WE ARE PLANNING TO LAUNCH A DINO PLUSH TOY CAMPAIGN. ANY ADVICE?

[jungleplush]

My name is Jordi, I'm 27, from Barcelona but I reside in London. I'm new in the toy world, at least making them hehe.. this is our first project.

My girlfriend and I were looking for dinosaur plush toys to buy for a friend's child birthday and we found that they all were or too fluffy or too ugly or had nothing to do with the real dinosaur at all.

I always liked dinosaurs & paleontology since i was a little kid, so we had this crazy idea of trying to make our own.

We are planning to launch a new line of dinosaur plush toys and a small online shop to sell them.

We designed the toys from scratch, taking some of the most famous dinosaur species and giving them a "cartoony twist", drawing, coloring, 3d modelling, etc.
We found a manufacturer that can make the toys for us but we will need some funding to get it started so we will launch a kickstarter campaign.

We don't need a huge amount of money, as we want to base the success or failure of our enterprise in how much people like what we do.
But we are afraid that because of the lack of a big social media account or contact agenda no-one ever will know we are there..

All help is much much appreciated as we are inexperienced.

Our project is very new, but in 2 months we were able to get all the design material ready, contacting the manufacturer and produce two sample models that are almost finished, make from scratch a website with fun drawings, colouring sheets and interesting facts about dinosaurs for children that will soon be online,
http://www.jungleplush.com/

And now we want to launch our campaign as soon as we can, but we need people to know what we are doing and give us their feedback.

If you would like to have a look at what we're doing, here is the social media sites we set up at the moment. There's not a lot of material, we've been very busy with all the process.
http://www.facebook.com/jungleplushtoy
http://www.twitter.com/jungleplush
http://www.jungleplush.tumblr.com/

We would love to know your opinion as this is the best dinosaur toy collector online community.

Thank you very much for your time,

Jordi

[jungleplush]

These are sketches for the first 4 dinosaurs we are planning to make.

Which others will you like to see as a plushie?

Thanks for your help!

[Kayakasaurus]

Looks neat! I like the spinosaurus  as far as more dinos go a stegosaurus is always welcome. If you are interested in a bit more scientific accuracy try and avoid pronated hands on the T-Rex, also triceratops feet were less elephant like. I love the mischievous expression on the Rex but I think the herbivores could look a little happier. Well that is my opinion keep up the good work

[jungleplush]

Kayakasaurus thank you so much for your feedback!

Stegosaurus is the next one I will make, it can't be absent really.

I tried to simplify the drawings as much as I could to make it easy for the manufacturer to make the plushies according to our designs, but at the same time keep the main features of every dinosaur. Please forgive the inaccuracy, I'll try to improve on that.
The Apatosaurus I wanted to give him a expression like "I'm so big I can't be bothered",
and the Triceratops "Don't try to mess with me.. xdd",
but yes, I agree with you than the next ones must look more happy
Glad you like the Spinosaurus, it was a tricky one, trying to make it look more accurate to the last studies, but keep it bipedal (as I firmly believe it was) hehehe

Feel free to find us on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jungleplushtoy

We'll be posting all the news about what we do there.

[Dinomike]

I like your work so far! I would like to see a small dip on the Spinosaurus sail - I'm not sure if it would look good on this particular design. I think a T.rex is a safe option to start with. Have you consider a feathered dinosaur - maybe two different version of the T.rex? A bit like how the Japanese company Favoeite is offering their rexes. Good luck guys!

[jungleplush]

Hi Dinomike!

Thank you for your comment!

Yes, we considered a few properly feathered dinosaurs, I have in mind Sinornithosaurus, Troodon,  Oviraptor, Velociraptor & Microraptor.

Not decided yet which one, but one of them probably will be in the next 4 models we will try to make.

About the T. Rex, I was thinking about if I should try to change the appearance to make him look feathered.
But, remains of feathers in tyrannosaurs that have been found are not very long, are they? Around 3cm aprox.
I thought In a 12m long animal those 3 cm feathers covering all the body will not have a huge impact on the shape.
Having in mind that our T. Rex will for sure be fluffy.. hehe I decided to leave it like that.

I have some pictures of the sample development for the T. Rex plushie if you want to see them.

Find me on facebook and I will show you hehe
https://www.facebook.com/jungleplushtoys

Thanks again!

[Arul]

Great  support !

[jungleplush]

Thanks Arul!

[jungleplush]

Colouring for the T. Rex

[Kayakasaurus]

Wow I really like it. I wouldn't have done such bright colors for a predator but I think it fits. The green tounge is a little odd but it works  . It seems really familiar... Any specific color inspiration??

[jungleplush]

Thanks!

I wanted to make it look cheerful, no specific inspiration, I was just trying different colour patterns until I liked it, hehe.

This week I will upload the rest of the colour patterns for the other 3.

We need help letting people know about our project, we would like to start producing the toys as soon as we can, but for that we will need a successful kickstarter campaign, maybe you guys could give us a hand?

https://www.facebook.com/jungleplushtoy
https://twitter.com/jungleplush

Cheers, please don't hesitate to give us your feedback!

[Takama]

Your plush models look promising. Word of advice, don't put ANY toes on the front feet of the Apatoesaurus, or any future sauropod, and instead, put a single claw that juts out like a thumb on the inner most sides.   It may look weird without those toes, but trust me, you'll make a lot of collectors happy.

[jungleplush]

Thanks Takama!

Very good point made there! I will have it in mind for when we make the apatosaurus!

[jungleplush]

Yesterday I went to the Natural History Museum in London and after looking at their wonderful exposition I modified the feet for our plushies.

What do you think?
(Apatosaurus have 5 fingers in each the foot with only 3 claws on sight, and I made the front foot big claws clearly visible.)

[Kayakasaurus]

I like the colors! Takama was right though; Apatasaurus had a single claw on each stumpy foot. And since it was on the innermost toe it would only be visible face on. Maybe the museum just hasn't felt a need to change their display. That's awesome you got to go though!

[jungleplush]

Thanks Kayakasaurus

Those are some pictures we took at the Diplodocus skeleton they have exposed in the entrance hall of the NHM.

[jungleplush]

They had a Camarasaurus skeleton also, It was great! It seems the skeletons are a bit outdated.

[Hermes888]

I'm always a fan of plush toys, and I like the caricatured look given to the dinosaurs. I see on your FaceBook page that you've already drawn up the ideas for a Stegosaurus. Any chance of a properly feathered Velociraptor? My PaleoPlushies one could use a friend.

[jungleplush]

Hi Hermes888, thanks a lot!

Yep, a feathered Velociraptor and a Parasaurolophus are probably the next two dinosaurs we will make.

I'm modifying the number of fingers in the Apatosaurus, Triceratops & Stegosaurus to make them accurate.





Triceratops still not finished.

As for the plushies, the T. Rex sample is almost finished.
Now we are working on a Tyrannosaurus Skull Bone Plush Hat to give as one of the rewards to our pledgers in kickstarter.

We are planning to launch our campaign soon, maybe you guys could give us a hand spreading the word?