Today’s article is a guest submission by Chris Kay – AKA The Jurassic Artist. Chris is a UK fan and collector of Jurassic World products – and wanted to use this piece to talk about the challenges of collecting Jurassic in the UK, and how this can be changed for the better moving forwards.
Is collecting toys, merchandise, and collectables from the Jurassic franchise actually enjoyable – or is distribution and other issues making it too difficult? This is the question I will aim to answer in today’s article.
Like most of us, I have loved the Jurassic franchise since the moment I first saw it. I first saw Jurassic Park in the Summer of 1993 and have fond memories of watching it in a tiny run-down movie theatre while on holiday in Ilfracombe, England. After seeing the film my love for the franchise really began – and I ended up with all of the Kenner Series 1 Line for my birthday and Christmas, alongside some of the Series 2 assortment. This started my love for Jurassic Merchandise – and I have continued to collect, even hunting down new toys during the barren years between Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World. Now, with the advent of Mattel Jurassic toys, it’s safe to say my collecting is one again in full flow!
Over the past few years, I have branched out with my collection – repurchasing the Kenner Series 1 line in their boxes. I’ve also picked up figures from The Amber Collection, The Hammond Collection and have added other collectables from companies like Doctor Collector and Fanattik. I’ve also begun to venture down the high-end path – looking at some of the statues produced by companies like Prime One and Iron Studios. Needless to say, I am taking my collecting seriously – and this is why I wanted to write this article in the first place.
When it comes to parallels in toy collecting, I am huge fan of the Star Wars Black Series by Hasbro, so I was excited to see the debut of the Amber Collection. I’ve been fortunate enough to acquire the whole line before it ended earlier this year. I missed the first wave of figures, but E-Bay came in handy and I managed to get the first releases off of E-Bay for a relatively reasonable price. It is fair to say that there were distribution difficulties with the rest of the line too – with the Dilophosaurus selling for over $200 in America, whilst being simultaneously available for £20 in the UK for some time. For later waves, like the ones including Hammond and Sattler, they were available easily in the States – but other online retailers struggled to fulfil their orders on them. This meant that it was hard to track down people who would enable us to import them, given there was no brick-and-mortar carrier of the line in the UK. This is where the problem really begins.
The Dominion line has been hit or miss in the UK. Some items have been readily available (and even available months before the States in some cases!) whilst other items have been harder to track down. I have not seen the human and dinosaur packs available which seems confusing given they feature the main characters from the film – with only online outlets like Toyopolis and Jurassic Toys carrying them. It is strange that across the board, the main characters from these films (and the animated TV show!) have not been easy to acquire within the UK when other items are.
It’s been great seeing more initiatives to highlight the new Jurassic toys coming – but it’s fair to say that preorders via the Target website have had problems with many orders being cancelled without explanation. Now we know that this is due to issues with payment methods being used – but there has been no explanation as to why this is the case. It’s also worth noting that there has been inconsistency in when these items have been released in the UK and Europe. Whilst some sets have appeared early in stores like Smyths, others have not appeared at all. The biggest offender is the ‘Kitchen Encounter Pack’. As the first time Lex Murphy has been released as a figure, this is highly desired by fans – and yet it is unavailable n Smyths at the time of writing this. The inconsistency in availability is incredibly jarring to say the least.
The Hammond Collection presents another problem in this regard. As the second wave releases in the US there is currently no set retailer in the UK or Europe. This line has been available on Mattel Creations and some online retailers, but these have been in limited numbers – with no store presence in either area. The distribution has also been challenging in the US – with some items appearing in high volume, and others being harder to track down. The exclusivity deal in the US is great and makes the products available at a certain store – but why hasn’t a similar deal been struck with a retailer in the UK and Europe?
It also feels as though there is real controversy around the Mattel Creations SDCC exclusive this year – finally giving us Gennaro in the scene where the Rex eats him off the toilet. Many collectors missed out – with the product selling out in minutes and proving very hard for many people to acquire even during the window of time it was available on the website for. I’s fair to say this isn’t an issue with Mattel itself, but rather is a problem with exclusives and how hard they can be to acquire – so it’s a shame to see such a highly-requested moment from the first film now unavailable to so many fans.
I appreciate that this article sounds like a rant about the state of distribution – but it’s fair to say that it is very inconsistent, and the lack of communications around where and when things are available do not help the problem. Better distribution outside of the US would be a fantastic start – and more consistency when it comes to availability across the board is a huge part of this. Mattel Creations has shown that products like the ‘Chaos Theory Dr Ian Malcolm’ set can be made available in large numbers, with wide distribution, for a reasonable price – so hopefully this is an approach which can be applied to other collectables in the future. It is worth noting that other companies, like Funko! have worked hard to make products more widely available – with Funko Europe dedicated to finding retailers to carry exclusives in the UK – so hopefully Mattel can replicate something similar. It’s not perfect, but it’s still a step towards addressing the problem.
I know other people in the community have expressed similar frustrations – but there are solutions out there. I’ve seen people suggest using Mattel Creations as a platform where they could crowdfund for certain projects. Crowdfunding was successful for Funko’s ‘Jurassic World: The Legacy of Isla Nublar’, so hopefully Mattel may do something similar – enabling them to make more unique products which have the certainty and assurance of an international market. It would certainly help to alleviate problems we are seeing with current toys – which are often subject to scalping or overpriced resale.
To summarise – distribution is always going to be an issue, but I hope that for a company with the scope and scale of Mattel, it is something which they can correct. I have no intention of stopping collecting – and part of collecting is the chase.
By making the chase a little bit easier, we can ensure that all fans have access to the products they want – empowering the Jurassic collecting community and making sure that everyone can acquire the collectables they want. After all – it is a Jurassic World!
Chris frequently shares his own artwork and his own collection on his Instagram Account - @the_jurassic_artist. Make sure to follow him to see more from him and his collecting journey. Thanks to Chris for contributing this article!
Thanks to Nathy Vader, Victoria’s Cantina and The East Dock for some of the photos featured in this article.
Written by: Chris Kay