Stegosaurus, the walking fortress from the Upper Jurassic period, is the latest dinosaur automaton to join Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops in the Ugears dinosaur collection. With the double row of protective bony plates along its spine and its club-like spiky tail, Stegosaurus is one of the most emblematic dinosaurs to be found in the fossil record. Let your palaeontological imagination run wild and bring this giant back to life!

The Stegosaurus, which was found on the plains of North America and Europe around 150 million years ago, could reach a height of 4 metres and a length of 6 metres when fully grown and weighed almost 4 tonnes. The Stegosaurus was a heavy feeder at the salad bar and probably spent its days feeding on ferns, mosses and palm ferns. Any carnivore brave or crazy enough to go after a Stegosaurus steak faced an excellent enemy and risked being impaled by those sharp tail spines, which could be up to a metre long. A fossilised Allosaurus was found with pierced vertebrae into which a Stegosaurus tail spike fitted perfectly! Did you know that in reference to the cartoon “The Far Side” by Gary Larson, these tail spines are actually called “thagomisers” by palaeontologists?

The Stegosaurus from Ugears is a spring-operated four-legged DIY dinosaur automaton made of wood that can travel up to 1 metre once wound up. The key is located on the dinosaur’s stomach and the pairs of slots for winding are on both sides. The bone plate above the dinosaur’s shoulder serves as a start/stop switch. Push this plate backwards before making ten half turns with the spanner. Then place the Stegosaurus on a flat surface and move the plate on the shoulder forwards. You can then watch your living fossil trot off in search of its next meal! An eccentric gearbox allows the tail to swing in sync with the leg movements, helping the dinosaur to move realistically.

The overlapping plates on Ugears’ Stegosaurus are arranged in a double row, following the consensus among palaeontologists today. The essential function of these plates is still hotly debated: Defence, temperature regulation, display during mating; but we believe that the function of one of these plates as the dinosaur’s start/stop switch is a fun innovation!

The Stegosaurus model from Ugears has a difficulty level of “Medium”. Children are fascinated by dinosaurs. So why not help your child, nephew, niece, granddaughter or grandson to build their own walking dinosaur and then have fun and play with it together? The Stegosaurus includes 305 pieces and promises 8+ hours of assembly excitement. No glue or special tools are required to assemble your mechanical dinosaur model. Simply assemble the high-quality wooden parts using the detailed instructions in 11 languages (English, German, Ukrainian, French, Polish, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Italian, Chinese and Korean). Make sure that all moving parts are sanded and lubricated using the sandpaper and wax provided and that the gears are well ‘run in’ so that your mechanical dinosaur puzzle runs smoothly.

Get your child interested in natural history by assembling, playing with and collecting the Ugears Stegosaurus, Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus Rex models. And check out some of the other wonderful and realistic automata and mechanical wonders in the Ugears catalogue of 3D puzzles, model kits, robots, wooden puzzle boxes and STEM-Lab kits.

– Model size: 33.5 x 16 x 11 cm
– Packaging size: 37.3 x 17 x 5 cm
– Number of components: 305
– Grade: Medium