MOVE OVER, JOHNNY SWITCHBLADE: ADVENTURE PUNK: Is there a child in your life whom you loathe? If so, I'd like to recommend to you the worst toy in the entire world, KidzLabs' Dig-a-Dino Dinosaur Skeleton Excavation Kit. The concept is simple: use the tools provided to excavate dinosaur skeleton parts, then assemble them. Or, more accurately and without exaggeration, use a plastic knife and a nylon-tipped paint brush to turn a block of plaster with all the characteristics of solid rock into a gallon of asthma-exacerbating powder, then sift through for the fingernail-sized pieces necessary to assemble a rickety and ill-fitting model. In our house, it took two full hours of constant scraping for two adults to get all the dinosaur bones excavated. By the end, the digging tool was filed down to almost nothing. And I ended up with an arm so sore that I had to cut short my time in the gym the following day.
The package cautions, accurately and misleadingly, that the toy is "not for children under 3." It should have replaced "under 3" with "or adults." Because of the clever combination of sharp implement (the excavating tool) and heavy bludgeon (the plaster encasing the skeleton), I think the toy's highest and best use is as prison contraband.
my son and daughter received two of these as gifts and i could not agree with you more!! they are horrific -- unbelievably messy, difficult, and ultimately unsatisfying. we suffered through my son's and now my daughter wants to do hers. argghhh!
ReplyDeleteMy mom got something like this (not sure if it's the same brand) for her friend's grandson. Apparently the kid loved it but the mom was less than thrilled with all of the vacuuming that resulted. No word on the difficulty level -- now I'm curious about the brand. Perhaps there's a more kid-and-adult-friendly dinosaur excavation kit on the market.
ReplyDeletethrowingthings.blogspot.com; You saved my day again.
ReplyDeleteIt was certainly interesting for me to read this article. Thanks for it. I like such topics and everything that is connected to them. I would like to read more soon.
ReplyDeleteBest regards
Guess I'm thankful our kids only got the trifecta of: Bag o'nails, bag o'glass, bag o'sulfuric acid.
ReplyDeleteThere is a children's museum in the area that has a side yard where kids can use some "implements of destruction" to seek out dino "bones" where they have quite a bit of fun.
Will definately avoid the nasty thingy you have.
There's one of those pits at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia -- kids get s chisel and a pair of goggles, and find something for ten minutes at which point they get bored and move on.
ReplyDeleteThere's a pit like that at Disneyworld, too (it was part of a big dinosaur/sand playground, if I remember right). So much better to have it there than to take it home.
ReplyDeleteI have seen this toy for sale many times and avoided buying it, even for my friends' dinosaur-minded, scientific children.
I have a vision of the new ALOTT5MA webisode series: Spacepeople Test Kid Toys So You Don't Have To.
ReplyDeleteJust take them to Crater of Diamonds State Park and let them get out their aggression that way.
ReplyDeleteThank you - I will make sure to avoid this.
ReplyDeleteI can, however, highly recommend this "Mind Blowing Science" kit. We have gotten many hours of enjoyment out of it, the science is accurate, the experiments are easy to do for a non-scientists with cool results, and so far, easy clean up. It's mostly acid-base chemistry - basic indicators, reactions and the like, but well put together. We like it so much that when we were given a second identical kit as a gift, we kept it so as to have refills on the chemicals (and more plastic test tubes!).
And yes, there's a volcano experiment.
When I was little my parents wouldn't let my brother or me have any toys that made noise. But this sounds so much worse...
ReplyDeleteOn a completely unrelated note, Isaac, have you heard the new Frightened Rabbit CD yet? I preordered it today and got a link to stream it. It's kind of ridiculously awesome.