Safari Ltd - new for 2019

[Shonisaurus]

@Andreioli Thanks for the info. Then the spinosaurs of Safari (Doug Watson) and Schleich (Vlad Konstantinov) will be as big as the iconic Collecta model. They're going to be a spectacular trio of figures.

[tyrantqueen]

Those sardines look edible.

They probably won't taste good, but if I recall correctly Safari uses non toxic plastic

[Shonisaurus]

By the way if you go to the Safari 2019 dinosaur novelties website I have carefully fixed the figures of the camarasaurus and the pteranodon and I have seen that the promotional figures suffer important abrasions. Could it be that such figures are too vulnerable to friction as happened with their velociraptor of Safari 2007?

With respect to that velociraptor Safari 2007 I had to buy three figures successively due to abrasions caused by simple scratches with other figures of dinosaurs (ie without abrasion due to fall of the shelf) so the third figure to keep it in a showcase . I think that dinosaur has only one coat of paint or a watercolor paint which makes it prone to abrasions.

I hope that the camarasaurus or the pteranodon of Safari 2019 do not have those defects, but I have seen in the web page of Safari they suffer abrasions on all the camarasaurus (you can see it with the magnifying glass) and the pteranodon seems to have a single layer of paint. The same is a mere figment of mine.

[Shadowknight1]

@Andreioli Thanks for the info. Then the spinosaurs of Safari (Doug Watson) and Schleich (Vlad Konstantinov) will be as big as the iconic Collecta model. They're going to be a spectacular trio of figures.

Might end up being a quartet if PNSO gets theirs out.

[DinoGeekGreyson]

Rebor is making spinoSSSSS too , hopefully they'll release it next year.

After taking another look at the PNSO  spino, this spino looks childish hahahahahah

So there might be six spinos next year =))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

[Shonisaurus]

D @DinoGeekGreyson Welcome to the forum. The thing about the PNSO spinosaurus is something long expected by me. Now it is only necessary that Vitae take out a spinosaurus, on the other hand that Mojo and Papo update the spinosaurus. It would be great a collection of spinosaurus of all toy dinosaur brands.

[Halichoeres]

All ten new pieces are mine, the T rex repaint is not mine.

That's a lot of sculpting! It's like you're almost singlehandedly re-constituting the Carnegie line (augmented by welcome additions like Prestosuchus).

and I also did the WW Grizzly, WW Chimpanzee, WS Mandrill and WS Clouded Leopard. Keeps me off the streets.

I thought the grizzly might have been yours, but I wasn't sure about the others. Very nice work!

[Concavenator]

WOW.Just WOW.In general,2019 is  absolutely blowing my mind so far.In spite of I still kind of miss Carnegie,this is by far the best year from Safari.I think it's a really powerful lineup,I can definitively see a jump in quality (and accuracy) as time goes on.

I'm sooo damn happy to see that gorgeous new Allosaurus.I have been waiting for an updated sculpt lf this amazing dinosaur for ages (6 years or so  ).And the day arrived.It looks awesome,I like the fact that it has lips as well as it having a reasonable amount of bulk.The colors are nice.

I'm surprised that Safari has made a new Spinosaurus,since I have always thought Safari doesn't sculpt species that are very little known.It doesn't make much sense,because a 2019 representation of Spinosaurus is the same as 2014 (which is rather speculative).Perhaps they went for a temporary sculpt that is more accurate than the previous Carnegie version.Out of curiosity, @Doug Watson ,which concept of Spinosaurus is this new sculpt based on,the Ibrahim model,or the corrected Scott Hartman version?

[Doug Watson]

@Doug Watson ,which concept of Spinosaurus is this new sculpt based on,the Ibrahim model,or the corrected Scott Hartman version?

It is based on the Ibrahim model. Ibrahim addressed Hartman's "corrected" version on Hartman's blog and Hartman said he would address Ibrahim's rebuttal at a later date, that was 2014 and there is nothing yet that I can see.
Also when the recent paper came out claiming Spinosaurus was not an aquatic animal Ibrahim responded that there is more Spinosaurus material being prepared and will be described and considering he does not agree with the recent paper I am guessing the new material may support his interpretation.

[Faelrin]

@Doug Watson Thanks for listing the scales of the new figures. I'm glad to see that the Allosaurus and Stegosaurus are in the same scale, and close enough to the Camarasaurus. Interestingly that also puts them in scale with the Feathered Tyrannosaurus, Ankylosaurus, and Triceratops. And I'm glad the Spinosaurus is in that scale since it too will be in scale with the Feathered Tyrannosaurus. It is certainly not going to be easy for me to get all of these (when the Mattel stuff has been keeping me busy), but I'll try. I've already moved my Safari Ltd North American animal collection elsewhere in my room to make room for these new releases.

[MLMjp]

Some dino reviewers in youtube are complaining that the Carnotarus is too beefy. And I am like, seriously??? What is their reference, a shrink wrapped drawing from the 90s?

The Spinosaurus is starting to grow on me. Even the sail which I criticized for looking really bland, and not having something like bumps or spikes on the top, is becoming less of an issue. But then again, instead of a swimming pose, we could have got something like this:


I´m glad to know the scale of these new figures, it really helps since my collection is almost always about scale. For now I think I will be getting the Carnotaurus, the Styracosaurus(even if it is a little bit too big), the Stegosaurus, the Allosaurus and maybe the Camarasaurus. We will see what happens with the Spinosaurus.

The real questions is: Will I have enough money to buy them after getting the remaining Jurassic World figures?

[terrorchicken]

All ten new pieces are mine, the T rex repaint is not mine.

That's a lot of sculpting! It's like you're almost singlehandedly re-constituting the Carnegie line (augmented by welcome additions like Prestosuchus).

and I also did the WW Grizzly, WW Chimpanzee, WS Mandrill and WS Clouded Leopard. Keeps me off the streets.

did you do last years amazing WW Florida panther? I actually like Safari's wild cat sculpts better than Papo's(which to me have always had weird faces.)

love your work always, just wish a lot of it didn't get muddied up by the sometimes thick & sloppy factory paints.

[Lanthanotus]

[...]
But then again, instead of a swimming pose, we could have got something like this:

[...]

I am unable to accept a stance like this for a dry land entering Spinosaurus... the center of gravity is way too far in front, how is this reconstruction supposed to work? There would be only two ways... either the tail is so fat, that it outweighs the posterior part of the animal by three times or so or the animals is walking/running so fast, basically outrunning its imbalance. That sure would only work in very small animals, not in a multi ton pseudo croc. These body proportions require a quadrupedal (or rather belly slide) walk.

[Doug Watson]

But then again, instead of a swimming pose, we could have got something like this:

My Spinosaurus was finished long before the latest paper suggesting it could balance like this so I didn't test the theory but I can say as someone who has balanced a few theropods that there sure looks like a lot of bulk ahead of the hips and I doubt it would actually balance like that. I would love to see a properly built model that could stand without a weighted tail or a base. If you look at Schleich's they couldn't do it and it ends up with the hand touching.

Just finished this and I see Lanthanotus has posted the same doubts.

[Doug Watson]

All ten new pieces are mine, the T rex repaint is not mine.

That's a lot of sculpting! It's like you're almost singlehandedly re-constituting the Carnegie line (augmented by welcome additions like Prestosuchus).

and I also did the WW Grizzly, WW Chimpanzee, WS Mandrill and WS Clouded Leopard. Keeps me off the streets.

did you do last years amazing WW Florida panther? I actually like Safari's wild cat sculpts better than Papo's(which to me have always had weird faces.)

love your work always, just wish a lot of it didn't get muddied up by the sometimes thick & sloppy factory paints.

Thanks yes so far I have done all of the WW cats and all of the WWs except for the Arctic Fox.

[Patrx]

There's also this possible tripod posture for Spinosaurus suggested by Andrea Cau. As I mentioned before, though, I think there's still too much uncertainty regarding the animal's posture on land to actually make a figure that isn't in a swimming pose. A plastic model is a lot harder to update than a drawing!

[Doug Watson]

[...]
I am torn with the stegosaurus.  It is beautiful.  It's what I've been waiting for.  It's a very up-to-date sculpt (Sophie!).  Yet (and this is just a very personal preference) I was hoping for more gnarly, exaggerated armor, scales, etc.  I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm tired of smooth stegosaurs.  A lot of armored animals have a bumps, scutes, etc. surrounding the bigger spines, scales and plates.  In toy (and art) depictions of stegosaurs, it's always with the plates and thagomizers errupting from relatively smooth (of course still scaly) skin.  I am aware that aside from the plates, thagomizers and throat "armor", we don't have any fossilized proof yet of other rough bits on a stegosaur hide - but to me it just makes sense.

'Guess I'm getting 2 stegosaurs for 2019.   'Still very happy.
[...]

@Doug Watson, could you say what you based the integument of the 2019 Safari Stegosaurus on?

I checked my papers and I based the integument on the body and the plates on the 2010 paper by Christiansen & Tschopp on the integument of Hesperosaurus mjosi. The skin was described as having small polygonal tuberculate scales most of which were in the range of 4 to 7mm in diameter. There was evidence of two larger scales surrounded by smaller scales and those larger scales ranged from 20 x 15 mm to 10 x 8 mm.
At 1:35 scale the largest of the smaller scales would have been 0.2mm in diameter and the largest of the large scales would have been 0.5mm at its largest. So the scales that show on my model would most closely match the largest of the scales and I haven't made them as prominent as the scales on my Gryposaurus for example since the authors only discovered two and they weren't able to discern the arrangement of these larger structures. Needless to say at 1:35 scale the surface texture of the smaller and larger scales would be a moot point.
For the throat armour I referred to Ken Carpenter's 1997 paper on the body armour of Stegosaurus stenops.

[Brocc21]

MLMjp your a bit wrong on that. Carnotaurus was a very lean creature. It had crazy long legs that were yes muscular but very lean. Safaris carno has too short legs. Although he was rather "thicc" in the tail. Being as wide if not wider that the hips. This was to hold the huge caudifemurmorialis muscle. If I'm right I think a carno could reach 30 mph. Watch the Your Dinosaurs Are Wrong on carno it's really interesting.

[Faelrin]

Okay seeing that tripod Spinosaurus has me wondering if it walked more like a duck, or like a pangolin. I guess we won't really know how this thing moved, until there's more remains or something close enough.

[Jose S.M.]

Some dino reviewers in youtube are complaining that the Carnotarus is too beefy. And I am like, seriously??? What is their reference, a drink wrapped drawing from the 90s?

Well the legs look kind of beefy to me, but I don't think it's a negative. Also the legs can be the right length and beefy and I'm sure Doug researched this figure well so it would match whatever skeletal drawing he used for reference.
I admittedly found the feet a bit off-putting but the figure has won me over, also the feet of Acrocanthosaurus are enlarged too and never really bothered me so I guess it was just the hype about a perfect Carno that made me more nitpicking.