Audiences still love dinosaurs, no matter what recent box office might tell you. Jurassic World Rebirth may not have reached the highs of past entries in the series, but it didn’t tank. The End of Oak Street also didn’t light up the box office, but unlike Rebirth, critics and audiences generally agree it was a satisfying dino-romp. Anne Hathaway even recently commented that she’d like to join up with Scarlett Johansson in the Jurassic World franchise. The world still wants dinosaur movies, but audiences clearly want a fresh take. Mattel already owns a franchise that offers the dinosaurs people love with the drama and action of Battlestar Galactica. And it was created by a Marvel legend.
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Two years before Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park would hit bookshelves, the cartoon Dino-Riders premiered in first-run syndication on October 1st, 1988. Like most ’80s cartoons, the series was tied to a toy line. Tyco had developed the toys under the working title Project B.C. and had begun developing an accompanying animated series to promote the line. Marvel produced the show and a three-issue limited comic series. Transformers’ AKOM handled the animation with other studios, and an all-star cast brought the characters to life. Tyco and Marvel turned to The Punisher co-creator Gerry Conway and his wife Carla to create the adventures of the heroic Valorians and villainous Rulons in Dino-Riders.
Dino-Riding on Transformers‘ Coattails
The series opens with a scene straight from Star Wars: a rebel ship is being pursued by an evil armada through space. In an attempt to escape, the Valorians activate their experimental Space-Time Energy Projector, aka S.T.E.P., to escape through a wormhole. The Rulons lock on with their tractor beam, causing the S.T.E.P. to have a power surge and pull both ships 65 million years into the past. After finding dinosaurs on the surface of the planet where they crash-land, the evil Rulons conscript them into their war using brain boxes. The peaceful Valorians use telepathic technology called AMP necklaces to ask the dinosaurs for help, which they kindly give.
The show borrowed a lot from Transformers, with two advanced factions bringing their war to Earth after an incident with a wormhole. Besides borrowing writer Gerry Conway, Dino-Riders also featured Transformers voice-over actors Peter Cullen, Frank Welker, and Charlie Adler. It also featured an early voice performance of Blade‘s Stephen Dorff, credited as Steven Dorff, only a year after his breakout in The Gate. The show even had a Starscream-esque subordinate on the Rulon side named Rasp, a snake-man who eagerly schemed to usurp his leader, Krulos. The show really
Mattel Could Become the Dino-Master
The show would last for only 14 episodes, but it made an impression. Dino-Riders as a toy line would last longer than the series itself. The year it debuted, it sold $35 million worth of armored-up dinosaurs in the U.S., beating Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which debuted the same year and only sold $23 million. One dino figure from the set recently sold for over $3k. Tyco would continue expanding the Dino-Riders line, including an Ice Age expansion, but due to high production costs, the line was retired in 1990. Mattel acquired Tyco in 1997 as part of a $755 million merger. For a throwback, check out the original commercials for the toy line below:
Mattel has been shifting from a toy company into an IP company for the last decade. The mega-hit Barbie proved just how valuable their toy chest could be. The company recently announced Mattel Game Studios, a new gaming division built to develop and publish games based on its brands for Roblox, Fortnite, PC, and mobile. Mattel has also been aggressively pushing properties into film and TV, like Masters of the Universe at Amazon, Apple TV’s Matchbox, Warner Bros.’s Hot Wheels with John Chu attached, and even a Barney project at A24. Dino-Riders isn’t currently in development. However, there is a ray of hope. On August 27th, 2026, Mattel filed new trademark paperwork for the toy line and included playsets and games. They previously filed a movie and TV trademark separately in 2022, with an extension granted just this year. While that’s not the announcement of a new movie or toy, it’s the first step to making sure they can make one.
When Dino-Riders first hit the airwaves, it was in a crowded field of dino-cartoons like Denver the Last Dinosaur and Dinosaucers, but Dino-Riders rose above for its GI Joe meets the Jurassic period energy. With Danny McBride rebooting Hasbro’s GI Joe for Paramount, Dino-Riders is primed for a reboot, and the toy molds are just waiting for some fresh plastic. Mattel explored a live-action movie in 2015, but the franchise has never escaped development limbo. Despite renewed interest in the brand, the original 14-episode series is not currently available through a major U.S. streaming service, but curious fans can revisit random uploads of VHS scans on YouTube. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, whose director is returning to the franchise, posited what would happen if dinosaurs were turned into weapons for the highest bidder. Dino-Riders can take that concept to its natural conclusion and give us a sci-fi dino war. Battlestar Galactica with a T-Rex would definitely be appointment television.
What dinosaur-based property would you like to see make it to screens? Let us know in the comments below!
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