Mattel--New for 2020

[AcroSauroTaurus]

my latest 2 JW purchases are the callovosaurus and ornitholestes. The callovosaurus is such a neat figure, lots of fun to pose since it can hold both bipedal and quadrupedal positions. I wasn't going to get ornitholestes at first but I ran into it at Target the other day and loved the color scheme, and it doesn't have that ugly thin short tail that so many of their theropods are cursed with.  I guess its true it doesn't look much  like an ornitholestes though... I wonder if there's some other theropod it could stand in for...saltopus? segisaurus maybe?

Coelophysis?

I call my "Ornitholestes" a Coelophysis, so I'd say thats a good alternate name.

[terrorchicken]

yeah, I always associate coelophysis as being a much more longer necked more svelte creature than this figure is, but I guess the paleoart Ive seen of it would have had it depicted as rather shrinkwrapped. It was actually the first time I ever saw a picture of a dinosaur fossil as a child so coelophysis is kinda special to me.

[Kotori_Sonoda]

Still no sign of Primal attack in my country, in fact the JP section in the toy stores I frequent have actually become smaller.
Quite worrying, although around April last year Dino Rivals started popping up so I'm still hoping.
I really dislike how the local distributor hasn't discounted any of the old product yet, we still have the 2018 Stegosaurus around at full price...

[MLMjp]

The first wave of attack packs, sound strikers and massive bitters is already in my country. I´m so tempted of picking some of them but I have other collecting expenses already planned and I still have a few Dino Rivals remaining on my list.

And considering the savage strikes of Dino Rivals didn't made it to Physical stores and were only available through amazon I expect the same to happen with Primal attack.

Also, Collect Jurassic has shared some interesting information regarding human figures via some Instagram stories:

[stargatedalek]

They need to package them with baby/small dinosaurs again. I was never interested in the human figures from any JP line, but I bought a bunch of the older lines humans because I wanted the dinosaurs they came with.

[PumperKrickel]

They need to package them with baby/small dinosaurs again. I was never interested in the human figures from any JP line, but I bought a bunch of the older lines humans because I wanted the dinosaurs they came with.

Exactly this. I´m still salty that we never got the Microceratus. There are a lot of smaller animals that could potentially boost sales, like maybe Microraptor, Nanosaurus, Diplocaulus, Lystrosaurus, Moschops, etc. Baby dinosaurs I´m not as interested in, but a baby Indominus for example would be extremely interesting.

[stargatedalek]

Owen with Baby Blue I never see around anymore, even the generic mercenary with Dimorphodon was gone long before all of the main cast without any dinosaurs with them.

Also, packaging them with the mini dinosaurs clearly didn't work, as that Claire is still sitting around on shelves here. Small dinosaurs in relative scale with the main line is the way to go.

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

You still have a Claire? She sold out pretty quick here. All I ever see is Owen at Target.

I'm not sure what will fix the "human" situation.  I like baby dinosaurs packed with them but not sure that would increase sales enough. 

My best thought is to reintroduce Capture Gear.  Push the containment/breakout aspect hard. You need humans for that. Have iconic vehicles that the humans use with the dinosaurs that will make kids want to recreate the scenes. 

That said when my cousin who is in first grade wants a new cellphone or apple watch and would rather sit on a couch watching videos on it than go outside and play...well.  That kid doesn't even want to go the the toy aisles anymore. If kids aren't interested in ANY toys..what's the ball say? "Outlook not good. "

[ItsTwentyBelow]

Interesting, interesting about the humans.

It is surprising they've sold so poorly that retailers just don't order them. How do other toy lines that focus on just human figures ever make it then??

Mattel certainly could have done this better by NOT releasing several versions of Owen, two of which include no dinosaur. My Fred Meyer probably still has some Lockwood Owens on clearance. So many figures that didn't come with a dino wasn't a good approach. Then there was distribution. I only saw Ken Wheatley once and snapped him up so my Indoraptor could sate its appetite.

That is nuts to hear about Claire being a peg-warmer in parts of the world to this day! I never saw her once at a department store, just felt lucky when I finally found her marked up in a random learning toy store. I assumed she was more sought after.

They should have made it a point to include a dino with each figure, though maybe even that would not have been enough. Whatever they do, Mattel has learned some things, so maybe they'll make getting the human characters more exciting somehow? I like the idea of including one-piece molded figures of small adult animals with the figures this time, like was just mentioned. What if they decided to include something like Meganeura with one character? That would be random yet awesome!

[stargatedalek]

It is surprising they've sold so poorly that retailers just don't order them. How do other toy lines that focus on just human figures ever make it then??

Different markets. People (not just kids) who are interested in dinosaurs or other animals aren't usually very interested in human figures, and those who are looking for human figures rarely even care about animals as accessories.

Kids buying shooty mc soldier man sets don't want dinosaurs, and kids buying dinosaurs don't want shooty mc soldier man.

[Appalachiosaurus]

They should just package the humans alongside the larger Dinosaurs, like what the HTTYD line did.

[ItsTwentyBelow]

Kids buying shooty mc soldier man sets don't want dinosaurs, and kids buying dinosaurs don't want shooty mc soldier man.

I don't know, that's a pretty dogmatic view. There are definitely enough people who go crazy for both. It seems clear that Dino-Riders was somewhat successful blending the two together. There were even carded humanoids. I feel like the JP and Lost World humans also were not as abysmal in sales as JW.

Maybe it was just the one-two punch combo of these changing times coupled with being foolish enough to market so many "meh" humans without at least one small dinosaur.

I think re-introducing the "Capture Gear" theme would be a good idea as has been suggested. Reminded me of how I am still using that big 25 year old dino foot trap that came with the JP Series II "Jaws" Jackson figure in my current shelf display. It still works (hooray)!

[Faelrin]

You know I do wonder if size is another important factor here, aside from changing times and the different demographics. The dinosaur figures are typically bigger, and probably have more play-ability going for them because of that, despite the human figures being relatively well done for their size (in terms of articulation, their likeness, and some accessories).

Additionally they typically have action features that the humans lack. While the articulation mainly appeals to action figure collectors like myself, children certainly do enjoy action features (which is also why the Roarivores were so successful, and probably why the Sound Strikes are electronic as well, edit: after the Dual Attacks were not). Even though I enjoyed articulation in my figures as a kid, I also certainly enjoyed action features such as the electronic JPIII figures, or that weird tongue thing the Chaos Effect Compstegonathus had, if not the classic raptor Kenner made and repainted a dozen times. Whenever I bring over some of my Mattel figures, they clearly prefer playing with the ones that have action features, in comparison to the ones with articulation only (such as the Attack Packs, and the Battle Damage figures to some extent). It's probably why the Savage Strike assortment exists as well (although some of those molds where there from the start in the form of the story pack sets and the Legacy Collection assortments).

Of course there's also just the obvious part of dinosaurs being the main draw to this franchise, especially for kids. Even as an adult, I know for a fact if I had to choose between the humans and the dinosaurs, hands down the dinosaurs win every time, and I certainly can't recall ever being interested in any of the humans as a kid either. I never bothered with any of the vehicles offered as a kid either (though I did get most of Mattel's, but I also held off much later until they went on sale, which probably didn't help matters), but if I had to guess a limited budget and lack of interest was what contributed and I have no doubts that is probably the same thing for many kids and their parents today.


I certainly think that bundling the humans with the dinosaurs is really our best shot at seeing them carried by retailers again, assuming previous attempts like the story packs, and BD Baryonyx set actually sold well. I think capture gear would be nice, but I don't know how well that would do with today's demographic. I also think playsets would be a prime opportunity to have human figures packaged with them, but the issue with that is retailers not wanting to make dedicated shelf space much of the time for such things (although online exclusivity or limited time holiday offerings could still work), especially with the plethora of large animals as it is that already take up a lot of shelf space.

Edit: I'm still wondering what is taking so long with the Savage Strike assortment with Charlie and Sauropelta (and Postosuchus too probably) to show up in many places? Is it possible the corona virus has led to problems with this or is it just that stores are backed up on too many of the previous wave (if not still ordering them, which is what happened with the BD figures here in the US). I mean it is March now, and still these are few and far between when most of everything else has rolled out?

[MLMjp]

It is bit sad that we are in this situation, but at the same time it was pretty obvious why. Only collectors care about human figures, and not all of them.

And this situation is basically the reason why Hammond was made an exclusive.

If I am being honest, one part of me wants more humans but another part thinks it will be fine without them, for me, but not for everybody. Something like that will cause more disappointment in the colector community and they will start talking about the downfall of Mattel when it comes to Jurassic World toys.

Every one once in a while I see someone complaining and beggin for more humans and a Ford Explorer. And I´m just like...Stop, they won't make them...Sometimes I wish I was some sort of dino collector influencer so my voice could reach more people . I try to be "realistic" when thinking what a company may or may not do and sometimes when I see people begin for stuff that obviously is not going to happen I just want to tell them to stop asking for it or to lower their expectations. Maybe I just like to crush other people's dreams... _{Ok, forget about that, that was not the idea, back to the topic..}

I have bought every single human of the 2018, minus Owen and Claire variants (I only bought the Owen with baby Blue and the Claire with Gyrosphere. Also I don't have the copter attack set so I don't have the pilot ). But if humans return for Jurassic World 3 I would definitely be getting some of them to show Mattel that I care (somewhat).

But because the previous way of selling humans didn't work now Mattel is looking for other ways, and that turn out nice or not.

For example, let say take the route of packing the humans alongside the dinosaurs. What if instead of packing them alongside new figures they come with repaint/retool number 7426591 that I obviously don't want to buy? It is like those build a figure, sometimes they put a part of a character you need with something you obviously don't want to buy, but the force you to do so to complete the set, although here is a little bit different, but you get my point.

I guess I could give away the dinosaur, but it will force me to pay more just for the human. Same if they pack them with playsets, not everyone would buy them because playsets can take a lot of space. Vehicles would be the better option in this case as long as they are functional, but it wouldn't be a cheap option still.

I don't know. It is a shame the easiest way for collectors to buy the humans is not the best from a business perspective for Mattel.

[suspsy]

This is purely anecdotal, I admit, but I vividly remember the human figures warming pegs everywhere way back in the Kenner days. And then in the Hasbro days as well. And now in the Mattel days. I think the only time I ever bothered purchasing a human figure was because they were in two-packs with the small Kenner Triceratops and the Cyclops Velociraptor. I don't think the human figures have ever been all that popular.

[Takama]

I only Boght one Human figure.   and that was a Lockwwood Battle Owen Grady.

I  only boght him because i treated him like another animal in the line. and i buy only 1 figure per animal.

The only exception i was going to make with this rule was with that Franklin Web Figure, which was suposed to come with a Microceratus. a Species that was (and Ironicly, still is) only avalible in cancelled sets

[PumperKrickel]

This is purely anecdotal, I admit, but I vividly remember the human figures warming pegs everywhere way back in the Kenner days.

Tim Murphy and Dr Sattler definitely were warming pegs back then, but iirc so did the non-electronic Velociraptor and Dilophosaurus. I can´t imagine the millions of Mattel Raptor repaints are selling too well, either.

[austrosaurus]

I think the problem is that people who are looking for human figures usually aren't looking for Jurassic World characters in particular, and especially from a playability standpoint there is a lot more diverse range of human action figures on the market, compared to dinosaurs which is pretty much cornered by Jurassic World, so they sell a lot better because of lack of competition.

[Loon]

(and Ironicly, still is) only avalible in cancelled sets

I don't know if you can still find them, but the Destruct-A-Saur sets with microceratus were at a Ross sometime last year.

[Flaffy]

Or maybe, just maybe, saturating shelves with hundreds and thousands of Owen variants isn't the brightest idea.