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A boxed Brontus from Kenner’s short-lived Bone Age line sold at auction for $5,655, a sum that tops what several genuine vintage Star Wars rarities command.
In the late 1980s, while toy aisles were ruled by He-Man, Transformers and the dinosaur-riding warriors of Tyco’s Dino-Riders, Kenner quietly released one of the strangest and most creative toy lines of the decade. That line was Bone Age, and almost nobody remembers it. By default, this immediately turns the range into a collection of highly sought after items, which is why one single boxed Brontus figure from the line recently sold for $5,655 on eBay, outselling even some of Kenner’s Star Wars grails.
Bone Age is the perfect example of what happened when a new toy line attempted to compete in the market without any kind of promotion from Saturday morning cartoons or blockbuster movies. Despite being one of the most innovative toys of the 80s, the dinosaurs of Bone Age became extinct very quickly. Now, those old fossils that have been well preserved for almost four decades are ready to be excavated and unearth a healthy profit.
How Did Kenner’s Bone Age Toy Line Fail?
The Bone Age line originally hit shelves in 1987, landing in the middle of the reign of many iconic franchises such as Ghostbusters, Thundercats, and just ahead of the emerging Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Dinosaurs have always held a fascination with children, yet despite these toys not only being buildable but being adaptable into weaponised fortresses and war machines, the toy line soon wound down. With a tyrannosaur that could become a siege engine and a raptor that doubled as a battle chariot, the line sounded like a sure-fire winner, but only 11 dinosaurs and nine carded cavemen were made and the line struggled to compete in a crowded market.
Unlike nearly every successful toy line of the era, it had no animated series, no comic and no movie to keep it right in front of its audience week after week. The marketplace for 80s toys had tapped into the knowledge that cartoons meant action figures and action figures were top of many Christmas lists throughout the decade. Parents wanting to keep their children’s toy piles topped up were therefore always going to head to the aisles containing those instantly recognisable characters who came with their own catchy theme songs.
That obscurity is exactly why this Brontus landed such a high sale price, although timing and chance could also have played a part. Many items from the Bone Age range sell for between $200-$400, but the Bronus figure was one of the later additions to the line. Produced in lower numbers, and rare to find in boxed, unopened state, this auction became a battle between several bidders. Its final price is exactly what can happen when the right people find a coveted grail and are willing to battle it out to own it.
Whether this prehistoric Transformer-esque obscurity is really worth in excess of $5,000 against the likes of some of Kenner’s 1970s Star Wars figures that have sold for less is up for debate. Auctions for any item can become frantic in their last moments and one rash decision to add a chunk of money to the bidding can be the difference between losing out and paying over the odds with a fine line separating the two.
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