My wife got this set for me for Christmas and I was giddy.  I used to get Lego sets and Jurassic Park toys every year for Christmas so this was an amazing throwback for me.  I was surprised by the durability of the vehicle once it was built.  The chicken leg was a little cheesy for me, but that's the great thing about Legos; you don't HAVE to include anything you don't like.  The extra computer station is a nice touch, though I did eventually combine it with another Dino set to extend a tower.

I received this LEGO set for Christmas, and although I didn't have much initial interest in the Dino line, this set's unexpected charm made me a fan.

When you open the box, the first thing you'll build is a small outpost of sorts. It is very basic, and I think of it as a parts pack. It includes a nice printed slope, some foliage and four spikes. Additionally, there's a crate of some useful accessories. Beyond that, the function of the outpost is not terribly clear, but I think it does a good job of rounding out the set into a more complete package.

After that, you'll start building the jeep using the nice numbered bag method that LEGO's adapted in recent years. The jeep is the meat of the set, and I think it's fantastic. The construction is extremely solid, and the finished project feels like an able-bodied vehicle that could easily capture some predatory lizards. There aren't any parts that fall off during play, and the model feels nice and complete. If you need some yellow parts in your collection, this would be a great parts pack - the jeep includes a healthy number of slopes, tiles, planks, cheese slopes, and the like. It does have a crane of sorts attached to the back end of the vehicle. The crane seems to work well enough, and it seems to be intended to capture dinosaurs lured towards the cunningly placed turkey leg. I have trouble believing that this device could actually be used to restrain a raptor, but a little imagination goes a long way. It does include a pair of flick-fire missiles, which seem to be standard-issue these days. I find it annoying, especially because the jeep is already equipped with a crane and a tranquilizer gun intended to peacefully capture the dinos. What are they flick-firing at them?

This is a minor drawback, however. The jeep has outstanding playability. It has some decent detailing on both the front and the back end of the model. Large wheels make it seem capable of navigating treacherous jungle terrain. There are some stickers, however. Not too many, but they're placed on important parts of the model that seem pretty bare without them. The back end has a yellow plate that is intended to be a license plate - but you wouldn't know it without the sticker. I imagine this could be an issue for those of you who don't like to apply stickers, which would make the back plate seem pretty useless.

One of the best parts of this set - making it my favorite of the entire Dino line - is the minifig lineup. You only get two minifigures, and one of them appears in pretty much every other set. But the other one is an exclusive, and in my opinion, one of the coolest minifigs of the line. He genuinely looks like a safari veteran, including back printing and an awesome fedora. Definitely a great fig.

Of course, the set also includes one of the brand-new LEGO dinosaurs. This particular set seems to include a raptor. Each part of the raptor is packaged in an individual bag - it seems that LEGO is taking great care in packaging these toys. The raptor is great, and is pleasingly articulated in all the right ways. The best part is that the raptor actually feels like a LEGO piece, and not a juniorized plastic hunk that the Dino Attack sets suffered from.

Overall, you get a lot of love for your $30. I don't own any of the other Dino sets (yet), but if they're all as satisfying as this set, I may very well pick them all up.

I highly recommend this set!

Review:

This set includes a really cool Raptor Dinosaur which is six pieces.The Raptor comes in a separate bag. 1/6 pieces of the Raptor is in Bag 1. There are 2 bags and 1 manual. There's a SUPER mini-station with a computer (printed), a box/container with a green syringe, crowbar, and binoculars. There is a satellite dish-like thing stuck in a plant and another plant to the side to make it look like a jungle/forest. There are two minifigures, one is plain and one has plenty of details. The plain one is a basic brown Dino hunter with a double-sided face and a scar on his cheek. The other guy is about 50ish. He has a tan cowboy hat, orange facial hair, lots of gear on the torso and legs, and a rifle with a green syringe. The ATVish car is very tall with BIG wheels. The vehicle can fit both figs.(One drives, one controls the crane.) The crane has a rope and a chicken leg to attract the Raptor. The crane can rotate. There are 5 stickers included in this set. 10/10

Since there's no review of this set yet, and as I did receive this set for christmas (to be precise, got trampled on at the sherway lego store to buy it on Boxing Day) and was satisfied with it at its price of $39.99. It seems necessary to review this one. Alright, time to break this thing down. The format will be similar to the Tower Takedown set.

This set includes two minifigures, various accessories, 1 dinosaur, and barricade/outpost of sorts, and a dino-wrangler jeep used to tranquilize and capture the dinosaurs. The color scheme is a very nice yellow and dark red, which reminds me a lot of Dino Attack where a lot of dark red was used. It gives it a nice jurassic park feel to it.

The minifigures:

• The set has 2 minifigures in it, both with double-sided torsos, 1 new face, and only 1 of the minifigures has leg printing
• The new face isn't double-sided, but the other mini-figure does have a double-sided face: one side happy, one side scared.
• The headgear is an Indiana Jones hat in a tan color and a pilot helmet (no goggles)

Accessories/Equipment:

• The tranquilizer gun, (dark grey rifle, with clip on it for attachment of green syrettes or a scope) is included
• 2 syrettes are included for attachment, but mine gave 3. Although it's a new piece, there's a bit of a problem between syrette to gun ratio.
• Various tools are included: A black wrench, a black hatchet, and a red crowbar (my first)
• A turkey drumstick is also included for the use of baiting the dino. You can never have too much of those.
• Though they aren't really accessories, i'll mention them anyway. There's a bit of plant pieces in this set for the barricade, and plants are always nice.

The Dinosaur (finally, am i right?)

• Lego's new molding of the raptor is much better than the one from the dino attack (dino 2010) sets. Realistic, but cartoony, just like we all know Lego to be.
• It's unique to this set due its color scheme of olive green with a green stripe pattern. The pattern looks nice on it. Seems like it would blend into the overgrowth easily
• It has studs on its back to place things on it (Dinoriders anyone?)
• Its hands and legs are all attached with technic pins, so you can move them up and down to a degree and use them in MOCs. The hands can also hold rods, as can the raptor toe claws (i love Lego for putting those on them)
• The head is attached with a black technic pin, and can rotate 360 degrees
• The jaw on the raptor also opens and closes. It also locks into position when opened or closed. It isn't loose
• The tail is attached to the body, but is made of rubbery plastic (like the Coelophysis) for limited mobility, but I think that's ok.
• Also, there is separate bagging for the dino in this set, to ensure the parts don't get scratched

Now for the barricade and the vehicle:

Barricade

• It's not really that necessary to this set, but it does add some nice accessories and playability to the set
• I like the fence pieces with the spikes on it, the plants and the small console pieces Lego included, but I still don't like the choice of satellite dish design
• It's a decent place of the minifigures to hide their equipment, and hide from the raptor, but i think i'd rather stay in the jeep

The Jeep:

• The jeep has a nice build, very symmetrical and it has that jurassic park feeling to it, always nice. The frame may seem large and weird in the beginning, but trust me. It'll make sense once it is built.
• It has some nice large tire pieces, storage clips on the sides for tools, and a nice driver's seat
• There's even grill pieces on the sides to make a sort of ladder to climb into the jeep
• The lights in the back are the new 1X1 round flat pieces in trans-red which are always very nice
• There's actually a lot of trans-parts in this set, including trans-orange 1x2 - 2 stud bar pieces
• There is use of stickers here, but they fit the design very well, though it would've been nicer to see a printed licence plate, or controls for the lasso
• Unfortunately, there is nothing under the hood. If you get this set, you should put 2 engine pieces under the hood, as the hood piece can be removed and placed back with ease
• The bait and lasso device can be rotated 360 degrees, and the lasso can be moved up and down. The bait and lasso function actually works very well, and if that isn't your style, you can do what I've done and substitute it with a homemade blaster
• The bait device, can even rest atop the windshield which was a good decision on Lego's part

In conclusion, this set doesn't have too many problems, and has a lot of outstanding points. It delivers everything the box shows you, so no surprises are in store (unless you receive an extra syrette). It's an easy build, and is a must have for Lego fans. Even if you are just getting it for the green raptor. It has good parts, plenty of accessories, and lots of possibilities. It has stickers, but they fit the design, so I wouldn't complain too much. The price should be cheaper to at least $34.99, but Lego's just trying to make us pay for the new dino and that's understandable. This is just my opinion though. Go buy this set, and see for yourself. Tis the season.

Thanks for reading, and Happy Holidays -SB7538

I really love this set, the truck is comically oversized, but still a nice build. The raptor is a nicely posable figure, and looks nice next to the figures. The terrain looks good and well scaled next to the truck. This set is a brilliant starter to the dino theme, and a great gift to any dino loving child!