The nifty box art (I like the painting but I can't make out the signature; the date might be 1972) shows two Iguanodons having a nice run (well, one is running, the other is strolling). This is most unusual. Iguanodon is nowadays almost invariably depicted standing in the classic "kangaroo" pose. That's how he's usually painted, and how he's usually sculpted (see Iguanodons from Invicta, Carnegie, and Marx). But it wasn't always that way - note this drawing by Gerhard Heilmann, published in 1927 -Back to the box art. Reading further, we note that the wind-up motor is included. Aha, a motorized running Iguanodon. Not so, though. But there's a windup motor in there, sure enough. In fact its little shafts have punched holes in the box. (I suppose that's my fault for letting the box get squished, but I've had this lying around for over thirty years and these little mishaps are bound to happen.) 
So just what gets motorized? Let's slog through the Engrish - 
Lots of interesting stuff here. It moves by clockwork is minimally informative. The big question is - moves what? Paint the eyes red seems guaranteed to make the whole thing look more, ah, realistic. Cement the left and right hind legs to the body is a clue that the hind legs aren't the motorized parts, despite the dynamic pose on the box. Fudge, I was looking forward to that. This dinosaur ate grasses and was a gentle nature. And it is said that it might bound about the ground like a kangaroo with its hind legs and its tail. Hmmm, hence the kangaroo pose. I doubt it. It is about 1/55 scale of actual size. Well, maybe - the box thinks it's 1/35. The basic Iguanodon was some 30 feet (about 9 meters) long, and as the model is about 10 inches long, that works out to something very close to 1/35. Ah, here we go - the hieroglyphics in part (3) (on page 2, above) show the motor hooked up to the arms. So he moves, just not as shown on the box. Well, that's not very exciting. 
The end of the box gives us fair warning that there were others in the Bandai PREHISTORIC ANIMAL SERIES. Also, we learn that Probably this runs pretty fast. Which is it - he runs pretty fast on his motorized arms, or he runs pretty fast like a kangaroo? Anyway, the sides of the box show Brontosaurus, Dimetrodon, Styracosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, Stegosaurus, Ankylosaurus, and Triceratops. I never saw any of these, and as for what parts might have been motorized, well, imagination quails. 
It's a good thing I never put this Iguanodon together - it's much funnier where it is, in the box. |
