Timpo Prehistoric Animals.

No Timpo prehistoric animals? Lets remedy that one!   

Timpo prehistoric animals date from the 1950's. They seem to have been in irregular production at least into the 1960's and some have been briefly reissued since then (Brontosaurus was the last in the 1990's). I remember having the Tyrannosaurus as a small boy late in the 1960's.

These  figures are solid molded figures in a waxy plastic. The commoner figures are unpainted and can be found in solid earth colours such as yellow, brown, black, grey and green. Some are sometimes found with a degree of marbling. Original Timpo prehistoric figures were issued painted. Each figure is marked as Timpo and with the animal name.

Timpo prehistoric figures have now become extremely scarce and are rarely found, especially in decent condition. As with most plastic figures, they often have heavy play wear, bits missing or child chew marks. The stegosaurus is particularly scarce and very rarely seen, let alone in good condition.

There were six figures in the set:

Tyrannosaurus
Triceratops
Brontosaurus
Stegosaurus
Dimetrodon
Megatherium

I have five of these figures. As yet, the Stegosaurus eludes me.   

Tyrannosaurus



Triceratops



Brontosaurus



Dimetrodon



Megatherium

Perfectly presented amd not only missing om forum as well om wiki.
i didn't know Then amd it is good that you're presenting then to us. I hope you can find the missing stego to complete this small but very nice collection.
it confirms also that dimetrodon is by far the most popular prehistoric animal fromm those before the era of the dinosaurs. :)

Fantastic oldies !!! I never heard about them either, so thankyou for presenting them here

It is so fascinating to see old models of orehistoric creatures, - some are really strange looking !
Like those T-rexes ! I suppose they are not made like that on purpose, at least not THAT cartoony, compared to the others ? They are ever so charming

Nice oldies!! Congrats

These are great, I really like the sculpts on these. That must be where Miller copied their Megatherium from? Certainly looks the same.

Thanks for the blanket permission on using your images in the Wiki. I have been adding a copyright for you to the images and posting them there today. Your help is appreciated :)

I love the dancing megatherium

I think when you want to bring them to life again, they will need those Duracell batteries!

WILLYBACOMAN wrote:

I think when you want to bring them to life again, they will need those Duracell batteries!

Then I would like to watch the smiling Trex and Megatherium dancing together

Yes that would be fun i guess...

Creataceous night fever

The Bee Geeganticussus...

According to me this smiling Timpo Ty-rex with froggy eyes is inspired from this draw:



from this U.S. book (here in french):

That is true
What a great find  

How old is that book ? It looks wonderful

1952!.. When I was a child, at the time of primary school, one of my friends had it, but I think it spent more time in my home than in his one! I was very interested by paleontology, zoology and found strange the focus on american fauna and plants!

A few years ago, I found it in flea-market and was very happy to get it for few cents!

Great find

It’s fun to read how these old books built us and how we still love them now.

You're perfectly right and I realised not a long time ago, that my choices of some  figurines renditions were drived by these old illustrations like for Smilodon for exemple:



on the same page, 3 of my loves!

What an amazing looking and old book! Must be so special to you!

Yes Bonnie! moreover, these "oldies" which were far less common than nowadays editions, are very interesting to find inspirations of vintage figurines! :)

.. and about that, the Timpo triceratops shows the same pose and face than the one of this same illustration of the fight with the Ty-rex. The only difference is its open mouth!..

Yes definitely!

also same face and high back sail as the ones of this Dimetrodon:

Oh yes- I think I have this figure too!

Congrats

What a wonderful find!!I love old books like this as it also shows how much progress has been made in understanding dinos and other prehistoric animals and that this also influences the models that are made.
I have two of the Timpo models-the Brontosaurus and the Megatherium.My Megatheriums however are different as one is plain and the other is painted.

Two wonderful vintage models!

Thank you Taos for sharing these rareties.. there is one unpaint one, on ebay, for only.. 52 euros! without shipping coast! :)