Looking for info on a part in a seemingly unreleased colour: 30464 'baby dinosaur sitting' in sand blue

[Autumn]

Hello! First time posting here, so I hope I am posting this in the correct place.

I was looking at Dino Island and Dinosaurs sets from 2000-2001 and became interested in unique parts and variations when I looked at the part 30464 on Bricklink and found it came in five different colours: green, dark bluish gray, metallic gold, red and tan. The first four were released officially in sets with tan being the only unreleased one. I couldn't find any info about where it comes from but it seems fairly common otherwise so I assume they must have been exclusive to Legoland at one point since that is a common story I have heard about other parts. Confirmation would be appreciated though.

Moving on.

While doing some reading I found this image from Brickipedia:

This is the only image and mention of it existing in sand blue anywhere on the internet, even Bricklink doesn't list it and the person who uploaded it hasn't been online since 2010. It could be fake but I doubt it as the baby t-rex made its first appearance in Dino Island in 2000 and sand blue was a dominant colour in the Dinosaurs theme the next year in 2001 so it would have fit perfectly within that line. My guess would be it was created in this colour for some sets which obviously never released, maybe a dinosaur's nest.

I would really appreciate anything anyone knows about this or advice on where to look as I've become so intrigued by it. It would be so cool to own it!

[Alexandrina]

It's interesting to me that not only does Bricklink not have any listings for the part in sand blue, it's not on any wanted lists either. Where there are known unreleased recolours that are or have been present in the market, you can normally find at least one person who has it on their wanted list waiting for the day it surfaces again. Nobody seems to want this dinosaur in sand blue. You can actually brute-force your way onto the page for the part in sand blue through URL trickery but it's not a very interesting read. Nothing is listed on any of the tabs whatsoever, and there's no image on the Bricklink database.

I'm always fascinated by parts in colours that seemingly shouldn't exist. Earlier today I myself came across an old trans-clear pneumatic hose in a length that Bricklink insists never came in trans-clear, and somewhere I have what I'm fairly sure is a 2x4 brick in Very Light Orange. I suspect you're right about the source of this colour of dinosaur, though; it would make sense that it was intended to be used in conjunction with the buildable dinosaurs from around that time. Does anyone know if those sets were poor sellers? I know I never owned or even saw any (and I was a dinosaur-obsessed kid whose price range for toys was exactly what those dinosaur sets cost at that time) and failing sales would explain sets being dropped last-minute.

[Autumn]

12 hours ago, Alexandrina said:

You can actually brute-force your way onto the page for the part in sand blue through URL trickery but it's not a very interesting read. Nothing is listed on any of the tabs whatsoever, and there's no image on the Bricklink database.

Oh nice! I'm still learning to use Bricklink. Added to my wishlist!

12 hours ago, Alexandrina said:

I'm always fascinated by parts in colours that seemingly shouldn't exist.

Me too, I love to look at what people have found. Sometimes I wonder what I have, or may have had when I was younger, that is super rare or next to impossible to find but you would never guess because it looks so innocent. I also like parts that were simply never released like the bison, or my favourite which is the Seatron alien minifig.

I don't know if the buildable dinosaurs were poor sellers or not but they may have been. Lego did a lot of weird things back then that didn't take off too well like buildable figures. Never owned any of them either but as a typical child who liked dinosaurs they always captivated me.

[Peppermint_M]

I very misty memory style recall spotting the Dinosaur sets in a Woolworths shop when they were available. One of my brothers had at least one as the parts are knocking around in the "boys" collection of bricks (Currently inherited by the youngest of the boys still into LEGO, my own collection was always separate and I am not so much of a meanie that I would take it now!) 

Maybe it was a Q part, TLG still had full ownership of the LEGOLand parks at the time and would make very small limited Q part runs for Miniland or other park models. While some Q parts do make their way into the fan community, many are not as well recorded.