Postcards from my childhood

Who doesn't adore a load of loveable lizardy dinosaurs dragging their tails through a bland, generic desertscape - especially when said dinosaurs are endearingly retro, carefully sculpted models? Back in the day, Toyway (known now for filling the Natural History Museum gift shop with awful tat) produced a range of postcards with just such a subject matter...and here are some of them.

I collected these back in the early 1990s, and they were all purchased from Wisbech Museum in Cambridgeshire (East England); my grandparents lived in the nearby town of March. The first one I acquired was actually the "Trachodon" (below), I believe in 1993 (when I was five years old). I remember being convinced that it was a Baryonyx when I saw it in the shop, based on the long snout alone. Of course, Rexy (above) will always be the favourite - with his rather large, dark, wet, puppydog eyes, he's actually surprisingly cute.

Never you mind those suspiciously humanoid arms.

Being rather obscure, I haven't been able to find any further information on these postcards on the internet. Who sculpted the models? Who took the photographs? When were they first published? I've seen hints that they're considerably older than the 1990s (which makes sense, given the retro nature of the models), but there's very little to be found on the back of the cards themselves. The reverse of each card is divided in two with space for a stamp (it's a postcard after all), with a short paragraph on the animal in several languages at the bottom and the text "TOYWAY, LETCHWORTH, HERTS, 0462 672509". Brits of a certain age will note the missing 1 after the 0 at the start of the phone number, dating these to the early '90s at the latest.

Over on Facebook, Billy Sands mentioned getting some of these when he went to see The Land That Time Forgot, which came out in 1975. The postcards certainly have more than whiff of the old-school B-movie about them - the ultra-generic desert landscapes remind me a great deal of Hammer's 'prehistoric' films, which were inevitably filmed in more barren regions of the Canary Islands. The lack of imagination displayed in the scenery seems to extend to the models themselves. They're beautifully sculpted, but you'd have thought that they could've at least given the "Trachodon" and Iguanodon different colours...

That said, they still would have looked fantastic in a dinosaur book from the '60s. They are very typical of that era, from the Louis Dollo/Neave Parker-style Iguanodon with permanently flexed elbows, to the Godzilla-pose Rexy and extremely squat, short-tailed Ankylosaurus (above). This isn't the entire set, of course - I remember there being a Triceratops, a Triceratops v T. rex scene, and more. If any of you have some of these cards, or know more about them, please let me know - I'd love more information about where they came from and who was behind them. Besides Toyway.

And finally...this Triceratops postcard comes from a different (seemingly later) Toyway series, featuring a number of similarly stylised illustrations of dinosaurs. It appears to be heavily based on the Invicta toy, which isn't too surprising; today, it'd be a Papo instead. The trees look a bit like they're out of a Playmobil set.

But that's enough for this little diversion. Next time, whenever I can be bothered: a proper Vintage Dinosaur Art!

Vintage Dinosaur Art: Inside Dinosaurs

Hello LITC readers - Victoria Arbour signing in! After several years of enjoying vintage dinosaur art posts as a reader myself, I’m very excited to be jumping in with my own contributions here from time to time! I thought I’d start with one of my very favourite dinosaur books given to me when I was 10 years old: 1993’s Inside Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Creatures, written by Steve Parker and illustrated by Ted Dewan, and published by Scholastic Canada. Although I’ve kept this book on my shelf through grad school and now into my postdoc, I hadn’t cracked it open in many years. What a treat to revisit this book – a lushly illustrated, information-dense, modern take on dinosaurs that is utterly unique in its approach. I hope you’ll enjoy this sample!

Inside Dinosaurs is a book about dinosaur palaeobiology and covers topics that are still receiving a lot of research interest today. Most of the book features two-page spreads on specific topics with amazing cutaway diagrams that let you peer under the skin of dinosaurs. But first, we start with a great primer on the kinds of data that palaeontologists work with: skeletal anatomy, looking at gross anatomy and fine details, comparisons with modern animals, and dealing with missing data. And leading the charge is good old Iguanodon, a classic ‘intro to dinosaurs’ taxon if there ever was one. You’ll note throughout the book a couple of charming and quirky approaches to the presentation: many pages feature human-engineered structures as comparisons with biological structures, small green globular dinosaurs clamber all over everything, and our human-dinosaur size silhouettes are all musicians.

I love this rad Deinonychus, caught in a supremely dynamic leap that is marred only by the absence of feathers (forgiveable given it’s 1993 publication date). This is a great example of the kind of illustrations found throughout the book, where dinosaurs are shown in various stages of unraveling in order to showcase aspects of anatomy fitting the theme of that page. I particularly like the inclusion of the mechanical toe, and the fish-eating Baryonyx making a cameo at the bottom of the page.

Each two-page spread features at least one large dinosaur in full view, and it’s easy to overlook the smaller diagrams that highlight interesting aspects of dinosaur anatomy. It’s one of the things that makes the book so rewarding to come back to and pore over – it’s hard not to dislike this little diagram of a Protoceratops egg and embryo.

As a person who spends a lot of time thinking about ankylosaurs and animal weapons, I have to wonder if some of my interest and ideas can be traced to this particular spread. I’m pleased to note that the ankylosaurid’s tail anatomy is accurately presented: tail clubs are like mallets! I have some different ideas about how the tail muscles were arranged on the pelvis, but it’s still really cool to see this kind of detail presented in an illustrated dinosaur book for kids. We’ll come back to that sauropod tail later.

Long before CT scanners let us peer inside hadrosaur heads, artists tried their hands at reconstructing just what was going on inside those crazy nasal crests. This Corythosaurus holds up pretty well, and I like the comparison with musical instrument sounds. (Corythosaurus is a French horn, Edmontosaurus is a trumpet, and Parasaurolophus is a clarinet!)

The dinosaur that most shows its age in the book is Spinosaurus, shown here in full “carnosaur” garb with Allosaurus-like head, four-fingered hand, and a relatively short, stocky body. Whether or not you agree with the aquatic Spinosaurus hypothesis, this one is definitely wrong. The book also prefers the idea of ectothermic dinosaurs but notes that this idea was not universally accepted - overall, the book does a great job of exploring alternate hypotheses for all kinds of things, and also emphasizes that structures often have multiple functions that aren't mutually exclusive.

True to it’s title, “Other Prehistoric Animals” that are not dinosaurs make an appearance towards the end of the book: pages about marine reptiles, pterosaurs, ancient invertebrates, and this excellent Probelesodon, a Mesozoic mammal that doesn’t exactly pop up in dinosaur books every day.

One of the most fun things in the book is the Diplodocus cutaway, with bleeds across six pages and three different topics (click to embiggen for full sauropodan glory)! We first meet Dippy in a discussion about necks, move on to a page about quadrupedality in sauropods, and finish at the tip of the tail on that page all about, well, tails!

This is just a small sample of what's inside Inside Dinosaurs. It's a great book that holds up really well given its publication date, and I’d love to see an updated version done by the same author and artist and in the same style, but featuring all the new information we know today: a feathered Deinonychus, an updated Spinosaurus, all the new things we know about how dinosaurs grew, pages about dinosaur pathologies, you name it! It remains one of my favourites, and I hope you’ll check it out in person if you can. Until next time!

Vintage Dinosaur Art: Presenting Tyrannosaurus rex

While best known for her spectacular work with Dale Russell on An Odyssey in Time, the late, great Eleanor 'Ely' Kish remained active in palaeoart throughout the '80s and into the '90s, although many of the books she illustrated are now quite obscure. This would be one of those. In fact, this was one of those cases where I saw an intriguing-looking book appear on eBay for the first time, only to obtain it and realise that I had it as a kid. Given that, it unsurprisingly concerns everyone's favourite hungry hungry horror. May I present Presenting Tyrannosaurus rex.

Presenting T. rex was part of a series of wee dinosaur books, published in '93, that were bundled with model skeletons. As I recall, the T. rex skeleton was a very decent affair, albeit in a rather unlikely tripod pose for stability's sake. Unfortunately, this is the only book in the series that I've ever seen; I'd love to see more, especially if they were all illustrated by Kish. (That's a billboard-sized hint should you happen to own any, by the way.)

Given that we're going to be spending so much time with the most overexposed Mesozoic animal ever to resemble a huge angry maw with overgrown chicken legs, it's nice of the book to include a few other (lesser) dinosaurs to provide some context, or whatever it is they're doing here. (Other dinosaurs, pfft.) Unfortunately, some of these - including the Spinosaurus and Protoceratops - are quite transparent Sibbick copies, while the Euoplocephalus is a mash-up of different Sibbick ankylosaurs. It seems a bit odd for Kish to be copying other artists, but maybe time was short on this one...

So here's Sexy Rexy, illustrated participating in a Cretaceous hoedown (as you can see, both dancers are smiling joyously). Kish historians (Kishtorians? Nah, that just makes it sound like I'm drunk, which I'm definitely not) will note that the animals, while lean to a Paulian extent, are not the terribly emaciated 'zombiesaurs' of Kish's Odyssey-era work. Essentially, they meet '90s standards of mildly exaggerated athleticism. Having said that, and for all that they're rather on the skinny side, there's a convincing sense of reptilian enormity here, enhanced all the more by the excellent use of perspective, placing us more-or-less at ground level as these two titans dance the do-se-do.

Life wasn't one big dance party for T. rex, however, as it had to contend with a host of large and quite often very smelly neighbours. Here, a nice day at the beach hunting Ornithomimus is interrupted by a cheerful-looking alligator purporting to be Deinosuchus (although Rexy's sure he just has delusions of grandeur). Meanwhile, very Sibbickian head-nubbined Quetzalcoatlus fly overhead. For a very competently written and illustrated '93 book, there's an odd tendency for Rexy to adopt his very best Godzilla pose in this book, although it's probably just a result of the cramped format. Also: Nanotyrannus. Ha ha ha. HA HA HA.

Elsewhere, Rexy must contend with lumbering grey-o-pods and far more dapper hadrosaurs. Green striped with black - lovely. It's disappearing into the fold (which probably explains its lack of a label), but the Triceratops with semi-sprawling forelimbs recalls a much earlier Kish piece. Rexy's remains well drawn (particularly given the tricky perspective), but the head is a little off; the jaw adductor muscles are too far aft of the orbit, and it overall resembles that of a much more basal theropod. It's especially disconcerting as nothing else quite like it appears elsewhere in the book. [EDIT: As pointed out by Vladmimir Nikolov on Facebook, the T. rex is a dead ringer for an Albertosaurus by Bakker, so that'll explain that, while Pablo Lara has noted in the comments that the Alamosaurus is a Sibbick clone. Seriously, what gives?]

But never mind, for here is Tyrannosaurus chowing down on a live crocodile, which really should've been paying more attention. Slightly unlikely pose aside, this is, as Thomas Diehl noted over on the Fezbooks, "quite a nice change from the usual T. rex prey animals". Indeedy, Diehl. The idea of a T. rex/crocodilian face-off (no, confrontations between Albertosaurus/Gorgosaurus and MegaGator do not count) is so very awesomebro I'm not sure why it hasn't been illustrated more often. For whatever reason (probably the colouration), this one rather reminds me of the superb 'Young T. rex' toy in the original Jurassic Park action figure line. The trees are lovely, but I bet you didn't even notice the subtle realism of the slightly uneven, birdlike foot. It's something that not many people get right - for my money, a good recent example would be R J Palmer's work for Saurian.

The observant among you (including the palaeontologists, I hope, or else I'll be disappointed) will have noted that Kish seems to be painting Tyrannosaurus with two different colour schemes throughout the book. Here, both are quite cleverly brought into the same scene, suggesting perhaps a gender difference. The style is very typical of a decent palaeoartist in the early '90s, although the attempt at a juvenile tyrannosaur (before such things were well known) is noteworthy. The legginess is prescient, but the snub-nosed faced contradicts what we now know. A bit like that Young T. rex toy.

All dinosaurs must die, and so here we see a trio of tyrannosaurs witnessing the end of their world, or else just a Dutch town on New Year's Eve. The quite stylised, almost cartoony feel of this spread could easily have felt incongruous, but I feel it slots in the book quite nicely; besides, wanton scenes of terrifying dino-geddon would have terrified the kiddies. It's quite a sad scene, really, as the reader is forced to contemplate how they're never, ever, going to see one of these monstrosities appear from behind a clump of trees in front of them as they go out for a nice Sunday walk. Sniff.

And finally...it might be dead and gone, but Tyrannosaurus will be alive forever in our imaginations. A lovely sentiment, and a fitting illustration from Kish, as our highly carnivorous hero strides off into...if not the sunset, then at least the distance. Goodbye, Tyrannosaurus.

P.S. Goodbye Mr B, too. Let the children boogie.

Vintage Dinosaur Art: Dinosaur Skeletons

Regular readers will know that I can't get enough of dinosaur pop-up books, having reviewed several over the years, and 1991's Dinosaur Skeletons is a worthy addition to the canon. Intriguingly, the book's concept is remarkably similar to that of 1984's Dinosaurs - a Lost World in Three Dimensions, only with considerably more up-to-date artwork - the titular skeletons are the pop-ups, while fleshed-out dinos are confined to the 2D illustrations. Not to worry - even a skeleton can threaten to take your eye out, especially when there's a mouth full of pointy teeth thrust in one's general direction.

The cover features a quite Sibbickian Torosaurus alongside a slightly iffy rendition of its skull (orbit's too big), which still works to get our attention. Note the fetching borders and decoration, which will be put to good use inside. All of the illustrations are by Bob Cremins.

The first animal to feature is Apatosaurus, and while hardly looking all thrusting and Paulian, it's nevertheless notable for holding its tail straight out behind it (except where curled to fit the page) - and that's without mentioning that glorious colour scheme. It's refreshing to see a sauropod of any era, never mind the early '90s, decked out in such a striking striped-and-spotted livery. While the animal is depicted simply standing around eating (rather than engaged in Brontosmash or whatever is fashionable among the kids these days), the single partially raised foot adds a subtle sense of motion that was always lacking in older kids' book palaeoart. (Mostly 'cos sauropods' legs were normally hidden by a good ten feet of water, but still.)

Unlike its fleshy counterpart, the skeletal Apatosaurus is still dragging its tail along - although it was probably based on an old skeletal mount. For the most part the pop-up skeletons in this book, while being necessarily simplified, are really rather good - just check out Apatosaurus' wacky-looking cervical vertebrae, there. (The 'creation and design' credit goes to Keith Moseley.) The background, with its evocative stony texture and lovely borders (which help emphasise the skeleton without distracting from it), features a number of pleasing touches. Chief among these is the remarkably creepy human skeleton, which looks as if it was walled into the backdrop and recently exhumed. If you're going to have a scale bar, make it a good 'un.

Of course, you can't have Apatosaurus in your book without introducing its erstwhile nemesis, Allosaurus. Or in this case, ALLOSAURUS!!! Having been quite classily understated so far, bringing in a giant theropod allows the book to introduce lightning, blood, leering shiny-toothed grins and jaws that go all the way, baby (you want more teeth? Well, I'm sure we could afford to lose some muscles, no biggy). It's only missing a sound recording of maniacal laughter. 

Captain Evilsaurus is accompanied by a well-observed pop-up torso of, er, T. rex. It's especially baffling precisely because it is so well made - any dinosaur fan will instantly recognise that skull, sagittal crest and all. Still, neat mechanism (the whole thing appears to lunge forward and the jaws open as the pages are opened).

Parasaurolophus is next and, thankfully, the skeleton matches the illustration. The pop-up here is similar to that in Dinosaurs - a Lost World in Three Dimensions, only rather more detailed, and was likely based on the Parasaurolophus walkeri type specimen. It's a nice piece (and there's that human skeleton again).

The illustration's quite pretty too, and appears to show animals of different growth stages (or else sexual dimorphism, although that isn't mentioned in the text). We're certainly a long way from the retrosaurs depicted in Lost World in 3D. Interestingly, the foreground animal appears to be a better match for the skeleton, while the one in the background has a touch of the John McLoughlin 'leggy hadrosaur' look about it (although only a touch). Again, the colour schemes are very attractive (mmm, stripy) and the background birds are a welcome addition.

The backs of some of the flaps are occupied by animals that, sadly, don't get their own pop-up (I'd love to see an attempt at a Stegosaurus skeleton!). Cremins' Stego is something of a victim of a perspective fudge, although it is at least interestingly coloured and 'modern' in overall aspect. Great border, too (look! Amber! Before Jurassic Park!). Meanwhile, some sort of feathered maniraptor (presumably Archaeopteryx) scampers along the bottom. It's yet another victim of an artist taking 'clawed fingers' rather the wrong way (and it's always amusing given how hugely long the animal's fingers really were), although at least having the upper toothrow extend below the eye is keeping things consistent.

Remember Torosaurus? It's back, and this time, it wants to stick its horns in your face! And the orbit's shrunk.

The accompanying illustration is much better than the one on the cover, certainly in terms of getting the perspective right and keeping the eyes, horns etc. in their correct places. I also like the tunnel effect created by the trees in the background - there's a strong sense that the animal's rushing inexorably towards us. I'm sure it's also reminiscent of a Bakker piece, but I can't quit put my finger on it...

Much like Stegosaurus, Pachycephalosaurus appears as a 'supplementary dinosaur'. Disappointingly, this seems to be the one instance where Cremins just cribbed from the Normanpedia. Boo! We're also given the customary illustration of two pachycephalosaurs clashing heads, although in this case they look more like they're bowing. Polite pachycephalosaurs.

Thankfully, Sibbick's faintly terrifying probe-fingered, saggy-necked monstrosity of a Deinonychus from the Normanpedia does not put it an appearance here. Instead, we are treated to these none-more-'80s curly-armed fellows, mouths agog, no doubt ready to start tearing apart a doe-eyed ornithopod with a long tail. A little predictable, but that's OK, because the pop-up is awesome!

No, I don't know what's going on with that foot. Shut up. It all looks really cool when you have the page spread out in front of you, believe me.

What an excellent impression of a lean, fleet-footed predator. I'm especially fond of the way the neck and jaws protrude from the page - it's ready to snap your clammy fingers off. Great stuff.