The Tiny Dinos were never a huge franchise, probably because a proposed animated TV series didn't get off the ground, but the books sold okay and inspired merchandise for awhile.
There were two versions of the "hotline" commercial. My sister and I were in the second one (which isn't included here), and I recall being extremely hard to work with on the set (shot at my father's studio I believe). I had acting skills but decided not to use them that day.
All the Tiny Dino puppet performers were Muppet people as I recall, including Noel MacNeal (Bear in the Big Blue House) as Plateo. The puppets were performed live at Toy Fair. We kept the recording sessions on a VHS tape and the puppeteers joked inbetween takes. I recall Noel doing one dirty joke which I didn't understand at the time.
The hotline itself was various "radio play" style stories. My father was the main voice, probably the only voice. He played Sir Waldo Rhumba and Rex.
Two very brief clips of the characters were animated in Japan. My father was working with a man named Maseo Moriyama (or something like that) to bring the Tiny Dinos and other creations to Japan.
The books were distributed through Warner Bros., since my father was doing a lot of Looney Tunes and Tiny Toons books for them at the time, and were largely sold in Waldenbooks. The first book is credited to "Corey Nash," who I don't think existed. Toys were first created by LJN, and included two different attempts at plush huggable toys. The first were made out of parachute material. The second were smaller and more high-quality, like a Disney plush, and were made by Applause. Smaller toys "hatched" out of eggs and I recall them being quite good.
A Google image search for {"tiny dinos" toys} turns up plenty of examples on Ebay, mostly of the parachute-type characters. Curiously, there's also an example (from the UK) of a purple version of Plateo, which seems very small, poorly made and entirely the wrong color. A knockoff? Wouldn't be the first time.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-GUY-GILCH ... %26ps%3D50 Here's the Applause plush of Plateo:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Applause-9-Tiny ... 43b34b1bc7 An animated pilot was storyboarded, and my father also attempted a newspaper comic strip treatment of the characters later on. The characters were "aged up" out of diapers at some point.
My father also attempted to merchandise his "Mudpie" character(s), which predated and outlasted the Tiny Dinos.