Manufacturer: Scientific Explorer
Okay, so as cheesy as the name Super Gigantic Dinos sounds, this is actually a pretty fun and inexpensive toy. As far as science kits go, this isn’t one of the most valuable learning toys, but there are some principles that will interest most kids. Mainly adsorption. It’s simply an ultra-compact sponge-like dinosaur that expands by 100 times in a few minutes.
Put it in a sink, or a bathtub, or better yet, put in a clear 2-liter bottle and watch them fill it up. One thing I didn’t try that might be interesting would be to put more than one in the same bottle and watch how they mesh together. But the good thing is that you can let them dry back out and shrink to their original size. I might try putting several together next time…
Overall: recommended, as it’s fairly inexpensive (around $12 in early 2008).
I haven’t tried this myself but it looks like those standard sponge-like creatures compressed into a tiny pill that when put in water simply absorbs. Is there anything more to it than that?