Dinotrux is the love child of ‘The Land Before Time’ and ‘Transformers’ with a dash of ‘Paw Patrol’ (since we’re talking about utility vehicles).  All in all, that should make your head spin and wonder what was in the water the Netflix crew drank before agreeing to air this show. Apparently, it was the good stuff – because the show works, maintaining a nice balance of quirky, funny and educational.  If you can stomach the occasional cheesy dialogue, then you might even find yourself enjoying the show alongside your children – who doesn’t love puzzles and problem solving? Unfortunately, since the show is rather new (with only 10 episodes aired in 2015 and the new season started in March this year) tutorials and party ideas for Dinotrux are like rare gems on the internet, precious and hard to find.  On the bright side, that’s what this article is here to fix – below you’ll find a whole array of Dinotrux birthday party ideas, from costumes, to favors to tableware.

Dinotrux Birthday Party Invitations

Dinotrux are hard to gather in one spot, preferring to stick to their own herd instead of mixing with other species. That’s why you need to follow in Ty’s footsteps and make some compelling arguments via party invites. I suggest sending some Ore, after all, the way to a Dinotrux’s heart is through the stomach – unless they happen to be a Garbosaurus, and then you can just send rocks. 

The easier option is to go to Etsy – there are plenty of customizable Dinotrux party invites to choose from.  If you want to add a personal touch, you can make the card yourself. A simple model uses some Dinotrux printables as a background like this one.  To rev it up, you can add some quotes from the show like “Break it down, build it up” or “Let’s trux it up”.  You can make your address ‘the garage’ where Reptools and Dinotrux hang together. Alternatively, you can invite your tiny Dinotrux and Reptools to help the birthday boy or girl retrieve the ore stolen by D-structs.

Dinotrux Birthday Party Decorations

As we’ve seen in the show, it’s not enough to just gather your Dinotrux in one place, you also need to make a garage for them, and make sure everyone, even the long neck Skya, feels at home.  Though I wouldn’t advise making holes in your walls so everyone can fit (or using a giant boulder as a rooftop).  A good place to start would be with a color scheme – except, the show doesn’t really have one (Dinotrux come in all shapes, sizes and colors ).  The next point would be to take the dinosaur theme and run with it – faster than Ton-ton’s wheels.  You can make some pretty simple dinosaur paper lanterns – just cut and glue grey circles and spike shapes to colored paper lanterns.  If you’re looking for something more show specific, you can replicate this idea with Reptools.  You can use a Revvit print-out. The paper lantern will be the body and you will have to cut and glue the head, the spikes, the legs and the tail.

To jazz up the entrance to your ‘garage’ (you can even hold the party in the garage if it’s big enough, wink wink, nudge nudge) you can make this  ‘enter the t-trux mouth’ decoration. Or, if you’re in the market for something simpler, just make the teeth, like so.  To go the extra mile, you can even make some Dinotrux tracks going into the mout. In order to do that, you can paint the tracks on some bit of cloth with the aid of a cut up paint roller – like so.

Another Dinotrux birthday decorations idea is to make your own miniature  Dinotrux garage/cave using cardboard boxes, paper and glue.  It can even be done as a group activity together with the children.

For a wow effect, you can recreate Ty’s tail by making this cardboard wrecking crane.  You’ll have to change the coloring to red and grey and add some black paper cones to the ball, since Ty’s tail is spiked.

On that note, why not make a Dozeratops DIY cardboard bulldozer.  In order to achieve Dozer’s look, you’ll have to make three grey cones and attach two of them on the top of the scoop and one near the bottom. For the finishing touches,  glue a cut-out of Dozer’s face inside the scoop. This can even be used as a costume, if done right.

If you’re feeling crafty and have some time to spare, you can make some hanging Jurassic jungle vines – like this   (you can cut out giant leaf shapes out of green paper and make the vines by twisting butcher paper).  For extra fun, you can attach some cloth dinosaur tails to chairs (check out the birthday costume section for tips on how to make them yourself) and place Reptool cutouts in nooks and crannies (since they are shy and like to hide).

Dinotrux Birthday Party table setup

Once the garage is done, you need to manage the feeding instalation, just like our intrepid protagonists did after D-struct poisoned their ore supply with tar. You can start off with a tire tracks table cloth, to match the tracks at the entrance (and maybe signal all that will be left once the hungry horde of Dinotrux pass by). If you feel that it is too repetitive, you can always mix it up with some dinosaur paw prints (cut them out of felt or spray paint them on).  You can place some rocks amongst the serving trays and bowls, afterall, Dinotrux have to dig/crush rocks to get to the ore.  You can even add a bit of leaves and vines (check out the section above on how to make them).

You can serve some of the snacks in a tool box, and call it the Reptool box (which puts you well on the way to king or queen of the bad puns).  You can make a Scrapadactyl nest (think bird nest but bigger – like this decorative nest basket) and use it to serve chocolate eggs (or any egg shaped treats).

You can make your own Dinotrux plates with the aid of transparent plastic plates and cardboard cutouts of the Dinotrux characters (just make sure to glue them on the bottom on the outside, otherwise you’ll have a soggy dinosaur mess in no time).

For the Crafty, you can make some paper machette dinosaur feet using a soup can, some tubes and lots of paper and glue. You can paint them red with grey accents and use them as cutlery holders – kids and adults alike will love them. 

Another Dinotrux party table set up idea is to play on the construction theme of the show and have snacks offloaded from a truck onto a plate, like so.

Dinotrux Costumes and Birthday Outfits

Once food and shelter are off the table (see what I did there?) then you need to take care of repairs – since Dinotrux get scratched, dented and lose parts at a rate that is bound to drive any Reptool crazy. In plain terms – you need to get a costume ready. 

Remember that part at the start when I mentioned how new the show was? That translates into virtually no tutorials for Dinotrux costumes – no matter how long and hard I scoured the internet in search of this precious bit of ore. Luckily, you can make do with combining dinosaur costume tips with construction vehicle costume tips. For instance, you can start with the basis – all Dinotrux have one, namely, a dinosaur tail. You can make your own, like in the tutorial, or buy them online.  To that, you can add some dinosaur feet (very easy to make, and fun to walk with – though your pets might see them as the spawn of the devil crossed with a mailman/water fountain – depending on whether you have a dog or a cat).

Here’s where it gets tricky, since now you have to customize based on each character. For Ty, the T-trux, you need to make the tail red with grey spikes, same goes for the feet.  For a more authentic look, you can recreate the the wrecking ball tail (just attach the cloth ball to the tail via a grey strip of fabric). To round off the look, pair off a grey hoodie with a red vest on top and red pants. For a finishing touch, you can place some grey squares at the top of the hoodie – interspaced, like Ty’s teeth.

For a Dozer costume, you need to pair a bulldozer costume with a triceratops costume.  Don’t forget to add the tail from above (in yellow). Alternatively, you can glue some grey paper horns on the bulldozer costume, and glue a printout of Dozer’s face on the scoop (just like in the decoration section).

You can also make a Skya costume based on this tutorial for a long neck dinosaur costume. Alternatively, you could have the child wear orange clothing on which you can sow cutouts of felt gears and sprockets and at the back you can attach a long tube covered in orange paper (at the end it will have a wire and a tinfoil hook – something like this for the tube.

For a Garby costume, start with this – garbage truck costume, but make it shorter at the back since you want to be able to see the tail from the tutorial above. Then you can add the dinosaur feet and make paper spikes – place them on the back of the truck.  

Dinotrux Party Food and drinks

A Dinotrux is almost always hungry (much like small children tend to be).  To appease the small herd gathered in your home, you need to have plenty of ore at hand (and maybe some bits of metal for the stray Scraptor).

Since we’re on the topic, why not make a Scraptor stash? You can fill it with nuts and bolts. Or you can make scrap metal pizza strips using nuts and bolts shaped toppings like olives, anchovies (or cut salami into strips).

You can also serve something for the respectable Dinotrux, like boulders, wrecking balls and ore for which you can use chocolate covered peanuts, truffles, cake pops or meatballs in sauce (any round-ish brown food item will do). For some more authentic ore look, you can serve some black/grey rock candy.

Another Dinotrux party food idea is to make some Stegarbasaurus guacamole dip – and place tortilla chips like spikes in it.  Alternatively, you could make a ‘build a burger’ bar – since the show is all about problem solving 😉 .  Your Dinotrux get to have fun while making their own food (hopefully without wrecking anything in the process).

You can also serve dino bolts – you make them by sticking pretzels into marshmallows and dipping them into grey candy melts.  Then there are Skya’s neck orange skewers and Dozer in the tar pit platters (yellow fruit and chocolate fondue).

For something a bit more fun, you can make these search for ore pudding cups with chocolate rocks or try your hand at a Watermellon T-trux.  For those with skill and patience, there are these cute (but laborious) toolbox cookies. Or, you could try making Scrapadactil nests –with shredded wheat and chocolate.

Dinotrux Birthday cake and cupcakes

The finest ore on the table is the birthday cake – Dinotrux and even Reptools from far and wide have come to marvel at its beauty and sample its flavors.  The quick and easy way to satisfy your tiny horde robo-dinosaurs is to order out – you can get cake decoration shops to make everything from the fanciest 3D models to printing a cake topper with edible ink (it’s all a matter of how much you feel like torturing your wallet).

Alternatively, you could make some pretty dinosaur cupcakes yourself.  Or, another easy to make cake is a Ty and Revvit fondant cut-out cake. For that you will need to make a cake and cover it with fondant (or icing) and on top of it you can place a cut-out of the characters. Make sure to cut each part out of the corresponding fondant color then glue all the parts together for an effect like this.

For something a little more complicated and a lot more fun, you can make a smoking volcano cake, just like in the tutorial, and add Dinotrux toys at the bottom.  The effect will be stunnig – science, food and entertainment all in one.

Another easy to make but visually stunning Dinotrux birthday cake idea is to make a construction site cake. The only thing you’ll need to do to recreate the show is replace the toys in the video with Dinotrux.

For something a bit more complicated, you can make a Revvit cake. To do that, you start with this lizard cake tutorial. You’ll need to use green fondant for the head and yellow fondant for the rest of the body.  To round off the look, we need to add the tool in the Reptool.  You can do that by making a screwdriver tip, half a wrench and other tool tips out of fondant and adding them to the ‘spine’ of the lizard (down the middle of the cake). For a nice finishing touch, you can recreate some measuring tape out of a thin strip of fondant on which you paint lines and numbers. Since Revvit has a quick measuring tape (as a chameleon tongue), you can place a tip of your decoration  under all the cake layers, next to the mouth.

Last, but definitely not least is this  Garby stegosaurus cake. Despite its looks, the process of making it is not really that intimidating. To make it easier for those without professional fondant decorating tools, instead of spray painting the fondant, you can use forest green fondant and add a small light green stripe next to the belly. For color accent you can either paint them in using food colorant or cut strips of grey fondant to use next to the spikes.  On that important note, make the spykes grey. For an extra touch, you can place some small squares of cube wrapped in grey fondant next to the tail (since Garby likes to eat and shoot out compacted rocks).

Dinotrux Party Games and activities

Dinotrux and Reptools are a rowdy bunch, especially Ton-ton who can’t sit still unless tied to a rock (and a rather big one at that). Here are a few activities to keep them entertained.

For the hatchlings, you can start off with some coloring pages. Dreamworks to the rescue.  However, if you plan something more active, you can start with a cardboard tunnel maze (you can make one using giant moving boxes) and dub it the garage maze.

A fun activity for all involved is the Reptool plan: making bridges out of toothpicks and marshmallows. Another quick and easy way to keep your Dinotrux entertained is to make a feed the T-trucks bean bag toss (with grey bags, like ore), or to stage a hot lava tug of war between Dinotrux and Scraptors.

For something more active, you can stage a chase game with Dinotrux and Scraptors.  For that you will need to divide the children into two teams. The Dinotrux have to collect ore – grey bean bags spread out in a few places. It’s the Scraptors’s job to stop them.  Dinotrux are safe from Scraptors in their garage – in two locations in the yard. If a Dinotrux gets caught by a Scraptor, they get sent to the junkyard. A special designated place in the yard.  If a fellow Dinotrux doesn’t touch the dino in the junkyard in the next 2 minutes, then they are scrapped for parts (eliminated from the game). Dinotrux win if they collect all the ore, Scraptors win if they eliminate all the Dinotrux.

Alternatively, children can play Skya’s tail. One child is the head and has to catch the rest of the body. Once a child is touched, he holds hands with the other(s)  and they have to run like this and catch the rest of the children. The last child to get tagged becomes the new head.

Another fun Dinotrux party game is Click-Clack’s hiding spot.  For this game, all the children are Reptools. One of them gets designated as Click-Clack. Click-Clack then needs to hide while the rest of the children count to 20. Once the counting is done, the children can search for him.  Whichever Reptool finds him gets scared by his paranoia and has to join Click-Clack in hiding, as quietly as possible. One by one the Reptools hide together till there is no one left – the last Reptool to find the hiding spot becomes Click-Clack.

Last but not least, you can play Ty’s wrecking tail. Each child gets to wear the tail and knock down as many rocks as possible. You can make the tail using some pantyhose and an orange as a weight at the end (tie it around the children’s middle) – or make some of the tails in the birthday costume section.  Then you need to set up the ‘rocks’ by placing empty 2 littler bottles around the area. Each child gets 1 minute to knock down as many rocks as possible. They aren’t allowed to touch their tail; they have to swing it using only their hips.

Dinotrux Birthday Party Favors

Once everything that needed to be built is done, the Dinotrux retire to their own sleeping places. To see them through the long and perilous journey home, you can give them some ore, for one the way (in the form of gumballs). For some other Dinotrux party favor ideas you can consider add in some Dinotrux stickers or even badges (to be found on Etsy). You can also include some tool keychains (and make the obvious pun about Reptools). For diehard dinosaur fans, you can add some T-rex erasers, or some DIY Dino hats (that the kids can wear incessantly at home, much to the delight of their parents)Ow, and let’s not forget dinosaur finger pupets – those never get old.  If you don’t mind spending a bit, you can purchase Dinotrux die-cast character toys and make sure to give each child his or her own favorite character (a bit of conspiring with the toher parents beforehand is much encouraged).

Dinotrux Birthday Gift ideas

You shouldn’t forget about your own little Dinotrux or Reptool. There are a lot of Dinotrux clothing items available, from p-jays to t-shirts and even backpacks – for the stylish Stegarbasaurus, Dozeratops or Craneosaur.  Then, there are the toys – you can find Ty, Dozer, Skya, Ton-ton, Revvit, Garby toys in all shapes and sizes. There is even an electronically talking Garby.  Not to mention Dinotrux die-cast vehicle sets.

For some more active playtimes, you can get your child playsets like: Dinotrux Smash & Slide Construction Site Playset, Dinotrux Rock & Load Skate Park, Scrap and Smash or Revvit’s Ravine Revenge (someone was in love with alliteration there).

If you want to encourage their thirst for knowledge (and up their reading comprehension) there are a lot of Dinotrux adventure books to be found on Amazon.  You can also find Dinotrux puzzles and toss across games.

Another Dinotrux birthday gift idea is to look for an electronic robot T-rex (there are various models on the market, in all the price ranges imaginable) – hopefully toymakers will catch on and launch a remote controlled Tyrannosaurus Trux soon (though a robot snake is just as effective for bragging/scaring neighbors).