Safari Ltd - new for 2015

[tyrantqueen]

Safari Ltd. is the parent company of both the Wild Safari and the Carnegie line. The Carnegie line is named as such because it's a collaboration between the museum and the Safari Ltd. company. Therefore, both releases go in the same thread. At least, that's how I've understood it.

[amanda]

Traditionally we have tended to view the Carnegie and WS figures as going in the same thread.

**waits for SBell to pop by and explain it all**

[SBell]

Traditionally we have tended to view the Carnegie and WS figures as going in the same thread.

**waits for SBell to pop by and explain it all**

I figure if people don't understand it by now I'm not going to type it all out again.

[Concavenator]

Once again, Wild Safari (easily) laps Carnegie.  Does Safari even care any longer about their Carnegie dinosaur line?  Or is the parent company going to let Wild Safari lead the dinosaur way and perhaps discontinue the foundering Carnegie "Museum" dinosaur line?

I pointed out something similar.Safari putting more efforts on their Wild Safari dinosaurs rather than Carnegie's.And I've always preffered Carnegie,but lately things have completely changed.The Wild Safari dinisaur lineup gets more powerful...and Carnegie remains the same since 2013.

[amargasaurus cazaui]

Traditionally we have tended to view the Carnegie and WS figures as going in the same thread.

**waits for SBell to pop by and explain it all**

respective of SBell and all, then I have to ask..why do we have a thread for Wild Safari Old and New if we are going to use the Carnegie thread for Safari products?>

[Saurian]

Traditionally we have tended to view the Carnegie and WS figures as going in the same thread.

**waits for SBell to pop by and explain it all**

respective of SBell and all, then I have to ask..why do we have a thread for Wild Safari Old and New if we are going to use the Carnegie thread for Safari products?>

what a movie in your profile with psittacosaurus?

[amanda]

Saurian, 'tis the opening scenes from Transformers: Age of Extinction.

[Saurian]

I did not watch any movie Transformers!,see now because of this scene 

[amanda]

It is a very short scene in the beginning.

[Pinkamena]

*Snuggles* I need these two...

[Simon]

Once again, Wild Safari (easily) laps Carnegie.  Does Safari even care any longer about their Carnegie dinosaur line?  Or is the parent company going to let Wild Safari lead the dinosaur way and perhaps discontinue the foundering Carnegie "Museum" dinosaur line?

I pointed out something similar.Safari putting more efforts on their Wild Safari dinosaurs rather than Carnegie's.And I've always preffered Carnegie,but lately things have completely changed.The Wild Safari dinisaur lineup gets more powerful...and Carnegie remains the same since 2013.

At some point they have to consider the "overlap" between their two dinosaur lines ... do they really appeal to two different segments of the buying public .... or are they simply competing against each other, and causing the parent company additional cost in having to run two dinosaur production operations?  With the proliferation of other quality competitors (Collecta, Papo, Battat) does it make sense for them to consolidate from a financial staindpoint?

My guess is that the answer to this question is (almost always) "yes", but that doesn't mean that they will pull the plug on the Carnegie line right away - (not so long as it is still turning a profit)...still, the dwindling number of new Carnegie figures (the Velociraptor is basically a 2014 unreleased figure, isn't it?) doesn't bode well for Carnegie's longevity...

[Concavenator]

Once again, Wild Safari (easily) laps Carnegie.  Does Safari even care any longer about their Carnegie dinosaur line?  Or is the parent company going to let Wild Safari lead the dinosaur way and perhaps discontinue the foundering Carnegie "Museum" dinosaur line?

I pointed out something similar.Safari putting more efforts on their Wild Safari dinosaurs rather than Carnegie's.And I've always preffered Carnegie,but lately things have completely changed.The Wild Safari dinisaur lineup gets more powerful...and Carnegie remains the same since 2013.

At some point they have to consider the "overlap" between their two dinosaur lines ... do they really appeal to two different segments of the buying public .... or are they simply competing against each other, and causing the parent company additional cost in having to run two dinosaur production operations?  With the proliferation of other quality competitors (Collecta, Papo, Battat) does it make sense for them to consolidate from a financial staindpoint?

My guess is that the answer to this question is (almost always) "yes", but that doesn't mean that they will pull the plug on the Carnegie line right away - (not so long as it is still turning a profit)...still, the dwindling number of new Carnegie figures (the Velociraptor is basically a 2014 unreleased figure, isn't it?) doesn't bode well for Carnegie's longevity...

So...you think Carnegie isn't going to be around in some years?I really hope not 

[Simon]

I have no idea, just making observations.  If Carnegie remains profitable and their old figures keep selling, they will probably keep the line alive ... but the fact that they have cut down their new releases to ONE for 2015 (and that one was really made for 2014 just never released), leads me to think that they see no profit in trying to keep Carnegie putting out 4-5 new sculpts a year.

The problem is that while Carnegie has billed itself as the "Museum Line" that should theoretically appeal to collectors, the reality is that the quality/accuracy of the WS sculpts have surpassed Carnegie's. Carnegie's big releases the past 5-6 years have mostly been theropods, and, in my opinion, they have been uniformly AWFUL.  That is a problem for a toy line that bills itself as being something more than your run-of-the-mill dinosaur toy manufacturer.

They have been lapped by Collecta, Battat, and their own WS line.  So I would imagine that they should be doing some analysis of theirbusiness model about now....

[amanda]

I do not tink that CollectA has surpassed them just yet. I liked their Carnotaurus, Brachiosaurus and Miragaia. Really they have been cutting back to one for a few years now. WS has definitely stepped up, but I would not quite say surpassed. True, this year's offering, and their Tyrannosaurus are not the best. But with the Tyrannosaur I think it comes down to paint application being cruddy and not the sculpt which is rather nice, albeit over priced.Battat Terra is better, but only mid range figures, so really is more comparable to WS.

[ITdactyl]

These are just wonderful figures....

And the more Yutyrannus sculpts I see, the more I feel like joining the "it's not even a tyrannosauroid" band wagon... lol 

Bracing the wallet now..... things will get rough....

[amargasaurus cazaui]

My own two cents is the entire reasoning process here is flawed in two basic ways...First have we ascertained Carnegie only releases dinosaur figures or are they doing other marketing which would provide more soild income? Are there othe figures and models etc that carnegie markets where their central profit may be with dinosaurs being more a headache than their bread and butter?
Secondarily is it possible that the market of dinosaurs itself was never that profitable nor does it remain a large source of income for a museum anyway? If they in fact have never done that well financially from the line, then  to them the entire process may amount to going through the motions....Anyone?

[John]

To me all the models from Safari's 2015 Carnegie and Wild Safari releases are very nice,but the Wild Safari Yutyrannus is my favorite of this bunch. 

[Meso-Cenozoic]

Carnegie's big releases the past 5-6 years have mostly been theropods, and, in my opinion, they have been uniformly AWFUL.  That is a problem for a toy line that bills itself as being something more than your run-of-the-mill dinosaur toy manufacturer.

They have been lapped by Collecta, Battat, and their own WS line.

aw·ful
adjective:   
1. very bad or unpleasant.   
    synonyms: disgusting, horrible, terrible, dreadful, ghastly, nasty, vile, foul, revolting, repulsive, repugnant, odious, sickening, nauseating.

Really??? "Uniformly AWFUL." -- in all caps! And BTW, there have been only 6 theropods made in the past 6 years compared to 5 non-theropods. So I believe "mostly" is a bit of an exaggeration, too.
Within the past 6 years, the theropods would include: 2008 Giga, 2009 Spino, 2010 Cryo, 2011 Carno, 2013 Concavenator, 2014 T. rex, and the upcoming 2015 Velociraptor. -- All uniformly AWFUL? Even the Carno?? LOL!
First off, they are all probably the most anatomically accurate "toy" representations of these animals around today. Something CollectA to this day still can't proclaim. WS has been coming really close. But they don't need the museum's approval. So I think they're able to take a bit more artistic liberties. Battat-Terra have been pretty accurate so far, thanks to Dan LoRusso. But their mass-produced figures are a bit more rough around the edges.

I think where Carnegie has started to fall short is in their most recent paint apps, with the exception of the 2015 Velociraptor, that seems to also have some feather issues. But the anatomy of the sculpt itself I believe is quite accurate. I really don't see these paint problems starting till 2013's Concavenator. Before that, I think they're quite beautifully done. The only other "problem" I think there is is in the aesthetics. The poses seem to be getting a little predictable for their theropods. But that's the art of the figure. It doesn't necessarily make them awful, though. The "art" part is subjective. Not wrong.

So I guess I just don't see the reason for the extreme hatred of their theropod line. Besides the paint and poses of their most recent bipedal meat-eaters, which I think are minor concerns -- figures can be repainted and re-posed, my only gripe is I wish they would release more than one figure per year again. Other than that, I'll keep sticking with them, with hopes of them replacing some of their mass-producing painters and coming up with some fresh alternate poses.

(Just for the record, the other 5 non-theropod figures produced within those years I think are very well done and quite beautiful.)

[amanda]

I agree. I have the Miagaia, Carnotaurus and Brachiosaurus and love them all. I hardly think carnegie is washed up just yet. A bit 9more than...) predictable recently, but certainly not awful. Err..at least not to me. I have not bought the majority of the meat eaters, just due to lack of interest. I have seen the Giga in person and like it, just not enough to grab.

[Alexxitator]

They have been lapped by ... Battat....

Really? I really do not get the big fuss about Battat figures. Imho they are poorly painted glossy monstrosities. Some of the figures are very nicely sculpted, but that paintjob just kills them for me.
Having said that. Safari has it's problems. On one hand you have gems such as Kaprosuchus, Rhamphorhynchus, Suchomimus, Acrocanthosaurus, Dunkleosteus and Apatosaurus... On the other there are Spinosaurus, Tyrannosaurus and maybe their Allosaurus. Then again; with almost each new incarnation of a model they produce it's miles ahead of it's predecessor. With the exception of Tyrannosaurus ofcourse. So both Spino and Allo should be redone shortly.

In short: I disagree.