Schleich "Dinosaurs" Giant Skull Trap Review:
As everyone knows, I am a huge fan of Schleich's offerings. They are one of the only toy manufacturers still producing playsets. Their playsets are expensive but worth every penny. I recently saw the Giant Skull Trap was reduced to $9.91 on Amazon so I jumped on it!
The playset includes the titular giant skull trap, an articulated Velociraptor, a Bearded Dragon and a Compsognathus.
The giant skull trap itself is an enormous Carnotaurus skull that opens and closes via a ratcheted hinge on either side of the jaw. I don't know why, but I was under the impression that the jaw was supposed to snap shut on whatever dinosaur was unlucky enough to enter the skull but the hinge has to be manually operated. While this is not a big deal to me as I do not play with my toys, I can see a child being disappointed in having to open and close it themselves. Aside from lacking an action feature, the skull is actually really nice. The sculpting is great and the assembly is very ingenious with a mixture of hard plastic and softer vinyl pieces almost seamlessly married together. The softer vinyl is used on the entirety of the lower jaw and the front of the upper jaw and teeth to prevent little fingers from getting injured opening and closing the jaw. The remainder of the upper skull and the grassy base are hard plastic. There are no paint apps on the skull or base but they are not really needed to function as a great toy. As a collector, I would have liked at least a black wash to bring out the details of the sculpt but I can certainly do that myself.
The included figures are a bit of a mixed bag. The newly sculpted Velociraptor has a great texture to its skin and has 3 points of articulation- hinged jaw and swivel shoulders. The sculpt overall is really nice except for one glaring error- the feet do not have their distinctive sickle clawed toes! That is basically a sin when it comes to making velociraptor toys, Hasbro screwed up the same exact way in their "Jurassic World" line! The Compsognathus is a redeco of a mold that Schleich has released several times in the last few years. It is not an overly great rendition of the species, but the deco on this version is the nicest one that they have ever released. The Bearded Dragon has been released at least a few times before in their "Wild Life" line but this is the first one I have ever owned. The sculpt is pretty accurate to the real creature, although several times the scale.
I have to say that this was a great purchase for the price! The giant skull alone is worth more than the price I paid so the additional figurines are pretty good bonuses.
