DINOMANIA REVIEW
By Robert Covarrubias

Since 1948 pre-historic toys like dinosaurs and cavemen have been entertaining children all over the world. Companies like Ajax Plastic Corp. and Timmee Toys produced these tiny plastic reptiles in shades of red, blue, green and yellow. They lacked detail and were sold in bagged sets of varying sizes. Sold mainly in grocery, drug and 5 & 10 stores or even in gumball machines, there is no doubt that these little critters were definitely marketed for kids. Today, it’s a different story; dinosaurs are not just for kids anymore. Collectors have thrown their hat into the ring and so have the toy companies targeting not just the kids but the adults as well. With films like Godzilla and Jurassic Park people from all over the world have grown to love and cherish dinosaurs.

DinoMania, Manufactured by Kaiyodo, Japans premiere model-maker has created hand-painted, collectable dinosaurs, early mammals, birds, and primitive sea life that are limited edition and anatomically correct. Series-One, which includes 24 DinoMania dinos, is roaring into the U.S. and they are hoping that American collectors get in on the collectable craze that swept Japan. Though you can’t tell which dino you will receive because of the “surprise” factor, each package does contains one ready-to-assemble, hand-painted dinosaur model, collector sticker with species information and assembly instructions, pull-out collector’s sheet and let’s not forget the candy. Retail on these varies, but you can expect to pay at least $5.99 on each one.

Ripping these little suckers out of the package, I found them quite amusing at first glance, and since you don’t know which one of the 24 you are getting it’s like hitting the lottery especially if you see a cool dino depicted on the package that you want. But as I started to put the pieces together it became fun, like working on a puzzle and I have to say I was pleased with the final product. It had a great look to it and I learned something about the creature.

Packaging – 3/5
Each dino is packed in a unique long triangular shaped box with great art work and pictures. You can also find Information on the product including pictures of the series 1 dinos. The box isn’t very strong and can easily be crushed and can’t be stacked on top of one another, if you are the “keep it in the box” type of collector, but it’s colorful and small enough to fit in your jacket pocket. The Limited edition stamp on the box definitely confirms that this is not a toy for a five year old.

Sculpt – 4/5
Great sculpting work with detail in the rib cage, folds of skin, eyes, mouth. The only flaw I see are the teeth, I would’ve liked to have seen teeth that would seem so real that you would be afraid to touch them, but then again these guys are so small that I would imagine all the hours it would’ve taken to sculpt those choppers. Did I forget to mention that they’re about 2” long?

Paint – 5/5
I think the paint job is great in fact my favorite one was the turtle that I got, it looks almost realistic. Very smooth and clean.

Articulation – 0/5
Unfortunately there is no articulation, consider them like statues in a museum. But that’s ok, it shouldn’t deter you from buying them, they’re not meant to be played with like action figures.

 

 

Accessories – 3/5
No accessories either, come on they’re dinosaurs! Some do come with some pretty neat stands.

Overall – 8/10
I found these little terrors of prehistoric time to be entertaining, fun to look at fun to build and informative. In fact, I think young kids 6 years old and over, because of the small parts that can be a choking hazard, should collect these because there is also an educational aspect to them and not many toys offer that today. My feeling is that once a kid and or parent see the educational value in them they won’t stop at one.

See more at http://www.dinomania.com/