The Riversliegh formation in Queensland is a heritage site for good reason, it gives us a fascinating glimpse into the ancient past of Australia, full of magnificent marsupials and brilliant birds, plus a bunch of bats! The fossils show how Australia once was, full of rainforests and the animals inhabiting the area are amazing. Yowie seems to have done a brilliant job at producing models of animals from this region, and here we shall look at one such animal, Pengana robertbolesi, known by the nickname Flexiraptor, owing to being known from a leg bone and special ankle bone, allowing it to move it’s talons in multiple directions, not just straight forward, likely to catch animals in dense forest. Let’s see how they did!
To the figure! The subtle colours of greys works well, matching some modern raptors like Harpy eagles (which it was around the size of the smallest examples of). It is a perched pose, neutral, but working for a bird of prey. There is a little wiggle to the head and tail, but neither likely to affect posing much. It is a decent size for a Yowie figure, measuring 1.8″ high and 2″ long, so could work among other lines.
Now to accuracy. Usually when a figure is known from very little material, I bang my head against a fall, wondering how on earth they made so much out of so little. However, the ankle joint is similar to a few modern birds of prey, which likely was the inspiration for this. It looks very much like a modern raptor, which, as there is not that much to go on, works fairly well. Certainly has the long legs it is also known for.
Overall, this is quite a good model, all things considered. Maybe not what it would look like, but there is enough to have a solid stab at it. It is long discontinued, so eBay is your best bet to find it, and it is worth the hunt, in my own opinion.
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