As I mentioned last time, information on dinosaur sofubi toys is scarce, making dating them an extremely difficult task. The Marushin "Daikyouryu" series I'm introducing today was determined to be from the early 1970s based on the old ST mark (the mark was introduced in 1971) and my hazy memories from when I first acquired them.
Back then, as a beginner collector, I would buy these dinosaur toys at department stores, then, naturally, throw away the packaging, and even repaint them – a truly unbecoming act for a collector. A few years ago, I found a sofubi Brontosaurus made by a company called Kawada, which I had repainted in my youth, selling for 8,000 yen at a store in Shimokitazawa. While I didn't think it was worth 8,000 yen, the regret was so strong that I ended up buying it anyway... (Photo 1)

Now, about the "Daikyouryu" series. These toys were about 15-20cm in size, and at the time, given their quality, I just thought of them as common children's toys. However, in recent years, as I've collected them bit by bit through auctions, it turns out that they were actually Japan's first dinosaur encyclopedia-like series, featuring quite a variety of species. I haven't grasped the full picture yet, but let me introduce the ones I've acquired in photos. (Photo 2)

A) Euparkeria (a thecodont that used to be a regular in encyclopedias as an ancestor of dinosaurs, but has recently faded into obscurity. As far as I know, this is the only model of it.) B) Nothosaurus (also rarely modeled... regrettable repaint) C) Edaphosaurus (another minority, overshadowed by Dimetrodon) D) Stegosaurus E) Brontosaurus F) Diplodocus G) Allosaurus H) Iguanodon I) Tyrannosaurus J) Triceratops.

Photo 3 shows unopened items acquired at an auction. From left: Hypsilophodon, Pachycephalosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Saurolophus, Mammoth.
I've also confirmed the existence of Kentrosaurus, Styracosaurus, and Tarbosaurus... which was quite an impressive lineup for its time. The back of the package includes explanations of each dinosaur (Photo 4), and there's also a paper enclosed titled "What are dinosaurs?" with a fairly adult-oriented explanation and a phylogenetic tree. Marushin also had a larger "Daikyouryu" series (Photo 5), but details are unknown.

Other toy manufacturers, Takatoku (Photo 6) and Arc (Photo 7), also released similar sofubi dinosaur series, but they couldn't shake off the feeling of being somewhat perfunctory compared to Marushin.
Next time, I'll introduce dinosaur sofubi from the late 1970s, which became much more dinosaur-like, focusing on Clover's 1/50 unified scale dinosaur series.