July 29th, 2010 by Stinkhead
Learning Curve, the makers of Thomas the Tank Engine’s wooden railway toys have captured the characters from Jim Henson’s Dinosaur Train and produced some great interactive toys. Check out this video of them in action, and then read my review below.
The figures are pretty sturdy and the interactive features are pretty robust. They talk to each other, and recognize what they’re doing (like if Buddy is stomping, Morris will say “Wow, Buddy stomps loud!”) without having to really line them up perfect. Every now and they don’t quite “click” but my almost three year old had a very easy time getting them to interact.
You can play with them independently; tickle his nose and Buddy will sniff and sneeze, put your finger in his mouth and he makes chomping noises and talks about how much he loves meat. (I love that subversive “toy-eating-children” joke). Bang him on a hard surface and he makes stomping noises, and of course, press the button on his belly for various sayings. But the real fun begins when you get another figure (we have Morris, the Stegosaurus) and they start interacting with each other.
My only complaint is that Buddy was left on over night and completely ate up his battery. So be sure to turn these off when your child is done. Note, they do come with batteries so you can test out the interactivity at the store (nice touch!) but they go fast. And, yes, you can play with these individually, but you’ll probably want more than one to really get all the play value out of these toys.
My son took to these toys immediately because he loves the Dinosaur Train television show. We, his parents, like it too because it’s fairly educational, and they focus on friendly dinosaurs, not the scary ones. We also like the bit from the Paleontologist and the live action kids at the end.
These two were provided for me to review, but we’ve already picked up a few more from Toys R Us for his upcoming birthday party.
They do make several scales of Dinosaur Train figures, including squeezable plush characters and smaller plastic figures with attachable train cars, but my question is, where are the Thomas the Tank Engine Wooden Railway -scale cars that can ride on my existing Thomas track?
These are a lot of fun, the interactivity is pretty advanced for anything I’ve seen, and you can even try it out in the store before you bring them home.
Check out all the Dinosaur Train toys available at Toys R Us, and check out these additional videos from Learning Curve
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Posted in 3&up, Boys, gadgets, Girls, kids, podcast, review, toddler, toys, video | Comments Off on Podcast + Review: Dinosaur Train!
