What's more fun to a kid than a menagerie of living, breathing
dinosaurs, knocking over trees and each other in the forest primeval?
Why, seeing static exhibits of dinosaurs in a museum, of course.
At least that's what someone at
Whitman thought when putting together this adorable
Tiny Dinosaur Museum Press-Out book (1975. Original price just 59 cents!).
In fairness, the only tip off that these dinosaurs aren't alive and teething are the exhibit stands they are meant to perch on, which attach separately. Stands attached = educational museum experience. Stands detached = Jurassic rampage!
If only Whitman had provided prehistorically inaccurate cheetah-print toga-wearing cavemen instead of these completely non-threatening museum patrons...
Did I say non-threatening? This security guard seems to be toting a pretty large truncheon.
I suppose that
could just be a pointer to direct your attention to various details of the exhibits, but I'd rather believe the museum has seen better days and is currently experiencing a
youth gang problem...
The museum setting was ditched for
Tiny Safari (1976).
These are real animals in a real jungle, pursued by real hunters!
In real khakis!
Don't worry about the rifles on display--they aren't shooting to kill.
These happy animals are destined for the zoo, not the trophy room.
I previously posted on
Dr. Popdoodle's Monster Sticker Book, which I discovered, having reunited with it decades after originally owning it as a child, was a Whitman book as well. These things used to sell at the local drug store and were a cheap way for the harried parent to keep their brats quiet while they waited for their prescription.
A lucky kid with both the Tiny Dinosaur Museum AND Tiny Safari books could mix-and-match the pieces and go on a dinosaur hunting safari (or better yet, put the museum patrons in a human zoo...)
Full scan of both books with selected details below.
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