Mojo 2012 Orca/Killerwhale

Todat i can present you all another new Mojö marine-life animal for the 2012 range,it is the biggest animal in the dolphin family, the orca, or often wrongly named killerwhale...
As a big fan of the whales and dolphin-family(so beeing critical on models), i think that Mojö made a fantastic model of this animal, which resambles the animal in its right shape and colours(although some sub-species or even species are recognized today).
I only have 2 pics, so those are the only ones i can show you today!
I think i uploaded one picture to small, sorry for that!

One more fantastic marine mammal

Thankyou for showin, Willy

It is great to get the models one by one. I learn a lot about them this way .
Ofen, seeing killer whales orcas on TV I have thought, hey, that was a strange looking one.
But I just thought they were different. Now I know there are various (sub)species



I found this picture *here*

There is a lot of interesting stuff about them, in case anyone wants to read it

I think this Orca is well present. Thanks Willy!

Yes Susanne, at least the northern and southern types are recognized.
The southern types are more greyish then the black northern types.
But as they are roaming the world seas, besides the real tropical seas, they must have many variations to.
The problem with this species is, and with many other marine-species, the don't have real bounderies, so they could interbreed actually...
They could literally swim around the world if they wanted to...
But in fact they don't seem to do that, so subspecies develope, and at the end real different species.
I am pretty sure these subspecies of orca's could interbreed.
As is known today that all of the pods(orca-families) all have their own dialect, and a lot of them have their own way of hunting down prey, and type of prey anyway, they would go into real species in a matter of time anyway.
I am not a scientist, but i still believe that they are still closely related, and they would recognize eachother as the same species.
A thing what keeps my mind busy, is the fact that the male offsprping in an orca-family stays to the pod(family), so mostly the oldest son is the only male animal in the pod, and so is the father of all of the offspring, so he interbreeds with his mother to, which seems strange...
But i know from my tropical fish that interbreeding is not always bad, and seems to be happening a lot more then we might think...
For example, in gorilla families the females wander off, in case of the orca's to as it seems...
In other species, both sexes wander off, and in other species the males wonder off, like in lions...
There are many variations in this...

This Orca is fantastic!! Thanks for sharing Willy.

He's beautiful! Thanks for posting the pictures Willy - I only collect land animals I only collect land animals I only collect land animals I only collect land animals

Thanks Vivien and Harriet!
Well Harriet, the ancestors of whales roamed the face of the earth before, the bearded whales in the dear-family or so, and the tooth-whales in the doglike-family or so, so why not?

Indeed, the whale ancestors were from the Artiodactyla realm, and very closed to hippos ancestors

Wonderful Orca, thank You for posting pictures here Willy Thank You also to other members for so much interesting information

Thanks for the extra very nice time scale Christophe!
Was i right about the different whale families, or did i mistake somewhere in between?
I try to remember everything i see and get before my eyes, but not everything sticks immediatly...
Even though i am not a scientist, i have my doubts about the same ancestry of the two different whale-families...
The pre-ancistry could be the same, but very early in the branch of evolution, there must be a major difference, or otherwise the main food-substance must have been very differently...
Simply because when there was only a minor food supply for one of the groups of ceateceans, they could have never divided into 2 different lines that quickly, and specially not at the same time...
A predator like from the tooth-whales cannot very quickly evolve from the baleine-whales as it seems to me...
The lifestyle and way of feeding is to much differently...
And since there is known so far that there where not so many species in the oceans at that particular time(a lot of course, but probably not much as today), they must have evolved far after eachother, or next to eachother, but from different lines of ancestors
To bad i never studied biology or zoology in a high grade, i would be good in this field i guess... , because my interest goes very deep in these, and many other matters...
I guess, i missed my mission in live, but who knows, maybe in another life...

Thanks Ana, i think this orca is great, the scale seems to be a little bit smaller as the so called 1:32 scaled Schleich, but what is that brand today...

It looks awesome thanks for posting.

WILLYBACOMAN wrote:

Thanks for the extra very nice time scale Christophe!
Was i right about the different whale families, or did i mistake somewhere in between?
I try to remember everything i see and get before my eyes, but not everuthing sticks immediatly...

Thanks Ana, i think this orca is great, the scale seems to be a little bit smaller as the so called 1:32 scaled Schleich, but what is that brand today...

The ancestors of all the whales, toothed or bearded, are "antelopes" ancestors relatives, closed to hippopotamus ancestors.

The seal and sea lions (pinnipeds) ancestors are relatives to bear and dogs (and also marten ) ancestors

As far as I'm concerned, a smaller size is a good news for me and my so crowded shelves

Willy thank you for these pictures and comments!
Mojo the Orc to look nice!
thank you to the other forum members for explanations

Kikimalou wrote:

WILLYBACOMAN wrote:

Thanks for the extra very nice time scale Christophe!
Was i right about the different whale families, or did i mistake somewhere in between?
I try to remember everything i see and get before my eyes, but not everything sticks immediatly...

Thanks Ana, i think this orca is great, the scale seems to be a little bit smaller as the so called 1:32 scaled Schleich, but what is that brand today...

The ancestors of all the whales, toothed or bearded, are "antelopes" ancestors relatives, closed to hippopotamus ancestors.

The seal and sea lions (pinnipeds) ancestors are relatives to bear and dogs (and also marten ) ancestors

As far as I'm concerned, a smaller size is a good news for me and my so crowded shelves

I knew about the fact that, the hippo's are the most close relatives of the whales today, and that they are very aquatic is no news, but that they are called omnivores is quit new in these days(the hippo's).
That a part of these ancestors were part of the deer or antelope family was clar to for the baleine-whales.

Still today we call some species of the pinnipeds seadogs(the seals) here in the Netherlands, which seems logical after all...
It is time that they find some good evidence and fossils from the ancestors of both, that lived in between the two groups, although there are some there, but not clearly enough for me...

Thank you Luke, you are welcome!

It looks nice and accurate, at least the mouth is closed, so many figures have open mouths. I will have to wait and see what it is truly like in person!

Much more stunning and in a better and more beautiful elegant pose than the awful Schleich Orca. Well done.

The model is very nice, but I still prefer Papo orca, I even don't know why
However, I'll consider both of them before I buy one :)

a very well made orka,,i like it

Thanks for the pictures Willy!!! The orca looks great!!!!

It looks very good, Schleich's orcas are terrible, completely wrong. Papo's one is ok, however it's missing the saddle, the blowhole is just a hole, no shape, the head is too small, the mouth and head should be bigger. The tail is a little large, but in general it's good!

Ok guys, the orca seems to be good in your eyes in general, so good news.
I like it very much myself, and that is not strange when your name is Willy...

WILLYBACOMAN wrote:

Ok guys, the orca seems to be good in your eyes in general, so good news.
I like it very much myself, and that is not strange when your name is Willy...

WILLYBACOMAN wrote:

Ok guys, the orca seems to be good in your eyes in general, so good news.
I like it very much myself, and that is not strange when your name is Willy...

I forget to say I like very much that orca and he will find a place with my PAPO orca which I already called Willy So maybe this one will be called BACO

WILLYBACOMAN wrote:

The problem with this species is, and with many other marine-species, the don't have real bounderies, so they could interbreed actually...
They could literally swim around the world if they wanted to...
But in fact they don't seem to do that, so subspecies develope, and at the end real different species.
I am pretty sure these subspecies of orca's could interbreed.
As is known today that all of the pods(orca-families) all have their own dialect, and a lot of them have their own way of hunting down prey, and type of prey anyway, they would go into real species in a matter of time anyway.
I am not a scientist, but i still believe that they are still closely related, and they would recognize eachother as the same species.
A thing what keeps my mind busy, is the fact that the male offsprping in an orca-family stays to the pod(family), so mostly the oldest son is the only male animal in the pod, and so is the father of all of the offspring, so he interbreeds with his mother to, which seems strange...
But i know from my tropical fish that interbreeding is not always bad, and seems to be happening a lot more then we might think...
For example, in gorilla families the females wander off, in case of the orca's to as it seems...
In other species, both sexes wander off, and in other species the males wonder off, like in lions...
There are many variations in this...

Yes, the subspecies or types could interbreed, there is no doubt about that. What makes Orcas unique is that they DON'T interbreed. Types are similar to races in humans.

BUT - male Orcas rarely mate with their mothers - only in extreme circumstances. Inbreeding in mammals is highly deliterious to a species' survival if it is practices regularly. As a matter of fact, in mammals, complete sterility occurs within a maximum of about 7 generations of inbreeding.

Orcas stay with their matrilines for their entire lives, and several matrilines or more make up a pod. Although matrilines may spend weeks or months separated from the pod, individual orcas of both sexes leave their respective matrilines for hours at a time to feed and mate with Orcas from other matrilines within the pod. Essentially, it is similar to humans in that a matriline is a family and a pod is like a village or tribe - it's a community made up of several families. Occasionally, Orcas come together to form superpods, in which pods come together and interact, and one of those interactions happens to be mating. So that strengthens gene flow and also helps prevent inbreeding.

The Mojo model looks good! I wish the eye patch were up further so as to not be so close to the pectroal fins. I hate that. Most orcas do not have their white eye patch so close to the pectoral fins, but rather high enough on the body that when they surface to breath the top 1/3 to 1/2 of the eye patch is visiable above the surface of the water.



for some reason, a lot of figures have the white eye patches waaay too close to the pectoral fins, which is not usually the case in reality



See?
But overall, very good looking model.

Thanks Willy for posting! I know someone that suggested you to post the orca exactly because you are Willy!
The topic is really interesting and it shows that to make an orca is not easy! :)
I love the figure, it looks absolutly great but I agree with sphyrna18 about the detail. I saw the several types of orca and none of them fits perfectly in that point. But it is a little detail and maybe I'm not exagerating thinking that it is the best or one of the best orcas in the market! I need to see it in real! I agree that the Schleich have lots of flaws even it is made in Portugal and that the Papo is great! Anyway the Papo have also some flaws and is almost twice the price that the Mojo will be, I guess! :)