Carnegie Collection by Safari Ltd

[Nobs]

****NOTICE****
My E-pinion is below, again just an opinion
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You know, Im feeling a little jaded with Carnegie here lately.  I will bust this up into a pros and cons to help explain myself better.

PROS
Carnegie is in MY OPINION the gold standard for the dinosaur toy/model line
They have been around for going on 25 years, longer than any other competitor that I know of
Due to their longevity they have been able to offer a solid selection of animals.

CONS
-I havent really been that excited about carnegies for awhile now this started the year they offered the 4 feathered dinosaurs
-Lately they have really done wacky things with their scaling.  1/40 is fine for a standard and 1/10 for the small species, but why all  of a sudden are they bouncing around in the scales so much?  1/25 for cryo 1/30 for 2011 dinos 1/50 for the new brachy.
-TRIPOD therapods 12 out of the past 15 years have had a tripod therapod released.  This annoys me for 2 reasons, one is divirsity there is always a therapod it seems like, every year.  Lets see some other genras,  two, the tripod stance just isnt working for me anymore.  The wild safari is pulling off great therapods without the crutch of a tripod stance.  Heck even bullyland can make a descent therapod w/o the tripod! 
-Details/paint  while they are not as boring in paint jobs as Schleich/Papo, they still seem to use the same 3 color pallets.  I used to have fun dividing up my Carnegies into teams based on the major color represented in the figure (those 3 colors are green gray and yellow) and then figuring out which team would win if it was a battle royal between them all!  Details are definately a miss though, Papo takes that crown for having the best detailing.
-Repaints/Resculpts I dont mind resculpts so much (as long as its an improvement like the Spino and Dippy) but when they pulled that crap a few years ago with the oviraptors I was not pleased.  Also repaints ugh, not a fan!


How does everybody else feel about this collection?  I dont want to come off as a carnegie hater, because I am in fact a fan.  I WANT carnegie to be the best line out there.  But it seems like they are starting to trail behind some of the newer companies that have come along.

and discuss

[Seijun]

I love the newer carnegies (and I love the old ones for their retro charm). Their current selection of colors is getting very boring, but the sculpts themselves are very very nice, some even surpassing battats in accuracy. I think they are easily the best toy line for overall accuracy if you don't count their old retro stuff and if you don't count retired lines like battat.  I'm not saying their newer figures are 100% accurate (in most cases they aren't) but they sure beat the pants off of most other dinosaur toys. Their tripods are also a big plus for me. It allows them to retain correctly proportioned feet, and it keeps them from falling over at the slightest bump. I hope carnegie keeps making tripods. I would not be buying any of Safaris newer theropods if I was not trying to keep my safari collection "complete", on account of the big ugly clown feet they have been giving them. 

[juju1305]

I tend to agree about the tripod figures, though Seijun is making a valid point on feet size. In the end, it's about choosing between a postural flaw and an anatomical flaw. Maybe bringing some bases back for some figures could be an alternative (though it seems to have a negative impact on playability).

I also agree with your point about the scale. As a 10 year-old who had never seen anything else than my Starlux figures with totally mixed up scales, I was amazed by the fact that all original carnegie figures were all in the same 1:40 scale. I feel this is something they should have tried to keep up. The miragaia would have looked just as fine in the 1:40 scale, and the new brachio would have been much greater in the 1:40 scale as well.

[Jetoar]

Massive collection, well done!  . I would like to buy Safri products in my country but is very hard to find even don´t exist  .

[Patrx]

I rather like the Carnegies (and Wild Safari, I often lose track of which figures belong where). Probably the best around outside of Japan in terms of accuracy and detail. Unfortunately, I simply don't buy tripod figures, so some of their best sculpts never made it into my collection. Safari's big clown feet are almost as detrimental, sadly, so I'd love to see more bases. I do like that Carnegie seems unafraid of putting feathers on animals that need them, but  leaving the primaries off the second digits (Oviraptor, Caudipteryx) is enough to keep them off my shelves, too. As far as color schemes, I don't mind the bright hues, but some deviation from that green they so like would be lovely. Fortunately for me, I don't care one way or another about scale, so long as it's big enough to see the details on and small enough to fit my shelf. I understand it's a big draw for some collectors, though, so a return to consistent scale would be good for business. In short, I think Carnegie's got a few things to sort out, but it remains my favorite collection in the West due to an apparent interest on their part in scientific education.

[tyrantqueen]

I love the newer carnegies (and I love the old ones for their retro charm). Their current selection of colors is getting very boring, but the sculpts themselves are very very nice, some even surpassing battats in accuracy. I think they are easily the best toy line for overall accuracy if you don't count their old retro stuff and if you don't count retired lines like battat.  I'm not saying their newer figures are 100% accurate (in most cases they aren't) but they sure beat the pants off of most other dinosaur toys. Their tripods are also a big plus for me. It allows them to retain correctly proportioned feet, and it keeps them from falling over at the slightest bump. I hope carnegie keeps making tripods. I would not be buying any of Safaris newer theropods if I was not trying to keep my safari collection "complete", on account of the big ugly clown feet they have been giving them.

I agree 100% on the tripod vs clown feet thing. Big clown feet ruin the feel of a figure, making it look cartoonish.

[Pachyrhinosaurus]

I have about 95% of the current Carnegie set right now (missing the green carnotaurus, old spinosaurus and old brachiosaurus) and I think the newer ones are GREAT! By newer, I mean Diplodocus-Giganotosaurus to present. My only complaint is the paint. I love the colors, but only when they are on properly. When I buy from stores, I notice the theropods have paint wear around the mouth, as if someone was playing rough with them. My brachiosaurus, which I bought yesterday at the Carnegie, has paint rubs on it, but was still the best-looking one there. Is there a solution to this?

[Gwangi]

I have about 95% of the current Carnegie set right now (missing the green carnotaurus, old spinosaurus and old brachiosaurus) and I think the newer ones are GREAT! By newer, I mean Diplodocus-Giganotosaurus to present. My only complaint is the paint. I love the colors, but only when they are on properly. When I buy from stores, I notice the theropods have paint wear around the mouth, as if someone was playing rough with them. My brachiosaurus, which I bought yesterday at the Carnegie, has paint rubs on it, but was still the best-looking one there. Is there a solution to this?

Buying them online might be the best solution, especially if they're in factory bags. When the toys are on the shelves in stores I'm sure they do receive some level of play from whoever picks them up and tosses them back. I don't think there is a way around it, they are toys after all. I've trained myself to just deal with the occasional scuff mark or two but I agree, it is annoying.

[Pachyrhinosaurus]

I have about 95% of the current Carnegie set right now (missing the green carnotaurus, old spinosaurus and old brachiosaurus) and I think the newer ones are GREAT! By newer, I mean Diplodocus-Giganotosaurus to present. My only complaint is the paint. I love the colors, but only when they are on properly. When I buy from stores, I notice the theropods have paint wear around the mouth, as if someone was playing rough with them. My brachiosaurus, which I bought yesterday at the Carnegie, has paint rubs on it, but was still the best-looking one there. Is there a solution to this?

Buying them online might be the best solution, especially if they're in factory bags. When the toys are on the shelves in stores I'm sure they do receive some level of play from whoever picks them up and tosses them back. I don't think there is a way around it, they are toys after all. I've trained myself to just deal with the occasional scuff mark or two but I agree, it is annoying.

Its just as bad when my Safari/Carnegie figures have milk mustaches. I noticed that Carnegie/ Safari is the only brand that does that.
I'll share my collection while I'm here.
There is more to the left and right of the frame, and I'm only missing three from the current range. Once I have them I'll move the set to a shelf going half the length of my wall.

[Image Removed]

[therizinosaurus]

Just saw this thread, I'll have some pics up soon of my Carnegie collection! some of you may remember it from the old forum haha

[docronnie]

I just used to drool over your collections and I still do.  I'm lucky to obtain the ff:

[amargasaurus cazaui]

I am unsure if someone has tackled this question here or perhaps in the old forum or if there is a current list to reference for those collecting this set , however............
I wondered if there was an existing or known source or reference in the community for which of the Carnegie figures are currently considered retired and which are currently offered etc.  I am not so much referring to minor sculpt changes or paint apps, as the actual figure being removed from sale.

[Jetoar]

Wonderfull collections, I will share my images with you  .

[docronnie]

I am unsure if someone has tackled this question here or perhaps in the old forum or if there is a current list to reference for those collecting this set , however............
I wondered if there was an existing or known source or reference in the community for which of the Carnegie figures are currently considered retired and which are currently offered etc.  I am not so much referring to minor sculpt changes or paint apps, as the actual figure being removed from sale.

I ran across this link on the Kaiyodo topic.  It was posted by postsaurichian:

http://dmf.kinolulu.com/db/

[Ikessauro]

Hey guys, can you help me on this? I'm having trouble to identify which T.rex version came out first. I can see that there's one version with little marks/stripes on the neck and back, and one without it. But from the photos I found I think there may be a third variation, with different stripes.
What do you guys think? Please, if you know when each variation was first released, let me know.

[Takama]

The one on the lower right came first. 

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

I'm almost certain the one on the lower right hand side was first. It looks just like mine and I bought it as soon as they came out.

The one with the lighter strip in the center could be an intermediary design between the first and last one above. As it looks like the marking was just phased out..going from hand painted to airbrushed, then gone.

Unless there was variety existing like this at the time of release..but I doubt it.

[Ikessauro]

I'm almost certain the one on the lower right hand side was first. It looks just like mine and I bought it as soon as they came out.

The one with the lighter strip in the center could be an intermediary design between the first and last one above. As it looks like the marking was just phased out..going from hand painted to airbrushed, then gone.

Unless there was variety existing like this at the time of release..but I doubt it.

So the first version came out in 1999 in the collection's anniversary. The other two weren't officially announced as sculpt updates/repaints right? Then no release date is available? I'm working on a list/database for the models, organized by year of release and would like to know when they first released the airbrushed one and the newest version with no marks at all.

Also, I'd like to know if there's any differences btween the Carnegie Plateosaurus from 1995 to the one from 1996, like paint app or sculpt modifications. I know that they changed the item number.

[docronnie]

I wish I could help you Ikessauro, but I'm just a newbie.

Recently obtained this one:


Safari Ltd. The Carnegie Triceratops - 1988

Not really that attractive in my opinion.

[tyrantqueen]

I guess you have to take its age into consideration