Mesozoic Life’s 1:35 Scale Spinosaurus Kickstarter

[Over9K]

I just made my pledge. I hope they get to make the other models and eventually the films. I know some collectors are disappointed in their choice of species, but IMO the more the merrier and if we get them off the ground with what looks like a beautiful Spinosaurus, who knows what the future might hold.

[postsaurischian]

 I also pledged for the Spinosaurus, but it doesn't look good.
I'm afraid they won't make it .

I think it would be a good turn if Kickstarter accepted Paypal.


               EDIT: In order to push the project a little bit, pictures of what you'd get should be included in this thread.

               

[suspsy]

Only 12 days left and the project is only 23% funded. This Spinosaurus will not come to be. But as others have noted, the people behind this project did a very poor job of promoting it. They should have posted about it in every dinosaur-related group on Facebook as well as all over Twitter. Too late now.

[Faelrin]

I personally wonder if the pledge cost has been a major turn off for some folks, particularly in combination with this being their second kickstarter. I think the lack of exposure has significantly hurt it too, despite some trying to bring awareness to it (such as on instagram, and youtube). In order to have any success with a campaign it must get out there as much as possible, but in addition people must feel comfortable enough and ultimately trust and take the risk in supporting a project. It also just comes down to interest too, which definitely appears to be lacking even here unfortunately.

There could also be people interested but unfamiliar with using kickstarter (or can't use it because of not having a compatible payment method). Nevermind that it will be overlapping the BotM one in a few days time, as I've mentioned before, and some folks just can't afford to do both so soon together. Could be other factors too.


Edit: The goal could have been just too high as well to meet when combined with the lack of interest/exposure/etc. It is roughly one third of the initial funding goal of the BotM Ceratopsian series to give some perspective (which ended with 1,640 backers. This campaign doesn't even have 200 backers yet sadly).

I hope they can find a way to produce this going forward, and wish the best in the future. Would be a shame if all of this was for naught.

[Stegotyranno420]

So will that mean they will cancel entirely or get delayed by a year?

[Psittacoraptor]

@Faelrin Lack of promotion and exposure, plus the rather high goal is what killed this IMO. When I backed the first BOTM kickstarter, I had not bought a single dinosaur figure, I wasn't following any site, blogs or accounts related to dinosaur figures or toys, and I still somehow learned about the kickstarter's existence (don't remember where). For comparison, you wouldn't know about this kickstarter unless you already followed the artist or the handful of accounts that shared it.

BOTM isn't completely comparable, though, as there were many different pledges with different figures/products to choose from. This was just one figure, and while I think the price is very fair if the final product looked as advertised, setting the goal that high for one figure was not a smart idea.

Not sure if adding PayPal would help, other kickstarters get funded just fine without it. It would just add additional fees to the projects.

[Faelrin]

@Psittacoraptor Yeah having cheaper tiers and add-ons may have helped, although I understand those may add to the total funding goal. Stretch goals may or may not have helped as well. Another thing I am wondering is if the campaign was directly for gathering the funds of the figure only, or if it was both this film project and the figure? In any case I do see a graph on the campaign's funds (38% for creating the figure, 32% for taxes and fees, and 30% for fulfilling).

I also saw someone had canceled their pledge likely due to lack of confidence with no production sample to observe (although I don't think wanting that so early on is viable either), and perhaps a poor experience with the choice of factory (same as Dino Hazard Irritator, Vitae, Rebor early on, that there was a controversy about earlier this year after some of the Dino Hazard Irritator figures had unauthorized production of them), since they had experienced poor QC with the Irritator.

Speaking of the BotM kickstarters, while you are right about all the multiple tiers, etc, it still boggles my mind that this one figure has a goal nearly the third of a campaign offering so much more (on top of most of it being action figures which should be more expensive to produce). David is also a renowned action figure sculptor in many circles (including JP, which in fact is how I knew about him when I came across the Velociraptor prototype shared on reddit, by a fan). Many action figure websites, youtubers, etc had shared it (which has a larger presence then dinosaur collectors), and I expect that to happen once again with this tyrannosaur series, which shows how as much exposure as possible is so important.

Granted I did see that Julian Johnson-mortimer (with over 110k followers on instagram alone, nevermind other platforms it was shared on), shared a post regarding this project (that got over 11k likes), but really how many people actually take any time and effort to read things today? Without having the campaign itself, give or take the prototype itself, front and center it probably did little to raise awareness about it unfortunately. Here's the post:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CTVBkartjoy/?utm_medium=copy_link

In any case once the BotM Tyrannosaurus campaign goes live I plan to do a dual post about both campaigns (edit: on instagram), but I still think it may be too late at this point.

[Bread]

I feel like there are too many releases nowadays. With BOTM kickstarter coming in right around the corner, plus Nanmu and PNSO with their releases throughout the year, some models and companies get pushed to the side. With a lot of other companies coming into the market, I would not doubt a new Spinosaurus soon with the sculpt similar to this one, and of course does not need a kickstarter.

[Renecito]

About promotion, he did it on his youtube channel where he has 267k subscribers.

Unfortunately the campaign didn't succeed but the creator has already stated that won't give up and will look for another alternative to raise funds.

[JohannesB]

I guess he is already working on an alternative (or at least I hope so).

[Faelrin]

While it may be too late to be funded successfully right now, I did try to get the word out about both this campaign, and the BotM Tyrannosaur series, have thrown in links in my instagram profile. Please feel free to reshare.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CUIWI9BrZ8m/

[Concavenator]

Only 6 days left. It looks like the campaign has seen a slight boost, but despite of that, 561 more units would need to be reserved, which looks very difficulty to achieve. I still hope they figure out some way of releasing the figure in case the campaign is not successful. Still, "it's not over until it's over".

[Over9K]

I feel like this mornings update is too little, too late... the pictures are nice though... the text was a bit desperate; "The dinosaurs I'd like to throw in update!"

[suspsy]

I feel like this mornings update is too little, too late... the pictures are nice though... the text was a bit desperate; "The dinosaurs I'd like to throw in update!"

Those are great-looking designs, but aside from Herrerasaurus, they have a "been there, done that" feel to them. Zhuchengtyrannus, Tyrannotitan, Saurophaganax, and Australovenator might have been more enticing candidates. And yeah, these designs probably would have done more good if they had been revealed sooner.

[Faelrin]

Those all look so beautiful. Of all those, Herrerasaurus is also in desperate need of an updated depiction, and easily be my top second pick, other then this Spinosaurus. It's also a dinosaur with very good remains from numerous specimens to work from.

@suspsy All of the ones you've listed are also very much fragmentary. Zhuchengtyrannus only has a maxilla and dentary. Tyrannotitan only has material from partial dentaries, parts of the forelimb, pelvis, hindlimb, and some vertebrae, etc. Saurophaganax (which is also possibly a species of Allosaurus) only has fragmentary material from parts of the forelimb, hand, pelvis, hindlimb, foot, some vertebrae, etc. Australovenator is probably the best of those, as it has dentaries, parts of the forelimbs, hands, pelvis, hindlimbs, and feet, but is missing most if not all of the vertebrae, and still much of the skull.

I would rather not recommend doing genera (or species) with such fragmentary material, until more remains are found as it leaves much to be inferred from relatives.

[GojiraGuy1954]

Those all look so beautiful. Of all those, Herrerasaurus is also in desperate need of an updated depiction, and easily be my top second pick, other then this Spinosaurus. It's also a dinosaur with very good remains from numerous specimens to work from.

@suspsy All of the ones you've listed are also very much fragmentary. Zhuchengtyrannus only has a maxilla and dentary. Tyrannotitan only has material from partial dentaries, parts of the forelimb, pelvis, hindlimb, and some vertebrae, etc. Saurophaganax (which is also possibly a species of Allosaurus) only has fragmentary material from parts of the forelimb, hand, pelvis, hindlimb, foot, some vertebrae, etc. Australovenator is probably the best of those, as it has dentaries, parts of the forelimbs, hands, pelvis, hindlimbs, and feet, but is missing most if not all of the vertebrae, and still much of the skull.

I would rather not recommend doing genera (or species) with such fragmentary material, until more remains are found as it leaves much to be inferred from relatives.

Yeah. Any Tyrannotitan model would just be a Giga, Carch, or Mapu but with a different name. No point making it

[Renecito]

I feel like this mornings update is too little, too late... the pictures are nice though... the text was a bit desperate; "The dinosaurs I'd like to throw in update!"

Those are great-looking designs, but aside from Herrerasaurus, they have a "been there, done that" feel to them.

Totally agree.

[suspsy]

Well aware of their fragmentary status, but my response to that is a firm "Meh." They're all known from enough material to create reasonable reconstructions, and indeed, they all have skeletal mounts in various museums around the world. The main thing is they would have been something different from the same old genera.

But this Kickstarter now looks to be as dead as a basket of honey garlic chicken wings, so it's a moot argument in the end.

[GojiraGuy1954]

Well aware of their fragmentary status, but my response to that is a firm "Meh." They're all known from enough material to create reasonable reconstructions, and indeed, they all have skeletal mounts in various museums around the world. The main thing is they would have been something different from the same old genera.

But this Kickstarter now looks to be as dead as a basket of honey garlic chicken wings, so it's a moot argument in the end.

They'd be the same old genera with innocuous, minor differences and a new name on the tin.

[suspsy]

Well aware of their fragmentary status, but my response to that is a firm "Meh." They're all known from enough material to create reasonable reconstructions, and indeed, they all have skeletal mounts in various museums around the world. The main thing is they would have been something different from the same old genera.

But this Kickstarter now looks to be as dead as a basket of honey garlic chicken wings, so it's a moot argument in the end.

They'd be the same old genera with innocuous, minor differences and a new name on the tin.

A new or rarely rendered genus makes a world of difference regardless of how much or how little it resembles its relatives. You probably wouldn't be able to tell Galeamopus from Diplodocus at first glance, but I guarantee collectors would be more excited about a toy of the former than the latter.