My 5 year old son has been a fan of Imaginext toys for quite a while now. I'm a big castle fan myself, so I was always prepared to buy him more castle sets to go with the ones he already has, but when Imaginext came out with a dinosaur based set I initially didn't see the appeal. Sure, most boys love dinosaurs, but I didn't see how building a cave could be as much fun as building an intricate castle. I'm happy to admit that I was wrong!

Product Description:

The concept behind Imaginext building sets are that you can take the modular plastic pieces and build your building (be it a castle, a fire station, a cave, etc) however you see fit. The set I'm reviewing here is the T-Rex Mountain, which appears to be a fortress carved out of cave-rock and T-Rex fossils.

There are far too many pieces for me to try to list them one-by-one, so I'll try to give a general idea of what you get. You get a good number of brown cave wall pieces (that appear to be carved from rocks) and flooring pieces (that have the color and texture of sand) with which you could build numerous unique structures. Many of the cave wall pieces have large round openings, and you can attach the included "chutes" behind these openings if you so desire. Many of the floor pieces have round openings too, so you can build little slides. Connect enough little slides together and you can end up with a somewhat complicated system of chutes and openings that allow the included boulders and cavemen characters to go on long rides through the structure.

There are some unique pieces that come with this set too. Most notable is the T-Rex skeleton head - complete with fierce teeth and red light-up eyes. There are two buttons atop his head - one plays a chomping/chewing sound as the eyes light up, the other button makes the tongue inside the Rex's mouth tilt back (so any character that is currently resting inside the Rex's teeth will drop through the opening at the back of the head), accompanied by roaring, flashing eyes, and chomping/eating sounds (including a burp). That leads us to the "stomach" piece, as we typically call it. If you construct the mountain according to the instructions, after the T-Rex "eats" a character or item it drops down into a section of cave behind the T-Rex's rib cage. An orange button pops open a section of the ribs so characters can be removed.

Additional unique pieces include a small pond base with collapsing palm tree (press a button and the palm tree falls down to crush/trap unsuspecting victims) and a piece with a T-Rex hand-esque claw (the claws will remain up until a button is pressed, then the bony-fingers will fall down and trap whatever wandered beneath it. Another wall piece has a round opening that is covered with a cage-like grating that can be opened manually - making it a good final resting place for a lot of the chutes to dump their boulders/victims.

Many small pieces are included as well. Character/animal pieces include a small T-Rex, a small pteranodon, and one caveman. We purchased our set from Toys 'R Us where it came with some additional cavemen characters and dinosaurs. You also get fence pieces, tall grass pieces (which can also act like fences, two boulders (complete with a fossilized T-Rex footprint), a boulder holder/launcher, a club made from bone, and various other small decorative pieces (bones, fossils, greenery, etc).

Three "AAA" batteries are required (not included). The manufacturer recommends this toy for children ages 4 and up.

There is some minor assembly required to construct the T-Rex head the first time you use it. A Phillips Head screwdriver is required.

Our Experiences - Building It:

I've become quite the pro at building Imaginext Castles, so while the T-Rex Mountain is quite different the general concept is the same.

A little booklet contains the building instructions. The instructions are graphical and in-color, and while I can build the set fairly quickly now it can be particularly time consuming that first time (until you become more familiar with the pieces included in the set and can easily tell them apart). The instructions are pretty clear and easy to follow, but sometimes it can be hard to find the right piece according to the picture ("Is it this the brown half-wall with a triangular rock outcropping or the brown half-wall with a small indention?") At 5, my eldest son is still too young to build the mountain by himself, although I do have him help me find the pieces and put some of them together while I oversee the major assembly. I don't recall how long it took me to build it the first time, but now I'm down to about a 5-10 minute build time (it took me considerably longer the first time though).

As with our castles, the pieces do take some getting used to. The concept is simple enough (line up the pegs with the holes), however there are some quirks. You must have floor-pieces between your wall-pieces, you sometimes need skinny little wall-extensions to get certain walls to line up properly, etc. It can be frustrating at first but once you get the hang of the "rules" you can build some impressive stuff.

With our castles we build to spec sometimes and other times we just build something that we think looks cool. Admittedly, we don't "just build something cool" with our T-Rex Mountain set. The chutes and tunnels of the set when built to spec are so cool that my son just really loves playing with it that way, and it just isn't as fun when built other ways (although it can be done -- maybe when he gets older). We also haven't mixed our T-Rex pieces in with our castle pieces, even though the pieces from the various sets would work together. My son doesn't think that cavemen and knights should mix, and I can't say that I disagree with him.

One of the things I've always loved about our Imaginext Dragonmont's Fortress is the fact that the pieces fit nicely back into the original box, which is great for storage in our toy closet. Sadly I cannot say the same for our T-Rex Mountain. After you construct the T-Rex head it is too wide to be stored in the original box. We purchased a medium-sized plastic bin for storing this set, which works well, however I do wish that it wasn't necessary to buy anything additional to use for storage.

Our Experiences - Playing With It:

My eldest is quite the little builder, so it is always fun to pull one of our Imaginext sets out of the toy closet and build it together. This set in particular has so many options for play once it is constructed though! While I wasn't as excited about the whole caveman theme initially, this set has absolutely become one of my son's favorites! The whole chutes-and-holes thing is so much fun, and my son loves "feeding" the T-Rex head various things and having them show up in the stomach.

The first time we put it together our baby did a good job of acting like Godzilla and managed to destroy it pretty quickly. More recently the baby (who is now 18 months old) has been very interested as I put the pieces together, and he really loved dropping the boulders through the various holes. After I was finished with construction he had the best time exploring the various openings and experimenting with the whole "if I put the ball in here where will it come out?" thing. The only time he broke part of it was when he got too excited opening the dinosaur's mouth to put in a ball - since that piece is extra heavy (due to the batteries) and is alone on the top of the structure (so there isn't much additional support for it). Even without that top part baby still had tons of fun (so much so that he didn't want to go to bed and wanted to sleep with one of the boulders). While I cannot recommend this toy for your average 18-month old (the cavemen and other small pieces are choking hazards), my 18-month old adored his heavily supervised playtime with it.

One of the things I wasn't fond of on our first castle set was the fact that the floor pieces weren't very big - so even if the castle was very tall you only had these little half-floors sticking out every so often. The T-Rex Mountain floors are larger - the same size as the wall pieces. I find that this not only makes the structure easier to build and sturdier, but gives my son (who loves playhouses) more room to play with his characters in whatever structure we build.

Yes, the toy will far apart with rough play. The good news it is it always fairly easy to put it back together again. Still, this is something that could be upsetting to some kids. When we first received the T-Rex Mountain I could count on our baby to destroy it in no time (he was 1 and was always interested in it). Nowadays my 5 year old is the one who does the most damage with his fairly rough play (because the baby is mainly just interested in dropping boulders through the holes). My big guy has learned to not get upset at it however, and if anything he tries to fix it back the way it was, which I think is great!

Our biggest Imaginext castle came with a large base, so as long as you build your castle on that base the entire structure can be moved fairly easily - something I've been grateful for as we typically build in the middle of our bonus room, then move the castle to the side of the room where it lasts a few days until the boys tire of it again and I box it back up. The T-Rex Mountain, on the other hand, does not come with a large base, and when you put it together according to the instructions it becomes particularly difficult to move (as there is a large empty space between the two sides of the structure). I typically move it in sections (the top part, then the two bottom pieces) and reconstruct it in its new location.

I love a lot of things about these Imaginext playsets. I love the fact that my son and I can get together and build it, which is good for his problem solving and logical thinking skills, along with teaching him to follow instructions. I love that I can take it apart and put it into storage -- then when my son finds it again a month or so later it is almost like receiving a brand new toy!

Quickie Summary:
Pros:
+) Modular cave pieces can be used to build in a variety of ways
+) The chutes and round openings concept is new to the Imaginext line and adds LOTS of fun to this set
+) Fun dinosaurs and cavemen figures included
+) Plenty of add-on sets available
+) You can follow the instructions or build however you see fit
+) Fun T-Rex head piece with light-up eyes, sounds, and "swallowing" action
+) Rib-cage/stomach piece with pop-open escape hatch
+) Other fun/interactive pieces (collapsing palm tree, grabbing-claw, etc)
+) Full-floor pieces allow for easier assembly as well as additional play options
Cons:
-) Not all pieces fit back into the original box
-) Assembling the mountain according to the instructions is too difficult for the little ones - need an adult or older child to build it to spec
-) Too much rough play and the walls will fall apart (especially if you haven't built it according to the instructions)
-) Can be frustrating when the pieces don't line up like you want them to
-) Cannot be easily moved once assembled

Final Thoughts:
As much as I love our Imaginext castles, this dinosaur themed set is currently the favorite set in our house. It is nice that it encourages creativity and building skills while still being lots of fun to play with. Even with its faults, this set gets a big thumbs up from me!



Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 30