Over the past year or so, numerous LEGO® Jurassic World fans have written to me about Dollarama dinos. These LEGO® compatible figurines cost only $1.50 CAD, making them an appealing substitute for expensive sets when fans only want the dinosaur figurines. Dollarama dinos are even more appealing when considering the secondary markets. The packaging for the toys showcases actual LEGO® designs for retired figurines. I have to admit, even I was intrigued. Given the number of people who’ve asked my opinion on the Dollarama offerings, I decided to give them a try. The packaging was promising… but did the toys deliver?

Let me begin by saying I already own all of these figurines in their authentic LEGO® form. I am a huge fan of LEGO® dinosaurs. Upon surfacing from my dark ages, I realized I’d missed out on the Dino theme. That upset me because I love dinosaurs and the figurines looked amazing. However, acquiring them after retirement was not in my budget at the time. The prices for the dinosaurs had soared since the sets vanished from store shelves. Enter Jurassic World a couple of years later. The Dino theme moulds were back and I jumped on the opportunity to collect all the dinosaurs. I continue to do so with each wave of LEGO® Jurassic sets. Despite the prices of the sets, and their often lack-lustre builds, I know each species of dinosaur will only get more expensive with time.

LEGO® dinosaurs only get more expensive, making cheap alternatives appealing.

In my early days of collecting dinosaurs, I tried out a few FLego (fake LEGO®) figurines. I ordered some raptors, a T. rex, and an Indominus rex from China. While the experiences were not horrible, the quality was certainly lower than that of the LEGO® versions. More recently, I purchased a FLego Spinosaurus from Aliexpress. The LEGO® Group never released that particular species, and I wanted one. It was pretty ugly, and I repainted it. It too was an okay toy, but also inferior in quality to LEGO®. On first glance, the Dollarama packaging resembles those early toys I ordered from China. All of them are blatant knockoffs of the first wave of LEGO® Jurassic World sets, right down to the packaging. Well, all of them except the triceratops, which is a blatant knockoff of the Dino theme version.

When you open the boxes, each dinosaur comes in a plastic bag. They are completely disassembled. And I mean completely. The triceratops, T. rex, and Indominus heads all came in pieces that you need to snap together. For the latter two, that is easy enough. However, the Triceratops head assembly process was not straightforward, and it’s not clearly shown anywhere on the box how to put it together. You can figure it out with minimal annoyance (I had to take mine apart once and restart). However, kids might find it challenging.

The Dollarama dinos use a type of pin not available in standard LEGO®.

The limbs of the dinosaurs do not attach in the same way as on an authentic LEGO® dinosaur. Instead, the moulds are modified to use a Technic-like pin that doesn’t actually exist in LEGO®. It is a 3/4 length with half a regular pin on one side and a quarter axle on the other. The quarter axle slots into a corresponding space on each limb. It is an interesting element… however, I doubt I will ever use it. Mixing most non-LEGO® elements with my real LEGO® makes me feel a bit icky inside, so I keep it all hidden away in a separate bin. I do make some exceptions… like for transparent baseplates, which I think are awesome.

I expected the contents of the Dollarama dino boxes to closely resemble the images on the packaging. Of course, I did not expect the T. rex or Indominus to be the same size as the LEGO® versions. However, I did expect them to be scaled down replicas. I was in for a pretty awful surprise. I bought all of the toys except the dilophosaurus (I didn’t much care for the lime green LEGO® version to begin with). Only the pteranodon resembled the image on the box. None of the others matched in terms of colour, parts, or even mobility. To say the packages represent false advertising is certainly not a stretch.

Only the pteranodon actually looks like the image on the box.

I opened the T. rex first. I used to think the Spinosaurus was ugly. She’s Miss Universe compared to this thing. It does not look anything like the image on the box. The limb colour doesn’t match the body, the jaw seems a little too small for the head, the eyes look off, and the teeth and claws are not painted. This thing is hideous and clearly not what Montoy advertises on the box. I’ve included an image of the Montoy version next to the LEGO® T. rex shown on the Montoy packaging. As I mentioned before, I did not expect the fake version to be the same size as the LEGO® toy given the size of the packaging. But I certainly thought it would look more similar. I really don’t like this figurine.

The Indominus rex is the same size as the T. rex. However, for obvious infringement reasons, the Dollarama packaging calls it the Mega rex. This toy does a better job with the printing than the T. rex. However, it also does not resemble the image on the box in terms of form. The body mould is identical to the T. rex. However, this figurine could pass as a baby Indominus rex if I felt inclined to include one in a future Jurassic Park build. I don’t hate this one, but the packaging is super misleading. It even shows all sorts of articulation and mobility that the real LEGO® dinosaur has, but that this Dollarama version does not.

Two of three raptors are not actually raptors…

Next up, I opened the raptors. I was kind of looking forward to these because my earlier experience with FLego raptors wasn’t awful, in fact, it was good. The plastic was cheaper quality, but the prints were virtually identical to the LEGO® versions. That is not the case with the Dollarama dinos. The print on these raptors is not the same as what they show on the box. Two of the three don’t even have raptor claws on their feet. That is a real shame since the images on the boxes show harder to find raptors from the first wave of LEGO® Jurassic World. Each of those figurines only appeared in one set. A brand new version of Echo costs over $100 on Bricklink. You are certainly not getting a decent replica of Echo here, but it is closer than Blue or Charlie.

The triceratops needs a paint job.

The triceratops was another dinosaur that intrigued me based on the box. The LEGO® Group has not produced a triceratops at this scale. I was hopeful this version could represent a juvenile dinosaur. Sadly, unless I repaint it, I will not be using this dinosaur in any displays. Dollarama advertises a scaled down version of the Dino theme triceratops with all the same mobility. However, that is not what you get. The body printing is not the same, but it’s okay. Sadly, they really messed up the head printing though. It’s ugly, plain and simple. Additionally, the triceratops’ head does not have a ball joint like the box advertises.

Final verdict on the Dollarama dinos: don’t bother.

The Dollarama LEGO® compatible dinosaurs come at an enticing price. They advertise retired LEGO® designs for $1.50 CAD. However, that is not at all what you get. None of the Dollarama dinos matched the box art. While some are more acceptable than others, I was disappointed with all of them. I did not expect LEGO® quality plastic, or even scale with the larger species. But I did expect them to look like images on their respective boxes. I do not recommend these products unless you are into repainting toys. I enjoyed repainting my Spinosaurus a while back, and I might repaint some of these in the future for fun. But as straight-out-of-the-box display items? You get what you pay for: cheap quality knockoffs and some major false advertising.

Buy the LEGO® versions, or shop elsewhere online if you missed out.

If you like LEGO® dinosaurs, budget so you can buy them when they are on store shelves. The sets are not always great, but I think they’re worth it for the dinosaurs. They do not go on sale often, but you can still be sure they will get discounted at some point in their run. As I write this, you can still get the Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary sets, and those were excellent (minus the Visitors Center). And, dinosaurs often soar in value after they retire, so don’t count on getting them easily later. For example, the Echo figurine I mentioned before is over $100 CAD new on Bricklink. The whole set originally cost $49.99 CAD. Another example is the original Indominus Rex. Now, a new one costs over $120 CAD on average. I bought the whole set it came in for that price on liquidation.

I think the Dollarama dinos are crap. They are not good for anything except hobby repainting. You can get slightly nicer Flego figurines from Aliexpress if you missed out on the original LEGO® versions. My suggestions is to go that route. What do you think? Let me know in the comments or reach out on social media.

Until next time,

-Tom

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