D is for Dino-Mag - 2 of 3

So continuing with Andy's Amazing Adventures magazine, and I call them magazines because they are not really comics, yet there is very little to their substance! When we were kids we had three types of periodical, straight-out comics, on newsprint, for various age groups, 'bigger boys' magazines like Look & Learn, World of Wonder or Tell Me Why and intermediate stuff, like panel-story fairy tales, or the Disney stuff which tended to be TV-related and aimed at those too-young for the other two types - they were the closest to these modern ones; with puzzle pages and such-like. There is, and always was, the Marvel/DC thing as well, but that's a whole fourth genre!

Now it's all these kinds of things, for all age groups until you gravitate to 2000AD or Judge Dredd, and whether it's this, or the Dr. Who Adventures we followed for a few years at the start of the blog (long gone now), or the stuff aimed at younger kids, it's ALL ephemeral crap, with little to reward beyond whatever IS taped to the cover.

 

Simple puzzles, a sheet of stickers in the middle, some colouring pages and an invitation to send artwork in, is the standard, with maybe an internet portal, all aimed at getting you to watch that programme or that channel, there is no adventure, and nothing amazing about any of the issues I've seen!

Of course, the freebies attached to the covers, need to wind you in, so occasionally, you get an extra-special one to keep you, or parent, buying, and this is a prime example, a substantial card volcano, on several sheets, plus three larger animal models, means this issue would have been sold at a loss, or as a 'loss-leader', to get new 'victims'! Ergo - if You are only buying occasionally, you can stay ahead of 'the man'!

 

This one also had three larger models, and while you may have clocked that the little black eye-dots is a trope with these (not all, but often), this was the first one I noticed with real paint, the spine of the Steggy' having a quick spray of red.

 

This is the same Spinosar as the orange one in the previous post, another thing you have to watch out for with these magazines, and I highlighted it with the Dr Who one a decade ago, is repetitions and duplication, again, by grazing occasionally, you can avoid the worst of that, while building a decent sample.

 

This one just had a decent model-count with three larger and five smaller animals, and another touch of paint . . . the same red! The five smallies look familiar, and will, I suspect, be from standard mini 'toob' dinosaur toys, normally found in more realistic two or three-colour finishes?

 

And this one had twelve minis, six animal models and six to be recruited into a Games Workshop skeleton army! Again, I'm sure all these have had commercial issues elsewhere?

 

The two stegosauruses, though, are from completely different subspecies! But the other five aren't that bad, as matches, with both Dippy's having the head-bump, and the Triceratops horns' being similar.

And, I'm only buying the odd set, as samples, if you are a dinosaur fan, irrespective of the poor contents, or the occasional piece of duff, plastic crap, alongside your dinosaur models, after a year or two, you will have a large tub of many dino's, as most months have at least one, usually multiples.