The other day, I got my hands on a dinosaur-shaped robot equipped with AI called "Robosapien" on Yahoo! Auctions. It was originally priced at 9,999 yen, but I won it for 500 yen, which is a whopping 95% off. Although it's used, it works well without any issues. That's the thrill of auctions. Even though it's a robot, it looks like a real dinosaur wearing armor. There are exposed parts of its scaly skin, giving it a biological feel. Mech-dinosaurs (like Zoids) are usually outside my collection scope, but this one passes as a dinosaur.
*(Beware of similar products: Mine is a genuine product (?) sold exclusively at Toys "R" Us, but there are many fakes that look similar but have wings on their back—just like the previous dinosaur dogu, definitely not dinosaurs!—circulating.)
While playing with the dinosaur robot, I decided to make the walking dinosaur toys that usually sit quietly on the shelf walk again. So, for the next few installments, this page will likely be filled with dinosaurs roaming around.

In the Showa era, at least in Japan, there seemed to be a pattern of dinosaur figures → toys → walking, and most early dinosaur models walked. The Allosaurus (Imai Kagaku) in Photo 1 is from the series of gold and silver plated stegosaurs that appeared in the first Secret Museum, and it ambles down slopes. The Stegosaurus and Brontosaurus of unknown manufacturer ambled across the desk, pulled by the weight of a plumb bob at the end of a string extending from their noses.
The old plastic models in Photo 2, the Iguanodon (Bandai 70s) and Brontosaurus (Nitto 80s), are wind-up driven. Nitto released a total of 4 types, and Bandai released 8 types of dinosaurs (I only have two...sadly).

Photo 3 also features wind-up toys: from the left, an antique sofubi Allosaurus by a manufacturer called Nakajima. The Stegosaurus next to it is of unknown origin and it runs. The two very old-looking tin toys next to that are actually Chinese products from the 90s. The comical skeletal model is also of unknown origin. A considerable number of wind-up dinosaurs have been on the market since ancient times to the present day. In Photo 4, I've lined up some of these from all times and places that caught my eye. I really wanted to show you a video of them all moving at once. Click-clack, click-clack, click-clack... I'm afraid they might appear in my dreams and give me nightmares. Next time, I plan to feature electric toys.