Building a big dino... with laser eyes!

In less then a month, we will be treated with the new Jurassic World movie, and Lego has released some very nice sets to go with the film, and will be supporting it into the Dimensions as well.

But for the past decade, there have been Lego dinosaurs around, and today I`m taking a big step down memory lane with this build report.

Set 7297, Dino Track Transport, is 10 years old this year, having been released back in 2005.  Now, compared to the previous line, the dino`s came in less `natural` colours, as we have a black and green T-Rex in this set.

But she is a big girl, and she has the playfeature that if you push a button, her eyes light up red.  Ideal for a MOC with laser eye shooting monsters... and the reason I bought this over a year ago, when I could have it sealed in box for a measly 28 euro.

The set also includes three brave minifigures tasked with transporting the monster.

The vehicle itself is pretty long, and it`s chassis is based on a lot of technic bricks and connectors to give it strength and to elongate it.

Upon this, we use grey bricks to add more strength and height to the machine.

It soon becomes clear where the command and control part of the truck is, as we place the steering wheel on top the deckplates.

The rugged front is made by using a large sloped rooftile, while we add more bars and connectors to build the tracks on later.

Large red slopes line out the cabin, and large wheels are placed on the sides to `guide` the treaded motion system.

Together with flexitubes, the rubber tracks are then added, as you can see, this is not a small machine at all!

The second part of the build composes of the cage to transport the T-Rex in.

A similar design of this is later used in the newer dino sets, remember the Triceratops convoy I posted a few weeks ago, by using angled Technic elements with Technic bars in between to make the railings.

Once both sides have been erected, the front and back connections are tackled.  These are pretty basic crossbars, and the beast can be placed on the cage.

As we add some wheels to the cage, it`s connected to the main vehicle and the set stands ready:

And as always, it includes some extra parts (I didn`t use the stickers on this set, as it would be taken apart again after completion and the elements sorted into my boxes for future moc`cing).

All in all, the dinosaur itself is pretty cool and I definitly have plans with her for the future, but the set itself imho is outshone by the later Dino series (the ones with the yellow bordered boxes).  I can`t really compare (yet) with the new Jurassic World series, as I only have one set yet of them and no time at all at the moment to actually build it, so I`ll have to get back on that in the future.

But I`m glad I only payed what I did for it, as paying the current sealed price for it as it comes on BrickLink, I think my tummy would hurt like a T-rex with indigestion of eating half an entertainment park!