It’s not the end of the year yet, but all of the major releases this year have been and gone. The only other line we were (especially!) looking forward to, the Sea Monsters figures, have been cancelled – to everyone’s dismay. But not wishing to dwell on our losses, Dinosaur Toy Forum member Bokisaurus had kindly provided a round up of all this years newbies. Let us review the Class of 2008…
– Dinotoyblog
“Well, with the release of Schleich’s Brachiosaurus, Allosaurus, and Spinosaurus, the big 2008 dinosaur toy releases are finally complete (I’m still bitter about those sea monsters 🙁
I just got my Schleichs a few days ago, so I wanted to put together a photo of the class of 2008. Now I only included the big names in dinosaur figures. Well, let’s hope that 2009 will be as exciting as this year. Let’s all pray that no more figures will be discontinued the last minute like this years sea monster set. So here they are, the Class of 2008!
Procon: Gave us such obscure and diverse species of dinosaurs to choose from; many species made as toys for the very first time. They also released the most figures with 11 small ones and 6 deluxe figures! Not an easy thing to accomplish in this days toy market. From what I hear, next year’s will be as exciting!
Safari: The leader of the pack! They just get better and better every year! The Carnegie line gave us Giga and Diplo,easily the best figures of their kind. Only Battat’s diplo rival this years Safari star. The Wild Safari line gave us new versions of old time favorites :Three horn, Stego, Allo, and Velociraptor. The oviraptor is in his (her?) own category.
Schleich: Gave us three big ones this year. New versions of Allo, Brachi, and Spino, all big heavy guys! This years figures have lot’s of details and skin textures. The color is still a bit bland. A big improvement from Schleich.
Papo: Gave us just one figure, Big Al, but he is just a beauty! Love him or hate him, no denying that he has the best detail job of all the figures. Lets hope that Papo will release more that just one figure a year.
Bullyland: Ah, hmm, I don’t really know what to say about this lone figure, a feathered viloceraptor. Looks like Bully got left behind and made a desperate attempt to release a figure. :-/
That’s it! Happy hunting ;)”
Thanks to Bokisaurus for the text and amazing photos!
Many of these figures are available from Amazon.com here
Disclaimer: links to Ebay and Amazon on the DinoToyBlog are affiliate links, so we make a small commission if you use them. Thanks for supporting us!
2009 promises to be just as exciting. The Schleich website shows that they are releasing 3 figures in Sept 2009 – updated sculpts of Apatosaurus, Saichania, and Quetzalcoatlus. The existing molds will be retired, which leaves Schleich with a total of 12 dinos in their museum line.
Also, Link & Pin Hobbies (which always seems to know about the new releases before anyone else) is showing that the second Carnegie Museum figure for 2009 will be a 15″ long Spinosaurus, which will join the superb looking Tylosaurus already mentioned.
And Wild Safari is releasing 5 excellent figures in 2009- Dilophosaurus, Nigerosaurus, Scutosaurus, Tapejara and Postosuchus.
Papo is doing a Woolly Mammoth. No word on Bullyland’s plans.
The dinosaur replica figures just keep getting better and better!
That link does’nt want to work,so just check out Link and Pin Hobbies and you’ll see what I mean.
Still bitter about those sea mosters huh?Well one of next year’s Carnegie Collection releases will just so happen to be a Tylosaurus that would have made anything in the abandoned “Sea Monsters” line look pathetic in comparison…check it out at this link
http://www.linkandpinhobbies.com/Graphics/cm_tylosaurus.jgp
Very, very nice! I LOVE the Papo Allosaurus (Anyone seen their dragon line? To die for.), and Carnegie is quite up my alley as well. I’ve never gotten my hands on a Procon before though. Schleich doesn’t interest me much.
Great roundup of this year’s figures!