Young Children & Outdated Dinosaur Toys

[Lizerd]

Upon recently visiting a family friend with a toddler I knew something was up with his view of dinosaurs: he really liked outdated dinosaur models and toys. This made me realize something: ever wonder why companies like safari ltd and collecta still have severely outdated models? Little kids like them. So anyone else wonder when small kids will start or make these obsolete animals no longer popular?

[CityRaptor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8HmCG7DWUk
And they like outdated models.


Well, it might be connected to what kind of dinosaur media they are exposed too. Like tv programs, books for toddlers etc. Parents might also buy old books since they are cheaper and it's "just a phase"....

[IrritatorRaji]

Parents might also buy old books since they are cheaper and it's "just a phase"....

I agree with this. Kids fall in and out of love with things all the time, no point in spending loads of money on a passion that may fade as the children age.

[Brocc21]

How does safari and collecta  have severely outdated models? Are we talking about the same companies.

[Jose S.M.]

How does safari and collecta  have severely outdated models? Are we talking about the same companies.

He probably refers to the older Tyrannosaurus versions, the tripod ones, I think both are green.

[Lizerd]

Safari has some outdated models, and so does collecta (if it does not have feathers, its probably inaccurate)
Something else interesting is those models also make a lot of profit, as most kids get into dinos, drop out, and move on (except for us, but we are weird ). By the time they recognize how accurate and inaccurate something is they usually are out of dinosaurs.

[Pachyrhinosaurus]

I see what you're saying but I think outdated dinosaurs will never not be popular. As a kid I grew up with library books from the 80's and 90's, Marx knock-offs and other old-style figures (until I got into Safari toys around 2005). Even though they're inaccurate I think they're still classic designs that are part of the history of paleontology.

That being said, there was a point where I realized that they were inaccurate. I think dinosaur toys are an important part of kids getting into dinosaurs and can lead to a more serious interest in the future, even if they started out with inaccurate toys.

[Lizerd]

I started with some pretty inaccurate stuff, oh boy they were... special. Well they do still have a purpose, helping us get into the hobby.

[Gwangi]

I think it mostly had to do with availability too. A lot of the inaccurate dinosaurs are also older models that have been around. They have been bought, sold, and re-sold. Old outdated toys and books don't just vanish, they end up in second-hand stores, garage sales, eBay lots, or handed off to other family members.

My daughter is 3 years old and it playing with toys and exposed to media from the 70's, 80's, and 90's. Stuff I grew up with. Not because she prefers them, it's because that's what's available, and she's 3 and doesn't care. Because I'm into dinosaurs she'll someday know what is accurate and what isn't but for now they're just toys. She watches "Dinosaur Dan" and "Dinosaur Train" so she understands that dinosaurs can have feathers, but she doesn't care if her toy Velociraptor has them or not and sometimes she substitutes a Velociraptor as a Microraptor. And yes, as a parent, I will choose quantity over quality when picking up dinosaur toys for my kid. She doesn't need a $25 Safari T. rex when I can buy her a dozen used dinosaur toys for the same price.

[Brocc21]

Ah, I thought you meant their newer figures.

[australovenator]

I agree with the idea that it's mostly because these outdated models are easily available and often very cheap, and I can't blame parents for not wanting to fork out loads of money for something that, sadly, most children do grow out of. The saving grace is that any child that is seriously into prehistory will ultimately seek out the up to date information and thus, accurate models, as the get older and learn more and more. So you could say these models have their place in introducing children to the subject and just hope that they educate themselves. With the internet these days such a thing is very easy.

[Cretaceous Crab]

I think exposure to current movies and tv plays some role in it, but  I don't think its a major factor.

I feel it is more mostly on the availability of certain toys and the price ceiling of most parents. For example, up until the release of the JWFK toys this year, my area on the Gulf Coast does not have many options for dino toys: namely just the Chap Mei stuff at Toys R Us, the cheapasaurs & occasionally Schleich at Walmart and the few Battat figures at Target. Every so often, some Safari Ltd and Papo figures show up at Hobby Lobby but most parents aren't taking their kids there for toy shopping.

So a lot of kids around here are getting the cheap stuff from Walmart because thats what the kids see the most. For a lot of kids, accuracy isn't a factor.

My son of course can readily tell you what is wrong with most inaccurate figures, but he also has his favorite cheapos as well.

[Lizerd]

So I think we can all  agree that modern culture, availability, and most children outgrowing them is the reason these things stick around. Question is how much and how quickly will this change, and looking at people who don't have large collections, I could easily envision a parent purchasing wild safari models or papo animals. Only time can tell...

[IrritatorRaji]

So I think we can all  agree that modern culture, availability, and most children outgrowing them is the reason these things stick around. Question is how much and how quickly will this change

I think for as long as it's adults who are the ones heralding a change towards scientifically accurate models, thus presenting themselves as the target audiences for such models as opposed to children, we'll see scientifically inaccurate models being advertised to the less picky child audience.

[stargatedalek]

I think price is a more significant influence than people assume. Parents pass on the newer, accurate figures because the one sitting next to it that released in 1994 is cheaper.

[Federreptil]

I think the children don`t like outdated dinosaurs or accurate ones. It`s not their business. They like dinosaurs and they like spectacular and colourful figures. Maybe a little bit more dangerous and weird isn`t bad. And they take what they get. So there are tons of outdated and inaccurate models in the market. Not only the so named cheap chinasaurs but you can discuss also about Schleich and the major of all the better known companies - how accurate are Papo or Rebor? And my favorite theory about outdated dinosaurs is the idea, not the children but parents and grandparents buy the most stuff. And they will take the silhouettes, which are well known in their own memory. Why are there no feathers in Jurassic World? Never change a running system. And often the frontrunners of science are not the best value to the model companies. By the way, how many discussions here in the forum are about the preference of a new or well known view in the evolution of our suggestions, how a dinosaur should be.
Back to the children: Many of them are proud, how many informations and facts they can collect. So they would take any better view as they took the worst ones. If it is more than a phase and the interest is still high a couple of years, the young fan will learn more about the more scientific approach to dinosaurs and will educate the own taste. And so only way to help them is to put more visions of our understanding of "accurate" dinosaurs in the world. Let's push the balance to more fascinating animals and not spectacular monsters of the next horror show.

[Lizerd]

Make's sense, the last toddler I talked to refused to accept fluffy dinos. Well for pushing for accurate animals should not be too hard 
It really is interesting how toys and pop culture go hand in hand.

[ITdactyl]

The parents who have the purchasing power tend favor the cheap, err, economical option.*  Currently, how many plastic dinos do we have under 4 GBP/5 USD that pass the test of general accuracy?
*cheap dinos seem to be the general trend, despite research showing the increasing amounts spent by families on other high-end toys.

The kids these parents purchase for could not be bothered about accuracy - even if we're not talking dinos.  They just want an awesome, fun toy.  We can have long discussions about "educating" kids about accuracy but at the end of the day, it's all about play.

And then there's availability.  How many of these brands (that produce generally accurate dinosaurs) have a presence in the major retail shops/malls?  (Speaking for my country, we only have Schleich, Mojo and Recur.  We have to go online for all the other options.)

Maybe in the future, [we]someone can convince the big companies that the playability of the current Jurassic World line can be translated to scientifically accurate dinosaur figures.  Maybe.  Someday.

Given this discussion, I'm curious how much an average family is willing to spend on a static but scientifically accurate dinosaur toy (as opposed to alternatives like an electronic action figure).  Research says families in Australia, the UK and US spent more than 450 USD/child on toys in 2015-2016.  That's another point to ponder.

[australovenator]

To add onto my last post, I can say from experience that in my country (Australia) it seems that not too many stores stock anything beyond cheap chinasaurs and maybe Jurassic Park stuff. If you're lucky you might get somewhere that stocks CollectA or Schleich. So availability could be a big factor in many places. I also agree with the idea that children tend to gravitate to more monsterous and "exciting" toys and so do the parents. Pop culture really does have a lot to answer for as well. I just hope that with many people now shopping online as opposed to brick and mortar stores that parents turn to some of the great but also affordable options like CollectA when buying Dinosaurs for their children.

[Lizerd]

So availability, price tag, pop-culture, and kids gravitating towards ugly lizards is what kept these outdated toys alive. In terms of convincing movie studios that should be tricky, as they likely are well aware that accurate animals will be less likely to sell. Question is what and when will change come. As for changing toy companies seeing as we have Doug Watson here we can just repeatedly beg him to make change, nah jk he already has made the best models we've seen. But we could just message say safari or collecta for more accurate models to be more widely available.