LEGO Dino Research Compound 5987: Museum curators, take note
Written: Nov 28 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: DINOSAURS! Plus lots of other pieces, innovative but re-usable
Cons: Only one girl, and she's cooking in the directions.
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| kmennie's Full Review: LEGO - Dino Research Compound |
When I saw that Lego dinosaurs were in the offing for the 2000 line-up, I, like any other rational adult, immediately realised my Lego Museum of Natural History is going to be useless if it does not have dinosaurs. So far it has a marginally impressive display – fancy I.M. Pei-ish architecture crossed with strange insects mounted behind Lego magnifying glasses, that sort of thing – but no dinosaurs. Sort of like that weird, boring, small-town museum your parents always made everyone stop at. No dinosaurs = bad. Dinosaurs (and my sole objection to Lego’s rendering of same is that of size, but real scale would prove unwieldy, and the T. Rex already does a good job of eating Lego people) are simply the ne plus ultra of the natural history world. At some absurdly early age it was very carefully explained to me that we were off to see…dinosaurs. Ottawa’s museum at the time had a rather spooky winding stairwell leading to the dinosaur exhibit, and at some point I clung to the banister and refused to budge. Eventually it was cajoled out of me that nobody, in their graphic descriptions of dinosaurs, had bothered to mention the word "cages," which seemed like a pretty critical thing at that point in the junket. ("Dead" had somehow not even entered the discussion.)
I offer the rambling introduction for a reason: the Lego ‘Adventurers’ with dinosaurs had, I thought, better be at least as fear-inspiring for the Lego nabobs (I mean adventurers) as they were for me when I wouldn’t let go of the banister. Lego has done an excellent job here: the ‘Dino Research Compound’ comes with a formidable T. Rex (movable arms, e-z crush jaw that retains Lego people quite nicely), its eerily cute offspring, one of those unexciting ones (a stegosaurus), and a half-creepy, half-cute pterodactyl. Even between the plastic Legosaurs, the scale is way off. This is helpfully remedied by a single page in the back of the instruction booklet, which has some illustrations of the dinosaurs, standing next to a man. It does not, of course, admit that dinosaurs did not live in the time of The Man Who Stands Next To Objects To Demonstrate Their Size so as not to cast suspicion on the yellow Lego folk’s place in history.
The cast is interesting, albeit unfortunately predictable for the Adventurers line: one solitary female, who is, as if to tick me off just that much more, tending to the fire and a bloody saucepan, and inexplicably holding a jewel, rather than squinting at wildlife like her pith-hatted colleague. There is one other ‘nice’ guy, undoubtedly having – for those of you who have watched dinosaur movies on television – an affair with the aforementioned girl character. (Mister Pith Helmet will gallantly accept an invitation to be their best man at the end of the film.) These three are going about all sorts of nonsense, dealing with spiders, snakes, scorpions, even untoward-looking plant life, from rather interesting living quarters. A fourth ‘good guy,’ who seems to show up in every ‘Adventurers’ set, hovers around unexcitedly – again, having seen the movie, it’s easy to pick him out as the guy who built everything and now and then just looks at the sky, somewhat confused.
Honestly, I loved putting this thing together. It’s a large set, and these ones are frequently sold in separate bags so you may assemble the car separately, and then the plane, etc, but this is old-style pieces (612 total) more or less loose in a box. (Hint: if you are looking for a specialized part, don’t. Look for a generic idea: "I need a 4x4 red brick." All the 4x4 red bricks will stand out, and you can quickly weed out the one peculiar one.) The main house goes together in three sections. It’s pleasant to assemble, since you can see that the end result will be worth it when you’re not even a quarter of the way there. It’s also extremely sturdy, which has been a real problem in some recent Lego designs. Ground floor is for cooking, fire pits, snakes and spiders and the bridge to a sort of more elaborate research facility; it is also where you should probably tie up the boat and park the car. The second leads to some living quarters but two booby traps as well; a net can be released, and a trap door…untrapped. We like. The third floor is enough to make me burn down the kmennie household and re-construct it in a forest along these lines; it has some scientific oddments, a desk with a postcard and mug of coffee, and, above, a remarkably functional retractable communications satellite.
All that – plus the net-dropping plane carrying the two bad guys – took quite a while to put together. If you are only going to pick up one set this season, make this the one: it should provide the household with several hours of peace while the Lego-minded go about making a habitable environment for dinosaurs, bugs, instruments of scientific inquiry, a boat, bridge, car, and spots for trysts between the sole female and the good-looking assistant (though I am struggling to keep this a ‘G’-rated review – never mind about that last part).
The genuinely satisfying part is that this is a set you will want to keep together, rather than immediately demolish to build something more satisfying. Actual play potential abounds! The integrity of it all means that it will stay together for longer than a day, too. Wholeheartedly endorsed.
kmennie’s suggestions for the Dino Research Compound set:
* Lego girl caught in compromising position with bad guy from the plane
* Bad guys from plane caught in compromising position
* T. Rex chews up ugly, fat man (yes, they discovered how to make Lego people fat in this set)
* Lego girl pitches contents of saucepan at Mister Pith Helmet with suggestion that a person dressed like a scientist should at least know how to boil things
* T. Rex discovered eating its young; rescue achieved through use of numerous chains, nets, guns if necessary
* Pterodactyl cripples bad guys’ plane; bad guys forced to row out of jungle in stolen boat (scorpion or snake follows)
* Mister Pith Helmet goes mad when he realises that he is missing one dinosaur, which is only available in the other, $30-$50 sets. He smashes up a great deal of scientific equipment before he can be restrained.
When you finally do take this thing apart, it is, thankfully, stuffed to the brim with pieces that can be pleasantly used elsewhere in other dioramas. The dinosaurs are going to be shuffled off to the museum post-haste, but the rest – several thick green building boards, brown and beige bits, enormous sloping roof tiles – simply beg for a re-organisation.
Finally, those of you balking at the shelf price should note that this is far and away the best play-value-per-dollar. Lego is notoriously indestructible, but with the possible exceptions of the strings and nettings, the set should make it to your heirs quite intact. They will, of course, immediately slap "VINTAGE! Rare 2000 Lego Dinosaurs!" up on eBay, but at least you can skive off paying some tuition money…
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
kmennie
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Member: K.M. Mennie
Location: Five cities in one year! Ha!
Reviews written: 380
Trusted by: 405 members
About Me:
Hopeless case: thorough knowledge of Victorian Domestic Science, Comparative Literature, Lego...and even worse stuff.
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