MISCELLANEOUS Rare Variant

Check out the figure on the left.  Can you identify him?  This figure has surfaced a lot on E-Bay in recent years.  The problem is that is is difficult to place where he fits in with the whole toy line.  This piece looks like many of the other Dino-Rider figures but closer inspection reveals that he is different.  There has been some speculation and a very plausible explanation is that the figure was supposed to be an original version of Llahd.  Because Llahd was smaller in relation to the other figures, Tyco had to make a unique mold for the figure.  Perhaps not having enough time to make an appropriate Llahd figure before the release of the Pterodactyl, Tyco may have packaged this figure with the Pterodactyl instead.  Because I have never seen a mint-in-box version of the Pterodactyl with this figure inside, this is still unconfirmed.  However, this scenario seems very likely because the paint schemes on this figure and the smaller Llahd figure that was eventually produced are remarkably similar.  While looking through some old Tyco catalogs, I came across this figure pictured in the Diplodocus box.  This may be evidence that Tyco used this figure for early test shots and then eventually included it in some of the boxes.  Check out the picture:

Notice the figure all the way on the left

Still, another possibility has been suggested by Shannon McAuliffe, who says that the figure was packaged with the Australian version of the Diplodocus.  Instead of the regular Aries, this was the figure that was included in his Diplodocus box.