Safari Ltd - New for 2022

[Gwangi]

You know, I'm not a business person and what's done is done, but I have to say that I'm really not enjoying how these reveals are so spaced out. Personally, I'd have been fine with revealing all the 2022 toys at once, along with appropriate release dates. Would've made it a whole lot easier to plan budgeting that way.

But like I said, what's done is done.

I completely agree. It's frustrating more than anything else. Just let me know what's coming, I don't care when they get here, I just want to know and plan accordingly.

I have similar sentiments. Likewise, I'm not a fan of how PNSO does their sporadic releases as well. Still not sure if I find the wait for these 2022 releases more painful, or the "guess the silhouette" / "guess the body cropped image" method more painful.

I don't mind this as much because at least the releases come shortly after the announcements, and it gives us something to get excited about throughout the year. That said, the anticipation of future releases does impact what I buy. I skipped the last PNSO sale because I'm waiting for this alleged Acrocanthosaurus announcement.

[Thialfi]

https://mobile.twitter.com/safariltd?s=21&t=mzb36JOQlNNomg4BZbPXag

New reveals in may

RevealS. Plural. Wow. So excited!

[suspsy]

Bloody autocorrect using 'appropriate' instead of 'approximate.' 

[SpartanSquat]

Not a big fan of how safari is revealing stuff like pnso. I preffered seen all news in the end of the year and get hyped and ready to see when they will release.

[Dinoxels]

This is due to issues with the shipping crisis, lets give Safari Ltd. a break. They are trying their best 

[Gwangi]

This is due to issues with the shipping crisis, lets give Safari Ltd. a break. They are trying their best 

I think we're all forgiving about the shipping crisis, and pandemic, and everything else happening. It's the approach that Safari has taken in response to it that's annoying.

[Dinoxels]

This is due to issues with the shipping crisis, lets give Safari Ltd. a break. They are trying their best 

I think we're all forgiving about the shipping crisis, and pandemic, and everything else happening. It's the approach that Safari has taken in response to it that's annoying.

Elaborate?

[suspsy]

This is due to issues with the shipping crisis, lets give Safari Ltd. a break. They are trying their best 

I think we're all forgiving about the shipping crisis, and pandemic, and everything else happening. It's the approach that Safari has taken in response to it that's annoying.

Elaborate?

Pretty sure he means the same thing I lamented earlier:

You know, I'm not a business person and what's done is done, but I have to say that I'm really not enjoying how these reveals are so spaced out. Personally, I'd have been fine with revealing all the 2022 toys at once, along with approximate release dates. Would've made it a whole lot easier to plan budgeting that way.

It's the chosen reveal strategy that Gwangi and myself and others dislike.

[Gwangi]

Yup, Suspsy is correct. Maybe people like this cloak and dagger strategy but I find it immensely irritating. Plus, Safari hasn't been very forthcoming with their reasoning behind all of this. Yes, we have Shane here, but without him we wouldn't know a damn thing. Safari itself as a company is being awfully coy with their customers and it's just agitating people. They should have just posted it right on their web site and social media "here's what's coming in 2022 but due to the economic turmoil we don't know when they'll be in stock".

[Flaffy]

The new figures are in their office already based on their social media posts, so why are they dragging this all out? I don't imagine a shipping crisis has any effect on one's ability to take pictures of an object that's directly in front of you, or one's ability to post it on the internet. @Dinoxels

Unless if they're going to make the figures available for sale shortly after the official reveals in May.... But based on how the Patagotitan is still unavailable to purchase to this day (~2 months after reveal?), I really don't see the reasoning behind this marketing strategy.

They should have just posted it right on their web site and social media "here's what's coming in 2022 but due to the economic turmoil we don't know when they'll be in stock".

This! I am perplexed as to why Safari ltd chose to do reveals this way for 2022.

[suspsy]

I've never seen any point to these guessing games. To be fair, Eofauna  does it as well when they're ready to reveal a new figure, but they always get it over and done with in a couple days as opposed to dragging it out over weeks or even months.

Hell, even if Safari wasn't able to reveal images of all the upcoming toys, I'd be perfectly happy with just a list of names. It would actually be fun to speculate on the size and appearance of each critter. What will its pose be like? What colour will it be? Will it be this particular species or that one? And so forth.

[Faelrin]

Yeah this waiting game is really doing the opposite for them I think. At least they gave us a date this time around for when the next reveals will be done, but that's still a bit of a wait from now. Reminds me of how drip fed the Mattel Amber Collection was. I even think pacing it at (least) one figure per month or bimonthly would have done a lot more to encourage engagement and interest. The last reveal we had was the Patagotitan in (early) February. That's 3 months apart from the next reveal(s) coming in May. This is probably the dullest way they could have gone about doing reveals, definitely much worse then any of the previous year's methods, despite how annoying some of them were to folks around here. I sincerely hope they learn and don't repeat this method going forward.

Even so much as a list of things coming can do a lot to generate interest in one's products, like @suspsy said. We know a lot (not everything) of the Mattel Dominion line coming already for example, even though not everything has been properly revealed with images yet. Still it's something to help give folks a way to look forward for something that's coming out later.

Edit: Also anyone else find it concerning there is so much marketing focus on only parents that have toddlers and young children recently (on their social media accounts at least)? I wonder if this new direction of doing reveals is tied into that any way at all? I could have sworn there was more acknowledgement towards adult collectors in previous years, especially when we had reveals done through youtubers for example, that have a larger adult following/target audience, etc. I don't think ignoring the adult collector demographic is good for business, and especially not on social media. Plenty of brands are thriving from support of adult collectors, such as BotM, Nanmu, PNSO, Rebor, and even Mattel's JW line, even if their primary demographic is children, they know they have adult collectors hence things like the Ford Explorer, the recent Roland Tembo set, Hammond, Lex, both the Amber and Hammond Collection's, and so on.

[Pachyrhinosaurus]

I agree with what everyone's saying about Safari's reveal strategy. I would prefer if they would publish the full range of new products for the year at once so we know what they're putting out and that there won't be anything more. In a normal year, the new figures would be posted on collector forums like this before the official Safari website or social media.

Edit: Also anyone else find it concerning there is so much marketing focus on only parents that have toddlers and young children recently (on their social media accounts at least)? I wonder if this new direction of doing reveals is tied into that any way at all? I could have sworn there was more acknowledgement towards adult collectors in previous years, especially when we had reveals done through youtubers for example, that have a larger adult following/target audience, etc. I don't think ignoring the adult collector demographic is good for business, and especially not on social media. Plenty of brands are thriving from support of adult collectors, such as BotM, Nanmu, PNSO, Rebor, and even Mattel's JW line, even if their primary demographic is children, they know they have adult collectors hence things like the Ford Explorer, the recent Roland Tembo set, Hammond, Lex, both the Amber and Hammond Collection's, and so on.

I was thinking about this recently. Safari Ltd had an official account on Laughing Giraffe and used to pay at least some attention to our collector community. Of course we're a small community and don't make up a majority of the target audience, which is of course children. I don't expect collectors to ever be their main focus, but at least in the past Safari had a presence among collector circles online. I remember the photo contests they held on social media that felt more geared towards hobbyists. Now it seems like all they post are trendy pinterest-type DIY videos and articles aimed at parents. It doesn't appear that this shift in marketing has affected the products or availability, though.

[Concavenator]

This is due to issues with the shipping crisis, lets give Safari Ltd. a break. They are trying their best 

I think we're all forgiving about the shipping crisis, and pandemic, and everything else happening. It's the approach that Safari has taken in response to it that's annoying.

My issue is with the approach as well. As you say, I'm pretty sure the vast majority of us members are very aware by now of the times and circumstances we are living and how these affect businesses and manufacturing plans (in this case, and among other factors) so being forgiving is to be expected.

This! I am perplexed as to why Safari ltd chose to do reveals this way for 2022.

Well, I think it's evidently a marketing-based decision, probably inspired by the observation of PNSO's approach and how their method creates a constant conversation and also creates a sense of hype and anticipation as to when the next figure is going to be revealed. As others have noted, I personally don't like this way of revealing the models, I much prefer to know everything that's coming at once. Much better for planning indeed. The other way is worse for the customer (worse time planning, there could also be cases when you buy a figure and then another figure you would have preferred to get is revealed...) but perhaps better for the company (more sales because of said reason about species preferences, keeps fans hooked). Another reason why they might have decided to try this way instead of the usual one is because maybe they feel that revealing everything at once makes fan hyped at that moment but they tend to forget about the figures in a few months time, at least in the actual context in which new figures are being released very frequently, not to mention the competence has become quite strong as well.
Though all of this is just speculation on my part and hence it's not necessarily accurate to reality.

[ItsTwentyBelow]

Safari's approach to their reveals this year has really led me to lose interest. Take note, Safari, because I am sure I'm not the only one.

I'm also just not a fan of that Patagosaurus, and it's all we've seen. For some reason that sculpt just does not shine like Doug's other work. The pose is so awkward and overall plain.

[SpartanSquat]

I hope Safari will heard us and change to the old strategy after these crisis will pass. I have been seen the reveals at the end of the year since I was a preteen in early 2000s and I prefferd that way. PNSO revealing stuff is okay but not my favourite IMO

[KrazyKaprosuchus]

Safari's approach to their reveals this year has really led me to lose interest. Take note, Safari, because I am sure I'm not the only one.

I'm also just not a fan of that Patagosaurus, and it's all we've seen. For some reason that sculpt just does not shine like Doug's other work. The pose is so awkward and overall plain.

Same honestly. On both counts that is. Same with PNSO, it is quite annoying to have to think about what I want to save for and not when I don't know what's coming next.

[Concavenator]

I find this year's strategy lame, but by far the worst year when it came to the revealing process was, for me, last year. At least we now have a date when new stuff will be revealed. Last year, they showed some black silhouettes and posted some guessing quizzes on October 5th 2020 and the figures ended up being revealed on November 17th 2020. Safari posted on Facebook on Nov 16th the figures would be revealed on the 18th, but until then we had no clue when they were planning to reveal them, even though the silhouettes implied they were ready to be shown at any moment (just like now, it seems). I remember people saying they were just losing interest with the way they were dealing with it.

[Sim]

You can add me to the list of people disliking how Safari's been handling the new figure reveals this year.  I find it even worse than last year which had those unnecessarily blurred silhouettes, and possibly 2018 as well which had parts of figures being shown off and in the end some figures weren't even teased at all.  I also find the Safari Patagotitan boring in possibly every way imaginable, the species choice, the colours, the pattern, the pose...  It's left me not feeling excited about what Safari will release for this year, I've got nothing to look forward to.  Fortunately I have figures to look forward to from PNSO, although they haven't revealed a new figure for a while now, I wish they would reveal something new soon.

[suspsy]

As I've noted before, CollectA's method is the best. Two or three new reveals every week on the same day and at the same time for the month of November. It's reliable, it's to the point, it gives people plenty of time to discuss and praise and bemoan each new toy, and there's no guessing game.

Switching to a more positive tune, I do hope we get a new ankylosaurid from Safari. Their lovely Ankylosaurus needs companionship! And while I would happily welcome any species from Akainacephalus to Ziapelta, I'll seriously jump for joy if it's Zuul.