Digging Up the Fun without Breaking the Bank

Hello everyone!

I was totally obsessed with those archaeological dig kits when I was a kid. You know, the ones where you get to excavate a dinosaur or some other cool thing? I remember having this huge pirate-themed set with a board game, and you had to dig out a treasure chest and game pieces from this massive block. If I stumbled upon one of those sets now, I'd be totally stoked. And guess what? I was browsing through the toy section at Detsky Mir, and I saw this archaeological dig kit on the shelf. It was in the creativity and experimentation section, not the usual spot I'd look for toys. The price was pretty sweet, too - it was on sale for around 500 rubles, down from 699. I mean, I had to grab it.

Where I bought it: Detsky Mir (you can also find it on Ozon or Wildberries)

Price: regular price 699 rubles

Brand: Re-агенты

The packaging looks super stylish and eye-catching.

On the back, you've got the ingredients, instructions, and some cool pics of the dinosaurs you might dig up.

Ingredients: purified water, gypsum, sand, talc, pigment, plastic, wood

Instructions:

Use the trowel to dig out your dinosaurTo make the process easier, you can soak the block under running water for 30 secondsWash the dinosaur parts and assemble itCollect the whole set

You can get one of five dinosaurs: a carnivore, a stegosaurus, a triceratops, or one of the two marine ones (or is it a crocodile?)

You can't even guess which dinosaur you'll get!

That's both a pro and a con: the surprise factor and the possibility of getting duplicates (if you buy multiple sets)

Inside the packaging, you'll find the block itself, wrapped in plastic, and two wooden sticks that look like orange sticks for nail art.

I have to admit, we didn't follow the instructions to the letter. Instead of soaking the block under water, we decided to do the excavation dry. It's not that hard to figure it out, but it's a bit of a pain (maybe we should've followed the instructions and soaked the block in water). The material crumbles easily.

But here's the thing: the set only comes with two wooden sticks, and they're not exactly sturdy. One of them broke on me mid-excision And to make matters worse, the pointed end of the stick is super sharp and digs into your palm. By the end of the excavation, it looked like this:

But the first details started to show up just a few minutes into the excavation.

It turns out that a lot of the parts are really tightly packed together. For example, the legs were right next to the tail, so I had to be extra careful when pulling them out

By the time I got to the leg, I had a pretty good idea of what kind of prehistoric creature I was dealing with.

But getting this carnivore together was no easy feat. The material in the block was really stubborn, and I had to use my trusty old toothpick and sewing needles to get it out.

The parts connect to each other really loosely, and the tail kept falling out and hanging by a thread

The dinosaur is way overpriced. The problem lies in its wonky legs. I managed to set it up by leaning it against its tail and propping up its feet with some wooden block scraps.

Even with that setup, the whole thing feels pretty flimsy. I'm not sure how other models fare, but maybe the stability is better since they're designed to stand on four legs.

Overall, for the price, you get a decent set. I mean, I'd have liked to be able to at least display the excavated model, if not actually play with it. In theory, it's possible to do both, but the execution would be lacking.

I'd still recommend buying, especially if you're more into the process than the quality of the figure itself.

If you're a dinosaur fan like me, you might want to check out my review of the soft dinosaur plushie: the adorable Bambi without any flaws?