Super Dinosaur, is that you?

I saw this on a clearance rack in the toy section of a big box retailer the other day, and thought immediately of Robert Kirkman and Jason Howard's Super Dinosaur comic.

What came first, I wonder, Super Dinosaur, or Fisher Price's T-Rex with robot arms...? Or were they both pre-dated by other, earlier T-Rexes with robot arms...? Perhaps it's one of those ideas that seems really awesome when you first encounter it, but is actually a little more common than you might expect?

Like, when I was in college, I used to always draw this snake with robot arms that I thought was an ingenious invention of my own (I used to really like drawing scales when doodling in class, so I drew a lot of snakes; this one was the archenemy of a squirrel-man who wore a tweed jacket and boots and carried .45s that I also used to draw all the time back then. I liked drawing tweed patterns as well as scales). Then one day someone saw it, asked what it was, and when I said, "Oh, it's a snake with robot arms" they responded with, "Oh, like in that one Easter special?" (I never saw that particular Easter special, but have ever since wanted to).

I later found out one of the Legionnaires from one of the various Legions of Super-Heroes was also a snake with mechanical arms.

So, you know, as with snakes with robot arms, it's likely no one necessarily owns the idea of T-Rexes with robot arms. Still, if I were Robert Kirkman and I saw that toy in the store, I might be pissed. Actually, that's not true—If I were Robert Kirkman and my personal shopper told me they saw that toy in a store, I'd probably shrug and then dive back into my pool filled with Walking Dead money...