Predators 2 in 1 Review

Reviewed by Sandip

So we are a family of 4, with 2 of them being primary school children aged 6 and 9. We were given the opportunity to review the ‘I’m a genius science, Predator 2 in 1’ kit for kids. The kit is an excavation kit which consists of 2 digging blocks that are both big, chunky plaster blocks that contain the fossilised ‘bones’ of two of the most famous and well known dinosaurs, a velociraptor and a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The fossil bones are one on each block. The kit also contains a set of tools to help the archeological diggers to excavate the fossil bones. There is a hammer and chisel, and a double ended tool that has ends that can be used to scrap an carve out the plaster. There is also a big info sheet on various types of dinosaurs, so if your children are into dinosaurs, this is a great info sheet for them to read and keep.

I have 2 children and given that there are 2 blocks, it worked out perfectly to let them have a go of a block each. However, the kit is aimed at 7 to 12 year children and my son, who has just turned 6 years old a few weeks ago is just outside this age bracket. Despite this, he thoroughly enjoyed this kit and never put it down from the moment he opened the box!  There are no instructions in the kit but it is pretty obvious what the kid needed to do. They needed no explanations and got straight on with it. They grabbed a plaster block each and wanted to start straight away. I made them use the box lid and the bottom as their ‘excavation area’ so as to protect my wooden table top and that worked out really well, and as you’ll read later is a tip that I would recommend to all of you to do too.

Obviously with 2 of them doing the same kit at the same time, they had to share the excavation kit tools but this worked out totally fine as whilst one was using the hammer and chisel, the other one was using the scraping tool. My son, even though he enjoyed what he was doing, he needed a little help as he wasn’t dexterous enough to use the tools himself. My daughter who is 9, was totally fine and chipped away like a mini archaeologist!

Chipping and smashing away at plaster, makes A LOT of mess but mess is a sure sign that kids are having fun right? Yes! We had used the lid and the bottom as the kids work stations and they smashed the block in those. This kept a lot of the dust and debris in one place, not all of it but pretty much most of it. I would recommend doing this to all parents that buy this for their kids as this will protect your table, floors and clothes from mess and scratches.

Once the kids dug out and brushed off the ‘bones’ they tried to lay out the bones to figure out which order they fit in. They worked out the arrangement very quickly but struggled to push the pieces together. Assuming there were bits of debris in the joints, we washed the bones and tried again. I tried to connect the bits myself but I have to admit, it was very tricky to do this as the connections do not seem to be very well manufactured to fit together. This was a huge disappointment for them as they had spend a good hour each trying to get the bones out of the plaster. We still have 2 piles of unfinished dinosaurs sat on the side unmade. However, despite this, I think given the choice, they would do it all again. The fun bit for them, was the actual digging and smashing and discovering. They totally loved doing that.  If you are thinking of getting this for your dinosaur mad kids, then I would recommend this but downplay the making of the model aspect of this kit.

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RRP: £16.99 currently on sale at £13.59

This product can be purchased from the Toys and Bears website here.