Stegosaurus, the walking fortress of the late Jurassic period, is the newest Ugears dinosaur automaton, joining the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops in the Ugears dino collection. With its double row of bony protective plates running down its spine and its spiked mace-like tail, Stegosaurus is one of the most iconic dinosaurs in the fossil record. Unleash your inner paleontologist as you bring this giant back to life!
Roaming the plains of North America and Europe some 150 million years ago, full-grown Stegosaurians stood up to 4 meters in height, stretched 6 meters in length, and weighed almost 4 metric tonnes. Stegosaurus hit the salad bar hard, likely spending its day feeding on ferns, mosses and cycads. Any carnivore brave or foolish enough to fancy a Stegosaurus steak faced a formidable foe, and risked being impaled by those sharp tail spikes, which measured up to a meter in length. In fact, a fossilized Allosaurus specimen was found with damaged vertebrae, into which a Stegosaurus tail spike fit perfectly! Did you know that paleontologists actually refer to these tail spikes as "Thagomizers," in honor of "The Far Side" cartoonist Gary Larson?
The Stegosaurus by Ugears is a spring-driven, four-legged DIY wooden dino automaton, able to walk up to one meter on a single winding. The winding key is found in the dino's belly, with paired winding slots located on each side. The bony plate above the dinosaur's shoulder functions as a "Start/Stop" switch. Push the plate back before giving up to ten half-turns of the key, then set the Stegosaurus on a flat surface, slide the shoulder plate forward, and watch your living fossil lumber off in search of its next meal! An eccentric gear sets the tail swaying in synchronous motion with the legs, helping the dinosaur walk in life-like fashion.
The overlapping plates on the Ugears Stegosaurus are arranged in a double row, as per the arrived-at consensus among paleontologists today. There is still a lively debate about their principal function, whether for defense, thermoregulation, or courtship display, but we think having one of these plates serve as the dinosaur's Start/Stop switch is a fun innovation!
The Ugears Stegosaurus is a "Medium" level model. Kids are fascinated by dinosaurs, so why not help your child, niece or nephew, or grandchild build their very own walking dinosaur, then enjoy imaginative play together? The Stegosaurus has 305 parts, and promises 8+ hours of exciting assembly time. You won't need glue or special tools to build your mechanical dinosaur model. Just snap the art-quality wooden pieces together following the step-by-step instructions in 11 languages (English, German, Ukrainian, French, Polish, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Italian, Chinese and Korean). Be sure to sand and lubricate all moving parts with the included piece of sandpaper and wax, "developing" the gears, so that your mechanical dino puzzle runs smoothly.
Spark your child's interest in natural history as you build, play with and collect the Stegosaurus, Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus Rex models from Ugears. Then check out some of the other amazing, life-like automatons and mechanical marvels in the Ugears catalogue of 3D puzzles, DIY model kits, robots, wooden puzzle boxes and STEM Lab model kits.
