Re-issue of Battat former Museum of Science Boston Series

[ItsTwentyBelow]

I had a very strong feeling that this would be the case in the end, and I'm sorry to see that I presumed right.

This is most assuredly not what Mr. LoRusso would have wanted to happen.

[tyrantqueen]

There's still a small chance it's still happening. They didn't outright say the line has ended. I suppose if you're a pessimist you could read between the lines to say that it has, but you never know. Obviously the Terra line can't continue, but do they need LoRusso around to recast the old Battats?

[ItsTwentyBelow]

I appreciate your optimism!

It would be wonderful if the line continues somehow, or we get another re-release in the future.

[suspsy]

I asked Battat if they were at least in possession of the prototype moulds. Their response was not encouraging:

We are sorry, but we do not have any updates that we are able to share with you regarding upcoming dinosaurs.

I don't know, perhaps if more people email them asking about the line, it would help persuade them that it's worth pursuing?

[Flaffy]

We could try, but the odds are not in our favor...
We'll see. 

[Simon]

That is just so .... typically Battat .... they had the best dinosaur line in the 1990s, but they just didn't care about it and discontinued it, since it wasn't really what they made their money on .... I can't say that I am surprised .... I find it hard to believe that they lost money with the Target deal - yes, they sell them dirt cheap, but volume sales are where its at, and to me it seemed like they were flying off the shelves ...

.... what a shame - I was looking forward to the fun of checking out the stores looking for the next release for a couple more years ....

[Victoria's Cantina]

Not encouraging news, but it doesn't sound like a completely done deal. At least not with the way they worded their response. It probably wouldn't hurt to write them (letters are generally best), asking for them to honor Dan's memory by releasing the remainder of the line. The more they hear that people are willing to support the line, the better the chance may be of them continuing it (even if it's a slim chance).

My Targets still have a healthy assortment of these dinos and seem to restock them pretty regularly. It seems that they do sell through, which is awesome since they're attractively priced and of good quality.

[sauroid]

is it possible for another company like Safari Ltd. to buy the rights to reissue the Battat line? 

[tyrantqueen]

I don't know, perhaps if more people email them asking about the line, it would help persuade them that it's worth pursuing?

We'd need hundreds of people emailing them to make a difference. I just don't see that happening. Especially when you consider this is a niche within a niche hobby.

[Halichoeres]

To me the response sounds too cagey to draw any conclusions from. In the face of ambiguous evidence, I'm going to hold out hope.

[ItsTwentyBelow]

I think the response from Battat coupled with the fact that we didn't see any new figures start trickling out last month, is a good indicator that the line is probably on indefinite hiatus. There have been new August releases for the past two years.

There's still nothing new on their website, just the current dinosaurs that were all released by December of last year.

[Doug Watson]

I would hope they would eventually release the new pieces that Dan had prototyped and also the old Battat pieces they had planned under the Dan Lorusso Collection. After that I would not want to see another artist take over the line but they may need someone to do new paint jobs on the old pieces. I don't see a problem with that. After those are all done if they want to bring out new dinosaurs they should just have a new Terra Dinosaur line if they can find someone they can work with.

[tyrantqueen]

I still want Gregory Wenzel to work on the line. I don't think that's gonna happen either though.

[Doug Watson]

I still want Gregory Wenzel to work on the line. I don't think that's gonna happen either though.

That would be the perfect solution since some of the reissues were sculpted by him anyway but it seems he has moved on from dinosaur sculpting. Plus they might have to rename the line from The Dan Lorusso Collection.

[terrorchicken]

I dont understand why Dan passing has affected the release of the line if he already made the 4 new prototypes and the color repaint samples. Are they unwilling to continue a line b/c its creator is recently deceased and they feel its in bad taste?

[Doug Watson]

I dont understand why Dan passing has affected the release of the line if he already made the 4 new prototypes and the color repaint samples. Are they unwilling to continue a line b/c its creator is recently deceased and they feel its in bad taste?

As someone mentioned they could be dealing with legalities between the company and the estate. I have to admit I have started thinking about the difficulties my family might face if I died in the middle of an assignment. Not fun or a priority to deal with those things while you are dealing with the loss.

[tyrantqueen]

I still want Gregory Wenzel to work on the line. I don't think that's gonna happen either though.

That would be the perfect solution since some of the reissues were sculpted by him anyway but it seems he has moved on from dinosaur sculpting. Plus they might have to rename the line from The Dan Lorusso Collection.

Man, if I could sculpt like him, I'd never want to do anything different. But what do I know...

[Tyrannosauron]

I can all but guarantee that the MOS repaints will be released within days after I finally break down and overpay for an original Diplodocus.

[FlawedCoil82]

Well, I will happily add my support to writing Terra (after the holiday weekend) but I do not know how much good it will do. The entire reason that I started collecting these figures was to help insure the eventual release of Triceratops and Styracosaurus. If I can not get the figures of those two then the rest of the figures I bought will have little reason to stay in my hands. Of course, I would want to make sure that the line was dead before I made any final decisions. But yea....that would totally suck if these figures would never see the light of day. As others have said, I am sure Dan would never have wanted the line to die with him. If Terra needed to raise the prices in order to perhaps donate a percentage of the proceeds to charity or cancer research,  I would totally be alright with that. There are many out there who have wanted these figures at a decent price for so long now.....to see us come this close just to have them snatched back away towards the end is simply unfair.

[Flaffy]

I was most excited about the styracosaurus, diplodocus, ouranosaurus and europasaurus. Unfortunately all of them have not been released yet...