ROAR! Here Comes The Brontosaurus! Duplo Delivers More Fun With The Dinosaur Village!
Written: Apr 06 '04 (Updated Apr 07 '04)
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Pros: Extremely fun set, high replay value, can easily be mixed with other Duplo sets.
Cons: Hard to find.
The Bottom Line: If your little one loves dinosaurs and building things, this set is a great investment.
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| Freak369's Full Review: LEGO Duplo Dinosaur Village |
If there is one thing that I love about the entire Lego building system, it’s that they inspire kids to use their imagination. When my boys were younger they fell in love with the Dinosaur series and I set out to try and get all of them, not an easy task with some sets since they were in high demand after the news leaked that Lego would be discontinuing them. The entire series promoted creativity, basic stacking and building skills as well as early learning of colors, shapes and scale. Outside of the educational values, the set is just plain fun – if you don’t crack a smile when playing with this set or emit a few load roars then you get a prize for being a first class grump! Now, I’ll admit this much [and only because it’s cyberspace], when the brood were younger they’d sit for hours building dinosaur caves, campfires and other assorted scenes – and I’d merrily sit right there with them, listening to them gibber gabber and squabble over which dinosaur would be the others in a fight. It wasn’t always an educational experience but thanks to the Duplo series, my boys knew – at a very early age – which dinosaurs were which … and that always led to them wanting to know more and more about them. What they ate, how they had babies, where the lived and why they aren’t around any more. Tell me one “toy” that can inspire kids to learn and I’ll show you something that’s truly worth it’s weight in gold.
Dinosaur Village
The basic premise of this set is to build a gathering area for the villagers, but that’s just what you gather from the front and sides of the box. The real test if to see what kids will build with the blocks and accessory pieces. There aren’t many tree pieces so if you have other Duplo sets, you may want to make those available for kids to mix and match to create a nice backdrop scene. The two villagers, one man and one woman, can do a lot with the provided pieces – gather the fruit [stenciled blocks, but still fruit to the wee people], hop on one of the dinosaurs for a ride or even sir around the faux campfire and swap stories of the days events. The yellow round table is a great piece that’s only featured in two other dinosaur sets so this piece alone makes it a great collectors item. When I picked this up it was in the ten dollar price range but it’s been so many years that remembering the exact cost is something I just can’t do. Even if it increased a little in price, it is still worth it in my opinion because there’s so much to do with the set and the brood loved it.
One of the largest pieces in this set is the doorway that looks like it’s carved out of a rock. The bright yellow and red colors might seem a little too bold but they work well with the other primary colors in the set. There are a handful of accessory bricks that can be used to make a wall or used around the doorway but I found, from personal experience, to just let kids build what they want. You get a few stenciled bricks with this – notably the fruit [most of the time a pineapple but sometimes grapes or oranges] and fire blocks. These are a little more sturdy than the ones you get in Lego sets since the paint on the stencil is thicker and will stand up to a lot more wear and tear. If you are worried about them getting scratched or scraped, apply a thin coat of clear nail polish or acrylic sealer to the face of it, allow it to dry completely and check periodically for any signs of it losing its sheen. This should only be done with kids that are out of the “I need to put everything in my mouth” phase … and if I need to explain why, chances are you shouldn’t have kids.
Dinosaurs
This set provides you with three dinosaur pieces, two iguanodons and one brontosaurus. The iguanodons are extremely cute and the baby one is about half the size of the parent. There are studs on the backs of the dinosaurs so you can attach prices or the villagers to them; a small fabric pouch can carry the fruit blocks or one of the smaller leaves from other sets but outside of that, the pockets are a little too small to carry anything else. These are solid figures that do not come apart so don’t let the thick seam that runs down the center fool you. If these held up to the use and abuse my boys put them through without coming apart, you know you have one solid piece of plastic on your hands. The green and yellow colors match up perfectly to the rest of the pieces in the set as well as those from other Duplo Dinosaur and Duplo related sets. There are no movable limbs on these particular animals which is a good and bad thing, the good part is that there’s less of a chance of the pieces breaking, the bad is that they look rather plain once you’ve played with the others found in the larger sets that have movable tails or legs.
Things To Know
For some reason unbeknownst me to, Lego and Duplo bricks seem to have some secret magnetic force that attracts dirt. Now, kids hands are normally a little on the grubby side so expect these to need a good cleaning about once a month. Since the pieces are larger than Lego elements, they can be tossed into a laundry garment bag and popped in to the dishwasher or if you are feeling really adventurous, the washing machine with a load of towels or heavy linens. Of course, you could do what I did for so many years, bend over the sink with an old toothbrush and give them a good scrub by hand. Make sure all the soap is rinsed away and allow them to air dry for about a day and give them a good tumble every so often to rid the inside parts of water. These have been washed at least thirty times and aside from the usual wear on them from tons of use, they are still in great shape.
The Duplo Dinosaur Series
Included in this series are the following sets. All age appropriate for ages 1 1/2 through 5, have colorful, sturdy and safe pieces and are interchangeable with other Duplo and Explore Together sets: Brontosaurus Family [2600], T-Rex Dinosaurs [2601], Dinosaur Village [2602], Dinosaur Bulk Tub [2603], Dino World [2604], Dinosaur Park [2605], Dinosaur Babies [2803], Mini Dino Set [2806], Dinosaur Fun Forest [2821]. Other recommended sets and accessories include: Duplo Bucket Assortment [1086], Duplo Boxed Set [2261], Duplo Building Plate [2304], Duplo Large Assortment [3099].
The Bottom Line
As I have said with the other sets in this sets, this is a solid investment if you have a child or children that are into dinosaurs and love to build things. These saw a lot of use when my boys were young enough to enjoy them and they still get dragged out when my neighbor’s daughter comes over to play. The recommended age range for this set is 2 – 5 however my boys are far beyond that age and still play with these. Some of the sets may be hard to find by they are definitely worth the effort to track them down, the pieces are sturdy and will take a lot of abuse and the replay value is sky high. Aside from having to clean them every so often, I have nothing but great things to say about this set as well as the entire Duplo Dinosaur series.
The Stats
Set Name: Dinosaur Village
Family Set: Duplo Dinosaur
Lego Set: 2602
Number of Pieces: 30
Age Recommendation: 2 - 5
Ease Of Assembly: Easy
Cost: $ 9.99 - $14.99
As always, thanks for the visit …
^V^ Freak ^V^
© 2004 Freak369
Other Duplo and Lego Explore Sets …
Racing Lion
Racing Leopard
Racing Tiger
Explore Together - Campsite
Action Wheeler Helicopter Rescue
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $9.99
Type of Toy: Blocks
Age Range of Child: Whole Family
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