Box for the Ravensburger Science "Prehistoric Expedition Kit," featuring dinosaur, fossil, and prehistoric insect illustrations. It advertises "15 Amazing Activities" and is suitable for ages 8 and over.

Ravensburger Science Maxi Prehistoric Expedition Kit

ByLouise

Callum is now at that age where he is incredibly hard to buy toys and presents for. However when we were sent the Ravensburger Science Maxi Prehistoric Expedition set he was both impressed and keen to get stuck in.

Box for the Ravensburger Science "Prehistoric Expedition Kit," featuring dinosaur, fossil, and prehistoric insect illustrations. It advertises "15 Amazing Activities" and is suitable for ages 8 and over.

The kit comes with everything you need to excavate a mini Stegosaurus Skeleton, breed your own triops, construct a giant dragonfly, build a Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton and create your own fossils plus lots more, so plenty of things to keep young scientists busy. 

The Ravensburger Prehistoric Expedition Kit includes plastic trays, packets, a magnifying glass, and illustrated instruction sheets with dragonfly and fossil drawings—all displayed on a kitchen worktop.A Prehistoric Expedition Kit on a countertop contains a bag of sand, a white rectangular plaster block, a magnifying glass, a red tool, and an instruction sheet in various languages—perfect for Science Maxi explorers by Ravensburger Science.

In the box you will find everything you need. There is:

  • 1 Ammonite
  • 1 Excavation Block and Excavation Tool 
  • 1 Thermometer and 1 Magnifying Glass 
  • Triops Eggs and Triops Food, Triops sand and a basin to keep them in
  • 1 Meganeura Model
  • 1 time line
  • 5 Plaster forms and Plaster Powder,
  • 1 T-Rex model 
  • Instructions booklet
The first thing Callum and I did was to look in the instruction booklet. Here we found all the information that we needed to complete the different activities. Some of the activities require extra materials such as glue but it does state this clearly before you start. Callum noticed the Ammonite straight away and asked what it was. He was surprised to hear that it lived millions and millions of years ago. To say he was fascinated was an understatement. He took the magnifying glass out and really did have a good look at the fossil. One of the things I used to love about living near the beach when we were younger was going fossil hunting. I have promised Callum a trip to the beach very soon now that the weather is getting nicer. We are hoping to find lots of fossils on our trip.

I love that the instruction booklet is full of interesting facts about prehistoric life. With each activity there is a paragraph explaining what / where / how the creature or animal lived and there is always a question asked so that your child can learn extra information.

Callum decided that the first activity he wanted to do was to make the T-Rex model. This was very easy for him to complete and took him about 10 minutes to press out and make the model.No extra materials were needed to complete this activity. All the pieces fitted well together and he was very happy with the end result.
A Ravensburger Prehistoric Expedition plastic dinosaur skeleton model stands on a shelf in front of two framed photos showing three young boys smiling and posing together.
The second activity Callum carried out was the excavation of some dinosaur bones. This is a bit of a messy task so do make sure you have a shoe box or tray to hand. Callum loved this activity as he had no idea what was inside the block. He found it relatively easy to chip away at the block and loved the Stegosaurus skeleton that he found. 
A hand holds a white plaster block from the Science Maxi Prehistoric Expedition Kit, with two small yellow objects partially uncovered inside, surrounded by loose white powder on an orange tray.A hand holds a chunk of white plaster from the Ravensburger Prehistoric Expedition Kit, partially uncovering a small orange dinosaur toy inside, with white powder scattered on an orange tray.
A child wearing a green shirt bends over an orange plate, using a utensil to eat or interact with food on the plate—like a mini scientist on a Science Maxi adventure. The scene is set on a kitchen worktop.A small plastic dinosaur skeleton toy is partially uncovered among white plaster debris, surrounded by broken chunks and a brush, just like a Science Maxi or Ravensburger Prehistoric Expedition Kit fossil excavation scene.

One of the activities included in the kit that we didn’t get a chance to try for ourselves was the hatch your own Triops activity. For this you need somewhere safe and flat as the tray provided to hatch and keep your Triops is quite big and we have nowhere with enough space for this (the joys of children and their never ending supply of toys / clothes on every available space) so this is an activity that Callum will be taking to Grandma’s house in the school holidays. We are also planning on sending the plaster and moulds to Grandmas too so she can help Callum make and paint the fossils. She loves all things crafty and is a dab hand at this. It also allows Callum some quality time with his Grandma.

The last activity that we did together was to make the giant dragonfly. This was pretty fiddly and Callum needed my help to glue the wings into place. Once we left it to dry for a while we were both pretty impressed with the results.

A large, decorative dragonfly with black and yellow patterns is displayed on a windowsill in front of sheer curtains, evoking the wonder of a Science Maxi Prehistoric Expedition, with trees and a garden visible outside the window.
The kit is priced around £29.99 but this depends on where you purchase it. It is aimed at children aged 8 years plus. The instructions do state that the kit can be used with children aged 5 and above so longs they have adult supervision. I agree that this really is a must and even though Callum is nearly 9 I still supervised everything that he was doing to make sure everything was done correctly.

Overall I was very impressed with this set. It is perfect to buy for a birthday present and will keep any young dinosaur or science fan busy for a few hours or over a few weeks. The activities are ideal to do when the weather isn’t so nice. 


*I did not receive a financial payment for writing this review. However, I was sent this  product for the purpose of this review, all thoughts and opinions expressed in this piece are my own*

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.