Schleich - new for 2020

[PumperKrickel]

When they are so far removed from their customers it's fair to act on the assumption that they aren't aware of feedback, hence discussion of their products is solely for the benefit of ourselves, hence no holds barred.

What exactly is the benefit of pages upon pages or people saying "Schleich bad" on principle alone? It´s not punishing the company, it´s punishing every member of the forum who still likes Schleich figures and is interested in actually discussing the new releases.

Have Kaiyodo, Collecta, Eofauna, Pnso, Vitae or Papo ever acknowleged this forum? If this many companies have contempt for us, maybe we are the problem. 

Have companies that don't sell predominantly in English speaking regions contacted an English forum of a small portion of their market? Uh, no, no they haven't and no it isn't indicative of some greater picture.

Which is why it´s unfair to hold their lack of engagement with the forum against Schleich. They are a german company, after all.

[stargatedalek]

When they are so far removed from their customers it's fair to act on the assumption that they aren't aware of feedback, hence discussion of their products is solely for the benefit of ourselves, hence no holds barred.

What exactly is the benefit of pages upon pages or people saying "Schleich bad" on principle alone? It´s not punishing the company, it´s punishing every member of the forum who still likes Schleich figures and is interested in actually discussing the new releases.

I was talking about looking forwards to their new playset in the same post that apparently spurred this on. Even if we also complain about their products and business I don't think anyone is just posting "Schleich bad", no sense in wasting ones own time with that.

Have Kaiyodo, Collecta, Eofauna, Pnso, Vitae or Papo ever acknowleged this forum? If this many companies have contempt for us, maybe we are the problem. 

Have companies that don't sell predominantly in English speaking regions contacted an English forum of a small portion of their market? Uh, no, no they haven't and no it isn't indicative of some greater picture.

Which is why it´s unfair to hold their lack of engagement with the forum against Schleich. They are a german company, after all.

Hence I said "active contempt", lack of engagement is a neutral thing, but Schleich have been nothing but openly hostile towards the STS. They are even hostile towards retailers who stock competitors products.

[Concavenator]

Common sense dictates Safari and CollectA would similarly make more money if they emulated Schleich and made products designed solely to grab attention with bright colours and meaningless buzzwords. That they don't is indicative of them holding genuine ethics about the claims they make and the quality of the products that they sell.

Not necessarily. Schleich is an older company than, for example, Safari and CollectA. It's not that easy when a company has been in a specific business for years to get overshadowed by another, newer, and less known company that does exactly the same, specially when they're much less known. Empirically, it can be seen that whenever Schleich releases a good dinosaur figure (accurate, nicely sculpted, more exotic species...) they get retired after just a few years, and if they get retired, it's because they don't sell well, that's for sure. Now, come to think of it, do you really think CollectA or Safari would out of a sudden succed more than what they are succeeding right now if one year all of their prehistoric animal figures were bad (based on a random Internet image they find on Google, inaccurate, cartoonish looking...). They would have to compete with Schleich, being a lot less known than them, and, according to what @Takama says, with the impossibily of being stocked in the same shops that Schleich do (and they do in most shops, I can also confirm this based on my experience). Also, would you buy CollectA's and Safari's figures a year in which their figures were bad, because you like them?

Chances are if Safari or CollectA (or Eofauna and PNSO as well, since they also produce accurate dinosaur figures) drastically lower the quality of their figures they will more than likely get less sales, as their main target are people who actually want their dinosaur figures to be accurate. For that very reason a lot of people here in the forum don't buy Schleich dinosaurs, because they don't meet the criteria we want our figures to have.

They are all trying to get the same market, parents who want educational toys. Schleich preys on the public's lack of education and pop culture misconceptions in order to one-up their rivals while Safari and CollectA don't.

They may try to get to the same market, but in reality, I don't think they do. Schleich figures are everywhere you go, so I just think that the parents whose children are interested in nature, animals and that kind of stuff will buy the first animal figures they stumble, and since Schleich are everywhere, those are the figures they buy.
It's evident that Schleich has been downgrading the quality of their figures over the years. Now, they are more cartoony (and thereby, less realistic), less reseached, and possibly more sloppily painted. But still, there's a difference from a current Schleich figure and a "chinasaur" type of toy. Possibly the parents, who aren't into the world of collecting animal figures, will think that those Schleich figures that we don't like and call them lame are actually really high quality pieces, so they stick buying that brand. For example, my dad once gifted me a Schleich Therizinosaurus from 2014 and he thought it looked great (when I collect brands like Carnegie, Eofauna, Safari, CollectA... you get what I mean right?  )

Man, I really did set off your "filthy leftist" alarms didn't I?

The fact that you say that implies that political references were made in your post, so you just broke one of the forum's rules. On the rules section, it is explicitly said :

7. Topics concerning politics and religion are discouraged.

This isn't the first time you have made political references on some of your posts, so remember that and also remember that it is indeed a motive for getting banned. I visit the forum because I want to see if there's any update concerning my favorite brands (guess I will have to limit myself to visit those threads exclusively because the amount of negativity that comes from reading certain threads is just tiring), not to read political references on a forum that is about dinosaur toys. If you want to discuss politics, you could search forums for that, with the advantage that you could talk as freely as you want and you wouldn't even need to make references. 

It's impossible to avoid buying from large corporations entirely without substantial resources of ones own, but there is plenty of opportunity to make conscious choices to support companies with more ethical practices. Even if you don't have access to or can't afford to buy from a farmers market, you can still buy your groceries from a local superstore or Costco rather than supporting Walmart or Amazon.

I agree with you on this. I will happily buy groceries from a grocery shop rather than from an inmense supermarket, to support those small businesses (and also because in some cases the quality of their products are usually higher). So I will do that whenever I can as well. But that doesn't mean that if I buy something from a supermarket instead I will feel guilty at all though.
For example, when I order figures for my collection, my go-to sites are either Everything Dinosaur or Dan's Dinosaurs. I also try to order from them, not only to support them, but also because since they're focused on that, they will take more care with dealing the orders. But I'm no fool, if a figure is cheaper on Amazon, I will buy that figure from Amazon, and I don't have to feel guilty for that. Is buying from Amazon a crime? I must have missed something then 

Buying toys from Amazon or Walmart when no other retailer available stocks them is fine

No, according to you it's not fine! You said: "Bezos is bad" so if you buy a figure from their store, you'll be supporting the "bad".

I have a total of two figures that I purchased from Amazon.

Yet again, you contradicted yourself. If Amazon is so bad, the fact that you got a Suchomimus figure from them means that your consumerist behavior was bigger than your ethical criteria that judges Amazon as "bad".

Just because Bezos is bad

Be him good or bad is your very personal opinion, and that doesn't have anything to do not only with this topic (Schleich's figures for 2020) but with this forum in general. But again, I don't understand your perspective. Amazon (and other giant companies, like Apple) are that rich because they offer a lot of value and they are good at it. You mentioned those quantities of money as an attack to them, but there's no point in that.
Even if I were to make myself a millionaire selling hot dogs on the street, what's the matter? That would imply I would be doing something right, and that people like that product.

I agree with the claim that Schleich have a disastrous sales policy, and I would also like it if all their prehistoric animal figures were excellent instead of having some good figures each year in the midst of a majority of bad figures, but it can't be denied that, from a business' perspective, the policy they use is effective. That's one of the reasons why they're still around.

[stargatedalek]

Man, I really did set off your "filthy leftist" alarms didn't I?

The fact that you say that implies that political references were made in your post, so you just broke one of the forum's rules. On the rules section, it is explicitly said :

7. Topics concerning politics and religion are discouraged.

This isn't the first time you have made political references on some of your posts, so remember that and also remember that it is indeed a motive for getting banned. I visit the forum because I want to see if there's any update concerning my favorite brands (guess I will have to limit myself to visit those threads exclusively because the amount of negativity that comes from reading certain threads is just tiring), not to read political references on a forum that is about dinosaur toys. If you want to discuss politics, you could search forums for that, with the advantage that you could talk as freely as you want and you wouldn't even need to make references. 

No, the fact that I said that was intended as a joke, to try and ease tension. Hence the laughing emote.

Spoiler

Dislike of large corporations and their unethical practices is a very mainstream idea, and one that is no more inherently political than acknowledging the existence of these companies. I compared Schleich to Amazon and Walmart as an allusion to their position within the toy market, because Amazon and Walmart are well known for being large companies that use unethical policies. It's a logistical comparison, not a political discussion!

That you are so intent on warping what I said into "She's trying to say buying things is bad! She's a hypocrite because she also buys things!" is not only circular nonsense but is a frequent right-wing dog whistle argument, hence my joke that you "might as well have been calling me a filthy leftist" to try and ease tension.

You tried to make it political when you got angry at the fact that I don't like those companies, and I have to assume based on both how much you extrapolated from that and your "isn't the first time" comment that this was a deliberate attempt to bait me into a political discussion to try and get me punished out of some personal vendetta. Is it because I'm left-leaning? Is it because I'm LGBT? Maybe just because I somehow annoy you personally? My very existence is political to a lot of people who use these same arguments and terms you've made a clearly conscious choice to use here, so excuse me if I'm not inclined to roll over.

[close]

I have been nothing but explicit that buying from these companies is not inherently supporting what they do, as often consumers simply don't have other options or the other options are not within reason. Please stop repeatedly insisting that I am somehow inconsistent in this.





I will say again, I actually really like the look of that large playset. I've been considering buying Schleich playsets for a while and I think this will probably be the one that gets me to finally give them a try. Does anyone know what size the humans are? That would give a better idea of how large the interiors of these playsets are than the dimensions do.

Also, does anyone who has them know how the connections work? Are these fences modular and you can swap them out, or does a given piece only connect to the piece it's meant to connect to?

[Flaffy]

I feel that the only reason Schleich is so successful is due to their highly aggressive marketing tactics. Their oversaturation in the market, along with being a well known and well established name contributes to their sales. Most casual collectors in Jurassic Park toy groups/forums probably have never heard of companies like CollectA or Safari, but they sure as hell know what Papo and Schleich are.

You can't go anywhere without stumbling upon a pile of two of those wastes of plastic. Other companies that IMO are in the same vein as Schleich includes "Animal Zone" and "Geoworld".

I don't like Schleich, nor do I support their business practises.

[PrimevalRaptor]

Honestly during their Replica-Saurus days I really liked them (even if their models back then also had some flaws, they had some real gems too then like the Shonisaurus or Desmatosuchus), but nowadays it is kind of sad, you do have the few exceptional models and I usually try to pick them up if I like them (heck, I picked up the Postosuchus even with it's flaws cause it's a neat little model and another Triassic species) to show support, but yeah. Their marketing strategies and the fact that there's this huge discrepancy in their models really doesn't help.
And I sometimes wonder if their tight grip on the market here in Germany is why I'm never seeing anything but Schleich in stores (and the occasional Bullyland but they're not doing extinct animals anymore, so...).
I remember a short time when one of our toy shops had Safari models in stock, that was heaven for young me.

And it's a shame that they don't put as much care into all their models like Safari or CollectA do nowadays, cause as someone before me said, just cause you're aiming for kids doesn't mean you can just go "whatever, they'll buy it". I mean sure, it often is true especially for parents who just wanna get their kids a new toy, but like with the Replica-Saurus line, they once tried to be educational at least and I wish they'd return to that.

[Concavenator]

Spoiler

Dislike of large corporations and their unethical practices is a very mainstream idea, and one that is no more inherently political than acknowledging the existence of these companies. I compared Schleich to Amazon and Walmart as an allusion to their position within the toy market, because Amazon and Walmart are well known for being large companies that use unethical policies. It's a logistical comparison, not a political discussion!

You tried to make it political when you got angry at the fact that I don't like those companies, and I have to assume based on both how much you extrapolated from that and your "isn't the first time" comment that this was a deliberate attempt to bait me into a political discussion to try and get me punished out of some personal vendetta. Is it because I'm left-leaning? Is it because I'm a lesbian? Because I'm trans? Maybe just because I somehow annoy you personally? My very existence is political to a lot of people who use these same arguments and terms you've made a clearly conscious choice to use here, so excuse me if I'm not inclined to roll over.

[close]

Spoiler

I of course didn't want to enter the politics topic. I have never posted even the slightest thing concerning politics on any of my posts on the forum. Never. That doesn't mean I have my own ideas too, but that this isn't the place to discuss that.
You have indeed made political references, as slight as they might be, in some of your posts, and this is not any accusation, it is a fact and you (the author of those posts) must be very aware of that. I'm not a moderator of any sort, so my job is not to keep reminding everyone of the forum's rules (I guess you must have read them). It's okay if people go off-topic sometimes, that is something that as long as the forum exists, will happen from time to time and it's completely natural.

But making political references from time to time is indeed deliberate, and it is breaking the forum's rules. Even if it wasn't a rule of the forum, it would seem logical not to post any reference to politics in, again, a forum that's about collecting dinosaur toys.
And why would I have anything against you specifically?  I don't know you, and I don't care if you are lesbian, trans, or left-leaning. That's perfectly fine. (Yet still, I don't see the point in announcing that in this forum  I could also be gay and/or trans and I wouldn't post that I am in this forum, what's the point in doing that?  ) What annoys me are the political references in the posts, since:

1) they aren't allowed
2) they have nothing to do with this topic
3) spreads negativity unnecessarily

[close]

I have been nothing but explicit that buying from these companies is not inherently supporting what they do

Well, the only real form there is to support a company is buying their products. Any company will prefer someone who complaints about their products but buys them rather than someone who praises them and their products but doesn't buy any. In fact, them earning so much money leads them to think that their products are loved by a lot of people, so why would they even be hearing to some (by comparison) small complaints?

Like I said, I dislike Schleich's attitude at collectors like us. Any other company is much more friendly and open to suggestions from collectors. But I understand why they act how they do.

[PumperKrickel]

And we´re already back to pointless bickering and "Schleich bad". It´s incredibly disappointing that huge chunks of this community are unwilling to give certain companies a fair chance and are determined to regurgitate the same old arguments every chance they get. Schleich is the enemy and therefore they deserve to have all of their threads destroyed by thinly veiled vitriol. They "obviously" hate us, so we have to hate them back. And people have the gall to demand that Schleich becomes active in a community that openly despises them, otherwise they are being unfriendly towards us.

Well, I´ve said what I needed to say and I hope I reached at least a few of you with my concerns regarding posting quality. I love this forum, which is why it deeply saddens me that certain companies or franchises can´t be discussed with the same level of care we extend towards Safari for example.

[Sarapaurolophus]

We must bear in mind that Schleich is a brand of dinosaurs and other toy figures intended for very young children such as Lego or Play Movil (magnificent and endearing brands of which I have a very good memory) and, of course, it is not a brand intended for fans. fans of prehistoric life among other facets such as wild animals, farm. Schleich is intended for the enjoyment of children who do not care about scientific precision. We should take that into account.

Personally, I think it shouldnt matter whether it's for kids or not. The issue is that Schleich claims to be educational and some consumers, parents included, think that should extend to prehistoric research.

Schleich's fantasy lines such as Bayala and Boyala (sorry, but that's what I call the beasts line ) are getting less criticism because they don't claim to educate.

To cut the Schleich "haters" here some slack, there is an active model horse scene and many online communities dedicated to them and collectors there have the same issues with the horses people here have with the dinosaurs.

I know that the horses have to follow the in-house style. That means they all need large, black, almond shaped eyes. Maybe some business person somewhere found out models with these eyes sold a smidge better. Who knows. And the breeds are barely recognizable anymore.
Point is, Schleich has gone through changes people perceive as negative. Not just the dino collectors.

Well, I´ve said what I needed to say and I hope I reached at least a few of you with my concerns regarding posting quality. I love this forum, which is why it deeply saddens me that certain companies or franchises can´t be discussed with the same level of care we extend towards Safari for example.

I think it's possible to discuss the figures, including the negative sides, without bashing the sculptors. Thats what sometimes annoys me. When people are trying to one-up eachother finding the coolest insult or whatever.
I totally get brand loyalty, though. I am neither a big Safari fan nor Schleich.

I just happen to know a few Schleich sculptors and I know from talking to two of them (both involved in the horses lines) that they will often sculpt good anatomy and then Schleich will review and tell them to "fix" the good anatomy - such as a correctly raised leg or necklenght - to look wrong. This is sometimes done because it makes the production process cheaper or in case of the huge alien eyes, because they want that to be their in-house style.

So I know from at least a few people that Schleich is demanding their sculptors to sell themselves short.
It's especially jarring when you know a certain figure is from a certain sculptor and you've seen their usual work is leagues better than what Schleich made them do.

That's what I find most frustrating with them as a company. They hire great talent but make them sculpt in whatever style they go with at the moment.

But overall I agree, I think a little less personal anger would be better when discussing them.
And I think some of that Safari praise is not just due to them being more accurate but due to them being an American company and this forum having a lot of active American posters.

Schleich is even unreachable for most Germans. I tried getting an appointment at Spielwarenmesse Nuremberg last year and yeeeaaah, fat chance
I even lived half an hour from their base at some point and they were still elusive. Very hard to give feedback to.

[EmperorDinobot]

I rather like the playset. Good fodder for my Jurassic setup. I dislike the lame repaints though. Even Chap Mei managed to throw in a new mold or two.

[Flaffy]

Well, I´ve said what I needed to say and I hope I reached at least a few of you with my concerns regarding posting quality. I love this forum, which is why it deeply saddens me that certain companies or franchises can´t be discussed with the same level of care we extend towards Safari for example.

I personally think blatantly lying about being "educational" warrants some negative criticism towards Schleich.
Safari ltd claims to produce educational toys, and they most certainly deliver. Schleich on the other hand, uses it as a marketing tool to lure unsuspecting parents in.

An incredibly dishonest, despicable business strategy, and as such, in the event where I do care enough to give my opinion on a Schleich figure. I most certainly do not hold back.

[PumperKrickel]

I personally think blatantly lying about being "educational" warrants some negative criticism towards Schleich.
Safari ltd claims to produce educational toys, and they most certainly deliver. Schleich on the other hand, uses it as a marketing tool to lure unsuspecting parents in.

An incredibly dishonest, despicable business strategy, and as such, in the event where I do care enough to give my opinion on a Schleich figure. I most certainly do not hold back.

This is exactly the kind of stuff I was talking about. People repeat the same old accusations again and again without even thinking about it. Educational does not mean scientifically accurate. An educational toy stimulates a child´s development through play. Lego Duplo is an educational toy, despite not exactly accurate depictions of animals or objects. Wooden toys are educational, not for their scientific accuracy, but for their unique properties like texture, smell or shape. Schleich toys are educational because they encourage a childs development by promoting creativity. When you have a look at one of their figures on amazon, you won´t find any claims of being scientifically accurate. You will however find claims of being highly detailed, durable and inspiring play. They aren´t lying by any means. Their fantasy figures are also listed as educational toys. Are they claiming that their unicorns and dragons are scientifically accurate as well? Or could it maybe be possible that the bias some people have against Schleich is clouding their judgement? Fun fact: Safari Ltd is claiming that their werewolf is educational as well. Guess they deserve the same amount of hate Schleich does for claiming that werewolves are real.

https://www.amazon.com/Safari-Ltd-Fantasy-Collection-Construction/dp/B01LFTKQTE/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=safari+werewolf&qid=1586710924&sr=8-1

[Takama]

Safari makes it Clear that there Mythical Figures Are MYTHICAL and FANTASTICAL, And They Educate there buyers about not just there Dinosaur figures, but all there Wild life replicas as well.

Schleich does no such thing. They did give educatinal tags with there New dinos from 2016 to 2018, but they ceased that pracetice in 2019, and so newer models lack such a tag.   Plus Safari PUTS MORE RESEARCH into there models then Schleich ever cares to do. 

[stargatedalek]

I personally think blatantly lying about being "educational" warrants some negative criticism towards Schleich.
Safari ltd claims to produce educational toys, and they most certainly deliver. Schleich on the other hand, uses it as a marketing tool to lure unsuspecting parents in.

An incredibly dishonest, despicable business strategy, and as such, in the event where I do care enough to give my opinion on a Schleich figure. I most certainly do not hold back.

This is exactly the kind of stuff I was talking about. People repeat the same old accusations again and again without even thinking about it. Educational does not mean scientifically accurate. An educational toy stimulates a child´s development through play. Lego Duplo is an educational toy, despite not exactly accurate depictions of animals or objects. Wooden toys are educational, not for their scientific accuracy, but for their unique properties like texture, smell or shape. Schleich toys are educational because they encourage a childs development by promoting creativity. When you have a look at one of their figures on amazon, you won´t find any claims of being scientifically accurate. You will however find claims of being highly detailed, durable and inspiring play. They aren´t lying by any means. Their fantasy figures are also listed as educational toys. Are they claiming that their unicorns and dragons are scientifically accurate as well? Or could it maybe be possible that the bias some people have against Schleich is clouding their judgement? Fun fact: Safari Ltd is claiming that their werewolf is educational as well. Guess they deserve the same amount of hate Schleich does for claiming that werewolves are real.

https://www.amazon.com/Safari-Ltd-Fantasy-Collection-Construction/dp/B01LFTKQTE/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=safari+werewolf&qid=1586710924&sr=8-1

Bull.

That wasn't written by Safari, that was written by that Amazon store. Safari's own website says nothing about the werewolf being educational, the page doesn't even include the word educational on it.

https://store.safariltd.com/products/werewolf

Perhaps your apparent anger is clouding your judgment?

Also, if that is enough to make Schleich educational, than literally everything is educational. Rocks from ones yard have texture and colour, and can be used creatively. That is clearly not what a consumer expects the word to mean nor is it what Schleich is trying to make them assume.

[Sarapaurolophus]

To be fair here, the seller websites do list fantastical creatures of many companies as educational toys for the reason PumperKrickel stated (the type of toy is being referred to as educational in this scenario, not what it depicts).

Out of curiosity I read Schleich's mission statement and interestingly, there is no clear distinction which figures are supposed to "encourage fantasy play" and which ones are supposed to "teach about how the animal looks in real life" (badly translated by me, not actual English wording).
They do consider all of their figures as a teaching tool that will "do good for your kids" - this is the part where I think it's fair to criticize the dinosaurs and horses quite a bit because what should a kid learn about a JP inspired raptor or a stallion with one leg way shorter than the other? These specific ones are definitely flawed teaching tools.

Read for yourselves here: https://www.schleich-s.com/de/DE/unternehmen/die-marke/unser-versprechen
Pretty sure there is a way to get an English version of the website, I am just too lazy

[PumperKrickel]

That wasn't written by Safari, that was written by that Amazon store. Safari's own website says nothing about the werewolf being educational, the page doesn't even include the word educational on it.

And neither does Schleich´s own website say anything about the Tyrannosaurus being educational, for example. So they´re off the hook, I guess?
https://us.schleich-s.com/en/US/dinosaurs/products/tyrannosaurus-rex-14525.html

Also, if that is enough to make Schleich educational, than literally everything is educational. Rocks from ones yard have texture and colour, and can be used creatively. That is clearly not what a consumer expects the word to mean nor is it what Schleich is trying to make them assume.

Except it´s literally what this phrase means. An educational toy CAN teach facts about a specific subject, but they don´t have to in order to qualify as being educational. A rock is not an educational toy, because it wasn´t designed specifically for children.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_toy#Educational_theories_and_play

They do consider all of their figures as a teaching tool that will "do good for your kids" - this is the part where I think it's fair to criticize the dinosaurs and horses quite a bit because what should a kid learn about a JP inspired raptor or a stallion with one leg way shorter than the other? These specific ones are definitely flawed teaching tools.

The allegation was that Schleich is blatantly lying to their customers, which I just don´t see. If not making it clear that a JP raptor is an inaccurate depiction of the real animal is an attempt to deceive clueless parents, Safari is just just as guilty.
https://store.safariltd.com/products/wild-safari-prehistoric-world-velociraptor-figurines-299929?_pos=2&_sid=38732334c&_ss=r

I do wish an admin or moderator would eventually chime in on whether or not the same basic level of respect with which we are expected to treat each other is to be extended towards companies as well.

[Takama]

@dinotoyforum do you think this discussion warrents contiuation? do you think we should treat a cooperate Enttitiy like Schleich to the same standards as your average member of this very forum?

Because personaly, i dont think its necesary. but your the head of the whole place, what do you have to say?


Oh about Safaris Velociraptor?

At least they UPDATE there products after so maney years with better Accuracy, Unlike you know who

This is Safaris First Velociraptor


Years later they made an Update



Now lets look at Schleich

This is there First Velociraptor from 2012

No Feathers, Very Jurasscic Park inspired

Second Try only two years later

NO IMPROVMENT

But Wait, 4 years later they give us.

This thing that looks like they were not even trying to make a realistic raptor.

They had three oppertunity, and they blew each one, or they dont care

[leidy]

Safari's first Velociraptor was 1993, and very accurate for its day.



All of those Schleich Velociraptors have feathers, just very reluctantly.  Even the JP imposter version has a few wing feathers they're almost hoping you won't notice.  The second version paints the 'wings' more prominently, but lacks raised toe claws.  The third version has more feathers than ever, but still doesn't want to give up on being scaly.  It might take them another decade to get there.  Don't forget, they were still doing upright T.rexes well into the 2000s.  They've always been a very conservative line, slow to move with the times. 

I feel like they're trying to cater to the popular image of velociraptor as shaped by the Jurassic Park movies.  Purely from a commercial standpoint, there's probably going to be continued demand for that creature for many years to come.  I'd like to see Schleich do a velociraptor in the style of their recent Oviraptor.  Maybe as an experiment, release it alongside one of these scaly JP-esque mutants to see which the market prefers.   

[Sarapaurolophus]

What I do want to know - since it was brought up - when did Schleich threaten the STS with legal action?
Because all I could find was this:
http://sts-forum.forumieren.de/t18182-copyrights-of-schleich-official-pictures-and-the-way-we-can-use-them

Looks like they contacted them and even had phonecalls and asked them to remove leaked stock photos. Couldn't find anything else.

Looks more like Schleich retailers got rightully angry someone leaked stock photos online while they have to keep up with the contract of not showing them until 10 weeks before launch.
Of course a Schleich person would have contacted STS sooner or later. Anything I'm missing here? To me, this practice is normal and not especially hostile. They protected their pictures from leakers.

The excuse that their products are bad and they should be happy about free publicity is weak when you are literally breaking a contract. Try doing that to another company in Schleich's income range and see how that works

[PumperKrickel]

Thank you for sharing this. It appears that these allegations against Schleich are wildly blown out of proportion.

Might I remind everyone of this sentence in the Registration Agreement all of us agreed to when joining this forum:
"You will not post any material which is false, defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, adult material, or otherwise in violation of any International or United States Federal law."

Even if Dr. Admin decides that a corporate entity does not deserve the same level of respect as a person does, the spreading of inaccurate information regarding Schleich would still violate the rules. No matter how ugly their figures are.