Carnegie Collection Discontinued

[amargasaurus cazaui]

Carnegie Diplodocus is averaging $80 on Amazon. I should have bought it for $18 when I had the chance a few years ago... It would have made for a really good paint custom piece.

That doesn't sound right - that one wasn't retired any earlier than the rest of the line. It should still be available for the ~$35 that it used to list for.

Are we discussing the older model that was around for years or the more current recent resculpt? Either one of them at that price sounds kinda silly....I bounced over to Dejankins site just to investigate and found the resculpt listed for a princely 29 dollars, and the older version for sale at a total price of 21.00 so....hmmm.

[RobinGoodfellow]

Sad news that Carnegie line will be discontinued.
Today I ordered some few Carnegie models missing from my collection.
Honestly modern sculptures are pretty good but oldest model are so and so....
Old ones are good toys (and collectables ) but poor prehistoric models.
But I'll miss it....   

[alexeratops]

NO... how could they do this to us?? I was gonna get all of them! Now they are only going to be on Ebay for REALLY HIGH PRICES! Poor Carnegie... what did they ever do to deserve this? Darnit safari!!

[SBell]

Carnegie Diplodocus is averaging $80 on Amazon. I should have bought it for $18 when I had the chance a few years ago... It would have made for a really good paint custom piece.

That doesn't sound right - that one wasn't retired any earlier than the rest of the line. It should still be available for the ~$35 that it used to list for.

Are we discussing the older model that was around for years or the more current recent resculpt? Either one of them at that price sounds kinda silly....I bounced over to Dejankins site just to investigate and found the resculpt listed for a princely 29 dollars, and the older version for sale at a total price of 21.00 so....hmmm.

The original price for the new Diplodocus was about $30, so that's about right.

[Concavenator]

Wait...parting ways?Does this mean Carnegie will still making models?

[Everything_Dinosaur]

From what we know at Everything Dinosaur, based in the UK, we think there was a gradual recognition from both parties that the museum was not really in the business of making replicas and supporting the Safari Ltd brand.  From Safari's perspective, far be it from us to comment for them, but clearly they were able to produce many more new lines into their Wild Safari Dinos range than were coming out from the Carnegie connection.  Safari Ltd are actively exploring the possibility of setting up a similar agreement with other museums and educational bodies, as alluded to in the official press release.  However, we would be surprised to hear of any announcement this year with regards to a new working relationship with another party.  In all likelihood, as negotiations with museums can take a long time over matters such as this it may be a couple of years before any new agreement is in place.

This is our blog article on the "parting of the ways": End of the Line for Carneige Collectibles

[Shonisaurus]

It is a sad story from the point of view of a dinosaur toy collector.
With the exception of the female Allosaurus Oviraptor Protoceratops nest, all other figures fortunately arrived back in the day
I Respect the position of Carnegie, not to produce more figures, but still do not Understand, Had memorable figures as diplodocus, carnotaurus, tylosaurus, Spinosaurus and Giganotosaurus That HAD stood in Recent years as a beauty in Its accuracy.
,, Moreover, it is not comparable to Schleich and Bullyland as people Have Said dinotoyblog.com/forum, Carnegie was one of exceptional quality, the other factories Were more oriented to more children and less interested in collectible figurines. 

[Daspletodave]

Personally I can't see Safari wanting to get into an exclusive contract with another museum similar to the deal they had with the Carnegie Museum. Staying out of deals like that will give them the flexibility to do whatever dinos they want to do in whatever scale. But they could still do "one-offs" similar to Favorite's Tamba sauropod and Concavenator, or the Bullyland ones. That way their hands wouldn't be tied. I'd love to see them do another short series like the "Dinosaurs of China". Or they could simply expand the number of annual releases in their Wild Safari line. With the Carnegie line gone, they have good reason to do new models of all those creatures that were in the Carnegie line but not already in the Wild Safari line, such as Iguanodon.

As for the Carnegie Museum, I can't see them finding a new toy company to "take over" the Carnegie Museum line from Safari. Any disagreements they may have had with Safari would probably occur with any other manufacturer out there. As it is there is a glut of manufacturers of plastic dinosaurs out there, so it's not likely someone new will pop up and want to revive this series. And before someone says, "But Battat came back!' - let me point out that Battat was the toy company that "came back", while it was the Boston Museum of Science that never again did another dinosaur toy series. And you can add the British Natural History Museum (Invicta and Toyway) and the German museum that sponsored the Schleich replica-saurus line.  Those museums got out of the dinosaur toy business.

[tanystropheus]

Carnegie Diplodocus is averaging $80 on Amazon. I should have bought it for $18 when I had the chance a few years ago... It would have made for a really good paint custom piece.

That doesn't sound right - that one wasn't retired any earlier than the rest of the line. It should still be available for the ~$35 that it used to list for.

Are we discussing the older model that was around for years or the more current recent resculpt? Either one of them at that price sounds kinda silly....I bounced over to Dejankins site just to investigate and found the resculpt listed for a princely 29 dollars, and the older version for sale at a total price of 21.00 so....hmmm.

The newer model. The lowest price on Amazon is $72.31. I wonder if there are individuals that anticipated Carnegie's fate and are taking advantage of the situation. They would have to have 'inside' knowledge before the fact, though or be really good (or really bad, depending on resale value?) at forecasting market trends. Plus, aren't Carnegie models too widely distributed to lead to scarcity and a corresponding price hike?

[tyrantqueen]

Meh, in my opinion, museum authenticity is overrated. Especially given how the term is thrown around nowadays. CollectA and Kaiyodo, for example, are releasing great models that do not have the backing of an official museum.

[Patrx]

That's a valid point, TQ. Looking again at the recent Wild Safari figures, they've been really accurate, independent of any link to a museum. Compare that to the latest Carnegie Velociraptor. I don't think museum affiliation is any guarantee of anatomical accuracy.

[laticauda]

My first thought was NOOOOO, not Carnegie.   I was in as much disbelief as Luke when he learned the Vader was his father.  When I took a minute to breathe, thought about it objectively, and disregarded the nostalgia, I found that I had no problem with it at all. When Carnegie came out, to me their was nothing, I MEAN NOTHING like the Carnegie dinosaur toys in my little corner of the world.  They were no longer little plastic play things, they were accurate (ish) up to date scientific  versions of prehistoric animals in a awesome size.  At that time, coupled with JP movies, it was a revolution on what the general public expected from prehistoric animal, and toys.  Now a days, we've all been saying that the Safari's WS line was equal to or better than the Carnegie's.  Not to mention, with so many companies doing very nice, thought out, current data approved toys right now, Carnegie does not represent what it did back in the beginning which for me was the early 90's. 

Carnegie will not be missed by me, but it is shall be remembered.  It was a Toy line that really made the current companies (or other Safari lines) push harder for more accurate Dinosaur toys.  They rose the bar, and for that I thank you Carnegie.    In no way to I wish to slight Invicta, but for me, it was Carnegie that really set the standard. 

[John]

When the Vanishing Wild line ended,Safari brought out the generally larger sized Wildlife Wonders line soon after.I wonder if that something in motion that Dan said he could not speak of in his letter in the first post of this thread was alluding to maybe a new line of larger sized dinosaur and prehistoric animal models coming soon to fill the void left by the departing Carnegie Collection? If that is the case then this could be a new start where we could see anything turn up,from the famous to the obscure.And that can only be a good thing.

[laticauda]

When the Vanishing Wild line ended,Safari brought out the generally larger sized Wildlife Wonders line soon after.I wonder if that something in motion that Dan said he could not speak of in his letter in the first post of this thread was alluding to maybe a new line of larger sized dinosaur and prehistoric animal models coming soon to fill the void left by the departing Carnegie Collection? If that is the case then this could be a new start where we could see anything turn up,from the famous to the obscure.And that can only be a good thing.

Agreed, unless they are partnering up with the Jurassic Park world Toy line, that maybe not.   

[Gwangi]

This basically sums up my feelings about the end of the Carnegie line. Me being Powers Boothe in the red shirt of course and Carnegie being Kurt Russell and company.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_J2JNdC9Vg

Seriously though, I've been saying they were on their way out for a couple years now. This news might have been more heart breaking had they left off on a high note but the releases they've given us the last few years were in my opinion, death throes.

[John]

This basically sums up my feelings about the end of the Carnegie line...
I've been saying they were on their way out for a couple years now. This news might have been more heart breaking had they left off on a high note but the releases they've given us the last few years were in my opinion, death throes.

That's overall my opinion of CollectA to be perfectly honest.I keep reading how they are "the new best" but while there has been some improvement,their quality is still not up to par with how warped many of their models are.I keep seeing pictures of animals that should have straight jaws (the new Temnodontosaurus seen in the toy fair photos with the feathered T. rex) or beaks (Quetzalcoatlus with prey) are always warped into the shape of a c clamp...and that's when they don't have overly wide hips as in ALL of their dinosaurs in the last two years.In my opinion,Battat,Papo,and Safari's Wild Safari line are the real quality lines now.

[stargatedalek]

I'm not surprised, and honestly I'm not especially disappointed, the Carnegie line just hasn't been, "itself" for the past few years.
I am disappointed however that all those molds are getting retired, I'd have preferred to see them re-purposed to another line.

That's overall my opinion of CollectA to be perfectly honest.I keep reading how they are "the new best" but while there has been some improvement,their quality is still not up to par with how warped many of their models are.I keep seeing pictures of animals that should have straight jaws (the new Temnodontosaurus seen in the toy fair photos with the feathered T. rex) or beaks (Quetzalcoatlus with prey) are always warped into the shape of a c clamp...and that's when they don't have overly wide hips as in ALL of their dinosaurs in the last two years.In my opinion,Battat,Papo,and Safari's Wild Safari line are the real quality lines now.

While I also dislike the warping of CollectA figures, I chock that up to a combination of the soft plastics used and of "safety proofing" for the sake of children, and as such I don't hold it against the sculpt quality but rather to executive interference. I also don't find the hips are done overly wide, I do however think that on a few pieces they shrink wrap some of the animal (which would make the areas that aren't seem overly large). I find this more distracting than shrink-wrapping the whole animal, because it just feels like they were only willing to take accuracy so far, but felt they had to screw up at least one thing for aesthetics.

[Gwangi]

This basically sums up my feelings about the end of the Carnegie line...
I've been saying they were on their way out for a couple years now. This news might have been more heart breaking had they left off on a high note but the releases they've given us the last few years were in my opinion, death throes.

That's overall my opinion of CollectA to be perfectly honest.I keep reading how they are "the new best" but while there has been some improvement,their quality is still not up to par with how warped many of their models are.I keep seeing pictures of animals that should have straight jaws (the new Temnodontosaurus seen in the toy fair photos with the feathered T. rex) or beaks (Quetzalcoatlus with prey) are always warped into the shape of a c clamp...and that's when they don't have overly wide hips as in ALL of their dinosaurs in the last two years.In my opinion,Battat,Papo,and Safari's Wild Safari line are the real quality lines now.

CollectA is still hit and miss with me too. I actually only have a very small collection of CollectA in part because of the issues you mention (stability, warping, anatomical etc.). That said, they continue to improve with each passing year and that's worth mentioning. I do quite like the deluxe line and this years releases excite me more than any previous years offerings. It's a shame that Carnegie didn't end on a high note because for a very long time they were the only line worth collecting. I'll always look fondly back at the old models of my childhood and the models from their peak years in the early 2000's. They had far more hits than misses in my book (factoring in age as well) but the last few years had too many misses I'm afraid.

[John]

I'm not surprised, and honestly I'm not especially disappointed, the Carnegie line just hasn't been, "itself" for the past few years.
I am disappointed however that all those molds are getting retired, I'd have preferred to see them re-purposed to another line.
While I also dislike the warping of CollectA figures, I chock that up to a combination of the soft plastics used and of "safety proofing" for the sake of children, and as such I don't hold it against the sculpt quality but rather to executive interference.

The Carnegie line was one of my favorites out there,but if the Carnegie Museum didn't want to continue making them,then their lack of enthusiasm would have just been showing more and more in their end products.Still,I'm happy to still have the new Wild Safari Prehistoric line to look forward to.

[John]

This basically sums up my feelings about the end of the Carnegie line...
I've been saying they were on their way out for a couple years now. This news might have been more heart breaking had they left off on a high note but the releases they've given us the last few years were in my opinion, death throes.

That's overall my opinion of CollectA to be perfectly honest.I keep reading how they are "the new best" but while there has been some improvement,their quality is still not up to par with how warped many of their models are.I keep seeing pictures of animals that should have straight jaws (the new Temnodontosaurus seen in the toy fair photos with the feathered T. rex) or beaks (Quetzalcoatlus with prey) are always warped into the shape of a c clamp...and that's when they don't have overly wide hips as in ALL of their dinosaurs in the last two years.In my opinion,Battat,Papo,and Safari's Wild Safari line are the real quality lines now.

CollectA is still hit and miss with me too. I actually only have a very small collection of CollectA in part because of the issues you mention (stability, warping, anatomical etc.). That said, they continue to improve with each passing year and that's worth mentioning. I do quite like the deluxe line and this years releases excite me more than any previous years offerings. It's a shame that Carnegie didn't end on a high note because for a very long time they were the only line worth collecting. I'll always look fondly back at the old models of my childhood and the models from their peak years in the early 2000's. They had far more hits than misses in my book (factoring in age as well) but the last few years had too many misses I'm afraid.

Still,it could have been worse...at least there are still good lines out there to go for.It would have been much worse if the Carnegie line ended when they were the only game in town in the early 2000's.