Safari Ltd figures disappearing from their site?

I've ordered directly from Safari's website many times over the past few years and I've only occasionally seen items out of stock. In the past few months I've been wanting to order from them but almost everything on my list has been "coming soon" for a long time. Some things I noticed disappeared completely such as the lesser kudu, hyena, & cape buffalo (without oxpeckers). I was almost 100% sure these were not retired... IF so they would be in their hot deals category with the other retired items.

I just find this very odd and I can't even find the lesser kudu on eBay all of a sudden. Does anyone know if these have stopped being made? Or possibly any info on why so many of their items are out of stock? I mean just looking around most things are "coming soon" but they have been like that for months.

I'm fine with waiting of course and know they still may be struggling but I'm worried about getting that kudu as its something I've really been wanting.

I don't know for sure, but it could be a few things. One, the economy struggles they are having right now. Two, it could be as simple as website construction (especially since they are changing up their business tactics to including distribution of other brands' toys). And three, it could be sudden retirement because of the former tactic changes. Have you tried messaging them directly about the items you are waiting on?

They do seem to change their website often, so I'm hoping more things will come back into stock soon. I messaged them a few weeks ago but I just got a message back saying I can sign up for waitlists so I'll be notified when items are back in stock.

And of course the other sites I buy from these figures have also mysteriously disappeared.. I'll have to keep an eye out.

I work at a toy store that has been ordering from Schleich & Safari for years though and the owner may be doing a Safari order soon. So my plan is to check their 2022 catalog and see if these figures are listed

Scary

My guess is that they have problems with economy and thus with a suppyer and/or shipping

I mean, - those models you mention are probably among their always faithful, always popular models ( called milking cows in marketing terms ), so they would not be the first ones to be retired

Also they have been using some rather aggressive selling lately : I was looking round on their site, and looked at some pensils, wondering how they have returned to selling stuff like 30+ years ago.
Next day I got a message from them : "Did you forget something " , wanting me to buy those pencils  Not the way to make themselves popular with me

I think there is no 2022 catalogue. I also asked them to tell me which figures are being retired these last years and they told me first they would provide me the information but later it was obvious they don't have it sorted because some unusual things are happening. I mean, I believe they are stopping the production of several models and they prefer not to announce it. They're surely at a very difficult situation and fighting to keep Safari Ltd alive.
That lesser kudu is the kind of figure that is easily one of the first choices to be retired. It is a unknown animal and its production is not easy, mostly its painting. Surely a poor sales model even if it is one of the favorites among collectors.
What I recomend to everyone is to get the wanted Safari models as soon as possible.

It is sad to see this happen to my favorite brand. I agree Susanne I get emails from them almost everyday asking me to buy an item I looked at. And maybe my account is just broken or the page isn't working but it won't even let me redeem my rewards and coupons I have called "Bernie Bucks", did they scrap this too?

I will just have to watch them closely for now and try to order the last of what I need. I guess I'll wait for a sale since my rewards won't redeem

I'm going to grab the hyena and buffalo off eBay as soon as possible and keep an eye out for the kudu too.

Joliezac wrote:

.....

I'm going to grab the hyena and buffalo off eBay as soon as possible and keep an eye out for the kudu too.

Good idea, but forgive them for the missing rewards and coupons.
It it helps them, that is a small thing, I am sure

This is sad, but this may be a result of them having a rough 2020. When they get into a better financial state, they might restock some of their old figures if they have the money to produce them. Thankfully Safari figures will always be available in places like eBay and Amazon.

Update below:

I emailed Safari again and they gave me a much more detailed response this time, here is what they said:

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The Cape buffalo and hyena aren’t on their website right now but according to this they will be back soon and are not discontinued which is good. However, as some suspected it does seem that the lesser kudu is now retired.

I’ll have to pay close attention now so I don’t miss out on anything else. I did buy the Cape buffalo and hyena on eBay just in case and now I’m on the lookout for the lesser kudu.

So if anyone is looking for something that they didn’t think was retired, you might have to ask. Hope this helps!

@Jolie, thanks for sharing the information with us. As I predicted, the lesser kudu is retired. this is the kind of figure that does not survive to critical times. I am glad I have one and fortunately I never hesitated about this model as it happened with other figures. I hope you can find one for your collection, that's a really nice figure.

They wanted to retire the Lesser Kudu several years ago. In fact, I was almost sure that it had been retired along with the Sable Antelope. It remained available on the website and to retailers so long as they had available stock, but once that sold out, that was it. The Cape Buffalo is available on the wholesale site; I don't know about their retail site. The Hyena is not listed, but as others have said, this is most likely an oversight, since they have not retired it.

Thanks for the update Jolie! It's always sad to see good models retired, but unfortunately it's a necessary part of keeping the business afloat for many years to come.

There was one figure I'd looked for a few times and it was always out of stock. I decided to order something else a few nights ago, and the out of stock figure was available. So maybe things are starting to trickle in.