Review: Playskool Kota & Pals Stompers (Triceratops)

Written on Oct 27, 2009 by Brian and filed under Playskool, Reviews

At Toy Fair we saw the new lineup of Kota-branded dinos from Playskool. The Stompers are a mid-range interactive dinosaur line that walk, errr, stomp, roar and in the case of the triceratops, raises and lowers its head.

Out of the box, the Stompers are pretty much ready to go. Just move the switch from Try Me mode to On, and you’re ready to play. Thankfully Playskool included batteries (3 AAA) with these little guys, so there’s no waiting to start play.

The Stompers line will likely feature several different dinosaurs. Our review unit was a triceratops, at Toy Fair we also saw an anklysaurus. Each comes to life in a unique way. Of course they all stomp, as the name implies, but the anklysaurus for instance swings his tail, while the triceratops throws his head back.

Both feature dual sensors on their back that control the action. The one at the base of the head will cause the dino to roar and the one near the lower back will make them walk. Thankfully the sensors are easy to actuate, we found even kids younger than the 3 and over suggestion had no trouble interacting with the Stompers.

Since this is targeted to younger kids, durability is important. We beat our unit up a little bit, mostly unintentional, and it held up well. It also works really well on both hard surfaces and carpet, something that most robotic toys don’t handle well. Take a look at the video below to see triceratops in action on carpet.

It seems that most kids have some fascination with dinosaurs, no matter how old they are. Playskool has done well to create an easy to use and engaging line with these Stompers. All the kids we tested with thought the triceratops was cute and fun to play with. With a retail price of $25 it’s hard to miss. The only down side is this intro to animatronics will surely lead parents down an expensive path as their kids graduate to more intricate robotics.

Editor’s Rating – 4 out of 5 stars

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