Seeing Purple

Quackpot, Allo, Genghis Rex, Plesio, Bonehead, Bronto-Thunder, Steggio, Brachio, Tricero, Ichthyo, Terrible Dactyl, Ankylo, Dimetro, Styraco, Ptryx, Sera, Paul, Ryan, David

We used to be four ordinary teenagers, until one day, we met some new friends...from out of town.

Why do warring alien races always seem to crash land on Earth? First the Transformers, then the GoBots, then in 1987, the Dinosaucers joined the crowd.

As usual, the battle began on an alien homeworld, in this case Reptillion. Highly intelligent dinosaurs ruled this extraterrestrial globe, split into two factions. On the side of good were the Dinosaucers. Led by the courageous Allo, the group included dim-witted Bonehead, inventor Dimetro, Teryx, Tricero, Steggio, Bronto Thunder and Ichthyo. The forces of evil?the Tyrannos?were led by a red T-rex named Genghis Rex. Bumbling hench-lizard Ankylo was always at his boss' side, and the rest of the baddies included crazy jokester Quackpot, Terrible Dactyl, Styraco and Brachio.

After centuries of dino-wars, Reptillion was near destruction, so the Dinosaucers and Tyrannos moved their battle to a new orb: Earth. Like any good alien species, the Dinosaucers immediately made friends with a few young earthlings. Paul, Sara, David and Ryan were each given powerful rings by their new outer space buddies, and the teens joined the fight against evil as the "Secret Scouts." And for comic relief, the show also included a race of friendly, fuzzy round fellows called Furballs, to whom the Tyrannos were allergic.

Unlike their transforming robot predecessors, the Dinosaucers didn't have a one-track mind for battle. They were also tourists, and Earth had plenty of new experiences to offer. Over the show's 65-episode run, the Dinosaucers and Tyrannos were introduced to the finer points of television, hamburgers, baseball, perfume, karate and more.

Dinosaucers was clearly a sillier show than either Transformers or Challenge of the GoBots, but it was still an action cartoon. The dinos wore high-tech armor, fired advanced weapons and flew around in several fabulous vehicles. Naturally, this all spelled "action figure line," but Dinosaucers wasn't around long enough to capitalize. After a single syndicated season, the thunder lizards packed up their battle gear and took their war elsewhere.