Rubber Dino Figures from Safari Ltd.
and the Carnegie Museum of Natural History
The Carnegie Mountain - no, I don't have the plastic mountain, and even if I did, I wouldn't admit it
The Carnegie Collection appeared in 1988. All (well, more or less) the figures were to be at a uniform (more or less) scale of 1:40 (more or less). The big technical breakthrough is that these figures are painted. Vinyl was, not long ago, very difficult to paint (and glue), but the colors on modern vinyl dinos are very durable. The colors are, of course, entirely fanciful, but they do look snappy.
The Carnegie Collection figures are marked "Safari Ltd," although they are actually made at unidentified factories in China. Safari, with offices in Miami and Hong Kong, sells quite an assortment of rubber animals, in their Wild Safari, Vanishing Wild, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Hidden Kingdom, Creatures of the Deep, Authentics, Dinos of China, Missing Links, Incredible Creatures, etc, series. Distribution is particularly good in the US - the strangest retail outlets have Safari animals (I bought some plastic deep-sea fish at a Bed, Bath and Beyond I was dragged into by an ex - now that is aggressive distribution). But Safari's web presence is miserable.
UPDATE - the Safari site is much better now (2005). And the Carnegie Museum of Natural History now lists the set, here.
As of 2005 figures are still being added to the Carnegie set. Some older figures are long out of production. Here is the original 1988 lineup -
Figures have been added since the initial appearance of the set -
Safari has another Velociraptor which is sometimes listed with the Carnegie figures, and sometime with the Dinos of China figures, but it doesn't fit gracefully in either. It's certainly not one of the Carnegies, the giveaway clue being that it doesn't say "Carnegie" on it.
UPDATE (June 2005) - Reader Greg Spiers sends some interesting observations about the Carnegie Collection vinyl -
I have been an avid collector of the Carnegie Collection since 1993 and recently noticed while rinsing off my figures (they tend to collect dust from time to time) that the newer figures are cast in a different material than the older figures. I made a list of my figures, noting the year labeled on each and the material used. What I found was the following:
All figures labeled before 1995 were cast in one of two different materials.
All figures labeled after 1994 were cast in the same material.
Which led me to believe ....
.... all figures manufactured before 1995 were cast in a gray rubber, dipped in the primary color of the figure, and then detailed (original version). All figures manufactured after 1994 were cast in a rubber dyed the primary color of the figure and then detailed (new version).
Even more interesting, all figures labeled before 1995 that are currently still in production are produced using this new process. It seems that 1994-1995 was a barrier in the production of the Carnegie Collection of which only some figures survived. Some, such as Triceratops, Pachycephalosaurus, and Stegosaurus, received new coloration and updated sculpts. I am not sure when these new versions were released, but all still bear the original date. I am supposing they were released in 1996 or later, depending on when supplies of the originals ran out. Others, such as Parasaurolophus, Spinosaurus, and Plateosaurus, did not receive new coloration but did receive updated sculpts. I am supposing they were also released in 1996 or later, depending on when supplies of the originals ran out.
Of the figures labeled before 1995 that are currently still in production, I am missing only the original version of Elasmosaurus. I do have the new version of Elasmosaurus, which is labeled 1990. Perhaps in your collection you have the original version, which would prove its existance and support my theory. Furthermore, I question whether or not Euoplocephalus was actually retired in 1997. If Euoplocephalus was retired in 1997, the new version of Euoplocephalus should have been released. I have yet to see one, which leads me to believe Euoplocephalus never crossed the 1994-1995 barrier (despite what the Safari literature says).
The figures which never crossed the 1994-1995 barrier, and may have even been discontinued earlier, are the following: Allosaurus (1988), Australopithecus male (1988), Australopithecus female (1988), Dimetrodon (1988), Maiasaura (1988), Protoceratops (1988), Smilodon (1988), Deinonychus (1990), Mosasaurus (1991), and possibly Euoplocephalus (1988).
Also I have, although undated, original versions of Diplodocus, Corythosaurus, and updated Allosaurus, which leads me to believe they were originally released before 1995. Updated Dimetrodon and updated Maiasaura are both labeled after 1994.
I hope you find this information interesting. Although none of it has been confirmed by Safari, please feel free to incorporate it into your web site. In the meantime, I am going to search for the original version of Elasmosaurus and the new version of Euoplocephalus -- not to mention the new versions of Iguanodon, Spinosaurus, Dilophosaurus, Plateosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, Pteranodon, Parasaurolophus, Brachiosaurus, Apatosaurus, and Apatosaurus baby in nearby stores.
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