STL Science Center

STL Science Center

07 July 2011

Pop culture invasion

As we know, Iguanodon has become so ingrained in popular culture it rivals Triceratops and T. Rex as one of the most recognized symbols of dinosauria that we possess. This can be evidenced in a variety of ways including looking over the past few days worth of entries to see all the coloring sheets, academic articles, fact websites, and images that exist which are labeled Iguanodon. As we move on to other popular culture references it is quite easy to see its popularity in other areas, most notably as a toy.

The Dinotoyblog has seven reviews alone on Iguanodon toys. These reviews range from the severely outdated (see above), to the plain weird (left), and on to the anatomically correct and overall wonderfully built toys that exist within our culture today (below). These toys have been made new time after time, year after year, for as long as there have been dinosaur toys. Buy a tube of dinosaurs and you'll likely find an Iguanodon in there somewhere. Look through old toys on eBay and you're likely to find the older, kangaroo postured toys that were once all considered the best dinosaur toys in existence. You can also find medallions, plush toys, and books about Iguanodon there.

Let's not forget the video games and movies that exist which thrive on their inclusion of Iguanodon. Our typical video game (Spore) has Iguanodons. Of course it does, the kid in us can create whatever we like with it and someone is bound to love Iguanodon enough to do that. However, additionally, Little Big Planet 2 has a level editor and someone else that loves Iguanodon has created a level wherein you use an 8-bit Iguanodon to roam through the level and collect items.

The most remembered bit of Iguanodon screen time, though, is in Disney's Dinosaur, where the main characters all belong to a species of Iguanodon. For time's sake I'm just going to post one of the climactic scenes involving Carnotaurs chasing the herd:

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