Giant Moa (Signatu Studio)

Back in 2015, after finishing my Palaeontology degree and wanting to keep a grip on news in that field, I discovered a toy site that seemed quite interesting. Several months later, I bit the bullet and posted my first review. The rest is history, and now I have reached a major milestone, my 100th review! I want to take this opportunity to say thank you, to Dinotoyblog and Suspsy for editing my early reviews, Halichoeres for giving me advice on photography and to everyone who was read, rated and commented on my reviews. Knowing that it helps people and informs on things they may not know makes this well worth it. Now, let’s look at the figure that get’s the honour of number 100. And it is a spectacle…

Most will have heard of the Giant Moa, an enormous flightless bird that filled the niche of large herbivorous browsers, unique to the islands of New Zealand. With slow breeding rates and a long period of growth, all were wiped out around 600 years ago when humans came to populate the islands, as these large birds were easy sources of meat. There were several different species of Moa, with the model here representing the largest species, the South Island Giant Moa, Diornis robustus, which reached 6 ft 6″ tall at the shoulder and could stretch it’s neck to nearly 12 ft. This one was made by Signatu Studios by sculpter Jose Miguel Apaticio. Let’s looks closer.

To the figure, and it is a beauty! Miguel’s sculpting and painting is phenomenal, giving the body a brown, feathery body, fitting an animal that would have lived in forests. The scales and feathers really pop, showing how much love went into making this model. The pose is a great choice too, opting not to go for the traditional erect pose, going for a pose that it would have more regularly been in, a horizontal neck, as if scanning the ground for food. In order to keep it from having oversized feet, it comes with a base, reminiscent of a forest floor. Fittingly for an animal with “giant” as part of it’s common name, this is quite large, measuring 6.8″ long and 4.1″ from feet to back.

I have nothing to complain about in terms of accuracy. Everything from the tiny head, to the body shape, powerful feet and wingless body are featured. Nothing is missed out on from the skeleton.

I cannot recommend this figure enough. The gorgeous sculpt, great size and colouring work brilliantly, resulting in a model that any collector would proudly have a centre piece of a display. This can be bought from Likaon models or directly from Miguel’s site. It may not be cheap, but the quality of this model and his other works makes it worthwhile. Once again, I want to thank everyone for reading my reviews, and helping me to reach this point. I have plenty more to review, so here’s to the future!