Post by bowheadwhale on Jun 20, 2009 14:18:29 GMT -6
Hi!
As many of you already know, I am a collector of large-medium sized dinosaur and whale toy figs, as well as a miniature animal toys collector.
My favorite animal toys, no matter if we talk about sealife and prehistory, or any other category of animals, are toys that represent RARE animals; you know, animals we don't see so often as toys.
But something keeps frustrating me week after week, month after month, year after year: toy companies tend to represnet ALWAYS THE SAME ANIMALS. Take wildlife, for example. What do we see? Lion, tigers, elephants, giraffes; lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes; lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes... When do we see toys representing tamanduas, South American turkeys or rock damans? Never. Hardly ever do we also see rheas or pacas. No, companies don't seem to be interested in those. They prefer repeating the very same animals we see everywhere. Lions, tigers, elephants and giraffes.
It's the same thing when it comes to prehistoric animals. If we go back to the fifties or sixties, not only we could see popular animals like Stegosaurus or Apatosaurus, but we could also sometimes meet Moshops, Diatryma, Brontops or Whooly Rhino. In the 1980's, Schleich released, in their mini-line I mention in my Want List, a Scuttelosaurus and Kenner, in its Bone Age line, released a Deinonychus skeletton model. Now, since the 1993 Jurassic Parc disease, dinosaurs we see everywhere are Tyrannosaurus Rex, Brachiosaurus and Velociraptor. Nobody represents anymore not-well-known animals like African Therapsids, European species like Diatryma or Leptiptidium or fishes like Dinichtys. Of course, we do see (sometimes) newly discovered animals like Mamenchisurus or Kentrosaurus, but that's rare. Tyrannosaurus Rex takes all the place in Dinosaur toys.
And what about sealife? Tursiops Truncatus (bottle-nose dolphin) takes sooo much place there is nothing left for other species to be represented. When do we see Bowhead Whales, Sei Whales, Weddell seals or Lion-Mane jellyfish? Hardly ever. OK, we see Humpback Whales and Sperm Whales many times. But, with the Grey Whale, they are the only large whales that are represented by everyone. Schleich makes them, Safari makes them, Papo makes them... but nobody has yet ever made an Edeni's Whale or a Pygmy Right Whale. Schleich did make a Minkes'Whale (miracle!!!) in its replicas line, but the company deleted it from its 2009 catalog to replace it with... new cows and new pigs. Just like if we didn't see enough of farm animals!!!
In the overall, when do we see animal toys representing sea stars, jellyfish, prehistoric fishes or ammonites? When do we see Thylacosmilus, Thylacine or Dinotherium? Never. The only current "barely known" animal toy released by a company is the Dodo bird by Papo. That's it, that's all.
Am I the only one in my case? Am i the only one who is annoyed by toy companies always releasing figs representing the same thing?
As many of you already know, I am a collector of large-medium sized dinosaur and whale toy figs, as well as a miniature animal toys collector.
My favorite animal toys, no matter if we talk about sealife and prehistory, or any other category of animals, are toys that represent RARE animals; you know, animals we don't see so often as toys.
But something keeps frustrating me week after week, month after month, year after year: toy companies tend to represnet ALWAYS THE SAME ANIMALS. Take wildlife, for example. What do we see? Lion, tigers, elephants, giraffes; lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes; lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes... When do we see toys representing tamanduas, South American turkeys or rock damans? Never. Hardly ever do we also see rheas or pacas. No, companies don't seem to be interested in those. They prefer repeating the very same animals we see everywhere. Lions, tigers, elephants and giraffes.
It's the same thing when it comes to prehistoric animals. If we go back to the fifties or sixties, not only we could see popular animals like Stegosaurus or Apatosaurus, but we could also sometimes meet Moshops, Diatryma, Brontops or Whooly Rhino. In the 1980's, Schleich released, in their mini-line I mention in my Want List, a Scuttelosaurus and Kenner, in its Bone Age line, released a Deinonychus skeletton model. Now, since the 1993 Jurassic Parc disease, dinosaurs we see everywhere are Tyrannosaurus Rex, Brachiosaurus and Velociraptor. Nobody represents anymore not-well-known animals like African Therapsids, European species like Diatryma or Leptiptidium or fishes like Dinichtys. Of course, we do see (sometimes) newly discovered animals like Mamenchisurus or Kentrosaurus, but that's rare. Tyrannosaurus Rex takes all the place in Dinosaur toys.
And what about sealife? Tursiops Truncatus (bottle-nose dolphin) takes sooo much place there is nothing left for other species to be represented. When do we see Bowhead Whales, Sei Whales, Weddell seals or Lion-Mane jellyfish? Hardly ever. OK, we see Humpback Whales and Sperm Whales many times. But, with the Grey Whale, they are the only large whales that are represented by everyone. Schleich makes them, Safari makes them, Papo makes them... but nobody has yet ever made an Edeni's Whale or a Pygmy Right Whale. Schleich did make a Minkes'Whale (miracle!!!) in its replicas line, but the company deleted it from its 2009 catalog to replace it with... new cows and new pigs. Just like if we didn't see enough of farm animals!!!
In the overall, when do we see animal toys representing sea stars, jellyfish, prehistoric fishes or ammonites? When do we see Thylacosmilus, Thylacine or Dinotherium? Never. The only current "barely known" animal toy released by a company is the Dodo bird by Papo. That's it, that's all.
Am I the only one in my case? Am i the only one who is annoyed by toy companies always releasing figs representing the same thing?
