A futuristic battle ground where men/aliens from the future ride dinosaurs and shoot really cool guns from them.
The toys for the series were really cool and like a mixture of the Jurassic Park dinosaurs mixed with M.A.S.K style action figures which were of the same size and had the same amount of articulation. The dinosaurs also had their own motions and actions in which if the tail is moved then the head will do something.
Like most products from TYCO the quality of the toys is very high with decent sculpts, movements and paint jobs. The toys had a range from small dinosaurs which had one rider to bigger ones like the T-Rex which had multiple riders and lots more guns and attachments.
Here is the T-Rex which wasn't the biggest but was one of the most expensive of the bunch which had 3 riders and a shit load of fire power. There were also some other huge dinosaurs in this series of toys as well.
Later on more toys would be released including a cool Ice Age set of prehistoric animals such as the saber cat and woolly mammoth.
The Brontosaurus from series 2 is the biggest of the bunch and comes loaded with a shit load of really cool stuff. The cool thing about these toys was the fact there was so much cool stuff included when you take into account the weapons and cool action figures, and not to mention the amazing dinosaur toy the whole thing revolves round.
Figures were also sold in packs (just like the M.A.S.K ones) and were about 3 inches tall. The Rulons were your typical alien lizard creatures and the Valorians were these cool looking hippy types from the future. By 1990 the toys and the cartoon show were on the scrapheap, and Dino Riders went down as one of the last valiant efforts from a cartoon/toy franchise to make a go of it in the 1980's.
I will never forget this toy line though, as I thought it was awesome back then and still think its awesome to this day. Whats more cool than dinosaurs loaded up with guns being ridden by hippies and lizards? Well the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles obviously but still it was a pretty cool toy line and concept. Another Lost Entertainment gem.
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