Dino-Riders When You Least Expect Them

[BentonGrey]

Howdy folks, I had an entertaining moment today that I thought y'all might enjoy.  In composition 1 we discussed Dino-Riders, a cartoon I'm sure a lot of FR folks remember.  I included the image below in my slides for today's grammar lesson (because you've got to work to make grammar interesting), and I was immediately deluged by questions about this piece of 80s gold in the middle of a conversation about commas.



My students were amazed by the fact that such beautiful madness existed, yet they lived in ignorance of it.  This was a perfectly sensible reaction, and we derailed the lesson to discuss the glories of the dinosaur/lasers genre. I maintained that this is, pretty much, the perfect combination.  This was a position to which many of my students came to hold as well.  The whole thing was just fun, and it reminded me how awesome the artifacts of my childhood are.

To further nerd-ify the day, one of my students had the same reaction I always have when I see something awesome, namely, "I want a game of that!"  I told him that there was such a thing, a title I had come across on Steam Greenlight.  He was astonished and excited, but sadly, after being inspired by these events to try out the aptly named "Dino Storm" game, I was terribly disappointed.  Has anyone else tried this?  It's a free MMO, which spells terribleness.  I can't imagine how hard it must be to screw up riding dinosaurs and shooting lasers at other people who are also riding dinosaurs, but they managed to make that joyful concept boring.  That's almost criminal.

I'm really surprised that there aren't any Dino-Riders mods out there, but my searches have revealed nothing.  How is it that the Internet Age has yet to produce an awesome game version of something like that?

[Randomdays]

When I get done with the Halloween project and the other odds and ends I'm working on I ,was going to start a small dino project. Besides some varients of the caveman I just rigged ,I've got mammoths, triceratops, stegasaurus and a few others. I know Dana did a good pteradactyl and there's a T-Rex rider out there (Style?). A skoper could probably add some weapon packs, saddles and characters to them and they could invade FF.

I remember the show, and awesome picture.

[Gremlin]

If video games fail, there's always GURPS.

[Glitch Girl]

Didn't the spinoff of FarCry have 80's laser wielding dinosaurs in it?

All I can say is that I wish my grammar lessons had been half as interesting as yours sounds to be. 

[BlueBard]

You can't ride them, but Star Trek Online is going to get "dinosaurs with frickin lasers on their heads" in Season 8...

[stumpy]

BB, I am glad I read your post. I was just about to warn BG that his complaint was only a hop and skip away from a Dr. Evil complaint.

[BentonGrey]

Haha, sadly, GG, you can't ride those laser-wielding dinos either.

Well, is it too much to ask for to be able to ride a dinosaur and shoot people with lasers?  Really?  Come on, internet, make that happen!

RD, I think an FF Dino-Riders style mod would be tons of fun.  Maybe if I live 'till 200...

[oldmanwinters]

In my opinion, this SHOULD have been the dominant boy's action franchise of the 80s.  The cartoon was short-lived and wasn't the best thing on, but it was good enough.  The toys and the artwork were top-notch by any standards.  The Smithsonian liked the basic dino designs so much they started reselling them without the armor.  I had just about all of the major Dino-Riders dino toys (not so much the riders themselves other than the ones that came with the dinos).  Man, that Brontosaurs was epic too.

[thalaw2]

I would like to see Dino-Riders vs. Dinosausers

[XStream]

Loved Dino-Riders! I had forgotten about all of those. The only episodes of the cartoon that I can remember... came with the toys? Is that right? Did VHS tapes come with the larger toys?

[BentonGrey]

Winters, yeah, I know what you mean.  It's hard to believe that Dino-Riders didn't just explode.  It was tailor made for the 80s.  The toys were awesome, but maybe that was the problem?  They were awesome, but perhaps they were too expensive?  I remember wanting them, but only being able to afford the small ones.  My favorite guy was the one who rode the Brontosaurus, but he was crazy pricey, methinks. 

Thalaw, ha, I LOVED Dinosaucers when I was a kid, but wow is it terrible in retrospect.

I seem to remember something similar, XS.  I only saw those original few episodes, and I saw them on VHS.  I seem to remember getting them at the toy store somehow.

[thalaw2]

Thalaw, ha, I LOVED Dinosaucers when I was a kid, but wow is it terrible in retrospect.

That's the problem...I can't remember if it was terrible.  I want to see it again just to be sure.  However, all my childhood memories of how wonderful Silverhawks was were destroyed when Cartoon Network aired the original episodes some years ago and I found them horribly unwatchable.  I guess it may be better to leave the past in the past.

[detourne_me]

I just rewatched episode 1 of Dino-Riders on youtube,  I remembered that I had the VHS and could remember the whole show almost word for word! Wow that thats me back.
I only had a few of the toys when I was younger,  Youngstarr on a pterodactyl, Rasp on a raptor I think, and maybe the ant guy on an anklyosaurus I think...

[oldmanwinters]

Winters, yeah, I know what you mean.  It's hard to believe that Dino-Riders didn't just explode.  It was tailor made for the 80s.  The toys were awesome, but maybe that was the problem?  They were awesome, but perhaps they were too expensive?  I remember wanting them, but only being able to afford the small ones.  My favorite guy was the one who rode the Brontosaurus, but he was crazy pricey, methinks. 

I think you've got a point, Benton.  I never knew how privileged I had it as a kid that I was able to receive most of the dino figures from mom, dad, and Santa Claus!

[murs47]

...and we derailed the lesson to discuss the glories of the dinosaur/lasers genre...

This line...just...you made my day Benton.