Dino Chompers — Playskool toys on the playroom floor

The jaw is the toy

Chomp Squad is the dinosaur line where the jaw actually works. Press the back, the mouth snaps shut, and whatever was in it goes flying. The hinge is sprung with a flat metal strip under a thick plastic shell, so it keeps snapping long after the novelty has worn off.

Every dinosaur has a day job

The joke of the line is that every dinosaur has a day job: a tow-truck raptor, a prison officer, a construction gang. Each figure comes with the one prop that explains the job, moulded thick enough to be chewed.

How hard the jaws actually shut

Jaw strength is a real thing to check here. The smaller chompers close softly enough for a two-year-old's finger; the big compactor jaws shut hard and suit four and up.

Working jaws are the one mechanism this mat is built on, and the Playskool version of it is a spring and a lever rather than a motor. A Playskool dinosaur chomps on a squeeze and keeps chomping, which is the whole reason the Playskool name sticks on this shelf.

It plays well alongside other boxes rather than demanding the whole carpet. Explorers mix it into whatever game is already running, and the fun comes from the mixing.

It shares a bin with the blocks, which is the usual Playskool arrangement: one deep box, nothing sorted, everything washable. Parents get a toy that goes back in without a diagram, and the Playskool moulding takes the knocks that come with that.