While not as impressive per piece as the "Shark Exploration Play Set", this dinosaur themed set is still a great bargain for the $14.97 price point.
This set contains:
1) A massive, articulated (hinge jaw, swivel shoulders/hips) Tyrannasaurus Rex action figure with electronic lights and sounds (wound on left flank activates the electronics).
2) A small, two man jeep-like vehicle with rotating wheels and two swiveling weapons.
3) A small one man helicopter, unfortunately the wonky way too short tail boom ruins the design. The rotor spins, the searchlight swivels and there is a hinged arm on the left side that can swing out away from the body.
4) Two articulated (swivel necks/shoulders/hips) Dinosaur Hunter action figures.
5) An Accessory tree containing survival equipment (light, lantern, cameras, water bottle, tablet and walking stick).
6) A parts tree of baby dinosaurs (T-Rex, Triceratops, Parasauralophus and Stegosaurus) and a 2-part hollow egg to put one inside to simulate its hatching.
7) Two, fairly large foliage diorama pieces. Sadly, these are very flat and barely three dimensional and have hollow backs.
Everything in this set save for the giant T-Rex and the plants have been released previously in various Toys R Us "Animal Planet" branded boxed sets.
The large T-Rex is a bit of an unusual piece as it appears to be a scaled up version of a smaller toy. The details are a bit softer than they should be due to this scaling up but it is still a very servicable, nicely sized toy dinosaur. The paint apps on the teeth are not great as the teeth are only painted on the exterior surfaces leaving the inside surfaces unpainted. The remaining paint apps are quite clean and crisp. The T-Rex is also unusually light, barely heavier than the small helicopter.
The vehicles in this set area mixed bag. The jeep-like one is a really nice small rugged terrain vehicle. It carries one figure in the single seater interior and a second figure can stand in the rear bed and man the grenade launcher located above the roll cage. The tiny one man helicopter's design is ruined by having a tail boom that is only about a quarter of the length it should be.
The figures are more or less standard Chap Mei fare. There are 2 odd bits about them though: the skin of their legs between the bottom of their shorts and the top of their boots has been left unpainted and both figures share the same leg sculpts where in the past both figures had unique leg sculpts.
The Accessory tree this set comes with is my favorite one that Chap Mei has produced and I am very glad to see it being included in more sets instead of the previously used one with lackluster accessories.
The Baby Dinosaur/Egg tree was only available once previously in a large and expensive set that I never purchased so it is nice to finally have one in my collection.
The plant diorama accessories are a disappointment as I was really looking forward to them since so few diorama elements are included in any 1/18 scale toy lines. They are barely dimensional and have hollow reverse sides. They can still be useful in the very rear of any dioramas I decide to use them in.
If you want a really nicely sized T-Rex for a very good price, grab this set!
