Learning Resources EI-5180 GEOSAFARI JR. Dino Discovery DIG T-REX, Multi

My son loved doing this! Inside a nicely packaged plastic volcano is 6 surprises;1. A dinosaur skeleton that you can build- this one is the t-Rex one.2. A fossil mould3. 1 x mystery gem4. Reusable Dino dirt- this is a bit like kinetic sand but a bit more grainy and rock like. You can use this in the fossil mould.5. A digging tool- one side is a fork and the other a spade.6. Dino fact card.I prefer this type set to the ones where you dig through plaster of Paris as you can keep the “dirt” in this pack to play with. It is a nice mix of educational/play toy. Would make a great stocking filler.

This arrives with a cardboard back & a plastic front shaped like the volcano so it's an odd shape which is hard to wrap & you need scissors to get it out of the packet.Cardboard backing is approx 16.5cm x 19cm & with the volcano ranges at the front from the thickness of the card to max 8.5cm at the base.The Volcano is a really solidly made object which has a removable back so after play the dino dirt can be put back inside it & the lid (back) closed.It's about 14cm high.The lid doubles as a mould which you can use with the dino dirt or you could use it with things like play doh. It has a shell, a starfish & a dino footprint mould built into it.The dino dirt is odd (to me) but effective.It looks & feels like quite fine chippings or similar mixed with heavy sand & has a sticky texture to it as if it's full of partially cured glue.It doesn't seem to dry out however & while I found the texture off-putting, my son has enjoyed shaping it for the past couple of days.It clumps together well & it's not terrible at holding it's shape.We were both bitterly disappointed when first opening this however, during the first play.Like many of the excavator sets, you are 'looking' for 6 hidden surprises.They were all in one big plastic bag under the dirt with the dirt just dropped on top of them rather than individually 'hidden' in the dirt.If you opened the lid, turned it over & gave it a thump, you'd get all the dirt out & have the bag in about 2 seconds.Other than being an interesting little half a volcano, which would be nice for imaginative play for a child with small dinosaur toys I'm not sure about there being much continued play value in the set.The dinosaur you build is about the same quality as you'd find in the cheapest excavator sets & not keen on standing up.He can't be played with unless you don't mind rebuilding him every time you use him unless you are very careful.I'm in two minds about this set.On the one hand, the volcano & it's mould back are very decent quality, the dino dirt is reusable, a much less messy way to excavate than plaster & you could bury your own things in it to excavate so it has replay value which is more than most excavator sets do.I could see the volcano lasting years.On the other hand the dino you get with it was rubbish & it was really disappointing finding the bag with everything in it like that.I'm giving it 4 stars for the volcano.

The "dig" element is interesting here, using a material not unlike kinetic sand, requiring the child to rake through. It's very, very small for that activity and doesn't take a minute realistically. But what it lacks in longevity it makes up for in reusability thanks to the loose sand material. It's arguably not as fun as the sets that require chipping away at a hard plaster-like material to reveal the dinosaur.The quality of the dinosaur itself is quite disappointing, it's very flimsy, but the concept of the bones and putting them together is reasonably educational. In contrast the volcano and moulds are of good quality.Overall this was well-received by my dino-mad six year old daughter and despite the quickness of the "dig" it did provide a decent amount of playtime first time around, but it does sort of like it would've been better if it was larger and featured a more durable dinosaur skeleton.3.5 stars

This kit contains a plastic dinosaur skeleton and separate "earth" which is a rock-like play sand. Hidden in the sand is a plastic "gem". You get moulds to put the sand in to make fossil prints.There's a digging tool to make it more fun and an information fact leaflet. It's all held in the plastic volcano case.It's great in that you can reuse the contents rather than the ones where you just unearth the gems/bones. Great fun and educational too. Certainly worth the money.

Great activity toy for dinosaur lovers! My great nephew absolutely loves these sets and keeps going back to play with them again. You get a half volcano shape filled with the reusable ‘dirt’, a bag with the dinosaur bones, dinosaur card, gem, shovel, gem, mould and instructions. You will need to set this up by taking the parts (bones) out of the plastic bag and mixing them in with the ‘dirt’. It feels like a mix between sand, play dough and seeds! It’s stretchy but not sticky - it reminds me of my seed cracker mixture in texture. Once the bones are found the dinosaur model can be built. The ‘dirt’ can then be played with using the moulds. My great nephew has a couple and gets lots of enjoyment out of these, he’s just turned 4. £16 seems a reasonable price, as it’s reusable.

A short lived bit fun activity to do with young kids.There isn’t much to the set and not much longevity to the items uncovered, I was a bit disappointed the items weren’t hidden within the Dino dirt but hidden behind a plastic partition under it all, so not much of a discovery.My son enjoyed it for around 10 minutes and mostly liked messing around with the gritty sand like substance, it has a very unusual texture to it.A good learning tool rather then a lasting toy.

This little kit was a huge hit with my 4-year-old dino fan! It combines several things he already loves, like moldable sand, volcanos and a buildable dino skeleton.He has several buildable dino skeleton sets. He likes to take them apart and bury them in his sand table outside to dig them out over and over again. But it's snowy out now, so he's obviously not able to do that. This kit brings that same activity inside.It comes with moldable sand that is like kinetic sand, but chunkier in texture. My son noticed this difference right away and he liked it because it's "more realistic," which is his fav phrase these days.I like that you can store the dirt in the little volcano case. Not only does that make cleanup easier and more fun, but it also helps keep it with the rest of the set. We have a couple kits that are kind of similar and the dirt always seems to get separated from everything else unless I make a special effort to store everything together. Not a concern here.We're really happy with this set. It ticks all the boxes for both my son and me. He has a ton of fun with it, and it's not too messy. Highly recommend.

A mio parere non vale assolutamente i 20€ del prezzo e nemmeno i 10 che l’ho pagato in offerta.La sabbia all’interno è appiccicosa e puzza di plastica. Mi aspettavo le ossa di dinosauro fossero nascoste e da scoprire e invece sono tutte insieme in un sacchetto di plastica sul fondo, compresa la gemma. La paletta per scavare è troppo piccola per essere impugnata bene da un bambino di 5 anni.Per me è un grande No.

My older grandson is in the accepted range on this but had a harder time dealing with it, and no, not the packaging. We opened it for him. He ended up having a decent time with the kit but it could have been better.

Lástima q nos vinieron las dos patas del mismo lado y no pudimos armar el esqueleto de dinosaurio

Overall my son enjoyed this but there were a few disappointments on my end. The biggest... I had no shovel! I looked around in case I dropped it but never found it. I was also hoping the bones and gem would be buried already. But you have to bury then yourself, which isn't a big deal I guess. And holy glue stench!!! It didn't bother my 4 yo but I couldn't stand it. My son had a blast hiding and finding the gem himself. He enjoyed playing with the sand. Kept him busy for a while so a decent toy. Really wished we had a shovel tho, probably would've been 4 stars.