This one is a little out of the way, even for me. But stick with me, because there’s just something about a giant electric dinosaur powered by a mysterious electric motor that seems perfect for the Awesomely Weird Alibaba Electric Vehicle of the Week column.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is perhaps one of the least useful but funniest Chinese electric vehicles I’ve featured in this exploratory column so far.

I see absolutely no use for this dinosaur to ride other than to separate parents from their amusement park money. Not that there’s anything wrong with that; it is indeed a nice use.

And if ever there was a really good money splitter for parents, this would be the one. I’m not even a kid and I want to beg someone to pay me to ride this thing.

There is a coin collection or card swipe option (I am Really I can’t wait to see where they place that shot – you tail up?), then it’s off to the dino races!

Of course, no one is going to move very fast on their triceratops or brontosaurus. The indicated speed is 50 meters per minute, which Google kindly tells me is about 3 km/h or 1.8 mph.

The controls are mounted on the dinosaur itself, but there’s also a remote control that lets the driver take over the driving. I guess the kid provides one of those “you’ve got the dinosaur”, “I’ve got the dinosaur” kind of transference moments like in the movies.

And if you’re wondering how complicated the controls can be, you might be surprised.

There’s more here than just forward and backward. In addition to normal dinosaur walking, there are also functions to open and close the mouth, blink the eyes, raise and lower the head, swing the tail, and activate “light effects”. I don’t remember any of the animals from Jurassic Park with their own Laser Floyd show, but I might have to rewatch the originals.

Power comes from a 700W motor (almost full power!) and is provided by a pair of rechargeable batteries. There’s no word on what those batteries are, but I guess it’s more than a few AA Duracells. The seller says a single charge lasts six hours, which seems surprisingly long. You’re lucky to get half of that from a permanently used e-bike.

But then again, a triceratops is significantly larger than an e-bike, and I guess that means more room for batteries, so maybe I should have seen that coming.

One of my favorite features of the electric running dinosaur (there’s a phrase I never thought I’d say) is the 150kg weight limit, which means riders up to 330lbs. can take a ride. It’s not a children’s toy, it’s fun for the whole family!

And I haven’t even gotten to the coolest part – the way it works! Based on the photos, I assumed it was just a rigid model with small hoverboard wheels mounted under the feet. The wheel part is probably ok, but you can see from the video below that the legs are real go. There’s another motor that seems to move them back and forth. I don’t think it actually provides walking power (it seems like the two non-walking feet are always rolling forward), but it certainly gives the illusion that it’s walking instead of rolling.

So what does something like this cost? From what it looks like on the sales page, you’ll get $3,500 back.

I don’t even know if it’s a good deal or not. How much does an electric walking dinosaur cost? Is there a Kelly Bluebook value I can refer to?

Since I can’t really tell if I’m getting scammed or not, I guess I’ll put that on hold. I’ve bought some weird EVs over the past few months, so I think my wife deserves a break from my stupidity.

But hey, if your partner is yelling at you for buying the kids (or yourself) a walking electric dinosaur, don’t complain!

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Source: electrek.co