LEGO Dinosaurs (Dino-thon: Part One) The Brick Archive

Dinosaurs! Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is coming out soon, and to celebrate, I'll be digging up themes that revolved around LEGO Dinosaurs. We begin with the oldest dinosaurs. (Excluding the Dino Island Adventurers sub-theme and other sets.) The prehistoric reptiles got their first devoted theme in 2001, which was aptly named Dinosaurs. Funnily enough, these sets were released around the same time as Jurassic Park III. These dinosaurs fit a system of building that determined the design of large LEGO animals for several years.

There were four larger sets that came in plastic boxes, which also served as display stands for the completed model. Each of these larger sets was rebuild-able into new models. So for instance, your T-rex could become a Spinosaurus. The fours sets were BrachiosaurusTyrannosaurus-RexMosasaurus and Styracosaurus; and they all sold for around ten U.S. Dollars in their day.

The Brachiosaurus is an interesting set. All of the builds in this set haven't gotten an update, even though they have appeared with new designs in the LEGO Jurassic World video game. The Diplodicus model is missing the back spikes, but it's okay for 2001.






The Tyrannosaurus rex set is pretty cool. The design is very colorful, but it's understandable for a children's toy. I think the Parosaurolophus is a bit odd looking. I do think the Spinosaurus is pretty cool, and the Ouranosaurus looks okay. 


The Styracosaurus is pretty cool. I'm a little confused as to why they chose that dinosaur rather than the more popular Triceratops as the main build. I like this one the best. The three Ceratopsidae in this set look pretty great, but I still prefer the LEGO Dino Triceratops from 2012. 


The Mosasaurus is another interesting set. I think that the head is much too large for any of the models it is in, and the tail on the Mosasaur is too small. It is interesting that LEGO used a modified body to create the head rather than making a new head mold. The Iguanadon is probably the best looking rebuild. 



LEGO also released four smaller set with this wave. Each of them retailed for three dollars. They were all baby dinosaurs that didn't have a rebuild. They came in both boxes and polybags. These are all pretty cute. The models are pretty good for their time, but I think there could have been a way to angle the heads at a more reasonable angle to their body. It would be interesting to see LEGO tackle this again with the new Mixels style of joints. 


Anyways, that's all I have for now, thanks for reading! 

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