Kenner’s Bone Age line was short lived, lasting for only one series of toys from 1987-88. The building toy – action figure combination was an interesting idea, but it ultimately didn’t catch on with parents or kids. The action figures came with multiple accessories that could be assembled with the figure to interact with their larger dinosaur counterpart toys.
This item is referred to as a ‘signed sample’. Toys and packaging would be passed through several departments and manufacturing facilities while being developed. Index cards and sometimes small stickers were often attached to items to track approval through the various stages before full production. You can see here places for director approval from Quality and Assurance, Engineering and the Managing Director, as well as lower level sign-off approval for Internal Engineering, Product Development and Engineering, and Packaging. Other information, such as the vendor, signed sample number and date information would often be used as part of the tracking process for all approvals. Once approved without comment, the toy would then go into production. Kenner used this process across all lines for much of their existence.
