My wife and I were astounded at the cheap quality of these parts. You can tell from the package that the Time Tunnel and Pteranodon nest are folded paper, so that wasn't a surprise (part of the nest stand was crumpled in the box, and we have since thrown both pieces out). The track seems to be durable, but the pieces never seem to line up just right. In addition to the cheap quality of the materials, the set has some noteworthy design flaws. The first car (locomotive) has four axles, making it too long to negotiate the curves on the track without rubbing on the sides. This causes the train to derail pretty frequently. After removing the rear wheels, it worked fine.
Another design flaw: each train car has little pegs on the floor to secure the dinosaurs, who each have one foot with a hole in the bottom. However, because Laura Giganotosaurus is so long, all three dinosaurs cannot ride the train at the same time (not on the pegs, anyway). And, because the footholes are smaller than the pegs, It can be a little frustrating trying to get the dinosaurs on the pegs.
The best parts about this set is the characters themselves. They appear to be unbreakable, and my daughter likes them much more than the train. In hindsight, we should have bought a couple of the three-packs of the characters and let them ride on our Fisher Price Geotrax set, which is more durable and better designed.
If you find this at a rummage sale for $5, I say go for it -- although I'd be surprised if you found a used set that wasn't broken or missing parts. However, I do not at all recommend this for any price over $5, certainly not the $30 or so that we paid for it.
Buy Dinosaur Train: Motorized Adventure Track Set
from amazon.
