Safari Ltd - New for 2024

[Patrx]

Unsurprisingly, I'm really enamored with the Austroraptor, though it is strange that they went with a color scheme so similar to the Citipati. The Saltosaurus is also an immediate must-buy, what a cool sculpt!

[Shane]

S @Shane I've got a question, as a safari insider do you have any idea what scale these new figs are at?

Measuring them out,

The Austroraptor and Megalosaurus are both about 9 inches long if you were to stretch out the tail, so the scale would be about 1:25 or 1:26 if you assume both dinosaurs be 20 feet long.

The Saltasaurus is about 13 inches, so I'd say it's about 1:25 or 1:26.

Nanuqsaurus stretched out would be just over 10 inches, so depending on what you think is the maximum length of Nanuqsaurus the scale would be anywhere from 1:35 (30 feet) to about 1:24 (20 feet).

[Sim]

I intend to get the Austroraptor and Saltasaurus.  I'm happy with how they've turned out!  The Megalosaurus is very nice and I'd be interested in seeing more from its sculptor (I'm almost certain it's not Doug, I think Doug's is the Austroraptor), but I'm happy with my PNSO Megalosaurus and that's enough Megalosaurus for me.

I enjoy the photo of the Saltasaurus in the swimming pool!  It makes me want to go to a swimming pool and play with prehistoric animal toys!  Although I think I'm too old for that now and besides, my figures aren't to be played with to keep them in the best possible condition.  I've always been interested in water though and that photo is great, it brings back happy memories.

[Flaffy]

Stunning lineup so far. Only dud being the Nanuqsaurus imo, suffers from JW theropod syndrome with teeth extending far past the maxilla; ditto for the lower teeth, too deep into the mouth. The oversized teeth certainly doesn't help either.

Safari's Megalosaurus seems to be based on Scott Hartman's reconstruction with a proportionally smaller head and more prominent lacrimals. While PNSO's one is closer to Dan Folkes's skeletal.


Given the fragmentary nature of Megalosaurus specimens, and the uncertainty between scaling multiple indivduals, I'd say that both are equally valid until more complete Megalosaurus specimens are found & described. The difference in skull shape is likely due to the different species of megalosaurid being used to infer missing anatomy. While I do prefer Folkes's reconstruction, the lack of lips on the PNSO model are a pretty big dealbreaker for me when a nice lipped version is available from Safari. (waaay cheaper with a more interesting colour palatte too!)

[Flaffy]

Safari starting a trend of posing titanosaurs next to crayons Really happy with how the Saltasaurus turned out, greatly improves upon its Carnegie predescessor. Loving all the attention titanosaurs are getting in recent years! My only gripe about the figure is how the toe claws so big and all the same size. The first claw should be the largest, with the third being the smallest.

[Sim]

I too don't like how far back the Nanuqsaurus's teeth extend.  That's the reason why I'm not getting it.


The PNSO Megalosaurus doesn't look at all like Dan Folkes's skeletal.  I think its head was based on the reconstruction in the image below, marked D.

  Image from the megalosaurid Wikipedia page.


I am pleasantly surprised that Safari is producing Austroraptor right after Utahraptor.  Dromaeosaurids are great and they seem to be selling well for Safari.  Before anyone mentions that the Microraptor was retired, the Safari Qianzhousaurus was retired with a shorter availability period than the Microraptor and no-one's going to say tyrannosauroids don't sell well, right?  Especially since Shane has indicated that they sell well.


I didn't expect to be wanting a titanosaurian figure as I tend to find this group uninteresting, but I like how the Wild Safari Saltasaurus looks, I like its size and it's probably the titanosaurian species I'm most interested in.  I think its toe claws are different sizes.

[TheCambrianCrusader]

Wow these are all must haves. The Austroraptor is definitely the Doug Watson sculpt and its gorgeous as usual, but the Megalosaurus is honestly giving me Forest Rogers vibes. I know ever since the Carnegie line has been cancelled and non Doug Watson sculpts started popping people have been theorizing about her for awhile but this is the first figure Ive seen that actually reminds me of her old work. It looks like a modern take on her 2010s figures like the Concavenator or Cryolophosaurus.

[Pachyrhinosaurus]

They all look good-- I'll be picking them up when they're out. The megalosaurus is an easy favorite. It wasn't something I would have asked for, but it's definitely an essential dinosaur given its history. I really like the paintwork. It kind of reminds me of the Carnegie Deltadromeus. Though it might be hard to imagine a megalosaurus toy that isn't a monochromatic moss green.

I know I speculated about the sculptor for this piece, but now that we have better pictures I can tell it is not a Forest Rogers sculpt. It lacks a lot of her characteristic skin textures and folds that she put into the Carnegie dinosaurs. But it's great nonetheless. Perhaps it was done by the same sculptor who did the WS brachiosaurus? There's a similar surface treatment going on. Austroraptor is clearly the Doug sculpt.

I can't help but feel the nanuqsaurus looks a little rubbery and toyish, but I'll have to wait and see how it looks in-hand to say for sure. The teeth probably have a lot to do with that. It also looks like the saltasaurus' front feet don't have the characteristic C-shape, either.

Still a good year for Safari despite being so theropod (and dinosaur)-heavy.

[Halichoeres]

Got the first post updated with photos, a bit belatedly--sorry, the update on Safari's site caught me traveling.

Anyway, I'm kinda regretting buying the PNSO Megalosaurus and the CollectA Nanuqsaurus. Having bought them, I'm not sure I want to spend money on those genera again so soon. That said, the Megalosaurus is probably the best-executed of the bunch.

[Brontozaurus]

Megalo reminds me a lot to an australian water dragon! The sculpt reminds me to forest rogers style!
Im wondering who did the salta, looks beautifull!

That colour scheme took the Megalosaurus from 'it's okay I suppose' to 'this is going in the shopping cart'. I used to work at a zoo here and we had wild eastern water dragons all over the place, so I'm pretty nostalgic for their colour scheme. It'll also be much cheaper than the other dinosaur toy that uses those colours, the BotM Albertosaurus.

[Joliezac]

Are these figures (including the wildlife & birds) slated to come out in 2024? Or are these most likely 2025 releases?

[Shane]

Are these figures (including the wildlife & birds) slated to come out in 2024? Or are these most likely 2025 releases?

Some of them should be in stock over the coming months, but a couple of them may end up being released in early 2025.

[Shane]

Safari's Megalosaurus seems to be based on Scott Hartman's reconstruction with a proportionally smaller head and more prominent lacrimals. While PNSO's one is closer to Dan Folkes's skeletal.

This was discussed internally during the development of the sculpt, if memory serves the figure is mostly based on Hartman's skeletal, but the skull in particular leans a bit towards Folkes, mostly in order to make it distinctive and less like a "generic theropod" and more obviously a megalosaurid.

[Joliezac]

Are these figures (including the wildlife & birds) slated to come out in 2024? Or are these most likely 2025 releases?

Some of them should be in stock over the coming months, but a couple of them may end up being released in early 2025.

Awesome thank you!! I don't typically collect Safari dinosaurs but I'm really hyped for the extant animals

[Dinoguy2]

Long overdue for a new Saltasaurus/Neuquensaurus, and this new model ticks all the boxes. Similar style to the 2018 Malawisaurus and Amargasaurus, wonder if it's the same person. It was even rumored the latter models were sculpted by Forest Rogers. Either way, can't wait for this one.

I know I speculated about the sculptor for this piece, but now that we have better pictures I can tell it is not a Forest Rogers sculpt. It lacks a lot of her characteristic skin textures and folds that she put into the Carnegie dinosaurs. But it's great nonetheless.

I would be surprised to see Rogers sculpting for Safari again... I was under the impression she was employed by the Carnegie Museum, not Safari directly? In interviews she has said the museum hired her to do the sculpts, and then hired Safari to handle the production. Though she did also do Vanishing Wild and Monterey Bay. Not quite sure how that worked.

Edit: In fact I'm slightly more surprised that Carnegie did not continue the line, with Rogers, with a different company running production. I guess maybe Safari owns the molds so they would have had to start over. This may have also changed at some point towards the end, notice a pretty significant change to the copyright info: For years it was "Allosaurus, (C) 1988 The Carnegie, Safari Ltd." etc., but around 2004 the format was changed on all models to "Carnegie Allosaurus, (C) 1988 Safari Ltd." etc. Something must have changed (in the contract) where Carnegie was now just a Safari brand, rather than Safari being a contractor for Carnegie...

[Shane]

Long overdue for a new Saltasaurus/Neuquensaurus, and this new model ticks all the boxes. Similar style to the 2018 Malawisaurus and Amargasaurus, wonder if it's the same person. It was even rumored the latter models were sculpted by Forest Rogers. Either way, can't wait for this one.

I know I speculated about the sculptor for this piece, but now that we have better pictures I can tell it is not a Forest Rogers sculpt. It lacks a lot of her characteristic skin textures and folds that she put into the Carnegie dinosaurs. But it's great nonetheless.

I would be surprised to see Rogers sculpting for Safari again... I was under the impression she was employed by the Carnegie Museum, not Safari directly? In interviews she has said the museum hired her to do the sculpts, and then hired Safari to handle the production. Though she did also do Vanishing Wild and Monterey Bay. Not quite sure how that worked.

Edit: In fact I'm slightly more surprised that Carnegie did not continue the line, with Rogers, with a different company running production. I guess maybe Safari owns the molds so they would have had to start over. This may have also changed at some point towards the end, notice a pretty significant change to the copyright info: For years it was "Allosaurus, (C) 1988 The Carnegie, Safari Ltd." etc., but around 2004 the format was changed on all models to "Carnegie Allosaurus, (C) 1988 Safari Ltd." etc. Something must have changed (in the contract) where Carnegie was now just a Safari brand, rather than Safari being a contractor for Carnegie...

Safari does not own the molds and therefore cannot create new figures of Carnegie designs. If Carnegie had wanted to confinue producing those sculpts, they would've had to continue with a different company for production (this happened with the Smithsonian insects). As to why they did not do that, I couldn't say.

[DefinitelyNOTDilo]

S @Shane I've got a question, as a safari insider do you have any idea what scale these new figs are at?

Measuring them out,

The Austroraptor and Megalosaurus are both about 9 inches long if you were to stretch out the tail, so the scale would be about 1:25 or 1:26 if you assume both dinosaurs be 20 feet long.

The Saltasaurus is about 13 inches, so I'd say it's about 1:25 or 1:26.

Nanuqsaurus stretched out would be just over 10 inches, so depending on what you think is the maximum length of Nanuqsaurus the scale would be anywhere from 1:35 (30 feet) to about 1:24 (20 feet).

Thank you very much!

[DefinitelyNOTDilo]

Looks like megalo could still work in 1:35 for a smaller torvo or wiehenvenator individual!

[Sim]

On Wikipedia there is a size comparison that shows the largest Megalosaurus individual at about 8.6m long, the Safari figure would be about 1:35 scale for that specimen.  There's also a size chart for Saltasaurus that follows an estimate by Donald Henderson that puts Saltasaurus at 12m long.  The new Safari figure would also be about 1:35 scale for a Saltasaurus at that length.

[Flaffy]

Safari's Megalosaurus seems to be based on Scott Hartman's reconstruction with a proportionally smaller head and more prominent lacrimals. While PNSO's one is closer to Dan Folkes's skeletal.

This was discussed internally during the development of the sculpt, if memory serves the figure is mostly based on Hartman's skeletal, but the skull in particular leans a bit towards Folkes, mostly in order to make it distinctive and less like a "generic theropod" and more obviously a megalosaurid.

Thanks for the insight into the design process! It's always nice to hear the rational behind every reconstruction.

Folkes's skull is precisely why I prefer his reconstruction compared to the others. Much more in line with the morphology of closely related taxa such as Torvosaurus & Wiehenvenator. Glad to hear that this was taken into account when Safari designed their Megalosaurus.