Mesozoic Life’s 1:35 Scale Spinosaurus Kickstarter

[Concavenator]

Mesozoic Life is releasing a Kickstarter campaign on August 24th whose goal is to fund their Spinosaurus figure. The campaign will last 40 days and the minimum quantity of models reserved will have to be between 700 and 800.

Source: https://twitter.com/michel_elia/status/1429088401383325700

Before anyone asks me why I haven't posted this in their 2021 thread: I created this thread to talk about the Kickstarter, if the model is finally released, discussions about it fit more in their 2021 thread.

[thedeadlymoose]

Kickstarter is now live: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mesozoiclifeproject/spinosaurus-scale-1-35-mesozoic-life-the-figure-series/

Some assorted pieces of information:

- Jaw articulation has been removed to avoid last-minute issues.
- Kickstarter is 40 days in length.
- If successful, ETA is Dec 21-Jan 22.

[Concavenator]

The Kickstarter is now up:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mesozoiclifeproject/spinosaurus-scale-1-35-mesozoic-life-the-figure-series

T @thedeadlymoose LoL, you just beat me to it

[Stegotyranno420]

Wait so now they dont have plans to sell on Amazon?

[Sim]

I would like to support this, but there's a few things that I don't like:

1. In one of the videos provided, the creation of the Spinosaurus was shown and I was able to see why it has curved toe claws: the Spinosaurus was created by modifying a generic theropod model and the toe claws were not changed.   It's a small detail, but it really bothers me now that I know why it happened.  It's a shame because the rest of the figure is very good.

2. I'm not keen on the species they are choosing to make figures of.  Spinosaurus is the one that interests me the most, and I find it frustrating that almost all the others are allosauroids that already have good figures available: Giganotosaurus, Concavenator and Carcharodontosaurus.  Even on their website, in the prints section ( https://www.mesozoiclifeproject.com/copia-de-exclusive-prints ), allosauroids are over-represented, with there being three and no dromaeosaurids for example.  There isn't even a Stegosaurus while there is an Allosaurus, and so the only non-Cretaceous dinosaur there is an allosauroid.  I am so tired of this allosauroid over-representation.
The only other species they've chosen to make into a figure is Ekrixinatosaurus which doesn't really interest me.  On their Patreon ( https://www.patreon.com/MesozoicLifeProject ), some of the tiers feature animals I would love to have a figure of: Buitreraptor, Herrerasaurus and Ceratosaurus nasicornis, I wish they were making figures of those!  ...The other tiers feature allosauroids again...

3. They are planning more Spinosaurus figures, a female and a smaller scaled male...  I would much prefer they make different species rather than more and more Spinosaurus...  Which already has been getting lots of figures.

4. On their Patreon it says:

These three places have various dinosaurs and other impressive prehistoric creatures, which have long been displaced by more famous and well-known dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus Rex, Velociraptor, Triceratops and others and I think that Spinosaurus, Giganotosaurus, Concavenator and many others deserve a little recognition.

But Spinosaurus and Giganotosaurus have received much more than a little recognition, receiving good figures more often than Velociraptor and appearing in documentaries (especially Spinosaurus) and being among the most popular dinosaurs ever.  And there's that allosauroid over-representation again.


Mesozoic Life is an impressive project though, and I do wish them the best.

[Fembrogon]

You're not wrong about their choices of genera; I'm hoping that the project overall will be highlighting more creatures from the fossil beds/environments of their selected "star" dinos, since their intent is to be a multimedia project.
I put in my backing first thing; this is a more expensive model than I typically order, but I'm interested in seeing where this project can go.

[Doctor Velociraptor]

Hola por el momento no.
Solo kickstarter:  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mesozoiclifeproject/spinosaurus-scale-1-35-mesozoic-life-the-figure-series

Cualquier duda será resuelta

[Stegotyranno420]

Entonces, básicamente, todos los planes de venta en Amazon se cancelan. ¿Podrían restablecerlo si es posible? puedo esperar un poco

[Carnoking]

I'm certainly excited for this figure. Even if it is just another spinosaurus, it's easily the best updated version. The only other sizable option was the GR Toys figure and that one was pretty middle of the road for me. PNSO's is the best so far in my eyes but even that one isn't without its quirks.

[Concavenator]

Alright, so I just supported the campaign, this is the first time I have ever pledged on Kickstarter. The Kickstarter is ending in just a month from now, and they have 160 reserved models already, so they need 640 more.

I really hope they succeed, in my opinion this could be the best Spinosaurus on the market, surpassing the PNSO, GR, and Safari versions. And it would be a true shame if it will never come out That would be a great loss, similar to the unreleased Battat Terra and Carnegie Apatosaurus, if not worse (imo). But I'm hoping it won't be the case. I encourage everyone who is interested in this model to go ahead and support them!

[Carnoking]

This might be off topic but I can't let it slide, there was a carnegie apatosaurus planned?

[Concavenator]

This might be off topic but I can't let it slide, there was a carnegie apatosaurus planned?

Indeed. The Carnegie Collection came to its end in 2015, when Safari announced they would end the collaboration. Their last release was a new version of Velociraptor, but some time after Forest Rogers (the Carnegie line sculptor) confirmed that an Apatosaurus was in the makings, and it's very likely that if the line hadn't gone extinct, it would have been released in 2016. She said she couldn't show the sculpt.

[Carnoking]

What an unfortunate development. I often wonder what all figures and models never came to pass that we'll never know about. Certainly hurts less than seeing a beautiful model not get to be fully developed and produced I suppose

[SidB]

At least the end of the Carnegie line and consequent eclipse of a projected Apatosaurus was followed by a veritable explosion of terrific Safari sculpts in the years immediately following' Here, the Spinosaurus kickstarter stands quite alone - if it fails to generate enough interest, there's no subsequent upside.

[JohannesB]

It is proceeding too slowly, looks like. It seems they won't make it? That would really be a shame.

[Faelrin]

Not even 200 backers yet. Shocking. Would have thought there would be more interest. Might fail unfortunately and if that occurs they get no funding whatsoever.

Granted the middle of the kickstarters are usually slow. Usually the first few days and near the end have the biggest boosts, but less then 200 backers is troubling.


Edit: I also realized this also unfortunately overlaps with the Beasts of the Mesozoic Tyrannosaurus series kickstarter which starts on the 222, and ends a few weeks after this one does. The timing of this is also bad on my end as it ends right around the time October's rent is due, assuming it will be successful.

[Psittacoraptor]

I'm not surprised, I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere, only here. They need to get people to share their kickstarter on social media, that's how these things work. Also, if you search for "Mesozoic Life" on instagram or Twitter, you won't even find their pages because they're called something different. So, unless you're already following the project, how are you supposed to know it exists? Little things like this matter a lot for visibility.

[Dusty Wren]

Yeah, the lack of promotion is a real problem. Look how often David Silva posts about the Tyrannosaur line. He's making daily posts to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and he's been doing that since, what, March? That's about half a year of promotion before his Kickstarter even goes live (and he teased the Tyrannosaur line originally when the Ceratopsian Kickstarter launched, so he's been talking about it since 2019). The only reason I know about Mesozoic Life is because of the posts on this forum and a few tweets from people on paleoTwitter.

It's a bummer, but having a great product is only the first step. You really need a plan to get the word out for these crowdfunding campaigns to be successful, especially if you're new to figure making.

[Fembrogon]

I've done some sharing of my own on social media, but I'm not active enough on any platform to really to garner much more attention. I do know they had an interview with Paleo-Nerd recently; I don't know how many views that got.

[Carnoking]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mesozoiclifeproject/spinosaurus-scale-1-35-mesozoic-life-the-figure-series?ref=nav_search&result=project&term=Spinosaurus

Less than three weeks to go and still a ways off but I think we can help change that. If you're thinking about backing then now is the time! If you're unable to at the moment then just sharing the word would be a big help to the project I'm sure!