Tongue-a-Saurus

Tongue-a-Saurus
List of all creatures

Tongue-a-Saurus is a giant amphibious creature that lives in the River of Despair. With massive claws and even bigger teeth, the Tongue-a-Saurus is a beast that residents of Third Earth fear and avoid.

Lion-O once encountered this beast when he had been turned into an infant. While trying to cross the River of Despair, the young Lion-O jumped on the Tongue-a-Saurus' head, mistaking it for a rock. The creature then emerged from the river and tried to grab Lion-O using it's long and powerful prehensile tongue. The creature even showed off its amphibious nature as well as it ability to scale vertical cliffs with ease as it continued to pursue Lion-O and Snarf on dry land. The Tongue-a-Saurus eventually got caught in a net that was set by the Lunataks as a trap for Lion-O and Snarf.

Merchandise

A toy of the Tongue-a-Saurus was made by LJN Toys as part of their 1980s ThunderCats toyline. It was the largest toy in the line with a length of almost 14 inches.

While most of the figures and vehicles that were produced by LJN were based on their equivalent counterparts from the cartoon series, for the Tongue-A-Saurus it was the opposite. The idea for the toy was conceived by the designers at LJN. The designers at that time were always looking for some sort of interesting "action" or "gimmick" that they could incorporate into the toys to make them more unique as well as increase their appeal. One of the designers suggested the "prehensile tongue" as a gimmick and the Tongue-a-Saurus was eventually created around that gimmick. The concept was submitted to Rankin/Bass who approved the design and it went into production.

The colors of the toy are quite different from the creature's cartoon incarnation.

Appearances

• Time Switch