CollectA: New for 2018

[Bokisaurus]

My answers has been answered, a sauropod this year! I really love this new look of the classic Brontosaur , very graceful looking.
The other two looks good as well.
New Mr T looks good, looks like pose wise, it should look nice next to the retiring one. In many ways, CollectA's quick release of what the current thinking regarding the new look of some animals is pretty cool. It captures this new interpretation forever in plastic form before a new model comes out years down the road. No other company does that, so for me its really nice for a change.

I find it amusing that as Safari went bolder in their color choices, CollectA went the opposite and made their figures much more conservative that what we normally would expect from them
Safari's lack if big predators is balanced by CollectA's offerings. I really like the balance CollectA has for next year, and how they have branched out too
Overall, looks like an exciting lineup for next year!

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

And so people we see the downside of CollectA working so quickly; five Tyrannosaurus produced in as many years, always based on whatever the "freshest and coolest" new paper is saying and discontinuing the others as they go just because they can.

honestly i think this aspect makes them more collectible.  you can just make one product and rest on your laurels as Safari/Carnegie did for years anymore, as things change so must they. 

Something definitely feels off about the Mapusaurus
Skeletal by Franoys

if your referring to the torso length I think it's just the photo, you can see it's turned at a slight angle.

[Sim]

Brontosaurus: Finally a brontosaurus, and another marvelous sauropod by CollectA. Can't wait to add this to my 2018 "to buy" list. Since they were going for a full on spiky look to the animal, it's a shame they didn't incorporate some speculative neck spikes like Apatosaurus.

The CollectA Brontosaurus does have neck spines..

Tyrannosaurus: Eh... another one? Did we really need another Tyrannosaurus from CollectA? Well this explains why the fully feathered deluxe one was retired. The colours don't convince me one bit. I see that they tried to add large scales on the face proposed by the Daspletosaurus horni paper, but I'd much rather they made a Daspletosaurus rather than a goofy looking rex. Easy easy easy pass.

The previous CollectA Deluxe and standard feathered T. rex figures, and the CollectA T. rex corpse all have those large face scales too and they were 2015 and 2016 figures, while the Daspletosaurus horneri paper came out in 2017..

[Patrx]

A Sciurumimus and a Brontosaurus? Fantastic, two creatures than have been on my wish list for some time now. Although I do think the Scuirumimus could stand to be in a larger scale

And so people we see the downside of CollectA working so quickly; five Tyrannosaurus produced in as many years, always based on whatever the "freshest and coolest" new paper is saying and discontinuing the others as they go just because they can.

honestly i think this aspect makes them more collectible.  you can just make one product and rest on your laurels as Safari/Carnegie did for years anymore, as things change so must they.

I agree that this tendency of CollectA's is a positive one overall, paleontology moves fast, and palaeoart has to move with it. This way, you could line up all the CollectA rexes and make pretty good guesses as to when each one supplanted the previous one, if you know the literature well enough. They're like snapshots of palaeoart history!

That said, their sculpting does seem a little rushed when compared to others, (say, their Deinocheirus next to Safari's slightly later one) but I think that's more about style and technique than it is about CollectA literally producing sculpts in a hurry.

[suspsy]

And so people we see the downside of CollectA working so quickly; five Tyrannosaurus produced in as many years, always based on whatever the "freshest and coolest" new paper is saying and discontinuing the others as they go just because they can.

I fully admit to being biased here, but I'll never turn up my nose at a new T. rex from CollectA or Safari. This new one strikes me as a good compromise between the feathered and the scaled camps. And the more I look at it, the more improved it seems over the 2015 one. Not only is there less shrink-wrapping, but the hind limbs and feet are better-proportioned.

[Faelrin]

Well, I was fearing they were retiring the Deluxe Feathered T. rex due to the recent controversy over the scale patches. Can't say I'm fond of how the scales are sculpted. It just makes the thing look cheaply done to me. On top of that the scales on those patches were extremely tiny. It just didn't translate into this sculpt well at all. The feathers look too spiky too. This is a pass for sure. The color just don't work quite right for me without the feathers being there either. Now it just makes it look like warpaint (although that's a typical CollectA thing at this point).

Well I got my hopes up on Papo for nothing. It was CollectA all along. Can't say I'm too interested in that Mapusaurus. The head looks a bit shrink wrapped too.

The Brontosaurus looks good, but I'm not too sure about the spikey stuff. Was there evidence for that on Brontosaurus?

[Dinomike]

A Brontosaurus! Coooool!

[Minmiminime]

Ooooh, it's CollectA's year for me..! 😻 I'm in love!! I probably won't pick up the Estemmenosuchus and gomphothere immediately, and the Sciurimimus is a nope for sure, but I want everything else!!

The T. rex looks like it's based on a different specimen to previous incarnations. It would have been a great opportunity to update the colour design, but I'll let that pass 😊 At least it's not standing on it's tip-toes!

Love the new Mapusaurus, even if it appears a little slender; might just be a gracile specimen..!

And BRONTOSAURUS! Yes, yes, yes!! 

[Sim]

Tyrannosaurus: Eh... another one? Did we really need another Tyrannosaurus from CollectA?

Well...  Your forum profile's personal text is: "It looks like we need a feathered Rex"  And now CollectA has made precisely that, a new feathered T. rex.

Personally, I have basically no interest in new Tyrannosaurus figures.  There's been so many decent, modern figures of this animal at this point.  I also don't find Tyrannosaurus an interesting animal.

[alexeratops]

Seriously, if you're going to redo the Tyrannosaurus, give it the same amount of feathers or none at all, not this horrid body-length mohawk. What were they thinking?

Brontosaurus is good, but it will just continue to perpetuate the myth that the commonly portrayed Apatosaurus is still clear to be called Brontosaurus.

Mapusaurus looks skinny around the torso and tail, but seems OK otherwise.

[terrorchicken]

lovely brontosaurus, I wonder if its to scale with their other standard sauropods like the diplodocus and argentinosaurus?

[Neosodon]

If I was making a partially feathered T. rex I would just give it a subtle fuzz texturing over the back that was a matching color with the skin to avoid the goofy mohawk look.

Although I think this new T. rex is an improvement over their last one I still like the 2012 T. rex with prey the best even if it is a bit small.

[Simon]

A Brontosaurus! Coooool!

Cool yes.  Large enough? Nope.    (But I've given up hope that the run of the mill companies will ever produce another full-size large sauropod.)

I got my PNSO giants and have a couple of larger still resin and vinyl kits to keep me busy and entertained .. 

[Shonisaurus]

I understand that you should already go up to the first page Collecta the figures of dinosarios and prehistoric animals of this week and of the past. In this year everything has been revealed, it would be important that the first page of Collecta be updated.

[Joey]

A Brontosaurus! Coooool!

Cool yes.  Large enough? Nope.    (But I've given up hope that the run of the mill companies will ever produce another full-size large sauropod.)

I got my PNSO giants and have a couple of larger still resin and vinyl kits to keep me busy and entertained .. 

Yes, we do have PNSO but I have to say, Safari are starting to give us larger and larger sauropods (ex. 2017 Diplo and 2018 Amarga, etc). So I think we could possibly expect maybe say, a 1:40 scale Apatosaurus or Brachiosaurus?

[Halichoeres]

Solid set of releases overall. Of the 11, I'll probably buy 8. I'll skip the Tyrannosaurus, as another Tyrannosaurus is pretty much the most superfluous thing they could make. I like the Safari Dimetrodon more, so I'll skip this one. I have no problem with the gomphothere, but I don't collect Cenozoic stuff. I'm really happy with the balance of taxa, and especially with the foray into the Paleozoic. I hope they don't stop with just these three! I do hope they stop releasing endless T rexes, yawn.

[Rossano]

The problem I have with many of this year's deluxe releases are the colour schemes,they are either boring and drab like the Sciurumimus, Dunkleosteus and Brontosaurus (they could've done so much more with the Bronto) or just sloppy and lazy like the Dimetrodon, Estemmenosuchus and Tyrannosaurus. Really hope CollectA will step up their game in the paint department.

While I appreciate also old-styled colour schemes tending to monochrome, like in the new Brontosaurus, I really think that Collecta's colour schemes of the last years are really a problem.

Often wonderful and very accurate sculpt, and really disheartening paintings. The absurd union-jack heads of some tetanures, the silly donut-and-camouflage paintings of Gigantspinosaurus and Dimorphodon, the excessive and isolated colours of some ceratopsians like Regaliceratops and Diabloceratops, the nearly offensive military green-and brown casual and blotchy patches of Estemmenosuchus and Dimetrodon, the really not graceful green, red and brown schemes of the heads of feathered Tyrannosaurus, the really cold-feeling greenish yellow and the stripes and the red patch on Mantellisaurus, the very lazy job done on Sciurumimus, the new Iguanodon painted in lines and dots like if it were an emrboidered fabric for country-style curtains...

So the point is - I f****** love Collecta's models. The new extant animals are most of the times real gems, and I only regret the fact they are so poorly distributed in Italy because I would buy them in dozens. But really, I cannot understand what's up with the paintings on dinosaurs.

[Shadowknight1]

Wait, so...did adult Tyrannosaurs have feathers or not?  I'm confused.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

Wait, so...did adult Tyrannosaurs have feathers or not?  I'm confused.

No one knows 100% it's all speculation. 

[ZoPteryx]

And CollectA is finishing strong!

That's a mighty fine Brontosaurus!  It was only a matter of time before someone made this iconic revived genus.  This figure looks really good, the spikes are nice touch.  Color is a little boring, but not as bad as it could be.  My one complaint, which I see is shared by quite a few others, is that I wish it were bigger.  Like, double its current size! 

It's cool that they're trying to keep their Tyrannosaurus as up-to-date as possible, but this new figure just doesn't really do it for me.  I'm all for some feathers, but I'm not diggin' this "mowhawk" look.  I also think it's time the pheasant inspired color scheme was retired.  Personally, I would've preferred this slot was filled by something a little more exotic than T. rex.

I think the Mapusaurus looks very good, it'll make a fine replacement for the older version.  I like the details on the head and throat especially.  Anatomically, I'd argue the legs are bit too long, but other than that it looks fine.  Personally, I would have bulked up the neck and tail a bit, but that's just me.

So it looks like I'm going to try to get 9 of next year's batch, maybe 10 depending on how the Dimetrodon compares to Safari's.