Mattel - New for 2023

[Eatmycar]

I agree with you, Lynx, but Mattel also consistently gets dragged and lambasted on these boards.

Not accurate enough, bad proportions, etc.

People forget very often that what Mattel and Schleich bring to the market is intended primarily for children and fans of a mass media product and for some reason hold them to the same standard that turn-and-it-falls PNSO or Eofauna are held to and it is ridiculous. Heaven forbid you mention the flaws of the former and hold that against them.

[Eatmycar]

I do feel that, while Mattel's sculpting still remains superior to Hasbro's, they're relying more and more on gimmicks and less on making dinosaurs that actually look good.

Hot take - I think the gimmicks are fine, they're necessary actually. Again, I think this is consistently overlooked and ignored. This is not a line aimed at paleoaccuracy. This is a line aimed at giving kids mass-produced dinosaurs. Let's say they went fully paleoaccurate for non-film dinosaurs. Most parents and kids, the target audience, would have no reason to justify buying a Bistahieversor after getting an Albertosaurus and a Tarbosaurus. Now, you say, they're different species! And I'll agree. They're all distinct enough in the fossil record. But, let's do a comparison of my favorite toyline's depictions of them.





To the casual observer or parent, these all look and do the same thing. Yes, I hear you. Eatmycar, these are a high-end collector's line! Yes. But they all have the exact same body plan and shape. There is nothing fundamentally different enough about these to warrant a purchase and to prevent these from warming shelves if the BoTM design principles were applied to Jurassic.

The team at Mattel constantly gets dragged for not being paleoaccurate or doing weird gimmicks on their non-film animals and it's absolutely ridiculous. They have reasons to design and make their figures such a way. The gimmicks are necessary.

[Lynx]

I agree with you, Lynx, but Mattel also consistently gets dragged and lambasted on these boards.

Not accurate enough, bad proportions, etc.

People forget very often that what Mattel and Schleich bring to the market is intended primarily for children and fans of a mass media product and for some reason hold them to the same standard that turn-and-it-falls PNSO or Eofauna are held to and it is ridiculous. Heaven forbid you mention the flaws of the former and hold that against them.

I am well aware Mattel also gets dragged, and have equal negative opinions about that as well. I will never understand the point of comparing either brand, which mind you are all children's toys, to brands that produce stuff one tier lower from being a literal statue.

[Stegotyranno420]

E @Eatmycar I agree on your points, but I could forgive them for not paleoaccurate if theg were at least movie accurate.
Novel accurate would also be an interesting idea...

[Gwangi]

My advice to anyone ( @Lynx ) with a fondness for a particular brand is to not take in personal when they get dragged. Especially if you're hanging round these parts, where a lot of high brow members consider their particular style of dinosaur collecting to be superior to others. It may come as a shock to some of them, but some of us actually like collecting brands like Mattel or Schleich because they are toys. People that collect toys on a toy forum? Shocking, I know. I don't buy Mattel dinosaurs because I want an accurate representation of an animal on my shelf, I buy them because they are toys with ties to a movie I love. Comparing Mattel to BoTM (or Schleich to PNSO) is like comparing TMNT action figures to accurate turtle models or Transformers to scale diecast trucks. Would I look like a complete arse for telling someone their TMNT collection was dumb while showing off my collection of model chelonians? Yes, I would. And I would look slightly insane too. But it happens around here all the time. And most people that are into TMNT probably don't care about real turtles just like some Jurassic Park fans don't care about real dinosaurs. And that's fine too.

I also collect Safari, PNSO, Eofauna, and CollectA to satisfy the part of me that does want accurate, educational figures. I don't collect a lot of Schleich, and genuinely dislike most of their offerings, but if you like them that's fine. You won't get judgement from me even if I occasionally pick on the company itself. I have a handful of Schleich dinosaurs (and lots of modern animals by Schleich), including some technically awful ones like the Replica-saurus Allosaurus that I unashamedly love, haters be damned.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Wow, ok I had no idea a simple joke would go that route. I buy what I like, they are just toys, models, ect.. Schleich I might pick on a bit because I get a lot of parents here telling me they bought their kids " the best scientific line, it's called Schleich, we found them at Tractor Supply. " So I do a lot of smiling and head nodding, I tell them about some other lines and what Schleich has new coming out.  You can see what a few of my shelves have on them below.. lol



I think Gwangi summed it up nicely.

[Lynx]

I do apologize if I went too far with my replies. I've been seeing tons of these jokes over the forum and had some stored-up anger from those too. I understand Gwangi and Moon.

[stargatedalek]

Mattel's JW stuff also doesn't pretend to be something it's not. They're action figures, movie tie-ins, not educational or scientific toys. Schleich however most certainly floats that claim around and does so very aggressively.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

I do apologize if I went too far with my replies. I've been seeing tons of these jokes over the forum and had some stored-up anger from those too. I understand Gwangi and Moon.

No worries.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Mattel's JW stuff also doesn't pretend to be something it's not. They're action figures, movie tie-ins, not educational or scientific toys. Schleich however most certainly floats that claim around and does so very aggressively.

Yeah and that's where some of these parents get the idea I know. I do wish they carried Safari at the least to give some alternative options.

[suspsy]

An image of Irritator is now hitting social media. And judging from the looks of it, I reckon some poor sculptor at Mattel must be dying to craft a real, honest, proper, accurate version of Spinosaurus, but the brass keep telling them no.

[Carnoking]

I don't mean this in a particularly disparaging way, but I saw the Regaliceratops image before I saw the caption or who it came from and genuinely didn't even think it was a Mattel figure until I my reading caught up with me sight.

[EmperorDinobot]

The Irritator in question.




Chap Mei Regaliceratops



Orkoraptor



Bistahieversor



These, like all of the BOTM figures will be mine.

[MLMjp]

The sculpt is such an improvement over the previous one...But the colors

[Lynx]

I expected to not be pleased like a certain earlier release, but wow, this actually isn't too bad.

[Shane]

An image of Irritator is now hitting social media. And judging from the looks of it, I reckon some poor sculptor at Mattel must be dying to craft a real, honest, proper, accurate version of Spinosaurus, but the brass keep telling them no.

I mean you can't really blame them, seeing as how there's an established "Spinosaurus" design in the franchise that I'm sure they can't deviate from.

But man, this line really loves its spinosaurids.

[Gwangi]

I like this one a lot, and I liked the original Irritator too. This one has an improved sculpt while the older one has the better paint app. That said, I don't mind this paint app either. But I also remember rumors swirling around that we were going to get a HC Irritator and if it's going to look like this then that's the one to hold out for.

[EmperorDinobot]

Also, while it has not been released, I am claiming the Regaliceratops for review.

[Pliosaurking]

I quite like this Irritator, although I would like to see the hc one before I get this one.

[thedeadlymoose]

I'm really liking some of these kind of bizarro designs. They're fun, and trying interesting aesthetic approaches.

I especially like the Orkoraptor, which hits a bunch of unusual points to look almost realistic. Lips and good feathering, too!