Mattel at New York Toy Fair 2019: Expectations and Dream Reveals
Tom
It’s your friend Tom Jurassic back on Collect Jurassic today – and ahead of New York Toy Fair, I thought we’d touch on some of the things which I really want to see join the Jurassic World line which is currently on offer from Mattel.
To get the hype going ahead of NYTF we’re going to split this into two subheadings. Our first, will be “What We Know is Coming” and the second will be “Future Dream Additions”.Without any further ado, let’s get straight into the toy discussion!
What We Know Is Coming
The first thing is rightly the Colossal Brachiosaurus toy which was first debuted at San Diego Comic Con in 2018. The Brachiosaurus is synonymous with the Jurassic Park franchise – not only being one of the first dinosaurs which we see in the original film, but also being one of the most beautiful giants to appear across all the films. The Brachiosaurus has become a fan favourite – with many people, including my good friend Brad Jost from The Jurassic Park Podcast, having nothing but loved for this long-necked giant. I’m excited to see the scale and scope of this collectable – and am excited to have a piece as large and imposing as Mattel’s already released Mosasaur join the collection for 2019.
Following on from the Brachiosaurus, I of course also must touch on the star of Jurassic World – the Indominus Rex. Many fans love the design of the Indominus Rex – and I am one of those people. I love the elongated limbs, the sharp teeth and the deep, red eyes. I love the curvature on the animal, and the heavy reliance upon texture to really give the Indominus its own unique character. Fans have seen their fair share of Indominus toys already – with a wide majority of fans considering Hasbro’s Indominus figures by far some of their best offerings in the otherwise lacklustre offerings for 2015’s Jurassic World line.
However, Mattel’s Indominus looks set to blow this out of the water – with high levels of detail, a fantastic amount of articulation and some fun play features incorporated into a robust and accurate design. This is one toy which I am INCREDIBLY excited to own.
For anyone who is unfamiliar with me – I absolutely love Toy Photography (Read my Collect Jurassic article on it here). So, I adore the opportunity to get my hands-on action figures which have high levels of articulation, well-detailed accessories and crucially – phenomenal attention to the intricacies of characters. A six-inch collectors line promises this potential – providing the opportunity to give us incredible likenesses, film-accurate accessories and much more. I remember when I first heard rumblings of a collector’s line. I was incredibly excited – knowing that there would be high-end Jurassic products available at a much cheaper price than many of the traditionally more detailed Jurassic products out there. It was an exciting prospect for me – and it is something which I am still excited for to this day.
I know a few people are worried that a Collector’s line will mean the core line will not get as much attention – but I think that just doesn’t hold true. The people I have spoken to at Mattel know how popular the 3/34-inch line is so that is not going anywhere and will still get the flagship-level attention that Mattel have given it. The Collector’s Line is just an opportunity for Mattel to try something different – and give us die-hard fans some of our favourite characters in a more intricately created manor. I know news on the collector’s line has been pretty radio silent – so I am hoping NYTF presents the PERFECT opportunity to give us more news on this project!
There are, of course, other things to look forward to. We have the Pteranodon coming – which is another fan favourite dinosaur. We also have Franklin coming soon, and new Battle Damage characters like the Plesiosaurus to look forward to. These are all fantastic items – but none speak to me more than the three I’ve listed above in detail!
Future Dream Additions
I’m 90% sure that if you’re reading this article, you are going to agree with me on this one as I think all Jurassic fans would! In the original Jurassic Park, we see two incredibly iconic vehicles – the popular Jeep Wrangler, and the equally important Ford Explorer. Both play crucial moments in the film – and the Jeep has seen some incredible renditions from Mattel. We’ve received a slew of Matchbox variants of the Jeep, and we also have the capture-net version, the beautiful Legacy version (Which is incredibly well priced, I’d like to add!) and the wonderfully detailed die cast variant – which has opening doors, and an assortment of small, fine details which really bring the model to life.
With all this in mind – it is a shame that we only have the Explorer in Matchbox form thus far! With iconic characters like Grant, Sattler and Malcolm in our collections, I think all fans want to have the Ford Explorer accompanying those characters. I know the community have been particularly vocal about wanting this vehicle to join the 3/34-inch line – so I am hopeful that we will see it in the future. Mattel’s team have done a fantastic job of keeping track of what the community wants – so I have no doubt that we will see this piece of cinematic history make an appearance in one form or another in the future.
I’m not the only one who will be saying this – and I want to start by saying I know that if Mattel could release more human figures, they would! Now, however, we know that Franklin is the only new human character due to join our assortments – something which is unfortunate, as I think there is opportunity for a lot more characters. I’d love to, over the coming years, see everything from un-named mercenaries and ACU troopers, to fan favourites like Roland Tembo and John Hammond join the line. Whether these be introduced through the Legacy Collection – or perhaps through vehicle packs like the recent Owen and ATV set – I do not know. I just know that I would love to see Mattel find a medium through which they can introduce more characters in the future, as such a breadth of dinosaurs will undoubtedly need more feeble humans to chow down on!
Hands down one of the stand out items in Mattel’s early 2019 line-up has been the Albertosaurus.
Fans everywhere have been raving about the fantastic sculpt, articulation and the smart implementation of the two-stage battle damage feature. This is a step-up in terms of the functionality of Mattel’s toys – and is a stand out product.I would absolutely love to see similar dinosaurs of this scale done with this style. Imagine a new Carnotaurus with this feature – or even a dinosaur like the Gorgosaurus done in a similar format. This is a fantastic opportunity to continue to make toys which cool back to Kenner and crucially are packed full of fun features and details, so I hope Mattel keep this as a choice moving forwards.
As a side note – Mattel UK team, PLEASE bring this absolute beauty to the UK market. I really want to get my hands on this one!
Mattel have been doing their larger dinosaurs real justice since the line first debuted. We have had an assortment of fantastic T-Rex Models, alongside a larger-scale Indoraptor and a Spinosaurus model. Now we have seen a large assortment of the creatures which we see on-screen, I would love to see Mattel experiment with some characters which we have not seen before! A Bite N Fight Giganotosaurus, for example, sounds like something which Dinosaur fans would LOVE – and so, I think Mattel could really use the gap between films to experiment with some cool brand new designs. I’m really excited as Mattel have a relatively blank slate – so we could get some truly incredible dinosaurs at all sizes across the next couple of years which I personally find very exciting.
That sums up this article – it’s been a lot of fun thinking about what is coming, and what could come!
Thanks so much for taking a read of this article.There is lots more I could talk about – but for now, we will look ahead to New York Toy fair, and all of the exciting dinosaur reveals which could be lurking right around the corner. Keep an eye on Collect Jurassic this weekend during the show, where we’ll be posting daily updates on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and here on the website.
