Geoworld "Ice Age Excavation Kit" - Glyptodon Review:
In the past, these excavation kits have contained rather lackluster, undetailed figuines that needed to be dug out of their rock prisons and assembled. The majority of modern excavation kits have much more detailed figurines that sometimes have articulation as well (although the older style of crappy figurines can still be found so be wary of "no name" or discount brand sets). The 2 models I picked up recently, thankfully fall into the better quality range.
To the best of my knowledge, I have never had an excavation kit before. I do not recall them being available when I was a kid so this purchase was a first for me. Inside of the box you will find a plastic tray containing the "rock" shrinkwrapped in plastic, another baggie containing the excavation tools (chisel, hammer and brush), an instruction booklet (which also shows the other models available), other paperwork and finally a baggie containing the largest parts of the model- the shell on the animal's back- since it is too big to fit in the "rock".
I know that the "rock" is essentially compressed sand so it is pretty easy to free the model trapped within. With the Glyptodon, I decided to science the skeleton out of the rock using hot water in a plastic tub to "melt" the sand off of the plastic parts. This technique worked out beautifully as the rock more or less disintegrated leaving the pieces easily retrievable. There was still some clean up needed as the sand was still inside any holes or deep creases in the parts so I had to put them under running hot water to further clean them. Some stubborn bits of sand inside the holes had to be manually scraped out with a precision screwdriver. There was a downside to this process though as it left a faint blue tint on the light grey bones. This is not really an issue for me as I will be painting the bones more realistically anyway but I wanted to make everyone aware of the staining effect.
The Glyptodon assembles rather easily but there are some issues like with any polystyrene model kit. Some pieces required clean up around the edges and on the points where they were removed from their molding sprue. The pieces fit together without too much trouble with the exception of the skull and parts of the large shell. The posts/holes in the skull halves were very tight and I had to use alot of strength to get them to come together completely. Attaching the jaw to the skull was difficult as well due to the tight fit. Some pieces of the 4 part shell do not come together cleanly despite trimming the edges. I am not sure if it is just on mine or if it is a problem with the entire production run, but there are visible gaps that need to be puttied.
The Glyptodon model is a really good size. Since it comes in pieces, it ends up being far larger when assembled than the box would suggest. It features some articulation as well- a ball jointed head, hinged jaw and swivel front legs. I don't think you could get a better deal for the $7.99 price.
