Moschops (Paleo-Creatures)

Review and photographs by Loon, edited by Suspsy

I’ll be honest: before I bought this figure, I had no idea what Moschops actually was. I mean, I somehow knew of it, but what type of animal it was or where it was from were mysteries to me. Well, after some “rigorous” research, I can tell you that Moschops was a therapsid, more specifically a dinocephalian, the group of large “mammal-like reptiles” that includes the likes of Estemmenosuchus. Just looking at this animal, you can tell it lived in the Permian. It lived about 250 million years ago in what is now South Africa and was one of the largest land animals at the time. Most importantly, it was the star of a British children’s show back in the 80s.

Not to bury the lead too much, but Jesus Toledo has faithfully restored this herbivorous synapsid in his Paleo-Creatures line. That’s not too shocking, as this line continuously puts out fantastic resin figures of prehistoric weirdos. 

This release comes in a few pieces: a base, the figure itself, and a couple of plastic plants that plug into the base. The base itself is a little over 4½ inches (~11 cm) long and depicts an arid environment. It features some nice paintwork as well as some indentations that allow the figure to stay in place on it. My copy is a little warped, unfortunately, but it’s not the biggest issue in the world.

The figure itself is specifically meant to be M. capensis, the first known of the two species. At about 5 inches (~13 cm) from head to tail, this figures roughly 1:20 scale. The body is predominantly an army green with beige paint on the underside. A brown wash helps bring out all of the detail this figure has.

A wrinkly texture is visible from neck to tail. There are no skin impressions from Moschops to my knowledge, but this seems plausible for a stem-mammal. The torso looks maybe too wide, but this is probably because the limbs are incredibly scrawny. While the hind limbs are decent enough, the forelimbs don’t look capable of containing the big, robust arm bones this animal had. Still, they show off the Moschops’ mammal-like gait.

The head is also spot on, capturing the weird face of Moschops; it reminds me a bit of something from the 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie. The only issue is that the nostril on the right side of the head is not well defined. So much so that, even from a short distance, it looks as though this animal only has one nostril. Interestingly, the lower jaw seems like it was going to have articulation at some point, but the final figure’s mouth is permanently shut.

Even with some of my nitpicks, there’s no denying that this is another hit from Paleo-Creatures. Good detail, nice paint job, and scientific accuracy are staples of this line, and they are all found here. I recommend it for anyone interested in something a little different from the glut of dinosaurs that we’re used to. 

You can pick one up at Everything Dinosaur.