D-Rex Interactive Dinosaur

by Mattel

• D-Rex is the ultimate pet
• Combines robotics, proprietary software and reptilian skin to create a lifelike appearance and behavior
• Responds to voice and touch
• Will attack and obey on command
• A ferocious yet loyal dinosaur with an indpendent personality

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 22.5 x 14 inches ; 8.5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 11 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B0017V856W
• Item model number: M8577
• Manufacturer recommended age: 8 - 18 years
• Batteries 5 C batteries required.
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #104,606 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (91 customer reviews)

Product Description

Amazon.com

Ultra-fierce and unbelievably fun, the D-REX Interactive Dinosaur is a cool, prehistoric creature with a personality all his own. Designed to keep kids eight and up entertained for days, this robotic D-REX moves, roars, and responds to your child's voice and touch. A bone-shaped controller even lets you "train" him as a guard dinosaur or an attack pet.

What We Think Fun Factor: Durability: (what this means) The Good: Ferocious robotic dinosaur! The Bad: Background noise can make it tough for him to "seek" you out In a Nutshell: This smart, quirky "pet" will inspire tons of imaginative play At a Glance Ages: 8 and up Requires: 5 C batteries and 2 AAA batteries

D-REX features authentic looking rubbery, reptilian skin. View larger.

Controller lets you prompt five different types of behavior. View larger.

Get Ready for Realistic, Imaginative Fun
Right out of the box, this scaly pet D-REX feels more authentic than most other dinosaur toys on the market. His rubbery, reptilian skin is loosely stretched to accommodate movement, and he has a slightly strange texture that is soft to the touch. While his oversized feet and a fun spiked collar balance his menacing teeth and his darting yellow eyes, he is still a little scary looking. Don't worry--you'll soon discover that he has a sense of humor and a soft spot for anyone willing to scratch the back of his head.

Before you start getting to know D-REX personally, you'll need to use a Phillips screwdriver to insert five "C" batteries in his tail and two "AAA" batteries in the bone-shaped controller. Once he's powered up, D-REX is ready to start showing off and responding to his surroundings. He'll roar, turn his head, and blink his eyes.

Cool Robotics Technology for Interactive Play
When you pet D-REX on the head, touch sensors let him respond with an appreciative roar. If he seems hungry, you can stick something in his mouth and he'll chomp away on it. And the bone-shaped controller lets you prompt five different types of behavior. Press "attack," and he'll launch forward while roaring. Press "prank," and he'll fart, burp, or roar. In seek mode, he uses a noise sensor to locate you and walk towards you. Due to the room's background noise, we found that he had some difficulty with this task. But it was funny (and kind of cute) when he bumped into walls and backed away in surprise.

Perhaps our favorite mode was "guard." In this mode, you can set D-REX up in front of your bedroom door or your favorite toys and he will scan the room, letting out a big roar if he detects the motion of "intruders." There's even a question mode that lets you replace your out-dated magic eight ball with dinosaur wisdom. Each time you press this button, D-REX will answer a question by nodding "Yes" or shaking his head "No."

D-REX is programmed to respond as a pet with an independent mind. This means that, despite his five-button remote, he won't walk where ever you want him to. Kids who expect to "drive" him around the room like a remote control car may be disappointed, but we actually enjoyed this fact a lot, since it made him more realistic. And we expect that kids who are fascinated by either dinosaurs or robotics will agree with us on this. As an added bonus, D'REX offers a battery-saving sleep mode, which parents are sure to appreciate.

What's in the Box
D-REX Dinosaur and bone-shaped controller.

Product Description

Ferocious, loyal and with an independent personality, D-Rex is the ultimate pet.

See all Product Description

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful! Really Something Different! December 2, 2008

By MAD MOM

Durability: 4.0 out of 5 stars    Educational: 5.0 out of 5 stars    Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

Hesitant at first about purchasing this for my 5 year old dinosaur-mad little girl. Happy that I did. Does all it's advertised to do. Put batts in and tried it out before wrapping it up for Xmas....had a ball just playing with it myself. Looks a little mean in the beginning but it plays, growls, bites his bone, walks around the house "looking" at things & comes when you call it. It's like an ugly puppy that somehow starts to look adorable. Has great facial(?!)expressions. My daughter is going to LUV this, and to me, seeing her so happy is worth the pricetag. Super toy!

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars DRex for my Twins November 6, 2008

By M. Kae

Durability: 4.0 out of 5 stars    Educational: 2.0 out of 5 stars    Fun: 5.0 out of 5 stars   

I got this for my twins and they love their DRex. My daughter and son plays hide and seek with it. They both love to pet D Rex and watch him react to it (waging his tail, making some happy noise & moving his eye brows). I do just let DRex do his thing around the kids. But I use the controller when I'm playing with my kids with DRex. I've even shot videos of them playing with their DRex. I'll post them on Youtube. Over all, I'm pretty happy to have gotten this for my twins.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars One Word: Overrated January 7, 2009

By Sam Bravern

Amazon Verified Purchase

Durability: 4.0 out of 5 stars    Educational: 1.0 out of 5 stars    Fun: 3.0 out of 5 stars   

My wife and I vowed to thoroughly research the Toys this year and make very careful selections. We were tired of taking Xmas toys to the Goodwill only 6 months after Xmas. I was very skeptical of this toy as with most toys like this, essentially they all use virtually the same computer program to control different looking toys (robots, etc.) Our other son already had an expensive robot that claims to do similar things with a few changes like the petting and putting a bone in its mouth but basically this is the same thing as most other purported "artificial intelligent" animals, robots, etc.

But the reviews on Amazon were so good we thought this was a good bet. NOT. The thing people tend to forget is that the vast majority of reviews are written within a short period from when the item is received. I agree this is a great twist on the intelligent robot/creature thing. But the novelty of it wears off quickly. At least it has for our 7-yo. It's been 2 weeks and he claims he still loves it, but he only plays with it maybe once every 5 days, and usually only to demonstrate it to someone who hasn't seen it before. Granted we all thought it was really cool the first 5 days, but after that, I realized that this thing really doesn't do that much.

The creature is well executed, it looks cool, and the skin feels cool and the movement of the face an eyes is neat. But again, the novelty wears off quick as it just doesn't do a whole lot and has no educational value. I could see maybe a 3-5 year old maybe treating the thing like a pet and therefore taking interest in it a lot longer. But in a household where we have a WII, and Playstation 3, robots, RC cars, Legos galore, etc., this thing just sits around not getting played with.

Bottom line, as usual with 50% or more of the toys they get (that they want bad), a waste of money. I'm wondering what percentage of the reviews here might have been planted by the manufacturer as either 90% of the reviews were written in the first 5 days, or most of the kids that this was reviewed for are younger. Otherwise I am totally shocked at the average rating. Mark my words - they'll lose interest after a couple weeks.