Safari 2020

[SidB]

my favorite is the qianzhousaurus, edmontosaurus and the deinonychus. That's a very birdy looking raptor!

Im disappointed that there's no prehistoric mammals. 

The same happens to me with respect to prehistoric mammals. I would have liked a paraceratherium.

Seems that Safari prefers to release its mammals in batches, unlike CollectA, which does one at a time. Less risky financially, I suppose. Well, we can look forward to the annual one mammal from CollectA. Its always a gem.

[australovenator]

Wow!, impressive lineup indeed, a few species I've been wanting an updated figure of for a while.
I'm very much sold on the Deinonychus already, same with the Pachy.
2020 is shaping up to be a good year 

[Shonisaurus]

Sincerely the figures preferred by me this year 2020 by Safari are the prehistoric animals of the Cretaceous. They are the most attractive and beautiful without underestimating the figures of the Triassic (shringasaurus) and Jurassic (ichythiosaurus and dilophosaurus) the ones that attract me the most are the five dinosaurs and the Cretaceous prehistoric crocodile by far.

[indohyus]

A beautiful and fascinating set. The ones I am most interested in are Edmontosaurus, Shringasaurus and Sarcosucus. Dare say it will be a scramble to review some of these when they are released.

[Doug Watson]

Notice how the Pachycephalosaurs has an injure on its dome, talk about details!

@MLMjp I meant to compliment you on your good eye for detail after I determined the reveal of the new pieces was approved by Safari Ltd., that pathology of a cranial lesion was found on a specimen of Pachycephalosaurus so I decided to include it. Good catch.

[Jose S.M.]

I finally checked the images on a big screen, before I only saw them in my phone.They look even better for me now, I wasn't really able to see the scale detail of some figures clearly on the phone, like Concavenator (Kind of what happened to me last year too with Allosaurus). I'm sure in hand they will look even better!

[The Atroxious]

That Deinonychus tho!

I want it so bad. It looks like the best Safari release I've seen in a few years. The pose looks natural, the sculpt is detailed, and the plumage is great. For once we have a non-avian dinosaur that appears to have mantle feathers. It's such a pet peeve of mine when the mantle is left off. Just makes the animal look weird.

I really want to like the Concavenator and the Dilophosaurus, but...I just can't. I think they look super unappealing with lips, doubly so with that hard black line between them. The Dilo looks stiff and lumpy, and the Conca is just kind of boring. I really like when Concavenator is shown to have ornamental spines and wattles which this one does not. I also really hate that weird tuck of skin at the back of their knees. I notice this with a lot of bipedal Safari dinosaurs, and it looks so ugly, like the animals have no connective tissue there.

Guess I'm still holding out for a good affordable Dilo and Conca.

[Daspletotyrannus]

I think I want four of the figures for 2020. The Edmontosaurus for sure. Just wish they stay away from the browns and go crazy with colors for next year. But that Edmontosaurus looks great.  I think that the Sarcosuchus looks great too. I like the walking mode not sitting on belly with mouth open.  Just wish the colors was closer to an Alligators or Nile Crocodiles.  As the colors seem close to their Kaprosuchus.  But in the end they all look awesome. 

[Shonisaurus]

What I value most of Doug who makes carnivorous dinosaurs and dinosaurs in general and I extend it to the rest of dinosaur sculptors of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals with no articulated parts and no moving jaws. It is a personal and unpopular opinion among members of the forum to which I apologize, but in my case I value dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals made in one piece.

On the other hand, I appreciate that Doug has had the happy idea of making carnivorous prehistoric animals with jaws closed, deinonychus, sarcosuchus, shringasaurus, dilophosaurus and concavenator have been great. My congratulations Doug! This year is even more spectacular than the previous one and I hope that the same happens with the rest of the brands than toy dinosaurs whose figures have yet to be revealed at the end of the year.

[terrorchicken]

I really want to like the Concavenator and the Dilophosaurus, but...I just can't. I think they look super unappealing with lips, doubly so with that hard black line between them. The Dilo looks stiff and lumpy, and the Conca is just kind of boring

thank you, you just expressed in words what it was about these 2 figures I didn't like but I couldn't figure out how to describe it, they look like theyre doing this:  :| 
Maybe Im just too used to seeing lipless toothy dinosaur figures,  even when their mouths are closed the exposed teeth, even if its just a couple of them, helps breaks up that mouth line you mentioned.
Maybe Ill change my mind when I see in hand photos though...

[Faelrin]

I'm not going to be able to un-see that on those now, though to be honest I never really noticed it earlier. I'm still fine with them the way they are though, since I'm glad to finally see more theropods with closed lips like the Yutyrannus. Beyond figures with articulation, that's really the only one in my collection with closed jaws that is a theropod (which reminds me, that of the non mammal herbivores in my Safari LTD collection, only the Dracorex has open jaws, as well as the older and more recent Triceratops figures, with the rest being closed, which is kind of interesting).

[Jose S.M.]

I guess I'm the opposite of most people here but I love the closed mouth with teeth covered. But I agree the line on the mouth could be less conspicuous

[Ravonium]

I guess I'm the opposite of most people here but I love the closed mouth with teeth covered. But I agree the line on the mouth could be less conspicuous

Nah, these are pretty much my exact thoughts.

[Gothmog the Baryonyx]

I guess I'm the opposite of most people here but I love the closed mouth with teeth covered. But I agree the line on the mouth could be less conspicuous

Nah, these are pretty much my exact thoughts.

Same here, closed mouths are far, far better than open mouths to me. I don't like the monstrous roaring

[CityRaptor]

I guess I'm the opposite of most people here but I love the closed mouth with teeth covered. But I agree the line on the mouth could be less conspicuous

I thought most people here prefer closed mouths.

[Turacoverdin]

I'm of a similar mind in regards to lips/closed mouths, but to elaborate on what Jose wrote they have not been implemented in the most natural way in my view. It's not simply the harsh black line used to demarcate the mouth but also, as others have expressed, the creased corners which give them that constantly frowning visage. This is particularly prominent on the Shringasaurus.

However the third issue, and probably the most important to my mind, is that the lip line on the three big offenders (Concavenator, Dilophosaurus and Shringasaurus) is almost perfectly straight. On the Concavenator in particular this is very glaring, this image illustrates it nicely:

The Shringasaurus is slightly better and the Dilophosaurus at least has the indication of its subnarial gap, but posterior to that the same problem is present.

The reason it looks so off is because this is not how lips are usually configured in nature. A good non-mammalian example would be varanids; usually the lips form a smooth curve and then down-curve towards the corners of the mouth. So to end on a positive, I think the lips on the Deinonychus have been executed very well:

A smooth and subtle curve along the length of the mouth and then it follows the outline of the jugal in the corner, with no weird creases to boot. Also may I just say the Deinonychus is an absolutely stunning figure overall. Very striking colour scheme and I can already see the improvements in regards to feather anatomy/placement since the Velociraptor; the legs and the wings stand out to me in particular.

[Brocc21]

I think at least the Dilophosaurus's teeth should poke out.

[terrorchicken]

Its true that not all closed mouth figures look odd/ bad. I have the Safari yutyrannus and the Battat cryolophosaurus and their closed mouths look fine to me. I guess its in the execution. And the new deinonychus looks good too.

[Halichoeres]

Here's another vote for closed mouths. I probably wouldn't like it if every figure in my collection had its mouth closed, but the great majority of theropod figures in particular have open mouths (or unsightly jaw joints), so a year with several closed mouths makes for some welcome variety.

I guess you are scaling up the dimensions given by Safari Ltd so your lengths aren't the actual scaled maximum lengths for each animal just the physical length of the piece in that position. Actual body lengths in palaeontology are taken by laying the cranium and vertebrae out on a flat surface a and measuring in a straight line. In life the nose to tail length taken in a straight line would actually be smaller because the bends in the neck body and tail reduce the overall length that is why your numbers are coming out smaller. If you want to scale length on a figure run a string from the nose along the side following the vertebrae then lay the string out straight along a tape and that will give you a measurement you can then scale up.

@Doug Watson Yeah, my bad. I should have made it clear that I was just trying to scale up the figures in the pose they are in. I usually do that for the figures I own since while the string along their length helps to figure out how long they are, I also like knowing how large they are in the pose they are in. That way, if I put it next to a modern day animal figure of the same scale (In the case of the Pachycephalosaurus, a Cassowary for instance or a Humpback whale in the case of the Sarcosuchus), I'm not having to explain to kids that a figure only looks taller or smaller because it is rearing up or crouching down (The Papo Quetzalcoatlus is particularly frustrating in that regards when I put it next to a giraffe figure I have. They should be similar height, but one's crouching.)

@suspsy I would suspect the issue for the Jurassic is that its not quite as filled with the popular dinosaurs outside of the Morrison Formation as other times. In addition, most of the big name dino groups like the Tyrannosaurs, the Ceratopsians, and the Raptors haven't quite made their way onto the scene. It's a time where we know that there's a lot of variety, but most of the public does not. Companies then feel like they are taking risks with unknown species in times where kids might not have the figures for it to be with, which is frustrating, but understandable. At the very least, we get some very unique animals in plastic form from Safari (Prestosuchus in particular. I love this figure so much. Easily my favorite of 2019.)

An easy way to avoid the problem of pose is just to ignore length completely and scale based on a single known element, like skull length. This also compensates for differences in proportions between reconstructions.

I agree with your take on why we have a lack of Jurassic animals. If add that the Cretaceous is nearly twice as long as the Jurassic, AND the first half of the Jurassic has almost no dinosaur fossil record outside if some pretty similar looking prosauropods. The second half of the Jurassic had pretty homogeneous fauna in the areas we have sampled. The only Jurassic "sets" I think we need more of would be China and Germany, but a lot of the most interesting animals you'd want to make for those are tiny, and the bigger animals look a lot like their more well known Morrison counterparts, with a couple exceptions.

I actually think there's more potential in exploring the Triassic. Have we ever gotten any basal dinosauromorphs or Silesaurids?

I agree that there's more potential in the Triassic, but for me it's not because of dinosaurs or near-dinosaurs. The stem-group archosaurs, stem-group crocodile, synapsids, weird early sauropterygians, bizarre fishes, and temnospondyls make the Triassic interesting. And don't get me started on the glorious Paleozoic. A lot of collectors seem to only collect dinosaurs sensu stricto, which I find a little baffling.

[Daspletodave]

Finally - a decent Edmontosaurus!!!