I say no thanks to Black Friday Giganotosaurus

Few children reach adulthood without ever having held a Schleich action figure in their hands. With its plastic figurines, the Schwäbisch Gmünd-based company has managed to carve out a place for itself in virtually every toy shop and many supermarkets. A realistic hippopotamus or a farm animal set are items that grandparents are happy to buy to please their grandchildren. Schleich products are also very popular as gifts to bring home from the zoo. There's no reason not to take home an injection-moulded version of the cute meerkat that showed off to visitors.

Schleich has a good reputation: its animals are developed in collaboration with biologists and animal experts, so that they are as close as possible to the original. But what bugged the product design team for this one?

Toy figure

28,80 EUR

Schleich Giganotosaurus Black Friday

Toy figure

28,80 EUR

Schleich Giganotosaurus Black Friday

Of course, the giganotosaurus did exist. Its bones have been found and the carnivore roamed around 100 million years ago, where Argentina is today. But I know one thing: this dinosaur wasn't black, and it certainly didn't go to the tattooist to get that red design tattooed on its back.

The product clearly doesn't follow the Schleich "product DNA":

The giganotosaurus is at most as authentic as the 70% off advertised by some retailers during Black Friday. For this dinosaur, the product design team clearly lost a battle with the marketing team. To capitalise on the Black Friday craze, we needed a special dinosaur. And after several brainstorming sessions and creative collaboration, it was born: the Black Friday Giganotosaurus. Instead of dwelling on the actual colour of the theropod, it turned black. Whether the Cretaceous sun would have turned it into a mobile sauna on two legs or its camouflage would have been about as effective as that of a new car discovered on the motorway; it would have been useless.

To boost sales, the giganotosaurus has also been declared a "collectible figurine" and is, of course, only available in limited editions. Psst, no one can know that the number of pieces is so great that there will be enough copies anyway.

Harsh marketing copy should do the trick. There you go!

This is clearly a missed opportunity. If this thing has "Black Friday" in its name, why isn't this monstrosity hunting bargains? Why doesn't it use its speed as a weapon to take advantage of the big discounts before all the other prehistoric lizards? (Dear Schleich company, if you're interested in such formulations, contact me; my copywriting skills are for sale.)

But I don't need to boost Schleich's business. The Black Friday series of dinosaur collections doesn't seem to be a hit. Last year's limited edition T-Rex obviously didn't sell much either. Why else would it still be lurking on the Schleich shop website? Even in our shop, it's still hoping to find a buyer before fossilising in some box in the logistics warehouse.

Toy figure

27,11 EUR

Schleich Black T-Rex

1

Toy figure

27,11 EUR

Schleich Black T-Rex

1

I was only able to save one Black Friday dinosaur for this article: the specimen you see here in the photos. But I don't want to keep it. That's why it could soon be yours: tell me in the comments why you absolutely need the giganotosaurus. I'll choose the best answer. Then I'll wrap him up in a cardboard box, put him in the post and say "forever!"