As a kid, I always loved seeing the balsa wood dinosaur skeletons in the toy store. I dreamed of having all of them, and when I finally saved up enough allowance to buy my first, I was so excited. I opened up my triceratops and started putting pieces together and about 10 pieces in–snap–I broke one. Some glue and tape allowed me to get the thing built, but my infatuation with them was destroyed, and I never got another one.
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Fast forward 30 years, and 32 Square just launched their third Kickstarter for their newest version of Boneyard Pets 3D dinosaur puzzles. They sent me two prototypes of their latest designs–a pterodactyl and a velociraptor. All the new kits in this Kickstarter are made from Komatex PVC to bring added flexibility, color, and a more accessible price point. All Boneyard Pets are cut in 32 Square’s Brooklyn fabrication shop.
There will be nine different dinosaurs available as part of the Kickstarter so a total of 54 possible kits! There are a couple hundred Early Bird rewards that are a steal, and there are volume discounts for the more kits you want to back. Even better, because this is their third Kickstarter, and they have all of the tools and plans ready to go, they expect to have all rewards shipped by August.
My two-year-old was almost as excited as I was when I took the package out of the box. The sheet of CNC cut Komatex is in a clear bag along with an instruction sheet and a small piece of sandpaper. The front of the package has the name of the dinosaur, and the available colors (six in total) listed. The back of the package gives a bunch of details about the specific dinosaur like diet, size, when and where it lived, along with its scientific classification.
I quickly punched all of the pieces out of the sheet. Most of the CNC “fuzz” came off with a really light sweep of the included sandpaper. I had to put a little elbow grease in on a couple of the tabs where they were attached to the sheet, but I was able to get all the pieces cleaned up in just a few minutes. Obviously, sanding anything will make a small mess, so be prepared.
The instructions are pretty straight forward. Every slot is numbered and you just slide the two slots with the same number together. After just a couple of minutes, we had a fully built pterodactyl. As a bonus, the finished 3D dinosaur ended up bigger than I expected.
Remembering back to my own childhood, I decided to test out the durability of the pieces. As you can see, they have a lot of flexibility and are not prone to breaking.
Confident in its seeming indestructibility, I handed the pterodactyl to my son. He proceeded to fly it around the house and then set it down and the floor and studied it intently. I will admit that having him in his pterodactyl pajamas for this unboxing was intentional.
If you were, or still are, a fan of dinosaurs and those old school 3D dinosaur puzzles, I highly recommend you checkout Boneyard Pets. The Kickstarter is a great way to get a deal on the newest line. You can also check out their existing line on their website, on Amazon, or on Etsy. They have dinosaurs available in many sizes and materials including laminated Baltic Birch ,neon acrylic, and two-toned HDPE plastic.
