Boys and their dinosaurs eh? Actually, I should say boys and girls and their dinosaurs. My son and his best female friend are both obsessed. And for his birthday, my son only wanted one thing. A Spinosaurus.

You may be finding yourself in the same position as we begin the slow approach to the run up to Christmas. Hopefully this review will give you some help.

The Spinosaurus is my son's, hands down, favourite dinosaur, even before his passion was further stoked by the BBC Dinosaur Planet series. Every week he took me into our local toy shop to gaze longingly at the Playmobil 4174 Spinosaurus with Dino Nest and two Spinosaurus babies. The cheapest I could find this online was at Charlies Direct, where it costs £21.99 plus postage. 

I've found in the past that Playmobil toys can be variable in build quality. The Red Dragon that comes with the Dragon Castle, for example, has wings that come off far too easily. Overall though, the quality of their toys is pretty high - and so it should be at these prices.

This set is no different. The Spinosaurus is solid, well built, and has withstood a lot of pounding. Not to mention being carried (and dragged) absolutely everywhere including every single trip to the Natural History Museum.

Along with the mum, you also get three dinosaur eggs, and two dinosaur babies. There are two scientists, who've somehow managed to travel back in time (or have cloned the dinosaurs, I'm not sure which) plus all their gear. And you also get a fair bit of landscape scenery too.

This is the only area where I've some negative things to say. The plants are really fiddly to put together, and rather taxed my brain far too early in the morning. The rocks and grass part simply do not stick together. Any nudge will separate the two, and if one is picked up then they quickly part company. Not satisfying for my son to play with, and he quickly gave up trying to use them as part of his games.

The Spinosaurus is the best part of this set though. The mouth is hinged, and opens. There's a fierce looking red tongue in there that's also hinged (a nice touch). The head moves up and down at the neck, and the arms and legs also move.

Unless you've got a child who is absolutely desperate for this set, I really don't think it is worth the money. You get far more in some of the other Playmobil sets, and a better design quality for the landscape parts too.

However my son wanted it more than anything, and fair dues, he's more than got his money's worth out of it. I can't complain!