Safari: New for 2017

[Patrx]

In Velociraptor's case they could have simply had it sculpted with closed mouth (with lips, so no visible teeth) and probably the result would have looked less disappointing.

I, too, would have been in favor of a closed mouth! It tends to look more natural, and there's no need to cast and paint all those little pesky teeth, which can be a challenge for mass-produced pieces like these.

The other Safari releases are very good, although the Tylosaurus and Diplodocus are both smaller and not as good as the earlier Carnegie versions.

I just got my Safari Tylosaurus, and I have to disagree here; I like it rather more than the old Carnegie by virtue of brilliantly lizard-like skin texture and the addition of a tail fluke.

As to the Diplodocus, I'm not sure where the concerns about it being too small are coming from - it's pretty huge! I've never seen the Carnegie version in person; is it even bigger? Comparing the two via photos, it looks like the new one has more accurate external nares and hands, although it does still have too many claws on its feet, I think. I may have to paint over those.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

I think the new Safari Diplo is about half the size of the older ones?

[Sim]

In Velociraptor's case they could have simply had it sculpted with closed mouth (with lips, so no visible teeth) and probably the result would have looked less disappointing.

I, too, would have been in favor of a closed mouth! It tends to look more natural, and there's no need to cast and paint all those little pesky teeth, which can be a challenge for mass-produced pieces like these.

If the Velociraptor had been sculpted with a closed mouth, I think it would have lacked lips and had exposed teeth like the Coelophysis.  I think this due to what the sculptor expressed regarding lips earlier in this thread, and since all the 2017 theropods with teeth they sculpted (Tyrannosaurus, Coelophysis, Velociraptor) seem to lack lips.

[The Atroxious]

In Velociraptor's case they could have simply had it sculpted with closed mouth (with lips, so no visible teeth) and probably the result would have looked less disappointing. But I guess that if you make a raptor you have to give it a fierce and menacing open mouth.

If Safari keeps the level of quality control like that I think they must have enough of a market for their product, and for me is all money saved! 

I have to disagree. A closed mouth is fine, but I am not a fan of the lip fad. Putting lips on the Velociraptor would have made it marginally more disappointing for me. I'd rather just spend a couple minutes repainting the teeth.

[Shonisaurus]

I fortunately have all the 2017 Safari dinosaurs and I do not feel cheated.

The velociraptor from my optics or point of view seems a very good figure by far is for me the best feathered dromeosaurido done so far. Their colors seem to me correct (considering we do not know except avian dinosaurs like archeopteryx and microraptor) as was their true color.

The deinocheirus is a little smaller than the standard model of Collecta but rivals in precision with its namesake. On the other hand its coloration is from my point of view more realistic.

Regarding the diplodocus is a great figure for me although I have no idea of ​​paleontology (I am as I have repeated numerous times a collector) its colors are elegant and even small it does not take away the charm as a figure of collecting. On the other hand the digits of their legs are correct.

As far as tylosaurus is concerned there is a much bigger and perhaps more detailed figure and as I said at the beginning of the forum Safari 2017 that its colors were a little tabby but it is very detailed and its texture is fairly clean seamless on the other Part both the velociraptor and the tylosaurus have their jaws open and with the tongue quite detailed apart from this their teeth are detailed from my humble point of view and what I most value (which does not have articulated jaws) which serves more as a collection figure Would be like a mere toy.

On the other hand the coelophysis is perhaps the best that has been made of its species very far removed from the dinosaurs of the large screen Jurassic Park and that I appreciate it and value it endlessly.

With this I do not want to offend the other members of the forum who disagree with me and taking into account for my part that I always respect the ideas and approaches of the rest even though they do not match my thinking. As a conclusion from my point of view the Safari 2017 dinosaurs are the best figures of dinosaurs made this year 2017 by a toy company.

[Jetdin]

i have only 1 safari ltd 2017 model so far, and its the giganotosaurus. im absolutely blown away by the quality and the texture of the figure. on top of the fact that the figure is large AND is very accurate scientifically!

[Dinoguy2]

In Velociraptor's case they could have simply had it sculpted with closed mouth (with lips, so no visible teeth) and probably the result would have looked less disappointing. But I guess that if you make a raptor you have to give it a fierce and menacing open mouth.

If Safari keeps the level of quality control like that I think they must have enough of a market for their product, and for me is all money saved! 

I have to disagree. A closed mouth is fine, but I am not a fan of the lip fad. Putting lips on the Velociraptor would have made it marginally more disappointing for me. I'd rather just spend a couple minutes repainting the teeth.

Can lips be called a "fad" if they were appearing on Velociraptor in 1993 in Jurassic Park, the movie that made it popular in the first place...?

[MLMjp]

In Velociraptor's case they could have simply had it sculpted with closed mouth (with lips, so no visible teeth) and probably the result would have looked less disappointing. But I guess that if you make a raptor you have to give it a fierce and menacing open mouth.

If Safari keeps the level of quality control like that I think they must have enough of a market for their product, and for me is all money saved! 

I have to disagree. A closed mouth is fine, but I am not a fan of the lip fad. Putting lips on the Velociraptor would have made it marginally more disappointing for me. I'd rather just spend a couple minutes repainting the teeth.

Can lips be called a "fad" if they were appearing on Velociraptor in 1993 in Jurassic Park, the movie that made it popular in the first place...?

That´s true, the raptors in the JP universe have lips and nobody has ever complained about it. In fact it is probably one of the reasons why I like velociraptors and similars with lips. However if we talk about bigger carnivores like Tyrannosaurus....Sorry but I like the exposed teeth on those. Again, probably because JP influence.

[Reptilia]

In Velociraptor's case they could have simply had it sculpted with closed mouth (with lips, so no visible teeth) and probably the result would have looked less disappointing. But I guess that if you make a raptor you have to give it a fierce and menacing open mouth.

If Safari keeps the level of quality control like that I think they must have enough of a market for their product, and for me is all money saved! 

While I agree with your assessment regarding a closed jaw Velociraptor, I think you have the minority view here.

It is a clear that Safari vastly boosted their production value this year with many pieces approaching (and in some cases, superseding) that of Carnegie. Other models have an impeccable paint job (e.g. Diplo, and Krono) considering the mass friendly price point. Of course, many of these models also look better in hand, as the camera lenses, in and of itself (and angle shots), produce some image warping.

This coming from the forum's poster Papo fanboy.

Minority or not that's what I feel, I can't get past on how bad look both T-Rex and Velociraptor in most of the pictures I've seen so far. And the disappointment comes from the fact that I planned to get both when they were first revealed. Since I don't have the option to check them in hand I don't want to go with the lottery of online purchase, with high chances of getting one with a sloppy paint app. You can't have everything I suppose, but as I said before that means money saved for other stuff.

[BlueKrono]

Don't know if anyone's brought this up, but the paint job on some of the new Safaris kinda bothers me. I finally realized that's what it is, looking at someone's recent purchase of the Diplodocus, Kronosaurus and Giganotosaurus. The border lines between colors are quite sharp, almost lithographed looking, and it gives the figures a most unnatural, almost cartoony look. Why didn't they go with more blended lines with some fading? Even handpainted figures have a little of that, resulting in a more lifelike figure. It was the three mentioned above that it really stuck out on, and to some extent the stripes on the Deinocheirus back. Is anyone seeing what I'm seeing?

[Killekor]

, and someone else asked for the other one so here you are if still needed.

Thanks very much!!! i Dream that guy at night...

Killekor

[Jose S.M.]

Don't know if anyone's brought this up, but the paint job on some of the new Safaris kinda bothers me. I finally realized that's what it is, looking at someone's recent purchase of the Diplodocus, Kronosaurus and Giganotosaurus. The border lines between colors are quite sharp, almost lithographed looking, and it gives the figures a most unnatural, almost cartoony look. Why didn't they go with more blended lines with some fading? Even handpainted figures have a little of that, resulting in a more lifelike figure. It was the three mentioned above that it really stuck out on, and to some extent the stripes on the Deinocheirus back. Is anyone seeing what I'm seeing?

I only have the Diplodocus of those you mentioned, but in the other I have, the paint has some nice fadings, specially the Einiosaurus, it has some brownish blended in the body, and the main color of the back and underside blends, it's not a defined line. The figures you mentioned are from the new sculptor, I wonder if that has something to do with the paintjob and style.

[Killekor]

Found this:

https://youtu.be/fLkqX4CZS9o

I want that Deinocheirus, I WANT IT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Killekor

[Patrx]

I think the new Safari Diplo is about half the size of the older ones?

Gosh, that might explain the reaction, no wonder folks are calling it small.

Don't know if anyone's brought this up, but the paint job on some of the new Safaris kinda bothers me. I finally realized that's what it is, looking at someone's recent purchase of the Diplodocus, Kronosaurus and Giganotosaurus. The border lines between colors are quite sharp, almost lithographed looking, and it gives the figures a most unnatural, almost cartoony look. Why didn't they go with more blended lines with some fading? Even handpainted figures have a little of that, resulting in a more lifelike figure. It was the three mentioned above that it really stuck out on, and to some extent the stripes on the Deinocheirus back. Is anyone seeing what I'm seeing?

I'm afraid that's pretty common with mass-produced figures, particularly at this price point. There are hard-edged lines, or uniformly faded airbrush applications, which can look just as manufactured. Some Safari color schemes have more success mixing the two elements or applying them in appropriate ways to get more convincing results. For example, the Parasaurolophus actually features a nice gradient at the edges of the brown areas that looks neither too hard-edged or too feathered. Also, a few of the newer pieces appear to have some washing and dry-brushing applied, which is rare for Safari pieces. It may be that, for the examples you listed, they're actually using stencils to maintain uniformity between pieces? I think Battat has done so before, and I'm not sure it works very well.

[Sim]

In Velociraptor's case they could have simply had it sculpted with closed mouth (with lips, so no visible teeth) and probably the result would have looked less disappointing. But I guess that if you make a raptor you have to give it a fierce and menacing open mouth.

If Safari keeps the level of quality control like that I think they must have enough of a market for their product, and for me is all money saved! 

I have to disagree. A closed mouth is fine, but I am not a fan of the lip fad. Putting lips on the Velociraptor would have made it marginally more disappointing for me. I'd rather just spend a couple minutes repainting the teeth.

Can lips be called a "fad" if they were appearing on Velociraptor in 1993 in Jurassic Park, the movie that made it popular in the first place...?

Not to mention that lips on theropods have appeared as early as in 1919 in Charles Knight's Tyrannosaurus: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:T._rex_old_posture.jpg

I think there has been some fads in palaeoart, such as giving primary feathers to every kind of coelurosaur, or combining the scales of Triceratops with the filaments of Psittacosaurus to create a new integument for ceratopsids, but I don't think lips on dinosaurs are a fad.  As Mark Witton mentioned here, teeth being covered by lips appears to be the default configuration in tetrapods: http://markwitton-com.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/exposed-teeth-in-dinosaurs-sabre-tooths.html

[PumperKrickel]

deleted

[Halichoeres]

Don't know if anyone's brought this up, but the paint job on some of the new Safaris kinda bothers me. I finally realized that's what it is, looking at someone's recent purchase of the Diplodocus, Kronosaurus and Giganotosaurus. The border lines between colors are quite sharp, almost lithographed looking, and it gives the figures a most unnatural, almost cartoony look. Why didn't they go with more blended lines with some fading? Even handpainted figures have a little of that, resulting in a more lifelike figure. It was the three mentioned above that it really stuck out on, and to some extent the stripes on the Deinocheirus back. Is anyone seeing what I'm seeing?

I'm afraid that's pretty common with mass-produced figures, particularly at this price point. There are hard-edged lines, or uniformly faded airbrush applications, which can look just as manufactured. Some Safari color schemes have more success mixing the two elements or applying them in appropriate ways to get more convincing results. For example, the Parasaurolophus actually features a nice gradient at the edges of the brown areas that looks neither too hard-edged or too feathered. Also, a few of the newer pieces appear to have some washing and dry-brushing applied, which is rare for Safari pieces. It may be that, for the examples you listed, they're actually using stencils to maintain uniformity between pieces? I think Battat has done so before, and I'm not sure it works very well.

There was a discussion in a similar vein on one of the Battat threads. I can see why people don't like the effect. It doesn't bother me very much personally, since plenty of animals have very hard edges on their color patches. Orcas, reticulated giraffes, pinto horses, mandarin gobies, Gouldian finches, to name a few off the top of my head. The airbrushing effect that Patrx mentions is slightly more distracting to my eye.

[Sim]

I agree with Halichoeres.  I also think that since these are miniature representations of animals, colour fading that would be visible on the real animal up close might not be visible at the scale the figures are in.  Regarding the airbrushing effect that Patrx mentioned, I find that rather than looking like a possible colouration the animal might have, it just looks like sprayed on paint.  It looks particularly artificial to me when the paint is sprayed on and creates a 'shadow effect' with whatever the paint's colour is.

[John]

...As to the Diplodocus, I'm not sure where the concerns about it being too small are coming from - it's pretty huge! I've never seen the Carnegie version in person; is it even bigger? Comparing the two via photos, it looks like the new one has more accurate external nares and hands, although it does still have too many claws on its feet, I think. I may have to paint over those.

Out of curiosity,are the extra nails on the last two digits on the feet actually sculpted there or just painted on by mistake?

[amargasaurus cazaui]

to my less than perfect eyes they are both sculpted and painted.....had meant to have this post above but stuff happens. Here you go Patrx, you can get a bit of size perspective....with the Carnegie in back and the Battat rearing up behind..not the best shot, but yes, you are right, the new model is roughly half as long as the Carnegie but is slightly taller at the hips too