"Dinosaur skeleton "puzzles" at Dollar Tree" Topic

Made a neat find today: The Dollar Tree in Frederick, Md., was selling glow-in-the-dark dinosaur skeleton puzzles. They're not puzzles in the truest sense, rather being snap-together models, but they are a good fit for 28mm.

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What makes these really nice is because they come in pieces, they are especially suited for half-buried fossils. The upper skulls are split down the middle, meaning the pieces will lie flat. The lower jaw is a separate piece, and the tails are relatively flat. One drawback is there is a lot of plastic between the ribs, but that can probably be cut away.

There are three types of dinosaur: Stegosaurus, Triceratops, and T.rex (although its skull looks more like Allosaurus.) They're not as nice of quality as other fossil replicas out there, but, com'on, they're only $1 USD each.

I'm planning to paint them and use them for some upcoming "Bone Wars" scenarios in the Old West. (Also will use them for my 1920s Gobi expedition.) I'll warn you now not every Dollar Tree carries them: I haven't seen them in stores closer to home. But if you can find them, you have a whole bunch of potential fossils for a few bucks. (Or maybe dragon bones, if you're playing fantasy.)

Hmm, those would be nice decor for chibi dungeon crawl caverns…..

They had some two packs of dinosaur skeletons not too long ago that were perfect to be used with pulp gaming. I picked up at least three packs so I could have some spares to use for a 'big' dig' terrain pieces.

David G.
gamerarchitect.blogspot.com

Oops. I meant to say Rockville, Md.

You can always game the Dresden Files.

Has anyone tried the ship 'puzzles' at craft stores, particularly Michaels?

Doug

Painted up the stegosaurus today. I'm actually pretty happy with the results.

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I painted the base black, did a heavy drybrush with sandstone after that, then another heavy drybrush of raw umber. I think next time I'll tone down the raw umber a bit, but I'm still satisfied with what I ended up with. Didn't use a primer: I typically don't paint plastics, so it seemed a little silly buying plastic primer for these dollar store toys. I'll just be careful handling them.

Yes, some still have pegs and holes for the pegs, but I wanted to do this quickly. Plus, these are going to be half-buried fossils, so the pegs won't show. I included an unpainted tail so you can see before-and-after. There is actually a decent amount of detail in terms of etchings in the bones that comes out once you apply a layer of paint.

This is turning out to be a fun little project.

Cool find! I will hafta see if my $Tree has them.

@TheBeast – I've done the junk and the dragon boat and they turned out fine. One big thing is to take minis and test fit them before you glue. Some of the clearances are tight for 28mm, so you might want to trim the pieces a bit, depending on who you want to go in there. I also have made a support out of cardboard and removed the tabs from the pilot houses. That way they stay on, but can be lifed off.

@ethoheipi – Thanks! I'm probably thinking of using for flying ships in 15mm, but the group does 28mm, definitely a consideration.

@DoubleW Sorry for the thread highjack.

*blush* I thought you meant wooden puzzles; also, missed the first part of how useful the separate parts might be for fossil terrain. Awesome indeed!

Doug

@TheBeast: No worries. Always on the hunt for ideas.

What ships?

Google 'creatology puzzles', though I've never seen one for more that $6 USD-7 at Michaels… *woof*

Doug