DC's Favorite Dinosaur toys?

[bnme]

My almost 4yo is really into dinosaurs. Right now he has mostly dollar store type figurines and a few nice, detailed ones that are hand-me-downs. I haven't really found any other types, though I see kids with 'nicer' ones all the time.

I have seen the Animal Planet sets and FP's Imaginext sets. Any reviews? Any other recommendations? I would love something that comes with some sort of playset or playmat.


TIA

[LBW]

We have (and love) Schleich & Holztiger dinos. Papo (I think!) dinos have also been recommended here!

[new_mommy25]

We have the Animal Planet set. It was about $20. DS really likes it. It comes with a plastic playmat, 2 volcanos, a bunch of rocks, trees, and a large assortment of dinosaurs. I also like that it comes in a plastic box for easy clean up. Not 'nice' like Hotziger or anything but does the trick for my DS.

The Imaginext sets look very cool.

[brittone2]

Holztigers are my fav :)

We also have a set that was less expensive...not as nice, but wooden. I'm trying to think who made it...drawing a blank in my pregnant state. They also made a wooden Noah's ark, an Egyptian set, etc. and they come in a big wooden box. I'm not sure they are made anymore anyway.

I just saw a cool set in a catalog that was kinda similar though. Again, I'm no help (maybe I should go back to bed LOL) but it was a catalog like Constructive Playthings or One Step Ahead. I can't find it on either site though. It had 4 dinos, a volcano or two, and maybe a little playmat or something? It was pretty reasonably priced too.

I'll come back and edit if I find it later or can think of where I saw it. I'm not doing too well memory wise apparently today ;)

[LBW]

You're probably thinking of Woodland Fantasies. Those sets are GREAT, but you'd be lucky to find a new one floating around! I think the BBB mamas snatched all the remaining sets a couple of years ago.

[brittone2]

That's it. We have the Woodland Fantasies set (bought on a swap board or ebay, no box) and the Holztigers work w/ the scale of that one too.

The set I saw in the catalog recently seemed similar to the Woodland Fantasies set but smaller...no box, and I want to say the dinos were rubberwood or a similar lighter weight wood (as compared to Holztigers).

Thanks for reading my mind and remembering what sets I was talking about LOL.

[redhookmom]

My son and I have different favorites! Mine are the nice German wooden ones that are collecting dust on his shelf. LOL His favorite are some rather big rubber dinosaurs from Toys R Us.

[elaineandmichaelsmommy]

saw some last night at target.kool toys brand. about a dozen dino's for 10 bucks w/ a storage bag,some plastic plants and maybe a play mat i'm not sure. good luck


jen

[stefani]

Check it out at Constructive Playthings:

http://www.constplay.com/family/default.htm

Search for "dinosaurs". There are some wooden ones and a "museum" set.

HTH.

[kboyle]

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2333540
http://trus.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pTRU1-2905988reg.jpg

we have this animal planet set and got it for charlie's 2nd xmas, he was 18 mos...it still gets played with daily by both boys!!! my 8 year old neice still plays with all her animal planet sets, mostly in the tub, but like the boys, she plays with her sets daily too, and she's an 8 year old girl :)

i'm serious when i say this, with these dinos he learned to count, his colors, how to line things up horizontally, vertically, these are our do-it-all toy. the one thing about this set is that the teradactyl's head pops off with in the first 10 minutes of play. we didn't even get ours out of the plastic mold before the head popped off, my neice played with hers for about a day and the head popped off, but to charlie it's no big deal, that guy is just headless and in 2 years, he hasn't even noticed, or at least cared enough to ask where the head is.

it was about $16 and we got it at TRU, i saw it at ours in the summer when i went around charlie's bday, i'm assuming they would still have it at some stores. actually it's $19.99 on TRU site.

we also have an animal planet bucket of smaller dinos that didn't get played with as much, it came with a thin plastic mat and a bunch of trees & rocks, probably same as pp, but the dinos seemed soooo much more dinky and cheap compared to the bigger, heavy duty dinos we have.

oh, and i LOVE this set because it didn't seem menacing like the scleich or other higher priced dinos...more preschool friendly.

i forgot, we also have the playmobil dino transporter set that came with a a med sized dino and a baby dino in an egg that charlie like too:
http://www.zeebop.com/store/detail_dino_transporter_playmobil_play_set.html
http://www.zeebop.com/seltrack_images/prod31910_medium-01.jpg

i do like the look of the holztiger animals, but they sure are pricey!!

[kboyle]

oooh, i do like that wooden dino set...it's really cute :)

[amp]

We have this same set from TRU. It gets played with, although not as often as I anticipated. But I do think it's a perfectly nice set and I don't regret buying it at all!

[bnme]

We ended up with similar set, but not the Animal Planet. For some reason I can't find them at my TRU. I am also going to pick up some additionl dinosaurs/dino themed things at a local toy store. When we took DS to see Santa at the mall he told him he wanted "DINOSAURS", he shouted it and roared at him :).

Love the wood set shown below