Schleich - new for 2020

[PumperKrickel]

And yet that wasn't good enough when you criticized Safari ltd. You said they were fraudulent about their claims of having educational figures because they had a werewolf.

I never said Safari wasn´t producing educational figures and I certainly never even implied that they were fraudulent in any way, shape or form. My whole point was that a company calling something an educational toy doesn´t mean it has to be scientifically accurate. Do a quick google image search for educational toys, if you don´t believe me. You´re gonna see basic shapes and bright colours for toddlers, not well-researched animals. Ya´ll are misunderstanding what an educational toy is and mocking Schleich for it. And now you´re mocking me while misrepresenting my argument. It´s absolutely bizarre what´s going on here.

Wait . . . someone was accusing Safari Ltd of not being an educational company simply because they make fantasy beasts alongside real animals?

Well gee, going by that reasoning, Sesame Street isn't an educational program because roughly half the cast consists of monsters or grouches.

And this is the result. Someone doesn´t bother to read the original post and just runs with your misrepresentation in order to make fun of me. The state of this forum is depressing.

[Stegotyranno420]

Everyone is sad and mad here too. Life just sucks. i just wish i could just be in a coma until things are good again. Gee, why cant everyone stop fighting!
We dont know what comes next in our world, so we much not fight. My whole day for today and 3 days before was just stayin bored for the whole damn day, going on the forum, only to see everyone angry at eachother. I litteraly just asked someone whats wrong with no female characters, and he happened to be my editor, and now i feel really bad, as i got confused with his proverb and now i believe i left a bad taste in his mouth, and he is pretty much my boss. Now i feel like someone is going to digitally jump me and say something that would just make the state of this forum more depressing. I already live in a boring reality, why go to a once-fruitful-now-depressing forum.

Im sorry if i made anyone more mad

[Faelrin]

P @PumperKrickel I think I totally got what you were saying earlier, and the example you provided, and it is a shame the point you were trying to make is being misconstrued here.


Bit of a disclaimer: I wrote everything below after 12am in the morning, and I'm dead tired (I'm done for now. It's 1:20am), so this could be a long winded rambling mess, and might not be the most coherent but well ya'll have been warned.


I can certainly see that perspective that figures based on outdated or pop culture reconstructions or even fantasy still being capable of providing educational value by inspiring play and imagination, and creativity. I'm probably going to beat the dead horse here, as someone who grow up with Jurassic Park, the Land Before Time, Walking with Dinosaurs, Disney's Dinosaur, etc, and had many dinosaur toys of all sorts (from Playmates Primal Rage, to Kenner and Hasbro's Jurassic Park lines, etc) throughout my childhood I can't think of any of those being made to scientifically accurate standards like say the Battat and Carnegie figures were that I missed out on, but none of that got in the way of inspiring me to learn more about these animals, which in turn led me to learning more beyond just the Mesozoic and more recent Pleistocene fauna (and some flora). In fact I think that by being allowed to explore and create scenarios with them through play, it was only beneficial in the end to helping me be eager to learn more. I also don't doubt at all that some of the books I had read had outdated info, aside from what I watched on the big screen, but sometimes those first impressions can be helpful to inspire and teach later on. No doubt as we've certainly seen, a plethora of paleontologists were inspired by Jurassic Park and what was certainly a revolutionary take on dinosaurs and dinosaur behavior in the public eye at that time. Early in my childhood I was also set on chasing such as dream, until well many things went wrong in my life to lead me astray from that.

In a more modern example, I have been able to help teach and inspire my nieces with many of the Mattel Jurassic World figures I have brought over on the weekends I visit with them, having an opportunity to teach them about different prehistoric animals I never had the opportunity of learning of, unless they were in the books I had as a child born in the early 90's, or featured in what would become pop culture examples such as Jurassic Park and Walking with Dinosaurs, etc. And if their attention span allows for it I can also teach them about what the figures get wrong as well. Granted though, with the technology they now have at their fingertips that I obviously didn't have growing up, sometimes they surprise me when they already know what one of the animals is, does, etc.

Of course the downside to continuing to use outdated reconstructions perpetuates what is essentially a myth at this point of what these animals probably looked like on the current evidence, such as say for example portraying Postosuchus in 2020 as a quadruped (which both Schleich and Mattel have done). The real question though is how much that really matters in the end? As with what's being discussed in CollectA's 2020 thread, most folks buying these are buying them for their children, and if I had to gather, they probably don't know (let alone care) much outside of the few pop culture takes out there in some manner. Will that same outdated Postosuchus posture really get in the way of a child learning more about this animal? Sure there are certainly folks now that have been resistant to change (such as the number of JP fans that still to this day refuse to separate fact and fiction), but an outdated reconstruction of a toy is probably the last on this list I'd think of that led to such an individual being that way (I'll even admit that even I myself have been this way at times in the past, if not present, and I can now name a key three things that have led to that outcome, now that I am better at recognizing them, but probably not worth mentioning here in this particular discussion).

And speaking about outdated reconstructions, as we have all seen, even figures from companies like Safari Ltd and CollectA that try to stay cutting edge with the evidence, have found their figures becoming (or at least some aspects) outdated in the blink of an eye as science ever marches on, with new discoveries adding or changing our understanding. I mean this year alone we have had three of Safari Ltd's 2019 and 2020 figures fall prey to this, the Edmontosaurus (and shortly after the figure was revealed to boot), the Spinosaurus, and now the Dilophosaurus. Could be others as well, but these are the most prominent ones I can think of. I don't think none of these should be considered moot now just because something is rendered inaccurate now (and not just because they are some of what I think are the best on the market either for them). I highly doubt any of that would get in the way of a child that wanted to just play with these in the first place, and that goes for any brand.

[Loon]

Everyone is sad and mad here too. Life just sucks. i just wish i could just be in a coma until things are good again. Gee, why cant everyone stop fighting!
We dont know what comes next in our world, so we much not fight. My whole day for today and 3 days before was just stayin bored for the whole damn day, going on the forum, only to see everyone angry at eachother. I litteraly just asked someone whats wrong with no female characters, and he happened to be my editor, and now i feel really bad, as i got confused with his proverb and now i believe i left a bad taste in his mouth, and he is pretty much my boss. Now i feel like someone is going to digitally jump me and say something that would just make the state of this forum more depressing. I already live in a boring reality, why go to a once-fruitful-now-depressing forum.

Im sorry if i made anyone more mad

I'm not mad, just confused. Like, what?

People seem to get so mad about people wanting scientific accuracy; I'm frankly more irritated by people who think negativity and criticism shouldn't exist. Sure, being overly negative is one thing, but complaining isn't inherently bad.

If people didn't complain, we'd still be serfs.

[Stegotyranno420]

Everyone is sad and mad here too. Life just sucks. i just wish i could just be in a coma until things are good again. Gee, why cant everyone stop fighting!
We dont know what comes next in our world, so we much not fight. My whole day for today and 3 days before was just stayin bored for the whole damn day, going on the forum, only to see everyone angry at eachother. I litteraly just asked someone whats wrong with no female characters, and he happened to be my editor, and now i feel really bad, as i got confused with his proverb and now i believe i left a bad taste in his mouth, and he is pretty much my boss. Now i feel like someone is going to digitally jump me and say something that would just make the state of this forum more depressing. I already live in a boring reality, why go to a once-fruitful-now-depressing forum.

Im sorry if i made anyone more mad

I'm not mad, just confused. Like, what?

People seem to get so mad about people wanting scientific accuracy; I'm frankly more irritated by people who think negativity and criticism shouldn't exist. Sure, being overly negative is one thing, but complaining isn't inherently bad.

If people didn't complain, we'd still be serfs.

Sorry Loon, that was what i was trying to say. We already are in a negative world, so the obvious awnser is to make even more depressing, with people getting offended over tiny misunderstandings. I also seen it in other threads.

As for the serfs, depends who you were talking about. If fact, you have to take alot of things in account, such as area, time, group, etc. Its like saying
"if people were not drunk, we will never made the Sumerian civilization".
The reason there are no more serfs, once again depends on which group you are talking about.

[Loon]

I've edited my own post here because I doubt this conversation is going to bear any fruit. So, whatever.

If there is one good thing about this whole ordeal, it at least reminded me that Schleich did in fact release figures this year.

[stargatedalek]

I just find it incredibly humorous how much a victim of their own success Schleich is. They were a highly reputable company for a great deal of time and as they grew in scope and profits someone up high in the ranks straight up stopped caring. Some soulless executive decided the company was now too big to fail and already had enough reputation to coast on for at least the next few decades, and so they started cutting every conceivable corner.

The company started releasing lower and lower quality products, and are now at the point where they don't even make a vague attempt to fact-check their products or statements.

They are teetering on the precipice of hubris and somehow keep falling uphill. All the while producing, absolute gems like this one...

Spoiler

Who else remembers this? 

[close]

[Takama]

I just find it incredibly humorous how much a victim of their own success Schleich is. They were a highly reputable company for a great deal of time and as they grew in scope and profits someone up high in the ranks straight up stopped caring. Some soulless executive decided the company was now too big to fail and already had enough reputation to coast on for at least the next few decades, and so they started cutting every conceivable corner.

The company started releasing lower and lower quality products, and are now at the point where they don't even make a vague attempt to fact-check their products or statements.

They are teetering on the precipice of hubris and somehow keep falling uphill. All the while producing, absolute gems like this one...

Spoiler

Who else remembers this? 

[close]

I remember that. It was posted on there facebook page years ago, before Someone Tagged Papo, and suddenly it Disappeard.    How did you find it?     

[stargatedalek]

I just find it incredibly humorous how much a victim of their own success Schleich is. They were a highly reputable company for a great deal of time and as they grew in scope and profits someone up high in the ranks straight up stopped caring. Some soulless executive decided the company was now too big to fail and already had enough reputation to coast on for at least the next few decades, and so they started cutting every conceivable corner.

The company started releasing lower and lower quality products, and are now at the point where they don't even make a vague attempt to fact-check their products or statements.

They are teetering on the precipice of hubris and somehow keep falling uphill. All the while producing, absolute gems like this one...

Spoiler

Who else remembers this? 

[close]

I remember that. It was posted on there facebook page years ago, before Someone Tagged Papo, and suddenly it Disappeard.    How did you find it?   

I saved it the moment I saw it posted here.

[Faelrin]

Man I had forgotten that. Though I suppose it is just more of the same problematic issue they have with pulling everything off google images to use for their figures, and so on. Rarely do they come up with something original these days.

I wasn't aware that this company now had an out of touch executive take it over though. I've seen that happen with other things, and each time it always runs poorly, because as they obsess and prioritize profits, and little else, they stop focusing and caring on their customer's desires (assuming they did in the first place, and some certainly have), which ultimately in turn backfires on them in the long run as it begins to turn people off. Thinking about this certainly reminds me of the Hasbro JW line, although I don't know if this was the same sort of case, but it certainly ended poorly for them when they underestimated collector demand, and also pushed out products that had poor quality control for their target audience with figures breaking easily, having problems standing, in addition to poor distribution as is, and design choices such as the screw holes and permanent battle wounds, etc. Ultimately it caused Universal to yank the license from them, and transfer it to Mattel, which was an absolute first, and sure sign of how poorly it was managed at that point.

Granted I don't think such a thing would likely happen with Schleich anytime soon, what with their familiarity and demand these days, which is also possibly a consequence of their demands in regards to distribution (not sure if they still do this, but I wouldn't doubt it). However their figures are often times cheap too (aside from being readily available in many areas) which also helps to ensure folks will buy them.

? @Stolpergeist Did anyone feel the same way towards Bullyland, which is also a German toy company?

[Ravonium]

If it's any comedic relief to someone here, Schleich calling the rangers the 'Colby Brothers' reminded me that I took a long time to realise that whenever someone threw something in my school, it wasn't 'Colby' they were saying while doing so (so glad that died out as soon as the person the phrase was actually referencing died).

[Doug Watson]

I mean this year alone we have had three of Safari Ltd's 2019 and 2020 figures fall prey to this, the Edmontosaurus (and shortly after the figure was revealed to boot), the Spinosaurus, and now the Dilophosaurus.

Okay @Faelrin I'll bite what is wrong with the Dilophosaurus now?

[Ravonium]

@Doug Watson I believe @Faelrin is referring to this paper that was published fairly recently.

[Faelrin]

@Doug Watson It seems @Ravonium has beat me to it. Yes there was a relatively new open access paper (and it's been sensationalized quite a bit in the media of course because of Dilophosaurus presence in Jurassic Park) about revised or re-interpreted the shape of the crests, and the notch in the skull as well, or at least it seems to have given way to a brand new reconstruction by Brian Engh (including not only artwork, but also an animatronic of sorts). I have yet to read the paper for the specific details though, but I plan to do so before giving the figure a review for the blog here to fully understand what is new and/or different information regarding it.

Edit: This thread has some articles and videos on it:

http://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=8792.0

[Doug Watson]

@Doug Watson It seems @Ravonium has beat me to it. Yes there was a relatively new open access paper (and it's been sensationalized quite a bit in the media of course because of Dilophosaurus presence in Jurassic Park) about revised or re-interpreted the shape of the crests, and the notch in the skull as well, or at least it seems to have given way to a brand new reconstruction by Brian Engh (including not only artwork, but also an animatronic of sorts). I have yet to read the paper for the specific details though, but I plan to do so before giving the figure a review for the blog here to fully understand what is new and/or different information regarding it.

Edit: This thread has some articles and videos on it:

http://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=8792.0

@Doug Watson I believe @Faelrin is referring to this paper that was published fairly recently.

Of course there is a new study Thank you both I actually found the new paper while I was waiting for a reply, I will have to dig up the reference I used and compare when I have a chance. Having a quick look at the paper including the sketch and the puppet that Engh produced there seems to be a bit of a leap looking at the fragmentary material he depicts in his sketch but maybe more is explained in the text.
I had seen the news articles but thought it was more of "they didn't have a frill and no they didn't spit venom" so I never checked them out. I didn't realize there was a new study but these days I should have known better.

[Sarapaurolophus]

I'm not convinced the lack of diversity was deliberately done in order to please conservative Germans. Playmobil is a German toy company, after all, and they've been including females and non-white people in their sets for years and years. I think it's more likely a lack of imagination of Schleich's part.

Thanks for bringing up Playmobil. Just because something is from Germany doesn't mean it will automatically be stricter about some issue, and lots of German parents will agree that Schleich isn't what it used to be anymore In fact, Schleich would be the first ones to get away with a more diverse human figure line-up since they A. Enjoy massive brand recognition in Germany and surrounding countries and B. Started to sell a lot in the US sector where not all consumers are a shade of beige

I sold a couple of old figures from the 90s and early 00s and parents virtually ripped them out of my hands to give to their kids. So the way I see it a lot of parents have noticed Schleich's trend and are not fully engaging anymore, would rather pay double to have an old figure from the "good old times".

To really find out why a company does this and that we'd have to look into their business structure and spy on their meetings. But I noticed that Schleich has been into heavily gendering their product ever since they started Bayala. Their horses are also geared heavily towards girls or what Schleich thinks girls want (Schleich has become king of braided manes and tails, lol).

[Szajmin]

I dont know if it was mentioned, or where to put it

SCHLEICH NEW FOR 2021 1ST HALF
Ceratosaurus dino 15019
Pachycephalosaurus dino 15024
Kaprosuchus dino 15025
Mosasaurus dino 15026
Brontosaurus dino 15027


source:
https://www.spielzeug-guenstig.de/Toys-Schleich-new-for-2021-1st-half.html#Start

[CityRaptor]

I dont know if it was mentioned, or where to put it

SCHLEICH NEW FOR 2021 1ST HALF
Ceratosaurus dino 15019
Pachycephalosaurus dino 15024
Kaprosuchus dino 15025
Mosasaurus dino 15026
Brontosaurus dino 15027
source:
https://www.spielzeug-guenstig.de/Toys-Schleich-new-for-2021-1st-half.html#Start

Covered here:
http://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=9l67q22j8cj1jtk3710ns839ds&topic=8842.msg262603;topicseen

[CityRaptor]

And with the introduction of Not-Alan Grant and his brothers comes a relaunch of the magazine:
https://www.blue-ocean.de/dinosaurs/produkt/detail/neu-volle-dino-action/

Points of interest:
Magazine comes with a somewhat smaller version of their big T.rex ( or as they still insist on calling it, T-Rex )now.

There is a female character in the magazine called Yuki:


My 2 cents:
-The T.rex figure looks kinda like a bootleg
-Not-Alan Grant kinda looks like Peter Parker in the comic
-For some odd reason they confuse a snare with a tranqulizer and a tazer...
-The facial expression of the Raptor totally makes it look like it enjoys that.

[Szajmin]

For me the figure looks totally like a bootleg.