“King Zor … he fights back!”
Designed by Marvin Glass & Associates and released in 1962 by Ideal Toy Company, King Zor was marketed as “the fighting dinosaur”.
The playset came complete with a plastic King Zor dinosaur measuring 31 inches long and 12 inches tall, a dinosaur gun, five suction-tipped darts, and five yellow plastic missiles. Two D-cell batteries powered a small interior motor by which King Zor moved over flat surfaces.
With King Zor’s power switch turned to the “ON” position, kids used the toy gun to shoot darts at a disc located on the dinosaur’s tail as King Zor rolled along. When the disc was hit, King Zor turned, roared in fury, and retaliated against the attack by firing a plastic missile from the reservoir located on his back. The blue-and-green toy’s movements were automated — in addition to it turning when a dart made contact with its tail, King Zor also moved from side to side and even backwards when its serpent-like tongue encountered an obstruction such as a wall.
Other toys and games imagined by Marvin Glass & Associates and released by Ideal Toy Company include Mr. Machine (1960), Robot Commando (1961), Clancy the Great (1963), Mouse Trap (1963), Tip-It (1965), The Missing Link (1981), and many other nostalgic favourites.
Watch a classic television commercial for King Zor on the Toy Tales YouTube channel.
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