Starting this month, I'll be borrowing this page to show off my dinosaur collection. First up are items from my childhood, which are the origin of my collection.

The oldest dinosaur in my collection that I can remember is a dinosaur set I received over 40 years ago at a toy store called "Kaname-ya" in Shinjuku, along with soldier figurines. All that remains today is the Dimetrodon shown in the top photo (with Mary Anning, 1/35 scale, making a special appearance). I recently learned that these were products of the American company "MARX" and are probably the most popular dinosaur models in the world. Since the 1950s, numerous Asian copies, both large and small, have circulated alongside the originals, right up to the present day. The souvenirs from the "Dinosaur Cruise" (similar to Disneyland's Jungle Cruise) that used to be at Yokohama Dreamland long ago were also domestic copies. The designs are based on murals at the Peabody Museum and paintings by Charles R. Knight.

The Triceratops and Dimetrodon (bottom photo) were souvenirs from the National Museum of Nature and Science from that era. Unfortunately, my own items were lost long ago, so these were borrowed from Mr. Toshiyuki Honda, who also appeared in the interview. They are made of plaster and are about 20 cm tall. There were also Tyrannosaurus and Stegosaurus models. When I showed them to Professor Yukimitsu Tomida of the National Museum of Nature and Science during a magazine interview, he informed me that the museum no longer had any surviving pieces, making these extremely valuable.

I also distinctly remember building a Stegosaurus plastic model (top photo). (The one pictured here was bought years later. It's actually a variation of a MARX copy.) It was designed to walk clattering down a slope, and it came as a set of two, one gold and one silver! How auspicious...