Prehistoric Times magazine Award for Best Figures of 2021?

[ceratopsian]

I'm not angry at all - just surprised.

[Crackington]

Hi @ceratopsian , I think I said non PT readers getting irate and re-reading the thread, there's at least 5 responses which show this.  I'm assuming they are non-readers as they also ask how the PT poll works etc

Anyway, I will stop becoming irate by people being irate now, at least in my perception!! 

It's probably worth showing how Mike asks the questions for the poll here though, just to clear that up:.

Best dinosaur toy figure 2021
Best non-dinosaur prehistoric animal toy figure 2021

There's a further three questions on best model kit, book and scientific discovery. Voting was by sending Mike an email and there was an incentive of winning a year's subscription to the magazine.

No idea how many readers voted, but going by PT readers on this thread not many!

I would point out that the PT poll has open questions, so you can literally choose any figure you like. In that sense, one could argue that this is less open to bias than the current DTF best figure 2021 poll*,  as that has a prescribed list to choose from full of the major brands, but missing smaller makes such as Wild Past and Oammararak's Evolution set for example.

*Sorry, missed this from my earlier response.

[Doug Watson]

I would point out that the PT poll has open questions, so you can literally choose any figure you like. In that sense, one could argue that this is less open to bias than the current DTF best figure 2021 poll*,  as that has a prescribed list to choose from full of the major brands, but missing smaller makes such as Wild Past and Oammararak's Evolution set for example.

That is a great point, thanks for pointing that out, that had never occurred to me. Also as I have mentioned before the last time I asked Mike in 2014 he said his readership is usually around 10,000 and that was almost 10 years ago. I just checked here and the DTF membership is currently only 2,592.

I used to go to the STS and Laughing Giraffe forum a lot more early on when I started sculpting for Safari Ltd but even though I have sculpted over 200 contemporary animals for them they rarely get mentioned on those forums (LG seems defunct now) and when it comes to their polls my pieces or even other Safari sculpts never even make it onto the narrow list of nominees. I have never won on those forums even when they do review one of my pieces and the reviewer declares it is the best figure of the species. The same goes for the ATF and ATB I look at the list of new posts occasionally and Safari and my pieces specifically rarely come up and I don't think any of my pieces have made one of their polls either so I will take an open poll with a larger readership any day.
BTW I didn't do the Spinosaurus and I forgot to vote again.
P.S. @Crackington I hope you and your girls get better soon.

[Pachyrhinosaurus]

@Pachyrhinosaurus thanks for posting the best figure results, but  would you mind letting us know what the other categories were too? I.e best fossil discovery and best book? My PT hasn't arrived yet....

Best Prehistoric Animal Book of 2021 is Dinosaurs Grand Tour by Keiron Pim, and the Best Prehistoric Animal Scientific Discovery is The New Look of Dilophosaurus.

I think the latest Safari spinosaurus is a good figure, but the baryonyx definitely deserved the recognition more. Between the spinosaurus' color scheme and coarse texture, it reminds me of a collectA figure.

[Concavenator]

and the Best Prehistoric Animal Scientific Discovery is The New Look of Dilophosaurus.

The paper describing the new look of Dilophosaurus was published on July 7th, 2020. Not 2021... 

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-paleontology/article/comprehensive-anatomical-and-phylogenetic-evaluation-of-dilophosaurus-wetherilli-dinosauria-theropoda-with-descriptions-of-new-specimens-from-the-kayenta-formation-of-northern-arizona/39C2921EDC6E951AC9F94A22158CA4E5#

[Ikessauro]

Just to clarify, my comment was also written to express more of a surprise than rage or anything like that. I guess my use (misuse perhaps??) of all caps and the English language might have ben interpreted as an expression of a negative feeling or something like that.

I edited my original comment to remove the all caps. I personally like the Safari Spinosaurus and I am in fact a huge fan of Safari Ltd.  I simply was surprised that with all the amazing pieces being made by PNSO, GRToys, DinoHazard and others, the readers of the magazine chose the Safari Spino, which is quite fine, of course, but I would not say the best of the year.

But I guess some readers might not even know the other upcoming brands or simply don't consider them toys per se, more like collectible statues? Who knows. My opinion is that if PT wants their contest of best of the year to be taken seriously, they should improve it for next year, clarifying what they mean by toys (ie. plastic figures, not resin etc).

That would make things more efficient. In the end of the day, the pool is not something of huge importance, just a fun way to interact with readers and whatever they do, it's fine by me. 

[Concavenator]

I personally like the Safari Spinosaurus and I am in fact a huge fan of Safari Ltd.  I simply was surprised that with all the amazing pieces being made by PNSO, GRToys, DinoHazard and others, the readers of the magazine chose the Safari Spino, which is quite fine, of course, but I would not say the best of the year.

But I guess some readers might not even know the other upcoming brands or simply don't consider them toys per se, more like collectible statues? Who knows. My opinion is that if PT wants their contest of best of the year to be taken seriously, they should improve it for next year, clarifying what they mean by toys (ie. plastic figures, not resin etc).

I feel exactly the same way.

[GojiraGuy1954]

@Pachyrhinosaurus Thank you for announcing the winners. For me, the fact the "best dinosaur figure of the year" award went for the Safari Spinosaurus means 2021 marked the year in which this award lost any possible seriousness and value. Up until recently, this award was meaningful, because Safari and CollectA represented the peak in the scientifically accurate prehistoric animal model market. Both CollectA and Safari (look at how much of an improvement the 2021 Safari Baryonyx is in comparison to the 2014 Suchomimus) have significantly improved, but now we have other companies (Eofauna, PNSO, GR Toys, Dino Hazard, Wild Past, DinoZoo...) that should also be considered by the magazine (in order for the award to be more objective / representative). It's very clear there's a very strong bias toward Safari in particular in that magazine, but as others have noted, the Baryonyx or the Daspletosaurus were more worthy of that title. In fact, I think the bias towards Safari is so big that one, if not the main, reason why the CollectA Doedicurus won is because Safari didn't release any non-dinosaurs last year. On the other hand, I think the CollectA Doedicurus is a worthy winner, that is, if the only companies to consider are either Safari or CollectA. If more companies could be voted, I think many of the non-dinosaurs released by PNSO last year could perfectly rival the Doedicurus.

And I don't mean to disrespect Safari, but I think that particular figure simply didn't deserve it. As I said, any of the other 2 Safari dinosaurs would have been better options. I think the only possible logic behind it winning is because it's the most popular species out of the 3 that Safari released.

Regarding the voting, how is it like? Does every subscriber interested in voting have to choose one out of a list, or can anyone vote for whatever figure they want from any company? I imagine this could be an important factor.

EDIT: It goes without saying our forum's award is way more representative than PT's at this point.

Best animated feature moment

[Shonisaurus]

I would understand that the baryonyx or even the daspletosaurus from Safari by Doug Watson would have been the best valued, but honestly the spinosaurus honestly seems to me to give Prehistoric Times an undeserved award.

On the other hand, I am glad that the Collecta doedicurus has been chosen as the best non-dinosaur prehistoric animal.

The spinosaurus from Safari as the best dinosaur figure seems disappointing to me. Honestly, it is a far superior figure to the Spinosaurus, its Baryonx counterpart, and honestly the best Baryonyx made to date.

[GojiraGuy1954]

Every figure I can remember from 2021 that is better than the 2021 Safari LTD Spinosaurus

Spoiler

PNSO A-Shu The Qianzhousaurus
PNSO Domingo The Carnotaurus
PNSO Bart The Pinacosaurus
PNSO Wyat The Parasaurolophus
PNSO Gamba The Carcharadontosaurus
PNSO Austin the Pachycephalosaurus
PNSO Yinqi the Yutyrannus
PNSO Paul the Allosaurus
PNSO Haylee the Helicoprion
PNSO Conner the Torvosaurus
PNSO Zaha the Dunkleosteus
PNSO Ivan the Olorotitan
PNSO Evan the Tylosaurus
PNSO Requena the Livyatan
PNSO Tuscun the Himalayasaurus
PNSO Aidan the Cretoxyrhina
PNSO Beiber the Stegosaurus
PNSO Jeff the Kronosaurus
PNSO Er-Ma the Mamenchisaurus
PNSO Doyle the Triceratops
PNSO Harvey the Iguanodon

DinoZoo Collectible Figures Kaatedocus

Papo Megalodon

Collecta Brontosaurus Corpse
Collecta Dilophosaurus
Collecta Doedicurus
Collecta Elasmosaurus
Collecta Kamuysaurus
Collecta Deluxe Mamenchisaurus
Collecta Pravitoceras
Collecta Deluxe Pteranodon
Collecta Xiphactinus

Safari LTD Baryonyx
Safari LTD Daspletosaurus

GR Toys Carcharodontosaurus

Wild Past Tethyshadros

Whatever Nanmu & Rebor released last year

EoFauna Triceratops "Dominant"
EoFauna Triceratops "Cryptic"

Dino Hazard Irritator

Schleich Kaprosuchus

[close]

[Fembrogon]

I kind of regret not voting as well. I hesitated to vote because I felt like I didn't own enough 2021 figures to judge fairly; but looking back now I certainly could have nominated at least a couple of figures like PNSO's Cretoxyrhina or Yvy Figures' Irritator.

[John]

*wrong thread

[Psittacoraptor]

I had never heard of this magazine before this thread, but any magazine poll is a reflection of its readership. Their website looks "prehistoric", to put it nicely, so maybe they like sticking to traditional brands when it comes to articles and ads, as well. Maybe its readers don't really use the social media channels where newer brands like PNSO share their product news exclusively. Maybe Safari puts lots of ads in the magazine. Or maybe a lot of people truly think the Safari Spinosaurus is the best figure of 2021. That would be strange, but everything is possible. In the end, it's not important anyway

[ceratopsian]

I'm a PT reader.  While the articles do focus on more vintage and traditional  themes, the "what's new" articles give some coverage to other brands than Safari and CollectA. I actually found my way into collecting dinosaur models through reading a sample copy of the magazine. But possibly I'm not a representative sample of their readership, given that I found out about the joys of PNSO and also resins from China fairly quickly. It is true that PNSO do not advertise in it. I don't think that magazine advertising would occur to them!

[Concavenator]

Why is it said the majority of PT's readership is older than the majority of our forum's members? I'm not subscribed to the magazine, but I've known it for years, and I actually learnt of it thanks to the forum.

Well there was an article on Chinese dinosaur brands in the last issue, heavily featuring PNSO and very favourably too. As they become more prominent and available in the US, l'm sure they'll clock up more votes among the readers.

Worth remembering that the PT readership is older in the main than on here, many still look at Collecta as a new-ish brand!

I don't understand why we have to assume their readership is that much outdated on being aware of the existence of non-Safari non-CollectA dinosaur model brands. Maybe they're not as up to date as we are, since we are keeping ourselves constantly informed by checking the forum, but at least I would expect a good portion of them know about this forum (and blog!) and also about Everything Dinosaur. If they visit any of these pages (this forum / ED) even once in a while they will get to know about news from new (for them) companies. Saying they're older and thereby they don't know about other companies feels like an excuse imo.

I believe there's a very apparent bias to Safari in the magazine for whatever reason. My argument behind saying they're biased to Safari, and not to CollectA too, is because I have observed that years in which the majority of the forum felt the best figure of the year was from CollectA, the winner ended up being a Safari figure nonetheless.

2014: PT winner - Safari Monolophosaurus / Forum winner: CollectA Carcharodontosaurus
2018: PT winner - Safari Malawisaurus / Forum winner: CollectA Iguanodon

Not to mention on 2016, the CollectA Beishanlong was said to be more exciting than the Safari Iguanodon by a fair amount of people:

http://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=5337.msg159367#msg159367

If that reason is availability, well, we forum members still purchase stuff from PNSO, Eofauna, GR Toys, Dino Hazard, Kaiyodo, Favorite, Nanmu and more, online. If the majority of their readership are older American people, then I believe they also appreciate Battat, and when in 2014, Battat reappeared with the Terra line (which came out of the blue), the magazine still voted the Safari Monolophosaurus as best of 2014. For 2020, they voted the Safari Deinonychus as best dinosaur figure of the year. On 2020 PNSO released quite a few models, and we also had the GR Spinosaurus, new Vitae figures, and the 1st wave of BotM ceratopsians. But even so, I still feel the Deinonychus was a worthy winner (the forum thinks so too):

https://youtu.be/3iqe4uWeJ1E

But this year's isn't totally the case. I'm not criticising Mike Fredericks or even the PT magazine, I'm not subscribed, but I'm sure the magazine offers quality content. All I have said is related to, specifically, that particular award. I have always been interested in learning about this award. In fact, many times it was me who even started asking about the results before they even came out:

2019: http://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=7512.msg221308#msg221308
2020: http://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=8458.msg249471#msg249471
2021: this thread 

But after seeing this year's result, as @Ikessauro said, I simply can't take this award seriously anymore, I have lost interest in it.
And I don't think this award is as irrelevant as some people here imply. On Safari's website, and on CollectA's catalog they mention when a figure won this award. I don't see why winning the PT award is a reason for companies to mention it on their figures, but our forum's award isn't. If anything, and if the PT readership really is outdated / biased to more traditional companies, then our forum's award should, at least, be equally as relevant, since we are keeping us constantly informed and have a wider knowledge on dinosaur model companies. Maybe if this forum created a magazine, would we be considered? 

PD: I'm not hating on Safari (at least the Safari Spinosaurus deserved it more than the Schleich Pachycephalosaurus, right?!), in fact in my collection 16 out of 28 figures are from Safari. I'm just saying the Safari Spino didn't deserve it (that's not to say it's bad, it's alright, but just being alright doesn't justify winning the "Best Dinosaur Figure of 2021" award when there were a lot of spectacular releases from not only other companies, but also by Safari itself. Views my own.

[Fembrogon]

PT was definitely one of my first stepping stones into serious collecting and broader awareness of the toy market. The "Collectors' Corner" and "What's New in Review" journals were my way of keeping up with Safari & Carnegie releases back before I found the DTB, and it was my first introduction to the Collecta line (back when it was still Procon!).
The magazine regularly features advertisements from a variety of companies & stores, including Safari ltd, Collecta, Dejankins, and recently Happy Hen Toys (who certainly promote their PNSO offerings). That said, I certainly dont know how many subscribers are actively buying dinosaur toys, much less how many of them voted (I didn't - oops). They do have a FB page as well, which I'm part of; but I don't usually see much about merchandise/collecting there, besides I think Suspy's occasional reviews.

[John]

Here is another possibility:The readers of Prehistoric Times are well aware of this forum,but the obnoxious ranting over the results of the best toy polls every year makes them not care.

[Duna]

I subscribed for a month (last March) in Magzter to read the Prehistoric Times magazines online. I read only the pages I was interested, but browsed all of them and I enjoyed them very much. I highly recommend it.
I noticed that the first issues talked more about Safari and Collecta new figures in What's new, but later issues mention Eofauna, PNSO (less, but some shops mention them in their adds) ...
But yes, the people who vote in for Best Figure of the year are too biased towards Safari, probably because those readers are collectors from the "old times" and they have a liking for Safari as an old brand. They won't pay much attention to vote for better figures for example from Eofauna or PNSO.

[Crackington]

Who knows, why they voted for the Spinosaurus? However, I had a look at earlier issues and our own @DC , Randy Knol mentioned in his column that the figure had sold out at one point last year, so it was clearly popular.

@Pachyrhinosaurus - thanks for letting me know the other category results. I forgot to ask for best model kit, but my PT has now arrived and for those interested it was Joe Laudati's 1964 World Fair Triceratops kit.

@Concavenator - I wouldn't over think the poll, it's a small fun thing in a magazine, not the dinosaur Oscars. Phil Currie will not be slapping Gregory St Paul at its award ceremony! Far more words have been expanded here on it than the tiny boxes on page 5 announcing the poll and then later giving the results.

@Doug Watson - thanks for your comments and kind words, I didn't realise PT had such a large readership. I'm still not fully recovered and had a few scary days with a hospital visit, but thankfully starting to come through it. Mrs Crackington's tested positive though so now focussing on looking after her.

[Stegotyranno420]

I don't know why some folks are a bit upset, or atleast disappointed.
Sure, that Spinosaurus was not my favorite, but I think it's about time the sculptor got some love, as I have only heard negatively about it. Just let them have their moment