Safari Ltd - new for 2015

[leidy]

Right. Reminds me of that possible Asian hadrosaur nesting set..was it Kaiyodo?
Maybe a toob set eventually..they'll exhaust all their options at some point.. lol

YES. Dinosaur community Toobs. They could do whole ecosystems, like a Morrison Formation set. Have a Toob with Theropods, another one with Sauropods, Ornithischians and so forth. Then Campanian - oh stop dreaming, Triceratops83...

It wouldn't be a bad way to go..if only the market supported it.

I don't see why not.  So long as there's variety in the choice of species and the sculpts are good, I think their chances are no worse than some of the previous tubes they've done.  The only issue I can see is if they flooded the market with all of these in the one year, and even then, who knows.

Grouping dinosaurs by fossil assemblage seems like a pretty obvious way to do it.  Who wouldn't want a Hell Creek set?

[sauroid]

the AAA Iguanodon is on all fours, tho it has a "horseface"

[triceratops83]

If there was any one figure I'd LOVE to see for 2016 it would be a Doug Watson sculpt of this - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Anchiceratops_ornatus_skeleton.jpg
A beautiful animal well suited to sculpts Safari has spoiled us with. I think it would be among the most elegant of dinosaur figures.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

The Dinostoreus Iguanodon is on all fours :

[tyrantqueen]

I can think of plenty of resin kits that are on all fours.

And yes, the Dinostoreus Iguanodon is very good. Although I feel the scale is a little off, it's too large to be a 1/35, more like a 1/30.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

I can think of plenty of resin kits that are on all fours.

And yes, the Dinostoreus Iguanodon is very good. Although I feel the scale is a little off, it's too large to be a 1/35, more like a 1/30.

Could just be an overly long,large or robust specimen. I like to give a little leeway here and there. Helps my stress levels. lol

[Dan]

http://youtu.be/7HPKH9g1hZI

[Dinomike]

Thanks for the video Dan! I think people at Safari have outdone themselves!  Those are truly amazing models by any standard!  Must haves!

[triceratops83]

The music made me envision some classy dinosaur themed restaurant.

[sauroid]

the Nasutoceratops looks so cool. (the dave brubeck "someday my prince will come" soundtrack is awesome too)

[Daspletodave]

The video is the icing on the cake. These two dinos are MUST HAVES!!!

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Nice video Dan!

I keep wanting to display all of Doug's ceratopsian's together..but it means pulling them out the dios I have them in..lol

[Bokisaurus]

Well, well, so here is the first two Safari ( WildSafari line) figure I got.
First up is the first of 3 Nasutoceratops coming out in 2015 - the WildSafari version.
It's a nice figure for sure, I say I like it better than it's Diablo predecessor. The one thing that I'm really hoping for is some sort of "personality", the figure itself is beautiful and nicely sculpted, but somehow looks static, not sure, maybe it's the pose...
I love the figure and can't wait to see it next to the other two figures, I think it would be very interesting to see them all side-by-side.
[

With it's predecessors from the last few years - a nice collection of Doug's ceratopsians. Safari should keep on asking him to make ceratopsians.
[


And then we have Sauropelta
I have to admit, I like this figure much better in person than in any photos I have seen, and I'm not even a fan of the group
There are plenty of nice details on this guy.
[
And here he is with CollectA's Polacanthus from this year. They actually look really good together. CollectA's figure is slightly smaller in size.
[

The pair
[

Cheers!

[ignite444]

Wow, the Sauropelta looks much better than in any other photo I've seen! I might pick it up in the future.

[Manatee]

Yes indeed it does! I'm hoping that I'll receive it for Christmas later this week, but if not I will still certainly pick it up. As for the Nasuto, it pretty much looks the same as it did in its preliminary pictures: which is to say, really great!

[leidy]

Well, well, so here is the first two Safari ( WildSafari line) figure I got.
First up is the first of 3 Nasutoceratops coming out in 2015 - the WildSafari version.
It's a nice figure for sure, I say I like it better than it's Diablo predecessor. The one thing that I'm really hoping for is some sort of "personality", the figure itself is beautiful and nicely sculpted, but somehow looks static, not sure, maybe it's the pose...
I love the figure and can't wait to see it next to the other two figures, I think it would be very interesting to see them all side-by-side.

With it's predecessors from the last few years - a nice collection of Doug's ceratopsians. Safari should keep on asking him to make ceratopsians.

And then we have Sauropelta
I have to admit, I like this figure much better in person than in any photos I have seen, and I'm not even a fan of the group
There are plenty of nice details on this guy.

And here he is with CollectA's Polacanthus from this year. They actually look really good together. CollectA's figure is slightly smaller in size.

The pair


Cheers!

Wow!  has to has.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Great pics Boki!

[Sim]

leidy, please can you only quote what's necessary?   It's annoying to have to scroll past all of the quoted post again.  Removing the images would really help.   One of this forum's rules is to avoid quoting entire posts if it isn't necessary, especially ones that contain many images.

Safari Ltd. obligates her to pose their theropods that way.

I remember reading it's Carnegie, not Safari, that's been getting Forest Rogers to pose the theropods she makes in that awful tripod pose.

I recently did a review on the new Carnegie model. While I like what they were going for, the head is just a big fat no. I'm also getting sick of the models being tripods. This raptor would have been perfect had it been in a natural walking or running position as well as having a better head sculpt. Luckily I only had to pay 10 bucks for it.

Velociraptor's my favourite dinosaur, and back when I liked what Carnegie was making I hoped they'd make a great new one.  Even though I haven't liked the new Carnegie figures for years (the last thing I liked from them was the 2010 Cryolophosaurus) I was disappointed by this Velociraptor.  I dislike the colour scheme on its head and that the head is featherless.  Given Velociraptor's size, it seems more likely that it would've had a feathered head.  The arm feathers don't look right either.  I also don't like feather crests, or this Velociraptor's pose.

Forest Rogers is an excellent sculptor.  Some decisions Carnegie has been making has made me lose interest in the line though.  The tripod pose bothers me most, but I also don't like the lack of a consistent scale.  I'm also put off by the painted on dates (which is a problem for the Wild Safari line too).  I don't know why Safari doesn't use the number dial other companies are using instead.  The Carnegie Collection has lots of potential, but I feel they're only using a part of it.  This line's last 8 theropods have all been in basically the same pose (which on some is worse than on others).  If that doesn't suggest there's a problem I don't know what does...

[Arul]

Thank you boki 

[Sim]

Not so odd - you have to remember that Iguanodon evolved earlier (probably from bipedal ancestors), was smaller and lighter than the later evolving hadrosaurs, and Iguanodon was itself bipedal (as the tracks prove). It probably used its "hands" in feeding and self-defense.
Hadrosaurs like Edmontosaurus were simply huge, and quadruped - only going bipedal as an emergency escape mechanism. Because of the padding on their "hands" they probably could not use them at all for feeding or self-defense, they used them as legs.
The same thing happened with the prosauropods vs sauropods. Plateosaurus has recently been proven to be bipedal. As sauropods evolved and got ever bigger, their sheer weight forced them into a quadruped stance. No sauropods were bipedal (nor could they rear up).

Actually Iguanodon is quite big at 10m, with some specimens possibly reaching 13m!  Looking at its body, it seems quite well adapted for bipedal and quadrupedal movement.  I get the impression hadrosaurs spent most of their time on 4 legs, but when necessary they would go on 2 legs.  The parts of Iguanodon's and Edmontosaurus' Wikipedia pages that talk about their posture support these things respectively, and also have interesting information on what posture they would have at different times in their life.  Like this that I didn't know - Edmontosaurus would have actually been faster galloping on 4 legs rather than running on 2, while Iguanodon was unable to gallop and could only reach its maximum speed bipedally!

As useful as it would be, "prosauropod" is unfortunately no longer considered a scientific term (despite still being widely used).  Regarding basal sauropodomorphs (aka "prosauropods") and sauropods, it's true that most basal sauropodomorphs are bipedal (Melanorosaurus seems to be quadrupedal) and sauropods are quadrupedal.  Intrestingly, while adult Massospondylus were entirely bipedal, their babies were quadrupedal although they were incapable of effective locomotion and were born without teeth.  They also only left the nesting sites once they doubled in size.  These things suggest the babies required postnatal care.  As for whether sauropods could rear up, this post by Dinoguy2 from the Rearing Sauropods thread is relevant:

Regarding whether or not sauropods could rear, here's what the actual biomechanics science shows:
http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=fbXwAAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA237&dq=sauropod+tripodal&ots=0U1OGt7Xtd&sig=X-QH7QuYwRtn7tS6-Wb6pD86Ns8

Diplodocus could rear easily and without spending very much energy or effort (Darren Naish has even suggested on his podcast that it would be very little problem for them to walk bipedally if they needed to). Brachiosaurus and titsnosaurs could not rear, their spines And tails could not support the forces necessary.

Heinrich Mallison (see paper linked above) concluded that not only could diplodocids rear, they were so well adapted to a tripodal posture this might have been their normal feeding position!

There's also this from the sauropod Wikipedia page:

Heinrich Mallison (in 2009) was the first to study the physical potential for various sauropods to rear into a tripodal stance. Mallison found that some characters previously linked to rearing adaptations were actually unrelated (such as the wide-set hip bones of titanosaurs) or would have hindered rearing. For example, titanosaurs had an unusually flexible backbone, which would have decreased stability in a tripodal posture and would have put more strain on the muscles. Likewise, it is unlikely that brachiosaurids could rear up onto the hind legs, as their center of gravity was much farther forward than other sauropods, which would cause such a stance to be unstable.

Diplodocids, on the other hand, appear to have been well adapted for rearing up into a tripodal stance. Diplodocids had a center of mass directly over the hips, giving them greater balance on two legs. Diplodocids also had the most mobile necks of sauropods, a well-muscled pelvic girdle, and tail vertebrae with a specialised shape that would allow the tail to bear weight at the point it touched the ground. Mallison concluded that diplodocids were better adapted to rearing than elephants, which do so occasionally in the wild. He also argues that stress fractures in the wild do not occur from everyday behaviour, such as feeding-related activities (contra Rothschild and Molnar).

There are also footprints of a juvenile Apatosaurus that show that juveniles of this animal could run on their hind legs.  Looking at the skeletons of brachiosaurids always made me think they couldn't rear up, so I'm a bit surprised when other people haven't thought that too.

Sorry for the long post!