LEGO Jurassic Park 76960 Brachiosaurus Discovery review

LEGO Jurassic Park 76960 Brachiosaurus Discovery has all the right ingredients to be a great LEGO set, but it doesn’t quite come together like that.

Coming in at £74.99 / $79.99 / €84.99 and 25cm tall, LEGO Jurassic Park 76960 Brachiosaurus Discovery is the second-most expensive set of the summer 30th-anniversary LEGO Jurassic Park range and the tallest, thanks to a lovely new moulded Brachiosaurus.

Taking yet another iconic moment from the 1993 movie, including three main characters, that brand new LEGO dinosaur and the debut of a long, long-awaited vehicle is a recipe for another successful LEGO Jurassic Park set, right? Right?

— LEGO Jurassic Park 76960 Brachiosaurus Discovery set details —

Theme: LEGO Jurassic Park Set name: 76960 Brachiosaurus Discovery Release: June 1, 2023

Price: £74.99 / $79.99 / €84.99 Pieces: 512 Minifigures: 3

LEGO: Available June 1, 2023

— Where to buy LEGO Jurassic Park 76960 Brachiosaurus Discovery —

LEGO Jurassic Park 76960 Brachiosaurus Discovery is releasing on June 1 as part of the summer range of 30th-anniversary LEGO Jurassic Park sets and will be available at LEGO.com and from LEGO Stores.

— LEGO Jurassic Park 76960 Brachiosaurus Discovery build —

Is LEGO Jurassic Park 76960 Brachiosaurus Discovery a recipe for success? Well, sort of. On paper, it ticks a lot of the same boxes as some of the best LEGO Jurassic Park and LEGO Jurassic World sets we have had over the years – big dinosaur, central characters, new (and classic) vehicle, large piece of scenery.

Yet, through the process of building the set and having the finished model complete, it doesn’t quite come together as perfectly as you would hope for perhaps three reasons, the first of which is the price. It’s been said before and it is surely tiresome to read again, but these LEGO Jurassic Park/Jurassic World are super-expensive and offer some of the worst price-per-piece ratios out there, thanks to the specialist, expensive moulds of large pieces of plastic that make up the dinosaurs.

In any other licensed set, 512 pieces should ordinarily cost around the £50 / $50 mark – £25 / $30 less than what this set comes in at. And unfortunately for 76960 Brachiosaurus Discovery a very easy and quite direct comparison on value can also be found within this summer’s LEGO Jurassic Park wave of sets, in the form of 76958 Dilophosaurus Ambush, which offers a very similar (but not identical) vehicle build, one minifigure, one small dinosaur and a side-build, all for £20.99 / $19.99 / €26.99.

Trying to be as fair as possible in this comparison and focusing on the minifigure count and vehicle, we can say that for a total of £74.99 / $79.99 / €84.99 – so, £54 / $60 more than 76958 Dilophosaurus Ambush – 76960 Brachiosaurus Discovery offers two additional minifigures, a large side-build and one of the largest LEGO dinosaurs yet. Is a tree, dinosaur and two minifigures worth more than £50 to you? It’s subjective as to whether there’s fair value to be had at that sort of price, and it’s really hard to get out of your head when putting this set together, because the relatively low piece count means that building it is over before you know it.

Beyond price, the two other areas where 76960 Brachiosaurus Discovery may struggle are in the tree and the big moulded dinosaur. Let’s start with the latter which, for its gigantic size, certainly pulls focus and credibly captures such a large creature in LEGO form in a way that is true to all the other LEGO dinosaurs you may have in your collection already. It’s cute and stylistically consistent with what has come before – it looks good for how it needs to, the mould is incredibly accurate and the colour choice certainly suits, meaning that for many it’ll be a very welcome addition to the collection.

Yet, that size of plastic dinosaur is also kinda goofy and, more so than smaller LEGO dinosaurs, it will have you notice just how little LEGO there is to this creature, how little articulation there is, and how similar (or perhaps even more junior) it really is in comparison to some of the other toy versions of the Brachiosaurus that are out there on shelves. If anything will take you out of the LEGO experience and into the ‘hang on, this is a kid’s toy’ snap of reality, it’s this big, big plastic dinosaur.

All LEGO is a kid’s toy first and foremost, but part of its appeal is how well that sentiment can be wilfully ignored and the building and creativity around the product wholeheartedly embraced and enjoyed. Moments that take you out of that are so incredibly rare (and testament to exactly how brilliant LEGO is), but something like that Brachiosaurus may just do it. If it doesn’t, then it’s another giant, plastic dinosaur to fully embrace as part of the LEGO Jurassic Park and World collection.

Beyond the existential issues a grey plastic dinosaur may cause (and perhaps part of the reason for it) is the frustration and disappointment of the big tree build in 76960 Brachiosaurus Discovery. It’s thick in the trunk and skinny up top, seemingly lacks much detail where you’d expect or design features to interact with, and the colours between the reddish brown, dark brown and dark green pieces just don’t quite blend. We have been truly spoiled with any number of clever and fun tree builds across LEGO sets in recent years and that does unfortunately contribute to the conclusion that, in short, the tall tree in 76960 Brachiosaurus Discovery is ugly.

Perhaps it’s the result of trying to amalgamate two separate moments from Jurassic Park into the one set – the moment that Dr. Alan Grant and Dr. Ellie Sattler first set eyes on the dinosaurs walking alongside some tall, skinny trees, and a later moment Grant and the kids are in a bushier, chunkier tree and are woken by a Brachiosaurus chewing on leaves right next to them – but for whatever reason, it’s a tricky final model to fully embrace because it looks so off. As a result, it doesn’t pull the set together quite as well as it otherwise could, meaning that even as background decoration the set as a whole lacks that final special something to really top things off.

All this being said, 76960 Brachiosaurus Discovery does have the long, long-awaited debut of the Jeep Wrangler in LEGO form, and the model – while a little large in scale – doesn’t disappoint. This is nicely designed, comes together cleanly and has details in all the right places to instantly connect with what we saw on film 30 years ago, and that we’ve been asking for from the LEGO Group for eight years.

It is also pleasingly and surprisingly a different build to the jeep found in 76958 Dilophosaurus Ambush in more ways than you’d expect (i.e. it’s not just the roof and colour-swapped parts). That does give extra value to anyone picking up both sets, offering versions of the vehicle that are different both in final appearance and how they are built.

— LEGO Jurassic Park 76960 Brachiosaurus Discovery characters —

LEGO Jurassic Park 76960 Brachiosaurus Discovery is further redeemed too for the inclusion of the three characters needed to complete the grand reveal scene from Jurassic Park – John Hammond, Dr. Alan Grant and Dr. Ellie Sattler. We’ve had all three in LEGO minifigure form before and the LEGO Group is wise enough not to steer too far away from those previous designs, while still ably updating little details here and there for each of them.

It’s worth noting that whilst Ellie appears in four of the five 30th-anniversary LEGO Jurassic Park sets releasing in summer 2023, each is different in one way or another – this one has a tied-up hairpiece and a unique two-sided face-print that includes an excellent ‘O’ face when she catches sight of the Brachiosaurus.

— LEGO Jurassic Park 76960 Brachiosaurus Discovery price —

Unfortunately, a giant Brachiosaurus, great minifigures and an excellent first LEGO Jurassic Park Jeep Wrangler aren’t enough to sway LEGO Jurassic Park 76960 Brachiosaurus Discovery from being labelled expensive at £74.99 / $79.99 / €84.99. It may only be the background to the entire set, but the confused design around that tree does begin to take away from the scene(s) trying to be recreated, not offering enough top-end credibility to the giant, plastic dinosaur stood next to it, nor enough LEGO value for anyone who has built a LEGO tree before (as chances are it will have been excellently designed).

— LEGO Jurassic Park 76960 Brachiosaurus Discovery pictures —

— LEGO Jurassic Park 76960 Brachiosaurus Discovery pros and cons —

LEGO Jurassic Park 76960 Brachiosaurus Discovery struggles to reach the heights of its titular dinosaur because of the simple – and somewhat unfair – fact that these LEGO Jurassic Park and Jurassic World sets are held to higher standards when such large, moulded dinosaurs pull up the price and every piece included counts double. When such standards aren’t met, focus falls back on the price.

There are some really strong redeeming features to the set that mean this isn’t a write-off by any means, but it’s certainly one to wait until it pops up on sale before picking up, to get the best value on offer.

LEGO Jurassic Park 76960 Brachiosaurus Discovery pros	LEGO Jurassic Park 76960 Brachiosaurus Discovery cons
Tallest LEGO dinosaur yet!	Expensive, very expensive
Long-awaited debut of the Jeep Wrangler	The tree is a confused mismatch that somewhat takes away from the set and the scene
Three great minifigures yet again	The dinosaur may have you questioning why you do this (if only for a second – ignore it)

This set was provided for review by the LEGO Group.

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— Alternatives to LEGO Jurassic Park 76960 Brachiosaurus Discovery —

LEGO Jurassic Park 76960 Brachiosaurus Discovery is priced quite highly and falls into the same bracket as the likes of kindred spirit 76989 Horizon Forbidden West: Tallneck, 76407 The Shrieking Shack & Whomping Willow and 60372 Police Training Academy – an excellent and highly recommended trio of sets.

— LEGO Jurassic Park 76960 Brachiosaurus Discovery FAQs —