Retro Weekend Rewind: Denver the Last Dinosaur, Dino-Riders, & Dinersaurs Cereal!!
The first Retro Weekend Rewind of 2018 is going to be a Prehistoric Edition! Lets go back in time to the ancient ‘80s and then a few million years further back to when dinosaurs ruled the earth!
Denver the Last Dinosaur intro courtesy of WEP-TV!
Denver the Last Dinosaur ran from 1988 to 1990 in syndication from World Events Productions. The show revolved around a group of kids and an intelligent dinosaur the hatch from an egg they discovered in the LaBrea Tar Pits. The kids have to keep Denver safe from Morton Fizzback who wants him to star in a rock'n'roll show! (Sounds like a totally radical '80s premise, right?) The cartoon featured voice talents from such as Tress MacNeille, Frank Welker, B.J. Ward among others. I remember Denver being one of those early morning, before the sun rises, Saturday cartoons! Watching a Skate Board’n, Rock n’ Roll’n, sunglass wearin' Corythosaurus hanging with totally 80s kids was the perfect way to shake the sleep from a kid’s eyes and kick off Saturday morning!
Dino-Riders Toy Commercial
Dino-Riders was a toy line from Tyco that launched in 1988. The idea of combining dinosaurs with cybernetics and firing missiles really captured the imagination of any 80s kid. The toys had really nice detail, for ‘80s toys, and the dinosaurs looked awesome with and without their weapons. The dinosaur designs of the toys were so impressive that the Smithsonian Institute contacted Tyco to reproduce them for their "Dinosaur and other Prehistoric Reptile Collection" (Without the firing missiles and armor of course.) Dino-Riders also had a cartoon that only had 14 episodes but the toy line ran from 1988-1990.
Dinersaurs Cereal Commercial 1988 courtesy of Video Junkyard
Dinersaurs Cereal was introduced in 1988 by Ralston! Dinersarurs (Wow, my autocorrect really hates that word) was a fruit-flavored dinosaur shaped cereal. The theme of the cereal was that you were eating breakfast from a Dinosaur Diner. Dinersaurs lasted for only two years, but in that time this prehistoric breakfast treat included prizes like Dino Trading Cards, 3-D Glasses to view an image on the back of the box, and the New Ghostbusters Movie Mystery Record to promote Ghostbusters 2!
Hope you geeks enjoyed this Prehistoric Saturday’s Retro Weekend Rewind! Let us know what you think and give us your suggestions for future posts in the comments below. Don’t forget to tweet us @nearmintfanboys! See you all next month for more retro awesomeness!