Set #10879 Gentle Giants Petting Zoo: Jurassic World has made me become a completionist. Or in other words, this AFOL is aiming to collect everything released from LEGO featuring the franchise, which includes a pair of DUPLO sets.

DUPLO as a Theme is designed for young builders, ages 2-5. Young builders learn how to connect things together and experience what LEGO has to offer. Being somewhat different I will not be discussing too much detail on things as I usually do.

Box/Instructions

Box: This packaging is very well designed. It’s very colourful and shows off the complete parts list on the bottom panel. The imagery on the front shows you want you can build as the main model while the back shows you the alternative model that can be built. A very nice design and quite eye catching for young builders.

Instructions: These are where I’m wondering a little bit. LEGO Instructions have detailed step-by-step builds. DUPLO apparently has a few pages with some images and expect the builders to be inspired enough by the picture to make the model. On the one hand it sounds good, but on the other some folks who struggle at a young age with visual creativity may find themselves not enjoying this as well as others.

Parts

DUPLO pieces are larger for younger hands. You find a lot of nice large bricks, a tree, a bridge, baby dinosaur molds and a DUPLO version of Gray from Jurassic World. Use the parts to build whatever you like.

Minifigures

Gray: As I noted this is a DUPLO figure, not a Minifigure. A large figure that stands fairly well, he can hold the camera piece and has some nice printing on his torso for his shirt. For what it is he’s pretty solid.

Baby Triceratops: This fun little dinosaur is a solid piece with great detailing and great fun for the target audience. Overall a very nice sculpt.

Baby Brachiosaurus/Diplodocus: This animal has a colour scheme which reminds me of a Giraffe, it’s a bright yellow with some brown markings on its back. Another solid little sculpted piece for the kids to enjoy and play with.

What you can Build:

For a DUPLO set you have a fairly decent model to create. The main model is a fenced in complex with a large tree and a swinging bridge for the dinosaurs to stand on and play with.

The secondary model which the packaging shows you can create is a treacherous rope bridge over a small river. Either model is enjoyable and can inspire hours of fun creative play.

Overall opinion

As an AFOL I purchased this on sale at the LEGO Store and built it to display. I can see that this set would definitely be fun for very young builders. DUPLO is something I haven’t touched since I was a young builder, and I think they were knock off bricks, not officially LEGO/DUPLO products. But that being said, there are definitely some great things to see and do with this set for the target audience.

The price I’m not too thrilled with. 25$ CND seems a tad high. As I haven’t purchased DUPLO before this I can’t be 100% sure if this is typical of pricing for such sets. It could be a perfect price compared to other products in the range. Either way though I was a bit off-put at the asking price for a set with so few pieces, granted DUPLO is larger than LEGO.

I would recommend the set, but strongly suggest being a bit frugal and getting it on sale for a better deal than the MSRP.