Safari 2022 releases... updated with Sahara Desert TOOB

While the staggered release is unusual for Safari, it’s not like CollectA and Papo release everything at once either. I got all the Papo 2021 figures in 3 different batches throughout the year as they were released. Same with CollectA. Schleich is the most reliable with releases in January and July.

If anything I enjoy this more because then I have figures to look forward to throughout the whole year. It would be a long wait for 2022 figures if everything came out at once at the beginning of the year.

I've been pondering what the toob may contain. The recent African toob had what I would consider iconic and common species (most were sculpted and painted really well, with a few BIG disappointments). The South America toob also contained iconic species for the region, but since that continent is ignored more than Africa the models (at least for me) were more exciting. The arapaima, caiman, dolphin, sloth, amd harpy eagle especially.

I would expect any of these to be present: tiger, panda, snow leopard, orangutan or asian elephant. Perhaps a malayan tapir, camel, red panda, or a bear. A cobra or komodo might be likely for reptiles, or a peacock or sea eagle for birds.

I HOPE to see something just as iconic but more unique included in the toob like a pangolin, some sort of asian fish (chinese sturgeon or paddlefish, mekong or goonch catfish, taimen etc.), chinese alligator, or a softshell turtle, pheasant, or even a bar headed goose would be welcome.

Does Safari still release a full catalogue? I can only find Safari "Look books", but they don't show the complete collection.

They discontinued printed catalogues in 2019 I think. Not sure about e-catalogues.

They don't have catalogues at all since 2019. I obtained this information directly from Safari. They're surviving with the essential. There's a huge love for this brand, easily other company had given up but they continue fighting even if the winds are not the best.

I wondered whether that was the reason. I don't know whether saving money on a catalogue is a good business strategy, as its main function is to advertise products. An e-catalogue would be relatively inexpensive to produce (a lot can be copied from year to year). Without it, how do shops know which products to order from Safari? How do customers know what they should look for? I am not a businessman and hopefully the people at Safari know better what they should be doing, but I find it a bit worrying.

Safari probably stopped using paper catalogues for environmental reasons; same reason why they stopped having cardboard inserts in the TOOBs

That makes sense, but why no e-catalogue?

rogerpgvg wrote:

That makes sense, but why no e-catalogue?

They made digital and print guides with the new released models. They're probably cheaper to produce. I think even e-catalogues are outsourced to another company and obviously it means an investment. It is good to recall that Safari moved recently from Miami to a cheaper location and they also reduced their team. I also believe the few releases they're presenting are reused models or moulds whose development was already running before the crisis.
They're strategy was relatively agressive until recently, now they're clearly under containment.

rogerpgvg wrote:

That makes sense, but why no e-catalogue?

their website is essentially an online catalogue.

True, perhaps they don't need a catalogue for that reason. You can send a catalogue to distributers/shops to promote your products, but perhaps that's not how things work, I have no idea.

I worked in retail 2001-2016. Early on in that period, there were a LOT of paper catalogues flying around. Unsolicited ones from companies we didn't even deal with and weren't interested in. Ones which didn't take us off the mailing list even though we hadn't bought anything for years. But the companies we already dealt with regularly would also post a catalogue, however often they had a new edition out, to keep up with seasonal items, new stock, updated prices. Sometimes they'd have a rep who'd arrive at the shop to bring the paper catalogue in person, they'd talk us through new stuff, show us promotions, and leave the catalogue with us.

Later, the reps had a digital catalogue on an ipad instead, and there wasn't a paper copy. Most companies got out of sending paper ones - some of them asked if we still wanted them, others just stopped. Some distributors with a huge range went from sending out every brand's catalogues to a quarterly 'book' which had everything in one chunky place, and was to be used for reference - customer wants to see if something's available, we use the book to tell them yes, no, how much, did they want to order it? Note down the item number, add it to our order later.

From about 2010, I did the orders by using the suppliers' websites. Nobody wanted us phoning and reading out lists of numbers any more, they wanted it done the way which suited them, which was online shopping style. Often there's a sort of 'retailers only' private web address, where you can access a different version of a shop site with a business account, than individual customers shopping from home could (set up with different info, like everything being at cost prices, along with RRPs, how many is in a case, minimum amounts, barcode numbers, etc)

With the way things went in the years I was there, with such a big change toward an online shop style ordering system, I wouldn't be surprised if paper catalogues have been phased out in favour of everyone just dealing with ordering online now. Either using the website of a brand directly with a business account, or the website of a middleman distributor company, to browse like a catalogue and decide what to get, and to place the order too.

Slightly off-topic, I found this artwork depicting Patagotitan mayorum with the titanosaurian dinosaur Argentinosaurus huiculensis. Both are considered to be among the largest dinosaurs and largest land animals of all time. Although considering that almost complete skeletons of big dinosaurs are hard to find and that both of these genera are fragmentary, these size estimates could be wrong.

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So i hope we get a big model. But even their small models are very expensive, a big one will extreme expensive.

Safari’s playing games with us this year. This is the closest thing we have right now to an image of the Patagotitan
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The colorful things with the figure looks like street chalk. And everyone know the lenght of this chalk.
I fear, that we get a small and expensive dinosaur again.

The theory posed on DTF is that They could be 15 cm jumbo chalk. That would make the figure in the 30 cm range.

30 cm long and 9 cm high. It's not big, it's very small. Their Malawisaurus is 35cm long.

The lizards are large models. Cant say more now as I am SUPPOSED to be working...
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WOW, Have you seen this new Crested gecko from Safari ?
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I thought it was a fantast critter, but then I saw this photo of a real one :
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I cn't wait to get one

I’m really disappointed that the agama is just a repaint of their bearded dragon... the crestie looks good though

So far I am only getting the Patagotitan (and the salmon shark, even though it hasn't been revealed yet)

Both lizards are too big for me, plus 1) I already have a nice Kaiyodo crested gecko and 2) that the agama is a repaint of the bearded dragon is a bit of a let down

The patagotitan looks pretty good. It's the only new prehistoric figure this year I plan on getting so far.

I wonder why Safari stopped casting specimens for their Incredible Creatures line? The gecko isn't bad, but of course casting a real one would make it as true-to-life as possible.

Nice gecko. Wildlife Wonders?

It says in the description that the crested gecko is part of their Incredible Creatures line