LEGO Jurassic Park Dilophosaurus Ambush

This LEGO Jurassic Park set was release in the second half of 2023 so It’s probably a little late to do a review, right? Well I just got it built and took a few photos and I decided I want to waffle about it a little bit, that’s the fun of having your own website!

The original Jurassic Park Movie is the best movie in that franchise and still really the only truly great movie in the series (I do have some love for The Lost World though – don’t come at me!). That first movie came out when I was in my early teens so I have great nostalgia for it, so this set was fun for me to get my hands on. Let me tell you what I thought of it!

What’s in the Box?

In the box you will find 211 pieces that make a vehicle, a small side build, 1 Denis Nedry minifigure and a Dilophosaurus dinosaur.

Welcome to Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park has two iconic vehicles that LEGO seemed to hold off making for years then in the last couple of years they gave us a couple of versions of the green/yellow/red Ford Explorers (I had the ones that came with the awesome T.Rex Breakout Set. Now we also have the grey and red Jeep and the key components to recreate one of the best scenes from the film. Denis Nedry escaping with the company secrets and encountering a nice little dinosaur.

The set gives you the Jeep of course and a small terrain build that includes the east dock sign and broken direction sign, it can be spin on the Lego set just like it was in the film.

It also has a place for the “Barbasol” can holding the refrigerated Dinosaur DNA with a fun use of the white frog piece to act as a bit of foam coming out of the top. Aside from that the terrain build is pretty basic with a few leaves and the aforementioned sign.

The Vehicle itself is well done not just for the price point, it’s a good interpretation which I do not believe is officially licensed, that I think is worthy of display. Some parts are coloured in nougat to signify mud rather than the original colour which may put some people off but it works for this scene.

If you are buying this as an actual toy for a child then its great, it rolls well and doesn’t have many fiddly parts to break off. The roof lifts off easily and there is plenty of room for Nedry to sit inside, as well as space for another figure though you only get one in this set.

One figure makes sense for this set, I’m not sure who else they could have included, maybe Ray Arnold as Nedry’s work colleague, though he wasn’t in this scene of course.

Most of the detail on the car is of the stickered variety, there are not a lot of stickers and the ones you get are well done and easy enough to apply. I think they add important details too like the JP logo.

Hello Nice Boy

The set has just one minifigure and one dino but they are good ones. Nedry has some excellent face and torso printing, the inclusion of a hood on the back of the torso is especially nice. Both expressions are also very good, a slightly worried look and of course his splattered face after facing off against the dilophosaurus.

And what of the dinosaur itself? Its mainly one solid piece apart from the lower jaw (of which I got a spare in my set), which is a shame, it would have been nice if her arms could move or her head could turn at least.

Thankfully the jaw piece does articulate, it snaps closed or very wide open. You can get it to sit in between those positions too but it really wants to snap one way or the other. Printing on the dino is basic but effective. If I was to have one more gripe with this it would be that it seems a little big?

I know the dinosaurs in Jurassic park are not all accurate but the LEGO set should try to be accurate to the film, and this dinosaur is way taller than Nedry and I think at most should be chest height with him? Anyway, its definitely a more menacing toy at this size.

I thought you were one of your big brothers, you’re not so bad

I picked up this set for about £17 reduced from about £25. I think I got a pretty good deal, and to be honest, compared to other LEGO sets I think its even a decent price at RRP. The Jeep is really good, it is instantly recognisable as the iconic vehicle from the movie and works well as a toy or even as a display piece. The figures, both human and lizard have good printing especially Dennis nerdy. The side build is not much to write home about but the signs are an important part of the scene and are well done with stickers. And the Barbasol can is really fun inclusion that will surely go over the heads of most 8 year old playing with this these days.

Building the set didn’t take long and, as you would expect for a 6+ set there’s nothing special or super clever in the build process. However building was still fun and I don’t think the simple build detracts from the overall look.

I had a lot of fun taking photos of this and that really what made me decide to write this review, On the negative side, the Dinosaur lacks articulation, stickers rather than prints, basic side build – but would I want those over an increased price, probably not. So this set gets my wholehearted recommendation if you are a fan of Jurassic Park and LEGO.