It’s weird because I was a dinosaur obsessed kid but can’t quite remember why.
But it seems kindergarten aged kids always love them and dino toys, especially boys. Why the specific appeal to small children?
It’s weird because I was a dinosaur obsessed kid but can’t quite remember why.
But it seems kindergarten aged kids always love them and dino toys, especially boys. Why the specific appeal to small children?
Comments
Have you seen them? They’re big, they’re loud, they’re powerful, they’re mysterious. Everything a kid could ever want.
The concept of dinosaurs is pretty amazing. They’re like mythical creatures but they also aren’t mythical at all.
I think children enjoy the mystery and wonder of beings that are, on the surface, beyond belief but that we also have so much information on that we can provide lots and lots of details about.
Also, dinosaurs are something you can ‘play with’. You can create little worlds with them and give them roles and play lots of imagination games with them. Kids love imagination games.
Dinosaurs appeal to everyone. They’re vibrant and interesting and the ancient inhabitants of our world.
It’s becoming boring as you age that’s the problem.
They’re gigantic mythical beings that used to walk the same earth, drink the same water. Plus they’re just cool.
Because saying “Rawr” is fun!
I think what makes dinosaurs specially popular in regards to other cool stuff is that they are cataloged
You can have a bunch of different dinosaurs with different names and designs to collect, and you can have a big book that’s a catalog with a bunch of cool pictures and informations, it’s basically real life pokemon
They are dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are awesome
I think because they are big and scary but no longer exist. So it’s a safe obsession. Pure interest/joy without worrying they will come for you!
Im an adult and I think dinosaurs are cool! They’re just big, spooky and interesting
There is a good documentary called “Why Dinosaurs”. Surprisingly good.
https://www.whydinosaurs.com/
Broaden your assumptions, everyone loves dinosaurs. To gender-code an interest so profound is to do a terrible disservice to everyone. And I’m pretty old, and adore dinosaurs, and their modern descendants.
The idea that something larger than your house, used to walk around in your backyard, and it wasn’t weird… Just normal, everyday life—is actually pretty mind-blowing to think about.
I wish I could explain the minds of children. For some reason I skipped the dinosaur phase and had an obsession with Al Gore.
They’re usually one of the first animals kids are exposed to (media, toys, etc) and kids love animals.
i remember I saw some show about time travelers who brought dinos to the present I believed it my dad told me he worked with them.
Because they’re awesome?!? How is this a question?
They’re so neat!
because Dinos are awesome
To quote my friend who works in toy design (she literally designs dollhouses)…
“Dinosaurs are toyetic as fuck.”
Toyetic is a word made up by the old president of Kenner toys. It basically means that it just has the qualities that make rad toys or are just awesome to play with.
Some of us never stopped. It has to do with the excitement of discovering something so cool and so fascinating. It’s only been getting more fascinating the better our tools get to understand them.
Big reptile = cool
I mean they are the closest things to dragons that existed. Would you ask why kids love dragons? Or why adults like dragons, for that matter?
They’re big and scary, but not around anymore so they’re “safe” scary
Well, at some point, they watch Jurassic Park.
So, I have 4 kids. I wouldn’t say there is generally a common obsession. I have noticed that kids are extremely good at observing new things. As adults our lives are so seasoned that we don’t obsess about newness. But kids lives are very limited. Like a plain cheese burger. You out a jalapeño on a plain cheese burger and it stand out. I think dinosaurs easily stand out in kids lives because they are unlike anything they see in the real world.
I just hope the next speices of the planet loves our bones as much as we loved Dinosaurs.
“What’s your favorite human?”
“Doug. I have Doug wallpaper, Doug sheets, Doug plates. I like Keshia’s too.”
Because they’re cool. I can’t speak on the gender thing since I was a girl who liked dinos and I thought they were cool and badass. I still think they’re cool but the animals I find most fascinating now are ocean invertebrates.
They’re like fantasy creatures and monsters except real life.
Dinosaurs also fit a sweet spot in being alien enough to be interesting but still relatable to animals we see today.
I.e. a pterodactyl being wing+tail+beak but not being a bird as we imagine it.
I have a theory on this. Obviously there’s a lot of media featuring dinosaurs, some realistic, some not at all, but nobody has ever seen a real living dinosaur. So each of us gets to imagine how they really were, for ourselves, and our imagination fills in all the gaps. That makes them cool and mysterious in a way that even other big ferocious animals aren’t.
Because of marketing of dinosaur stuff
It’s like dragons but real
Real life giant monsters with cool names that can’t hurt you anymore? What’s not to like?
They are badass man and it can relate to nearly every type of kid (not all, but a good majority of them). Plus they’re the closest thing we get to real life dragons.
Dude, I’m in my 30’s and still love dinosaurs. My kid’s fascination is directly correlated to my passion for them and creates a bonding experience. Also, they’re fucking cool.
They are monsters, but real ones.
Well first of all because children are often fascinated about many things.
The fascination with dinosaurs might resonate with something deep within our evolutionary track. Consider the immense span of our mammalian ancestors and im just making shit up..
They’re fucking awesome that’s why. Unicorns are awesome too. Dinosaurs are like dragons but REAL and unicorns are like horses but MAGIC. This is epic to a child, and to adults who have some swag.
Even as an adult, dinosaurs are cool.
Adulthood is when nobody asks you about your favorite dinosaur
me too, we used to buy those sticker booklets, those cool stickers where you match the shape of the dinosaur to the background habitat..they’re not even cartoony, they were realistic but at 2nd grade I enjoyed it..guess because they look mighty and majestic at the same time, terrifying and invincible
Because no one ever told a dinosaur to go to bed or to eat their broccoli.
They’d kick your ass.
I had toys, books, pillowcase, pajamas, weekly magazine subscriptions that came with pieces to 3D models… something about giant murder lizards is just so captivating 🦖
Because theyre cool ass animals
They’re basically real-life mythical creatures.
I have chickens and chickens are tiny dinosaurs. T-Rex is a giant chicken. The Jurassic Park movies are all great. Evolution is neat and djnos look cool. What’s not to love? I’m 42 and google cool dinosaurs still. There are so many.
I was told that I shouldn’t care about dinosaurs as a kid because I’m a girl. As an adult with a supportive spouse, I’m diving back in. They’re fun. They’re loud. They’re mysterious. They were real !! So exciting!! Husband took me to the royal tyrell museum in Drumheller and I cried. A lot. I get why kids like them and I think more people should embrace their childhood loves and wonder
Little kids like big things and bigger kids like little things.
To a little kid, everything cool is much bigger than them. Parents, siblings, the world. Big things give them stuff and they’re interesting.
Bigger kids are starting to develop their independence and sense of self. Pushing boundaries, seeing how they fit in, etc. Little things (like dolls and pets) let them take control in a way that they normally don’t get to do.
I’m currently listening to a podcast (Blank Check) and they’re talking in depth on Jurassic Park. Something that got said during their conversation really answers your question well. Simply put:
Dinosaurs are probably the coolest thing that has ever existed/happened on this planet.
Honestly, I believe it. I really can’t think of anything that tops the wonderment of a dinosaur. They’re gigantic, big teeth, extinct. Some ate planets, some ate other dinosaurs. Their bones are cool. Knowing about a gigantic creature that you subconsciously know would have been your apex predator, but having a sense of humility toward them because they’re not around anymore is a powerful feeling. I believe that even a child somehow understands this to a rudimentary level, even if they don’t know it.
If Jurassic Park was real would you go? There in lies the answer
My little brother loves them. He’s 45.
Because they are real monsters that really existed. I can remember being fascinated by iguanas at a zoo once, and they are relatively tiny.
This one had massive teeth! This one had a club at the end of his tail! This one had three massive horns! This one had a big spiky frilly collar! This one was thirty feet tall! This one was *gigantic*!
How can this possibly *not* appeal to a child?
The fact that dinosaurs were also the most successful strain of creature ever to have walked the planet adds to their appeal.
Because they’re like Unicorns, with the difference that they once existed.
I think the real question is “why do adults not love dinosaurs?”
I was a dinosaur-obsessed kid, and remain a dinosaur-obsessed adult. Our understanding of them has shifted even since my childhood in the 2000s. I think I see news articles describing a significant new discovery about once a week. How can you not be entranced by animals that were so different from the vast majority of species we see on earth today? There’s so much more to them than a certain blockbuster action franchise would have you believe.
I didn’t love dinosaurs. I loved Dinobots.
Grimlock, Slag, Sludge, Swoop and Snarl.
Enculturation? I was a girl born in 1985, but I still remember my old room with that dinosaur poster on the wall. It made me want to be taken to the natural history museum all the time. And what parent isn’t joyful when their kid wants to learn?
Maybe we’ve made dinosaurs into an accessible entry point to various scientific disciplines, and it never hurts to get kids stoked about science.
Massive fuck off lizards with weird fckn body shapes. What’s not to love?
I’m 34 and just put on dinosaur nails. Dinosaurs are awesome!
You don’t still love dinosaurs? They’re like if dragons and Godzilla actually existed.
I still love dinosaurs, and I’m 39.
Granted, I love the idea of them- I wouldn’t want to meet one.
But the stomping and roaring and slashing of spikes and claws- it’s everything I wish I could do as a 5’1” female who is incapable of scaring anyone, but is still filled with enormous rage.
My son seems to like the collectible stuff. He likes pokemons, tomica cars, periodic table of elements. Maybe the wonder that there is something new to learn, I guess? Until he exhausts all the units.
The simple answer is that dinosaurs are cool. That means they’re for everyone.
My 3 year old has a million toy dinosaurs, and roars at people when they upset her 😆
Cause they’re fucking cool
Boys just seem to love big things like trucks, diggers, dinosaurs, bulldozers, trains, planes etc., I wonder if it’s a size and fearsome aspect of them.
Sounds like a new Comicbook Hero’s back story!
Because they look like dragons and everyone loves a dragon. Gucci.
They‘re big lizards what more do you want?
Marketing. They put dinosaurs on kids stuff because they are easily recognizable shapes and kids like them – kids see them and think “stuff with dinosaurs is for me” and the relationship is reinforced. You can do this with anything, really. Little kids interests are quite maleable.
My son is 6 he has been obsessed with Dinos for the past year!
Because they’re awesome, that’s why.
-Signed: an adult who never lost the dinosaur obsession
My 3yo son shifted almost overnight from a car phase into dinosaurs… we have dinosaurs all over our house!
Dinosaurs on clothes, drawings etc. but my favourite is the selection of dinosaur toys we play with in a bubble bath every night followed, by the dinosaur towel with a hood he puts on to chase my husband around the house screaming ROAR. It’s the best part of our night, non stop laughing!!
Because we tell them to. No other reason.
My 5yo son is OBSESSED with dinosaurs and has been since he was like 2ish. My best guess is that they’re big and loud, so they’re fun to pretend as. Also there’s a TON of them to learn about, and they all look cool. Like I’ve never been into dinosaurs and I’m still not but I do have to admit that some of these things look extremely cool. Also, little kids LOVE having knowledge and sharing it, so if someone knows about dinosaurs, they like to know MORE about dinosaurs. That could be part of it
Theyre giant. Theyre awesome. Theyre destructive. They come in all sorts of varieties so you can have endless power battle convos about them. Theyre the perfect topic for kids. Fuck, I love dinos as an adult!
I don’t know about everyone, but I was amazed that there were these enormous creatures that existed millions of years ago. Of course I grew up in the 70’s before much more was known like today. I am even a fan of learning about them now.
I’m a dinosaur obsessed 40 year old. They’re cool, that’s why.
It’s like finding out dragons are real, I think. Kids tend to love animals in general, but learning that these massive, unique creatures roamed the earth is pretty exciting.
I was 10 when Jurassic Park came out, and you can’t underestimate just how freaking cool it was to see that T. Rex looking through the Jeep window.
I mean they’re pretty cool, right? Some kids love them so much they grow up to search for, excavate, and study them. Paleontology!
OP, be honest with yourself. You would also still have a bunch of dinosaur toys if you could afford them.
As kid, I kinda liked that movie with Whoopi and that dinosaur detective.
Kids have wild imaginations where monsters, dragons and anything fantasy is kind of real.
Dinosaurs bring a bit of that fantasy as they ressemble monsters or dragons, but with the added appeal that such extraordinary creatures actually existed.