Wednesday, 22 March 2017

Grrrr-eat fun with Schleich Dinosaurs (review)


You might remember me showing you a few weeks ago how much imaginative fun Pierre was having with some Schleich Wildlife figures. He was intrigued by the realistic detail, especially some of the anatomical features (!), and spent ages making up stories involving the various animals.


He was therefore delighted to receive some more Schleich models to add to his collection, this time from the Schleich Dinosaurs range. Generations of kids of both sexes have been fascinated by dinosaurs and although books and websites are the obvious first place for learning about them, involving hands-on playing is often a great educational booster. (I won't bore you with the psychobabble but the brain stores information better if you're using your hands and movement at the same time.)

The box contains the Feathered Raptors set which has an RRP of £13.99 and features Utahraptor, Velociraptor and Microraptor. I have to admit, I'm no expect in dinosaurs so, while I'd vaguely heard of velociraptor, I was not even aware of the names of the other two. I've done my homework though, with a little help from Schleich ! Dinosaur researchers found quills on the arms of a Velociraptor and flight feathers on Microraptor and they believe that Utahraptor had feathers too. However, none of the three was actually able to fly. Microraptor weighed at most one kilogram, Utahraptor around 5 kilograms. And there was me thinking all dinosaurs were big !


Most of them were though, to be fair, and at least I'd heard of the next Jurassic reptile and even knew a fair bit about it.


Tyrannosaurus Rex is called the King of the Dinosaurs and carries the Latin name rex, which means king. It is famous for its short arms, which were much more powerful than we would imagine. It could use them to lift as much as 200 kilograms. It was also one of the biggest land-based carnivores of all time. This T-Rex Mini has an RRP of £2.99.

The final figure was another Utahraptor, this time a Mini with an RRP of £2.99.

They are all highly detailed and scientifically realistic, so turning them around to look at them from all angles is a great way of learning more about them and spotting features that you may have skimmed over in books or online.


They are all also absolutely perfect for adding to the fabulous Schleich Giant Volcano that Pierre helped me review last year.


This huge playset (with an RRP of £99.99) already included a stegosaurus and a T-Rex but now, they have some new friends to play with or enemies to fight with, depending on which particular story Pierre has decided to act out this time. I absolutely love toys like this that are powered by a child's imagination rather than batteries.

See the full collection at www.schleich-s.co.uk

Disclosure : We received the products in order to write an honest review.

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