Jurassic Week continues here at True North Bricks with a look at the all new Brachiosaurus Discovery (76960) set! When the LEGO® Group announced the Jurassic Park 30th anniversary sets back in March, this set caught my interest first. It has a new dinosaur. Sets with new dino figurines always shoot to the top of my wish list. Then there’s also the Jurassic Park Jeep. My expectations were pretty high before getting this set. Let’s see if it delivered…
NOTE: The LEGO® Group provided this set for review. However, the provision of products does not guarantee a favorable review. True North Bricks’ usual rating system applies (click here for more information).
Brachiosaurus Discovery Set Info
- SET #: 76960
- THEME: Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary (Jurassic World)
- COST: $99.99 CAD ($79.99 USD)
- BRICK COUNT: 512
- MINIFIGURES: 3 (Alan Grant, Ellie Satler & John Hammond)
- DINOSAURS: 1 brachiosaurus
- RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2023
Quick Review of Brachiosaurus Discovery
- VALUE: 63% (Passable cost/brick, but not a lot of build time for the price.)
- BUILD: 90% (Amazing Jeep design, okay tree design.)
- MINIFIGURES: 80% (Characters selection is great, but minifigs need more detail.)
- ENTERTAINMENT: 100% (Great set with lots of Easter eggs and nostalgia.)
- OVERALL SCORE: 83% (Good set even at full price.)
| What I liked | What I didn’t like as much |
|---|---|
| The Jeep is amazing. The Brachiosaurus is a new LEGO® species. Great nostalgia and movie tie-ins. | The price of the set is a little high. The articulation on the Brachiosaurus is so-so. Minifigures need a bit more detail/accessories. |
Full Review of Brachiosaurus Discovery (76960)
VALUE: 63%
This set costs $99.99 in Canada and includes 512 bricks. Consequently, you get a cost/brick of $0.20. Interestingly, that is now around average for a Jurassic World set. The high cost/brick on most of these 30th anniversary sets has actually pulled up the average for the theme by about one cent. It used to be around $0.18/brick, now it is about $0.19/brick. You pay $0.20/brick at full price for Brachiosaurus Discovery, which is close to average, but still on the expensive side. Compared to all the LEGO® sets I’ve reviewed over the years, it is just plain pricey. In general, I average around $0.14/brick. As such, I rate the cost/brick at 68%.
Brachiosaurus Discovery does not fare much better in terms of build time. I got 67 minutes. The resulting cost/minute of build time is $1.49. For the Jurassic theme, that is passable, but certainly not a lot of build time for your buck. However, compared to LEGO® sets in general, that is a terrible amount of build time for the price. I rate the build time value at 57%. Of course, Jurassic World sets tend to be expensive, probably due to the large, exclusive parts (dinosaurs) and licensing fees (in this case, Jurassic Park and Jeep). It is rare to get a great value Jurassic World set. Overall, I rate the value for Brachiosaurus Discovery at 63%.
BUILD: 90%
This set includes two nice builds. Firstly, you get an open-top Jeep. The car is similar in design to Dilophosaurus Ambush and the cars look good together. However, I like this one a teensy bit more. The frame work around the cab captures the Jeep look better than a brick-built facsimile of a ragtop. Another difference between this and the Dilophosaurus set is that this car is clean. The Dilophosaurus set was purposefully built to look muddy to fit the scene it represents. If you’re building a Jurassic Park, you probably need both variants. But personally, I like the clean version a teensy bit more.
My first issue with the Jeep is the same as with the car from Dilophosaurus Ambush. You can fit two Minifigures side-by-side, but not comfortably. They only fit if you raise each of their door-side arms up in the air. It doesn’t look bad, and the issue is quite minor. Secondly, the framework around the cab is not completely secure. I noticed that as I photographed, taking Minifigures in and out of the car. Every time you hinge the top open to move Minifigures, the modified plates holding the framework in place loosen a little. The hinge mechanism is a bit too stiff for that sort of attachment. Between 5-10 open or close motions caused the plates to detach. Both of these issue are very minor though, and do not detract much from my enjoyment of the build.
I love the Jeep build!
The second build in Brachiosaurus Discovery is a big tree. I like tree builds and learning new techniques for them. However, when I saw the initial images for this set, I was not super impressed with this tree. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either. In person, I like it a little more, but it is still not my favorite tree design. It attempts to capture three different scenes from Jurassic Park. Obviously, it can represent the tree from the first Brachiosaurus scene. However, a cracked egg at the base also hints at the discovery that the dinosaurs can breed. Finally, the tree features a platform to playout the nighttime scene when Grant, Lex, and Tim overnight in the park.
As far as the overnight scene goes, I don’t think this tree captures the movie very well. It is not viney or climbable enough. It works well enough in the other two instances though. However, the transition from trunk to branches is not particularly smooth. Additionally, the platform is just that, a platform. It does not blend into the tree structure. As a standalone design, I would not want to feature this front and center. However, it works as part of a forest scene with other trees around to draw attention. The Brachiosaurus pen sign is amazing through.
While I may have harped on the tree a little, it is still a decent tree design. Even if you don’t like it as such, you gain a lot of great parts to design your own tree with. Additionally, the Jeep is awesome. I enjoyed this build quite a lot, but I am biased towards Jurassic Park. I rate the build at 90%.
MINIFIGURES: 80%
Brachiosaurus Discovery includes three Minifigures: Dr. Alan Grant, Dr. Ellie Satler, and John Hammond. This marks the second time we’ve seen the latter. Previously, Hammond only came in the T. rex Rampage set. Hammond and Grant are both new prints. Meanwhile, Satler is an amalgamation of the minifigs from Velociraptor Escape and Triceratops Research. All of the minifigs have front and back torso printing, but only Ellie has a double-sided face. Her alternate expression is classic though, and goes great with the set. Ellie also has leg printing, but it doesn’t go all the way around her legs, making it look incomplete.
Interestingly, other than a frog, the set doesn’t include any non-buildable accessories. Similar to T. rex Rampage, Grant comes with a tooth element representing his raptor claw, while Hammond has a buildable cane. I like these characters, but I wish they all had leg printing. On top of that, Ellie’s leg printing needs to go all around her legs like in T. rex Rampage. Additionally, a few more accessories, or an additional Minifigure Jeep driver (like in the movie) would help. I also think Grant needs an extra hairpiece. He was without a hat for most of the scenes represented by this set. I rate the designs at 76%.
Brachiosaurus Discovery (76950) includes the first LEGO® Brachiosaurus figurine.
On top of three minifigs, you get the first ever LEGO® Brachiosaurus. I am very excited about this figurine. Could it have better execution? Sure. Action figures have come a long way since my childhood, and many companies are much better at concealing points of articulation than the LEGO® Group. Additionally, the legs do not move at all. Do these issues bother me a lot? No, but they do register. With that said, I plan to buy multiples of this set in order to get a small herd of Brachiosaurs. I am enamored enough with the figurine to do that. In any case, four characters in a set this size gives 128 bricks/fig. That’s close to average for the Jurassic theme, and actually pretty good when compared to LEGO® sets in general. I rate that at 84%. Averaging this with the design score gives an overall Minifigure grade of 80%.
ENTERTAINMENT: 100%
Despite misgivings I may have with price and minifig detailing, I love this set. Why? Because you get an amazing Jeep and a Brachiosaurus. If you are building your own LEGO® Jurassic Park, you need more than one of each of those things. In the movie, the park has multiple Jeeps. Additionally, the Brachiosaurus is a herd animal. So, this set is great for collectors in that sense. Both the build and figurine are awesome. If you wait for a sale or double VIP points, you can even offset the high cost/brick a little. The LEGO® Group often re-releases dinosaur figurines with new colors. I look forward to other Brachiosaurs, but will they come with as cool a build? Builds are hit and miss with the Jurassic theme. Of course, I’ll buy it anyway for the color variant… but two or three of these blueish Brachiosaurs is not a bad thing.
I also love this set because it actually ties into the movie. It recreates more than one scene on top of that. With many Jurassic World LEGO® sets, you get builds that have nothing to do with the source material. In fact, faithful recreations of movie moments are surprisingly rare for a theme based on films. Just look at the vehicle based sets… how many of those actually appeared in the movies? Yes, many set resemble movie moments, but this new wave of 30th Anniversary sets really goes the extra mile. They have great Easter eggs, lots of nostalgia, and great characters for Jurassic Park fans. Those are all the staples that make sets successful for AFOLs.
OVERALL SCORE: 83%
Overall, Brachiosaurus Discovery (76960) is a good set, even at full price. It’s expensive for what you get compared to LEGO® in general. However, it has just the right amount of nostalgia, great characters, and an awesome build to make Jurassic Park fans happy. For AFOL fans of the franchise, I think the LEGO® Group hit the mark with this set as well as Dilophosaurus Ambush and Triceratops Research. The LEGO® Group sent me this set for free, but I intend to buy at least one more in order to get another Jeep and Brachiosaurus for my collection. What do you think of Brachiosaurus Discovery? Let me know in the comments below or reach out on social media.
Until next time,
-Tom
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