Vintage (non)Dino Profiles: Marx Woolly Mammoth

Of course the Woolly Mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) is not a dinosaur, but a mammal. A creature of the early Pleistocene (aka The Ice Age), it lived ca800k-10k years ago and although now extinct is a relative of the Asian Elephant. It coexited with man and was highly sought after for it's bone, flesh, and hide, and tusks. According to Wikipedia (as well as other sources I've read): "

Most woolly mammoth populations disappeared during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene, alongside most of the Pleistocene megafauna (including the Columbian mammoth). This extinction formed part of the Quaternary extinction event, which began 40,000 years ago and peaked between 14,000 and 11,500 years ago. Scientists are divided over whether hunting or climate change, which led to the shrinkage of its habitat, was the main factor that contributed to the extinction of the woolly mammoth, or whether it was due to a combination of the two"

While it was unfortunate they died out, scientists are fortunate enough to have many specimen's to study, with quite a few intact specimen's of both young and old Mammoth's having been found in Siberia.

Marx marketed this as one of their "Prehistoric Monsters and Mammals". The mold group it was a part of included both dinosaur and non-dinosaur figures and this was the perfect adjunct to their earlier line of cavemen (which I haven't covered yet). It measures 4" (10.16cm) L x 2 5/8" (6.66cm) H. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

I thought it would  neat to see how the Marx version compared with the Safari Mammoth

Vintage Dino Profiles: Marx Smilodon, The 'Sabre Tooth Tiger' - and NOT a Dinosaur

Again, here we have a critter that, as kids, we sort of lumped together with dinosaurs but obviously that wasn't correct. Smilodon's (meaning "scalpel" or "two-edged knife" combined with "tooth") were also referred to as Sabre Tooth Cat's or Sabre Tooth Tiger's but, while they were a form of cat, they are not at all related to Tiger's or even modern cats for that matter. It was a more muscular, robust version of a cat than any that now walk the planet and first appeared around 1.6mil years ago, finally going extinct about 11,000 years ago. Being a carnivore they lived in grasslands, shrubby areas, and pine forests with fossils being found in North and South America, and while real versions could measure up to 5' (152.4cm) long, Marx's version is only 3" (7.62cm). Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Vintage Dino Profiles: Marx Megatherium - Okay, Not A Dino, But Prehistoric

This isn't the first time a non-dinosaur has been lumped into the dinosaur category here on the blog and it won't be the last. As kids growing up in the '50s and '60s, we knew these weren't dinosaurs,  but we just didn't care. For us, 'prehistoric' was good enough! To be fair Marx didn't market these as dinosaurs but rather as prehistoric monsters, prehistoric animals, or prehistoric mammals, and that would be good enough. It was just our childlike imaginations which lumped them together with dinosaurs.

The herbivorous Megatherium (great beast) was a contemporary of man and lived during the Middle Pleistocene to the early Holocene in what is now South America - about 400,000 to 8,000 years ago.  Also referred to as the Giant Ground Sloth these suckers were huge and would have stood about 3m/12ft high on its hind legs! Marx's version measures 3" (7.62cm) L x 3 1/8" (7.93cm) H. Enjoy! Opa Fritz

Vintage Dino Profiles: Marx Mold Group PL-1083 the Second Series Mold Group (1961)

This Second Series Mold Group is interesting in that it includes some prehistoric animals which were contemporaries of Hominids (aka Cavemen) like the Megatherium, Woolly Mammoth, and Smilodon. The group consists of:

Front row: 

Smilodon

Styracosaurus

Moschops

Back row:

Megatherium

Iguanodon

Wolly Mammoth

Parasaurolophus

Struthiomimus

Enjoy! Opa Fritz