I picked up the largest of the new Lego Dinosaurs set on special the other day – Dino Defence HQ (set 5887) from the Lego Dino theme launched in 2012.
My kids haven’t seen Jurassic Park (I’m an over-protective mother), but I am a fan of the books and movies created by Michael Crichton and Steven Spielberg respectively and these sets continue the “dino + man coexisting” concept.
The main draw-card of the sets is of course the Lego Dinosaurs and Lego has created specific molds for the creatures much like they did for their similar Dino Attack theme, in 2005.
I had not seen a Lego Dinosaur up close and, being such a fearsome creatures in reality, I was interested to see how intimidating they are to your average, regular sized Lego minifigure.
It turns out they are pretty awesome.
Lego Dinosaurs
The Lego Dino set Dino Defence HQ came with three specifically molded dinosaur “figures”.
A Tyrannosaurus Rex, a Raptor and a Coelophysis.
Now I’m not a 5 year old child so the only one of those names that really sounds familiar to me is the venerable T-Rex.
The raptor I know vaguely from the Jurassic Park movie and I consulted Wikipedia about the Coelophysis so I know it looks a little like the raptor but smaller and more bird-like.
The three lego dinosaurs come sealed in their own plastic bags, the largest two (T-Rex and Raptor) come unassembled while the small Lego Coelophysis comes pre-assembled within in a protective plastic mold.
It’s an impressive attempt on Lego’s part to protect all the “special” pieces, much like they have done with “bagging and boarding” the instruction books lately.
Putting the dinosaur figures together is easy if you follow the instructions (I won’t embarrass myself and tell you how many attempts it took for me without the instructions – I think there is a reason why man didn’t design the universe!)
Lego Dinosaurs Vs Minifigures
I wanted to compare the dinosaurs and minifgures by size just to see how effective the theme would be in capturing that sense of primal fear in the minifigures.
I decided to give my poor “volunteer” minifigure a little bit of protection by way of a dino-suit and then started him off with the tiny Coelophysis, working our my way up to the T-Rex. Was he intimidated?
Well you can see the results for yourself – my minifigure is missing now by the way.
Lego Dinosaurs
Overall I am impressed with the quality of the Lego Dinosaur figures.
The legs on my T-Rex were a little loose, which took away some of his fearsome presence but apart from that I would recommend them to add to a child’s existing Lego collection, particularly if your children are already into Dinosaurs (which let’s face it, most kids are).
As mentioned earlier, these three Lego dinosaurs can be found in the largest of the current Lego Dino sets, the Dino Defence HQ which retails for $99 US.
Lego Dinosaur Video
