Among my collection, there are a few items for which I can vividly recall the circumstances of when I acquired them. The "Clover 1/50 Dinosaur Series" is one such item. It's strange because I don't remember being ecstatic when I got it.
I'm not sure of the exact year, but it was probably around 1983-1984. The location was a legendary (?) model shop called "Model Ace" in Kugahara, Ota Ward, Tokyo. That day, my friend, an enthusiast of discontinued plastic models, and I went hopping between model shops in Tokyo. As dusk approached, we arrived at a small shop in a desolate shopping district. What awaited me was a large box with dinosaur illustrations placed casually outside the shop. Inside, all 20 types of the Clover 1/50 Dinosaur Series were packed into various sized packages. This was likely Japan's first unified-scale soft vinyl dinosaur series, probably inspired by the British Natural History Museum's dinosaur series.
Clover was famous for being the sponsor of the first "Gundam" series, releasing Chogokin Gundam and other products, but they went bankrupt before the series ended. Gundam was taken over by Bandai, and then the so-called Gunpla became a hit. Since Clover went bankrupt in 1983, it's possible that I acquired the dinosaur series after their bankruptcy. Perhaps they were unsold items that were liquidated.
Clover's dinosaurs occasionally appear individually on sites like Yahoo Auctions, but I've never seen a complete set anywhere other than my home. It's a bit of a prized possession, but just like with the previous repaint, I regret having thrown away the boxes due to a beginner collector's mistake, and it's the second consecutive time I've made such a blunder.

Photo 1: Apato, Brachio, Plateo. Photo 2: Tyranno, Gorgo (rare! As an aside, I'm glad the name Gorgosaurus has recently been revived.), Allo, Cerato. Photo 3: Coryto, Iguanodon, Trachodon, Pachycephalo (too small). Photo 4: Tricera, Ankylo, Stego. Photo 5: Pterano, Plesio, Archelon, Mosa, Ichtyo, Dimetrodon.
These are the 20 types, and each dinosaur comes with a bonus primitive human figure (about 3cm) of the same scale.

Includes the only remaining package (Photo 6) (Archelon), a dinosaur encyclopedia (Photo 7), and a bookmark (catalog) (Photo 8).
While not comparable to the British Natural History models, the meticulous craftsmanship and coloring, based on the characteristics of each species, show a significant evolution from the early 1950s models I introduced previously.

Photo 9 shows items that had an even greater impact on me than the Clover series when I found them. These are dinosaurs of unknown origin, stamped with "JAPAN GREAT CO.LTD," but they have excellent forms, and unusually, Kentrosaurus and "Scolosaurus," now called Euoplocephalus, were modeled. After searching extensively, it's almost too dramatic that I finally completed the set at a souvenir shop in Enoshima, a tourist destination in Shonan.

After that, the Showa era came to an end around the time when models like Tsukuda's 1/30 series (Photo 10), which were so realistic (though older types) that they could no longer truly be called toys, and the "Great Age of Dinosaurs" series (Photo 11... still the same name now as then!) from "Hearty Robin," a manufacturer later absorbed by "Happinet" which is currently actively developing its soft vinyl dinosaur series "Great Age of Dinosaurs," became available.