Fanfare - Customs

Brontosaurus

I was so impressed with the knock-off Brontosaurus that I decided to equip it with custom-made armor. Because the Brontosaurus prototype picture had different armor than the one that was actually released, I decided to base this custom piece off of the prototype. It's interesting because in the episode, "Battle for the Brontosaurus" Questar asks Turret to show him the different designs that he came up with for the Brontosaurus. Several different variations were shown and they really looked like actual design sketches that Tyco was debating using for the Brontosaurus. Here are 2 pictures taken from the cartoon which show the design that the Dino-Riders (although not Tyco) actually chose for the final design of the Brontosaurus:

Click Here to See the Other Design Schemes

I used these sketches as a rough basis for equipping the knock-off and then I added various different accessories and weapons - some from the Dino-Riders line and some from other toy lines. I'm pretty happy with the result.

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Ankylosaurus

Here is a custom Ankylosaurus with a fiery paint job courtesy of the first lady of Dino-Riders, JoAnn. Much like its creator, this piece is definitely hot!

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JesterMon's Styracosaurus

Here is a custom Styracosaurus made by JesterMon (JesterMon@aol.com) from a cheap plastic toy. Pretty cool!

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Ichthyosaurus

Tobi (tobias.golisch@t-online.de) created a Dino-Riders version of an Ichthyosaurus. There has been a lot of talk in the forums about Dino-Rider naval units. This would fit very nicely with the rest of the toys.

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Ikon

Ikon was one of the main characters in the Dino Riders cartoon but unfortunately, Tyco never actually released an Ikon figure. In the second series comic, there was a prototype picture of the Brontosaurus and it was supposed to be released with 4 figures - Ikon, Serena, Ayce, and Vector (another main character that Tyco never released as an actual figure). Unfortunately, the final production Brontosaurus came with 3 figures - Serena, Ayce, and Ion. No Ikon and no Vector. The Ion figure clearly didn't resemble the Ikon character from the cartoon and perhaps that's why the name was changed. To fill this void, I have made my own Ikon figure. The interesting thing is that there were actually two different looks that the character had in the cartoons. In the early episodes, Ikon had white hair and sported a blue and brown outfit. In the latter episodes, he had black hair and sported a red and brown outfit. I decided to do a little mix & match so I made the figure with white hair wearing the red and brown outfit. I used Questar's head because that was the only figure that had long hair like Ikon. I also had to use two different leg combinations because Ikon had a strange mechanical contraption on his left leg. Perhaps a custom Vector will come next . . .


Early Episodes		Later Episodes

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Styracosaurus

Here is a custom Styracosaurus made by Alex W. from Germany. He decided that the Styracosaurus deserved to have a little more firepower and it certainly looks like he made that happen. Check out the size of the laser cannon!

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T-Rex

Here is a T-Rex that I painted to appear as it did in the pre-production photos and the cartoon. It came out pretty decent although I didn’t spend too much time on it. I know a lot of us wish that Tyco would have actually stuck to the picture and painted the T-Rex brown and green instead of the dark gray. But they didn't so I had to take matters into my own hands. I think it looks much better than the one Tyco actually released. You be the judge.

Pre-Production T-Rex

My Custom Version

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Adan's T-Rex

Adan did a much better job with his customized T-Rex than I did with mine. Instead of hand-painting the T-Rex, Adan used an airbrush and the results were fantastic. It really looks like the pre-production T-Rex. He's also sold a few of these on e-Bay for quite a few dollars!

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Quetzalcoatlus

Here is a Quetzalcoatlus that I painted purple to match the cartoons. In many of the episodes, the Quetzalcoatlus and Pterandon were purple and/or blue. This was especially so in the episode, "The Blue Skies of Earth." It's nice to have a little variety.

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Kronos' Customs

Juan Pablo from Mexico city, a.k.a. Kronos, is a paleontologist and avid dinosaur toy collector with a ton of Dino-Riders as well as Jurassic Park toys and other dinosaurs that he has customized to match the Dino-Rider line. Kronos has also provided a little background story on the purpose and capabilities of his custom creations. You can see more pictures in his Collections page. You can contact Kronos at kronos1979@hotmail.com.

Here is a Carnotaurus from Disney's Dinosaur movie - complete with Rulon equipment and brain box.

Here is Kronos’ version of the mysterious dinosaur known as Deinocheirus. The only skeletal remains of the Deinocheirus found were two giant 8-foot long arms with huge claws (see picture below). Scientists are not exactly sure what this creature looked like. Given the scale, Kronos decided to use a Jurassic Park Utah Raptor and customize it Dino-Riders style.

The Valorians already have fast units, like Struthiomimus and Protoceratops, but the increasing performance of the fast units of the Rulons force the Valorians to seek reinforcements. The Valorians enlist the help of Gallimimus and Parasaurolophus, bigger species that are not only fast in the short range but for long treks as well.

Gallimimus comes with twin canons, one big canon to knock off big units and one communications dish. Parasaurolophus comes with one big turret that can turn 360 degrees as well as standard canons for hit and run attacks. One of the units of Struthiomimus comes with a multi-lens camera and the standard gun for scout missions.

These Rulon tactical bombers were created in direct response to the more powerful and more common Sauropod units of the Valorian army. This unit can also fight smaller units but its specialty are the Sauropod units that navigate in the lagoons and lakes or walk in the valleys. The Alpha Pteranodon is armed with heavy weaponry; the standard cannons and the one big missile used to penetrate the sophisticated defenses of the Sauropod units. They have electronic-guided missiles in order to better ensure the success of their hit-and-run missions. Once the missile has been released, the bomber can return to safety using two powerful jet engines to accelerate and make evasive maneuvers to avoid enemy fire.

The desert Pteranodon is well adapted to the desert valleys and mountain cliffs, so the Rulons exploit this to secure appropriate aerial support in their campaigns against the Valorian army. Like the A-10 Thunderbolt of the USA army today or the Stuka of the WWII German lutwafe in the past, this unit provides close aerial support and cover for the fast Rulon units such as Deinonychus and Utahraptor.

This Rulon Triceratops is different than the normal Rulon Triceratops in that it is larger and has less armor. It is primarily used to batter-ram its Valorian adversaries and in order to achieve better results in battle, this Triceratops accompanies two Pachycephalosauruses. The red Pachycephalosaurus with the black stripes has heavy guns to engage large Valorian units, whereas the green Pachycephalosaurus has lighter guns to engage the faster and smaller Valorian infantry.

The Rulons use their Utahraptor in order to confront not only the versatile and agile units of the Valorian army, but also the big ones like the Stegosaurs and the Sauropods. In addition to having the arsenal of the standard Deinonychus unit, the Utahraptor also has a guided missile launcher to attack the Valorian aerial units, a small missile launcher attached to the back of the seat, and a large blade attached to its left arm to assist in close quarters combat with other dinosaurs such as Ornithomimus and Hadrosaurus.

After sustaining terrible loses to their Pteranodon Rulon units at the hands of Valorian Pterodactyl ambushes, the Rulons enslave their own Pterodactyls and create a special force to confront this menace and also execute some ambush attacks in return.

The Ankylosaurus unit is primarily designed to carry out ambush attacks on the larger units of the Valorian army. Sting has improved his Ankylosaurus with larger weapons to help get the job done.

There are multiple species of Tyrannosaurids, the largest of which is the original Rulon T. Rex. However, the Rulons also find it beneficial to utilize smaller and more agile units in order to compete with the more agile units of the Valorian army such as the Edmontonia and the Stegosaurus. The Rulon Albertosaurus comes with standard weapons and two big harnesses to restrain the fury of the beast until necessary to unleash on unsuspecting Valorian units in combat.

In response to the larger and more numerous Valorian Ice-Age units, the Rulons have created their own Ice-Age units. The Rulons take the big pig of the Pleistocene and makes some genetic improvements. It has the biggest arsenal, including rockets, guided missiles, shields, lasers, guns, and cooling systems for hot environments.

This Rulon Velociraptor is fast and small. It is the Rulons' response to the Valorian Protoceratops and it is used for quick reconnaissance missions. The Velociraptor below comes with Ankor, the lost brother of the well-known Antor. Ankor's Velociraptor is a very rude species of Raptor that is difficult to control. These raptors only work in cooperative teams and Ankor commands the alpha raptor of the pack.

Here are some more customs from Kronos - a Rulon Deinonychus and a modified Jurassic Park Triceratops. He has them displayed in a really cool diorama setting. Nice work!

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Triceratops

Here is a Triceratops that I painted orange to resemble the cartoons. The Triceratops was frequently featured in the cartoon in orange as opposed to the green/gray of the toy. I used the cartoon as a rough guide for this piece but I decided to take some liberties with the face colors.