That dinosaur is sweet.

Honestly, between this and the uhh... "raptors" in 1370, Lego sure went though some strange phases before they finally got dinosaurs right...

I do absolutely love that vehicle though.

Yeah, I didn't really get this range, so I passed on most of them. I bought this set, but it's one of the very few that I ended up selling on, years later. It did take Lego a while to get dinosaurs right, and whatever these animals were meant to be, my younger self really chafed at calling them 'dinosaurs'.

At least by the dinosaur island line in 2012 (which basically looked like Jurassic Park with the serial numbers scrubbed off), they'd started to get dinosaurs right.

Nice set, I didn't know this theme. The off-road buggy looks good - but strange simulated steering wheel :)

So Dino 2010 came out in 2005? How forward thinking of them! The buggy is cool, except for that steering rod connecting to air, and the extra front bumpers on the sides. The dinosaur? is pretty cool I guess, it is the meanest looking salamander I've ever seen!

Wow, a set I actually have

What Lego got right with this series of dinosaurs was SIZE.

As an American kid when this set (and the Dino 2010 series) came out, I found a picture online and could not figure out why I had never seen it in stores. Every time my parents went shopping, I'd look everywhere for this line of lego. It wasn't until awhile later that I realized that Dino Attack was the American version while Dino 2010 was European (or was it everywhere BUT America?).

Really enjoyed the Dino Attack series though. I ended up with every set except the helicopter, unfortunately. My friends and I had endless fun with these, though!

Dino Attack was a great theme. I don't know why LEGO made Dino 2010 as Dino Attack isn't even that violent, but whatever. The dinosaurs were... interesting but what I love about the theme is the minifigure design (very SWAT team) and the colors. The red and tan is beautiful and wish LEGO would use it more instead of just one primary color.

@Nick: Arguably LEGO still hasn't gotten dinosaurs right. Of course, it's tricky to do when a lot of the popular perception of dinosaurs no longer jibes with the current science.

@LegoSolo77: That's nothing, Ice Planet 2002 came out in 1993!

@David1985: I've heard German parents tend to be rather sensitive to depictions of violent or military subject matter in sets. While the Dino Attack sets were relatively fantastical, they had a sort of modern military/paramilitary/SWAT team aesthetic that, say, Vikings did not.

Dino 2010 always seems kind of odd to me. The heavy weaponry in Dino Attack was a big part of what made it unique and distinctive, IMO, and a lot of the traps and cages that took its place in Dino 2010 didn't seem as creatively designed. But the grappling hooks in this set do at least add to the play value.

The dinosaurs, of course, are rather absurd designs. Dino Attack explained this as them being genetically-engineered mutant dinosaurs; but I don't know if Dino 2010 with its more naturalistic setting did the same.

I think I might be in a small minority in really liking the dinosaur in this set. I have two of them: one in my display collection being ridden by an evil knight and one in my reserve collection. Admittedly, the dino's underside is garish in yellow but overall, this beast does feel LEGO-y, unlike many more recent dinosaurs.

I always oggled over these sets as a kid. Don't have much interest in them now that we've got all the new JW Dinos but they're still interesting mutants.

I always oggled over these sets as a kid. Don't have much interest in them now that we've got all the new JW Dinos but they're still interesting mutants.

@David1985 It isn't about violence, it is about how militaristic and weapon centered all the sets of Dino Attack are.
Most German parents and probably many form other countries that aren't the USA don't like to see their kids play with such things. Lego would have risk their reputation as a quality toy company if they selled Dino Attack in Europe.
As a kid I really liked the Dino 2010 sets, but they clearly suffered from being cheaply converted Dino Attack sets.
The Dinos wheren't that good, but within the context of the mutant monsters they are in Dino Attack it is understandable. The last dino-designs still aren't that good in my eyes. They are partly absolutley oversized, have weird proportions or suffer from being new heads put on existing bodies.