During the Golden Week holidays in May, I was lured by Takashi Oda's cool poster to visit the "Dinosaur Science Exhibition" held at Daimaru Tokyo Station. However, the exhibition content was far from what the poster depicted. If I had looked closely at the poster, there was a small disclaimer stating, "Illustrations are unrelated to the exhibits," so I couldn't really complain. The exhibition was just a haphazard display of available fossils and replicas (and old ones at that), which was typical of a department store dinosaur exhibition. The only thing truly worth seeing was the latest dinosaur robot near the exit: two feathered Velociraptors. Their movements were complex and unpredictable, even after watching them for a while, and they smoothly performed threats and narrowed their eyes without any noticeable mechanical sounds. The way they blinked their eyes, in particular, was so lifelike that it was astonishing. I remember thinking, "Ah, if it's this robot, then calling it a 'Science Exhibition' is acceptable."

Now, let's talk about electric walking dinosaur toys, which can be considered the distant ancestors of the continuously evolving dinosaur robots. When it comes to bipedal (though their tails touch the ground) dinosaur-shaped toys, perhaps the first was Marusan's remote-controlled walking Godzilla plastic model released in 1964. I remember building that item, which is now said to be worth no less than a million yen if it's new in the box and unassembled, with liberal amounts of Cemedine back then.
As for dinosaurs, it seems that the remote-controlled dinosaurs released by Toy Town, and later by Bullmark, in the 1970s are the oldest. (Photos 1, 2) In the 1980s, Imai released walking skeletons of Tyrannosaurus and Brontosaurus as part of their Magma series, but they completely lacked realism. (Photo 3)
In 1988, Epoch released "Armored Dinosaurs Dinos," which was the popular American series "Dino-Riders." These toys depicted dinosaurs equipped with various weapons, ridden by humans into battle. They were made to a consistent 1/24 scale, and the dinosaurs themselves were quite well-made. Reflecting the times, dinosaurs like Deinonychus were included, and large dinosaurs such as T-Rex, Diplodocus, and Torosaurus (!) had electric walking functions. (Photo 4)

In the 1990s, Tsudaka Ideal, using the name of our "Dinosaur Club" (!?), released the remote-controlled Wagamamaaurus (Photo 5), featuring old-fashioned T-Rex and Brontosaurus models, controlled by an ammonite-shaped transmitter.
These were no exception to a peculiar custom among Japanese toy manufacturers: for electric walking toys, regardless of whether they were dinosaurs, monsters, or robots, there seemed to be a belief that it was a waste not to make their eyes light up, since electricity was being used anyway. This was quite bothersome.

Then, in 1997, a truly bipedal dinosaur appeared: a realistic Tyrannosaurus from the "JP Lost World" merchandise. (Photo 6)

It had a remote control that allowed it to walk (with footsteps) and had a gimmick to raise its head and roar. Even more revolutionary was its rubber skin. Let's overlook its flaw of frequently falling over.
Next time, it's the remote-controlled dinosaur showdown: "JP III's Grudge Returns! T-Rex vs. Spinosaurus."