107 of 109 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
hours and hours of fun, August 28, 2004
= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars
This review is from: Lego Make & Create Designer Prehistoric Creatures (4507) (Toy)
I bought the Lego Prehistoric creatures for my 5-and-a-half year old son as a reward for his effort towards nighttime potty training. The training failed, but he did well with the Legos; he has always been a Lego fan. Even though this Lego set is advertised for age 7+, I figured it was no harder than the easier ones my son had done in the past, except maybe it took longer. (At the time of this writing, Amazon says the toy is for 6+, but you can see right on that picture of the box that it says 7+).
As it turned out, my son had much difficulty in the beginning. He didn't pay enough attention to the instructions, and while he could get away with it in the smaller legos, the big T-Rex required more precision and made him cry in frustration. I told him that he needed to follow the instructions exactly, and I had to fix his mistake several time before he finally finished the T-Rex. Since it stood on two legs, he had trouble making it stand and needed my help again. He spent a total of about 10 hours building it, and while he was proud and relieved when it was done, he declared he would never build the T-Rex again; it was too hard.
The very next day, my son forgot his resolution and decided to tackle the T-Rex project again. This time, he did much better, and finished without any help from me, plus he figured out how to get it to stand too. He was then very proud. This time, it only took him maybe 4 hours.
My son has since spent morning, noon and night building and rebuilding Lego dinosaurs. (The other dinosaurs aren't half as hard or big as the T-Rex.) It's been a week, and he's still enjoying it. In terms of the amount of enjoyment it produced, this Lego set is worth double its money. I highly recommend this product to anyone, although I suggest that the child has some experience with easier Legos first. If your child is a dinosaur fan but has never played Legos, I recommend the Legos Wild Collection for practice, with which they can build all sorts of animals. The Wild Collection is recommended for 6+, but my son had no trouble playing it on his fifth birthday, and it was his first Lego set. In fact, I think even four year olds could have done it if they enjoy mechanical toys. My son can't read but has no trouble following the picture step-by-step instructions.
Tips:
1. Get an utitility box (a craft box with numerous divided compartments) from a hardware store and sort out the pieces by color and size for your kid (under 7). There are 700+ pieces and your child will go crazy searching if everything is just one huge pile. The Lego wild collection comes with a tool to help taking the Legos apart (the dinosaur Lego doesn't), and the job isn't too boring if you do it in front of the TV.
2. Before you kid starts playing, take a good stapler, open it up (there's usually a catch under a stapler to let you straighten it from a narrow "V" shape to a "---") and staple the instruction book as many times as you can alone its spine. If you don't, the center pages are going to come out starting the first day. The Lego people put only two staples in the wide 117-page dinosaur instruction book, and it won't hold no matter how careful your child is. I wish I had thought of this sooner, and the Wild collection instruction book wouldn't be in the 10 different pieces right now, despite my frequent effort with scotch tape.
Considering how many happy hours my son has spent with the Legos, I want to say "bravo!" to the Lego designers who came up with such wonderful, enduring toys. Keep up the good work!
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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Kudos to Lego for making one of the best sets ever, August 12, 2004
= Durability:4.0 out of 5 stars = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars = Educational:4.0 out of 5 stars
This review is from: Lego Make & Create Designer Prehistoric Creatures (4507) (Toy)
I am 14, and I have been playing with Legos since my early childhood. After all those years, this set has got to be the best I have ever built. The set includes instructions for 9 different dinosaurs, and 26 ideas for others. The flagship model is a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex, which stands about one 1 foot tall and has around 20+ points of articulation. The set is made of 719 pieces, which allow you to build the T-Rex, a Stegosaurus, and a Pterodactyl all at the same time. The time it took to build all 3 was around 50 to 80 minutes. The instructions made construction easy, although at times, the colors of the pieces shown in the booklet differed from the actual pieces, which made things confusing from time to time. The other 6 models were also fun to build, with models falling into the categories of Quick Build, Experienced Build, and Advanced Build. This set definitely educates children. The set demonstrates the different parts of an actual dinosaur; the people at Lego have been doing their research. The T-Rex is also perfect for collectors, who would like to have the gigantic dinosaur standing tall on their shelves. This set makes a perfect gift for the dinosaur/Lego lover/collector in the family. The only shame of this set would be that there aren't enough pieces to build all 9 models at the same time, but that's asking for more than needed. Again, next time you go looking for presents for someone else (or yourself!) give this set a look, and I hope you'll end up loving it as much as I do.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Won't stay together, December 1, 2004
A Kid's Review
= Durability:1.0 out of 5 stars = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars = Educational:4.0 out of 5 stars
This review is from: Lego Make & Create Designer Prehistoric Creatures (4507) (Toy)
I am ten years old and have been building large lego sets since I was four. I still play with legos almost daily. I usually build the model then take the pieces apart and build my own creation. The T-Rex, the largest model in the prehistoric set, was fun to build, but once I made it it would not stand up. It always fell over and I had to re-build it several times. In the end it fell to pieces and I couldn't re-build it without the directions.
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