Growing up, we loved playing with LEGOs. The nostalgia from stacking, snapping, and designing with those hard plastic block pieces made us want to pass on that LEGO love to our child. For our review of the LEGO Creator Mighty Dinosaurs, we asked our 8-year-old daughter to try out the 176-piece set with enough pieces to build a LEGO T. rex, a triceratops, or a pterodactyl. We hoped our child would be able to build the dinosaurs and find as much joy from LEGO as we once did. Read on to see if our child conquered the LEGO set or quit in frustration.
Packaging: As expected
Every LEGO Creator box we’ve opened looks the same: a cardboard exterior and a handful of plastic bags with tiny pieces inside of it. The Mighty Dinosaur kit was no exception. There were three plastic bags full of LEGOs inside the box and three individual instruction guides—one for the T. Rex, one for the triceratops, and one for the pterodactyl. Our child was excited and wanted to open all bags at once, but we steered her clear of doing so. If you’ve ever done a LEGO kit before, you know that mixing up the pieces spells trouble later.
Design: Sharp teeth and poseable appendages
At first glance, it didn’t look like there was anything unique about the design of the Mighty Dinosaurs set; it was ordinary. There are enough pieces in the Mighty Dinosaurs set to build two of the three dinosaurs to play side-by-side afterward. Our child chose the triceratops and the T. Rex and quickly got to work snapping them together. There were a couple of moments when she got frustrated while building the triceratops, but she built them without help. She wasn’t able to get the pieces apart when she used the wrong ones, though. Those tiny LEGOS were tough to separate, even for us. Luckily, the instructions were clear enough that we didn’t have to pull them apart very often. Once our child had finished putting together the dinos, we realized there were a couple of unique features to the LEGO dinosaurs that we hadn’t noticed at first glance. The mouth of the T. Rex opens to reveal its sharp teeth, and it has poseable appendages, too. The triceratops, on the other hand, was much more fragile than the T. Rex. It needed to be handled delicately, or else its horns would pop off. There was another surprise: a rib cage, representing the remains of the T. Rex’s prey. Our child had a great time putting together the bones and then having the open-mouthed T. Rex attack them. Overall, the design of this set is what we’d expect from LEGO, but the added touches to the T. Rex were a welcome surprise. The only real concern we had was keeping the pieces together. LEGOs disappear at the speed of light in our house, and if one of these pieces is misplaced, it could be difficult to build the dinosaurs. It may be worth throwing the pieces into a sealed container to be sure that doesn’t happen. This set could also be a choking hazard for households with young kids. We don’t have that issue in our house, but it’s something to keep in mind.
Entertainment Value: Calm, focused fun
This LEGO set provided a couple of hours of entertainment for our child. She sat calmly and put the pieces together one by one after meticulously searching through the piles to find the right parts. It’s not every day that our child sits quietly and plays, so this was a nice change for her and us. What’s also great about this kit is that once she’s tired of the triceratops, she can use those pieces to build a pterodactyl instead. We’ll probably have to take the triceratops apart for her, but that’s a small price to pay in return for quiet LEGO time at the kitchen table. We were surprised to find our older kids playing with the kit alongside our 8-year-old. Our oldest daughter is a senior in high school but has always loved LEGOs. At one point, she sat down with her sister and helped her navigate the directions. It’s always great to see two kids with a significant age gap find a common interest; these LEGOs helped facilitate that.
Age Range: 7 to 12 years
This LEGO set’s recommended age is 7 to 12 years old, but that didn’t stop our older kids from playing with it. We would be wary of giving this kit to kids much younger than the recommended age because the pieces are small and can get lost easily. If you have infants or toddlers, keep the small parts away from them.
Price: Under $20
The LEGO Creator Mighty Dinosaurs kit retails for about $15, which is a good price considering that we could build three dinosaurs from the one set. Some of the more complicated LEGO sets can get pricey, but this was comfortably affordable.
LEGO Creator Mighty Dinosaurs vs. BOY-S-YEAR 652-piece Dinosaur Building Set
LEGO dominates the dinosaur building set market. There isn’t much competition, other than from the other LEGO dino sets that are available. The closest competitor we could find was the BOY-S-YEAR 652 piece dinosaur building set, which retails for close to $30. It comes with three times more pieces than the LEGO set, but none of them look as cool—or interactive—as the LEGO kit. The value in the BOY-S-YEAR set is the extra pieces can allow for more free-building. The LEGO Creator Mighty Dinosaurs set is an extraordinary find. The price point is affordable, and we love that it’s a versatile 3-in-1 set that lets kids decide what dinos to build. This would be a great gift for LEGO lovers and dino fanatics of all ages.
