Natural History Museum "Dino Dig" sets

[domesticsluttery]

Has anyone's DC had one of these?

Am thinking of getting one for DS2 for Christmas. He is 6 and obsessed with archeology (he spend most weekends in the local museum archeology department and chose to go to a reconstructed iron age fort as a "special treat" at half term).

Does anyone know if they are any good?

not really

it's best to 'dig' outside as the 'rock' is terribly dusty and makes a lot of mess, and the tools are crapola IIRC

the dino inside is very fragile and breaks easily

not recommended

sorry

I love that DS is enraptured by archaeology

[heart]

That's OK, I would rather know that it is rubbish now than buy it and discover that it is rubbish on Christmas Day!

Does anyone else have an opinion on it? Or an idea for something else that would be better?

It did keep mine busy for an afternoon, but there was masses of dust and as Brown said dino inside was not well made.

The fun is definetly digging hte dinosaur out, the actual dinosaur is a bit wobbly and I think one of hte legs of DD's wouldn't fit on. But I'd recommend it, we had great fun digging it out - very satisfying. We put it in an unused cat litter tray to contain the mess.

Saying that it was DD's fault the leg didn't fit on well, she didn't finish digging it out completely. Had most of it out and then pulled it out before it was ready and twisted it.

I like the sound of keeping him busy! I don't mind too much about the mess as he could do it in the garden (he digs up bits of the garden at times pretending to be on a dig anyway). But it would be nice to be able to keep the dinosaur, which doesn't sound likely if it was badly made.

Oooh, one recommendation, just as I'd almost written it off as an idea...

I think DD does still have the dinosaur, we just had to glue the leg on. But its still on her desk a year later, it glows in the dark!

My brother had one about 10y ago and LOVED IT!

I think they're brilliant!!

Put on a tray with edges to contain dust....tools might be shit though! We used clay modelling toys and a paintbrush

Recommend them!

My boys have had this and variations on it. They enjoy the digging it out, if you want something to keep at the end of it there is a similar one form national geographic where you dig for gems and then have a little display thing to put them on at the end.

I think he would enjoy the digging out (and the mess). He would probably actually be less bothered than I am about having something to keep at the end.

Still undecided!