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avatar_Flaffy

2025 Toy Fair New Releases (various)

Started by Flaffy, February 18, 2025, 10:51:01 AM

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Flaffy

A comprehensive look at what we can expect from Papo, CollectA, Schleich, Safari, Mojo and others for 2025.


SidB

#1
Interesting. The two things that stood out for me the most were the quality of the Papo Yangchuanosaurus and Edmontosaurus figures and the sheer size of the new Schleich Megalodon.

Flaffy

#2
Quote from: SidB on February 18, 2025, 11:17:47 AMInteresting. The two things that stood out for me the most were the quality of the Papo Yangchuanosaurus and Edmontosaurus figures and the sheer size of the new Schleich Megalodon.

The Papos look to be resin prototypes, so likely to have sharper detail and better paint than the final product. That being said, very impressive work. Nice to see a return to form after a few horrendous years.

The Schleich Megalodon I'm conflicted on. The pectoral & tail fins look a bit short compared to the latest studies. I had a tiny bit of hope the sculpt would reflect the proportions below.

Flaffy

#3
Good effort from Mojo this year too. Been waiting to see more of these two since their announcement. They look quite pleasant. The Carnotaurus might be the first figure to incorporate the new integument data?


SidB

Quote from: Flaffy on February 18, 2025, 12:38:47 PM
Quote from: SidB on February 18, 2025, 11:17:47 AMInteresting. The two things that stood out for me the most were the quality of the Papo Yangchuanosaurus and Edmontosaurus figures and the sheer size of the new Schleich Megalodon.

The Papos look to be resin prototypes, so likely to have sharper detail and better paint than the final product. That being said, very impressive work. Nice to see a return to form after a few horrendous years.

The Schleich Megalodon I'm conflicted on. The pectoral fins look a bit short compared to the latest studies. I had a tiny bit of hope the sculpt would reflect the proportions below.

The size surprised me (pleasantly), but I did suspect that getting a truly accurate figure out of Schleich for more than a bit of a long shot.

SidB

That DOES appear to be good. I have to avoid the habit of disregarding Mojo dinos. After all, their extinct mammals have been quite good, historically.

suspsy

My kids and I like the Schleich Fire Saurian vs Jungle Lizard. Those will be future MTB reviews.
Untitled by suspsy3, on Flickr

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Torvosaurus

Quote from: SidB on February 18, 2025, 01:16:19 PMThat DOES appear to be good. I have to avoid the habit of disregarding Mojo dinos. After all, their extinct mammals have been quite good, historically.

Mojo is the only company that gets shown around here, through Hobby Lobby. Michaels stopped carrying the Safari brand except for the Brachiosaurus and an older Triceratops. I guess those are all that sells well. Anyways, Mojo is the only brand I get to actually see and not many actually fit into my criteria. Anything else I just have to order on-line and hope for the best.

Torvo

"In the fields of observation chance favors only the prepared mind." - Louis Pasteur

Sim

I don't understand why CollectA is going backwards and forwards on giving their theropods lips.  Their most recent Neovenator and Megalosaurus had lips, but this new Maip doesn't.  And then there's half-lips(?) on their most recent Velociraptor and their Ceratosuchops...  I just don't understand what CollectA is doing...?

The Phorusrhacos looks worse with the articulated jaw, but maybe it's just the lighting making it look bad.  The CollectA Gallimimus looks great, I'm excited for that one!  The sea scorpion also looks very good and it looks like its prey might be removable?

SidB

Quote from: Sim on February 18, 2025, 10:13:34 PMI don't understand why CollectA is going backwards and forwards on giving their theropods lips.  Their most recent Neovenator and Megalosaurus had lips, but this new Maip doesn't.  And then there's half-lips(?) on their most recent Velociraptor and their Ceratosuchops...  I just don't understand what CollectA is doing...?

The Phorusrhacos looks worse with the articulated jaw, but maybe it's just the lighting making it look bad.  The CollectA Gallimimus looks great, I'm excited for that one!  The sea scorpion also looks very good and it looks like its prey might be removable?
Any chance that it's another sculptor doing the theropods without the lips?

suspsy

I can confirm that Phorusrhacos looks perfectly good and that the fish cannot be removed from the sea scorpion's claw.
Untitled by suspsy3, on Flickr

Flaffy

Quote from: SidB on February 18, 2025, 01:13:48 PMThe size surprised me (pleasantly), but I did suspect that getting a truly accurate figure out of Schleich for more than a bit of a long shot.

Agree about the size. Looks to be comparable to CollectA's deluxe one? I find the head more convincing on Schleich's take, but everything else the CollectA shark has a leg up on it. From the colour, tail size, and more subtle scars (too cartoonish on the Schleich, but consistent with the Schleich style I suppose).

Image credit: avatar_suspsy @suspsy


Quote from: SidB on February 18, 2025, 01:16:19 PMThat DOES appear to be good. I have to avoid the habit of disregarding Mojo dinos. After all, their extinct mammals have been quite good, historically.

I wonder if the new Carnotaurus and Cryptoclidus are done by the Terry Norton as well? The latest wave of Mojo dinosaurs (e.g. Bary, Giga, Mamenchi, Troodon) and Wooly rhino & Mammoth were done by him afterall. If so then it seems he's improved his craft in dinosaurs over the last four years, as I found his previous batch not as convincing as his extant (and mammal) work.

His work can be found here: https://www.deviantart.com/revenant-99


Flaffy

Quote from: Sim on February 18, 2025, 10:13:34 PMI don't understand why CollectA is going backwards and forwards on giving their theropods lips.  Their most recent Neovenator and Megalosaurus had lips, but this new Maip doesn't.  And then there's half-lips(?) on their most recent Velociraptor and their Ceratosuchops...  I just don't understand what CollectA is doing...?

All the sculpts seem consistent with Geiger's style, which has a history of being hit or miss. A shame about the lack of lips on the Maip, but given that CollectA has yet to perfect their engineering on articulated jaws (as you mentioned the Phorusrhacos), I am not surprised that the Maip lacks them.


Libraraptor

That videi gives a great overview and shows once more, how far behind Schleich is lagging.

SidB

Thanks for the Terry Norton Deviant Art link, avatar_Flaffy @Flaffy .

SidB

Quote from: Libraraptor on February 19, 2025, 04:32:42 AMThat videi gives a great overview and shows once more, how far behind Schleich is lagging.
As you know, avatar_Libraraptor @Libraraptor , Schleich has an unique style, even stylization. There's something about it that I've always liked, although it certainly has elements that are hardly accurate, of course.  Clearly, that distinctiveness has a tendency to get out of hand, over and over, frequently to the point of absurdity. We've seen the same tendency with Papo, though they appear tp be returning to a somewhat more balanced approach over the last two years. Not so with Schleich - there seems to be a madness in their method that persists in overshadowing the latter. Maybe the old descriptive of "Uncle Joe" Stalin applies here: is there madness in their method, or is there method showing through their madness?

Concavenator

Quote from: Sim on February 18, 2025, 10:13:34 PMI don't understand why CollectA is going backwards and forwards on giving their theropods lips.  Their most recent Neovenator and Megalosaurus had lips, but this new Maip doesn't.  And then there's half-lips(?) on their most recent Velociraptor and their Ceratosuchops...  I just don't understand what CollectA is doing...?

Perhaps it's due to what avatar_Flaffy @Flaffy said, but yeah, it's certainly odd how they're not consistent in that regard. I think that's the sort of detail they should put more attention to.

But then, PNSO and HLG have also been inconsistent with this. Like PNSO initially representing their theropods with lips (as can be seen in e.g. their 2019 Giganotosaurus and Yangchuanosaurus), to then revert to lipless (all the theropods that came after those until August 2023), then go for lips again, and then randomly release a lipless Tyrannotitan.

Or HLG having released all their sauropods without exposed teeth and then releasing the Brachiosaurus with exposed teeth for some reason. Or making the Dilophosaurus lipless after their lipped Daspletosaurus.

Sure, there might be some particular reasons here and there for this sort of stuff happening, but at the end of the day, what we collectors see is what we are being offered. And ideally, once a company starts releasing lipped theropods after having released lipless ones, it should stay that way. Only possible exception might be spinosaurids. Not that I really agree with them being lipless, but it seems that hoping for lipped spinosaurid figures is useless (only company which appeared to be willing to go for a lipped spinosaurid was Rebor).

You can support the Dinosaur Toy Forum by making dino-purchases through these links to Ebay and Amazon. Disclaimer: these and other links to Ebay.com and Amazon.com on the Dinosaur Toy Forum are often affiliate links, so when you make purchases through them we may make a commission.