Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I was looking for something fun to do with the kiddies and remembered seeing this or something like it in a museum gift shop. Immediately found this one with Amazon search tools and bought it on the basis of the Smithsonian brand. I bought a competitor, too. The plaster is neutrally colored and despite some worries I found that it washed right off the concrete on my dad's porch. The kids of course loved the digging and especially the brushing away of dust from the bones, which is of course the part that makes even a grown adult feel more like Robert Bakker. In that connection, provided tools are as I recall a little paintbrush, a round wooden "chisel," and a very light wooden hammer. These are adequate to the task of excavation, but it will take a while. For younger children you may wish to consider using a cold chisel and a light "real" hammer despite the risk of damaging the "fossils," which latter are by the way made of a rather softish plastic. The skeleton is to my moderately practiced eyeballs basically anatomically correct (at least one competitor has the ilia reversed) and stands up reasonably well to moderate playtime use by juvenile hominids once assembled. The wee ones needed a little help assembling the skeleton, which is in about a dozen pieces. Recreational disarticulations can be addressed effectively with application of a small amount of plastic cement or similar. Overall, a great time and not too big a mess. Good I'd say for basically-normal kids from about 5 to about 15. As there is to my knowledge nobody in my immediate family who is basically normal, I'll note that it's probably good for nerds ranging from 3 to 30.