Request - Oryx Colouration Help

Hey guys!

I've been really mulling over your comments on the Oryx model and I think that you guys are right we have missed the mark on the paint style of the Oryx and after seeing all your valid comments its clear to me now that the paint style has to change. And as the collective knowledge of the animal kingdom in this community is really incredible I would like to call on you guys for some help, any suggestions, pointers, information you have that will help us in correcting the style of this oryx then please let them be known here. The Oryx is such a culturally important animal that we want to make sure we get it right for release. Any help you can give will be very much appreciated.

Let the constructive criticism flow!

(images attached for your reference)

Hi Chris, I am not a mammologist but the impression I get chatting with others is that it has the head coloration of an Arabian oryx but the leg colors of a gemsbok. Looks like one or the other would have to change, depending on what you want the final species to be.

I want to thank you for trusting such task in our community and that is also one of the reasons why Mojö Fun is really a special company. Asking collector's feedback is a very important aspect to make a brand grow up.
I believe the only valid constructive criticism we could give is about the colors once the sculpt is finished and unchangeable.
Considering the species to be released is the Arabian oryx, also known as white oryx, it is important to give to it a pattern typical to the species. I believe the main problem is the coloration of the legs. While other oryx species show patches of dark and light colors, the Arabian oryx have the dark on legs extending almost the total length of the legs.
Pictures with good light are needed to check where these the dark markings of the animal are brown or black. Many pictures from different angles can see on Arkive website. :)
The flank strip is also often narrower or almost absent in some specimens being the lower parts brownish. I hope other friends could illustrate it better than I do.

Thank you Chris /Mojo Fun for this topic..my first reaction, I was extremely happy and then a niggling doubt about the colouration ..it looked halfway a gemsbok..this is an iconic animal in the Middle east and from being extinct in the wild it has come back after a hard fought conservation project..the stripe across the lower part of the body is not so prominent in most of them it is much lower or a thin stripe. The legs too need to be either pale brown halfway or entirely dark like boots .. your artists got to nail it as this is really a fantastic species in your 2019 collection!! The rest of the body paint needs to be very very pale ..lighter than the present color given..warm greetings to the mojo fun team..great job on the Nile Croc for 2019 ..this Arabian Oryx is still the classic for the 2019 lineup so far !!

Sent from Topic'it App

Thank you for the responses so far guys, I'm taking plenty of notes for our artists so keep the feedback coming!

Hello Chris!

Thank you for this topic, I love the fact that you are reaching out to us collectors and are willing to listen to our tips!
The notes mentioned above are great!
I have one note myself, the horns need to be dark, almost black color :)

Hello Chris, my wish would be a special colouration for a very special Oryx like Galla Oryx, or Angolan or Kalahari >Gemsbok :)

The body and horn shape are more like a Gemsbok/East African Oryxes ,so think should go with one of these.Other companies have already made a Gemsbok so I would recommend an East African Oryx.

I also want to thank you Chris, for the way you and Mojo team shows this kind of atention to collectors.
These kind of gesture deserve a big respect
I love your style !
I think, that all suggestions from the previous post are correct and helpful...and I agree with all of them.
I want to add just this :  If you give the task to your artists, to make this model still an Arabian oryx, with changing the colors, and markings , ... it will be more work for them.
If you decide, to change the name of this model, from Arabian Oryx , to Gemsbok, then the work will be far less, with only changing the markings on the face ...  
It depends on what Mojo team would like to do..
Of course, the collectors will preffer a rare model as it is the Arabian Oryx.
But maybe Mojo can give to the collectors a Gemsbok for 2019 ... and also an Arabian Oryx with different sculprure, for one of next years ..
I think in both variants, we collectors, will be happy :)

One last thing, if I can use this topic .. I want to point also something for other model, which is already on the market..
And this is the King Cobra.
I was so happy about this model, I have it and I really like the sculpt of it.
But the situation of the painting , is very similar like this for the Oryx - Gemsbok.
On the front, it is painted like King Cobra, but on the back it has the markings of an Indian Cobra ... which is also very confusing :)

The constructive criticism of my forum friends will help to perfect this model.

But it is necessary to say, many animals in our collections have small imperfect.

This oryx, with the current painting, is marvellous,

and I would like to have one in my collection.

Thank you again for all your comments guys and thank you also to the moderators for stickying the thread!

I am keeping them all on file and will leave be passing them onto the artists next week, so I will keep monitoring this thread over the weekend for any more comments.

All of your help is very much appreciated and should definitely help us in releasing a better model.

Have a nice weekend everyone, I look forward to seeing any more comments that come through!

Hello, I apologise in advance for this long post, I’ve been dreaming my whole life to work in a figurine company and be part of the decision making process for wild animals, so this might be my only chance! LOL (I wasn’t part of the forum on the previous occasions this community has been called to help)

I am in no way an expert on Oryx’s anatomy, so all these comments are simple observations that I was able to see while I was researching on Google. Hopefully you will find some bits helpful…

First I’d like to agree with all of the comments above, which are all correct, however I have a few things to add..

The tail, whose only lower half is painted, seems to be accurate for the Arabian Oryx. The absence of the dark strip along the spine on the current model seems also right, even if it looks like on some specimens, a slightly faded strip on the top of the neck (up to the clavicles) is present, but not all of them.

The face as it is, is more accurate for an Arabian Oryx, but if the patch on the nose were a little shorter, in other words didn’t stop so close to the nostrils, the distinction between the two species would be clearer. The nostrils could also use a darker paint, and adding a patch of black in the continuation of the nostrils to the upper lip would be a nice detail to add as well.
I also have noticed that on Arabian oryx, and your model, the marking on their eyes do not connect to the central marking (which it does on Gemsbok), however there is a marking on the cheek/jaw, that connects under the eye, and seems to be going through under the face as well. There was something slightly off in the face, and I believe it is because the marking on the eye is lonely... This sometimes leads to having a thin faded strip on the underside of the neck on some specimens and sometimes not. On the other hand the throat of a Gemsbok seems to always have a thick dark line connecting the chin to the legs.
And this brings me to the legs, which as many people have said, are currently those of a Gemsbok. As it has been also been correctly pointed out, making the legs uniformly brown would solve the issue, but I would like to make note of two small details which seem important to me and are a constant through all the pictures I have seen. The first one is that between each brown leg and each black/grey hoof there is a small white white patch, like a sock. The second is that even when the dark strip along the throat is absent, the two front legs always seem to be connected by a brown patch on what I suppose you would call the top of the chest? In other words the brown of the front legs don’t seem to stop where you have it now, but continue under the animal between the front legs (I’m not sure this makes sense, see pictures for reference).

The last few points I noticed have all been mentioned before, but the horns should be slightly darker, and the side strips are also sometimes inexistent or much thinner and lower on the belly than what you currently have.
The overall colour could use a little bit of rework I believe as well. The existing markings on the face, although correct in their shape, look really black on the photos, and if you could make it with more of a brown hue/tint I think it would be more appropriate for an Arabian Oryx (again this might just be the photos). The main coat as you have it looks closer to the one of a Gemsbok, grey with almost a beige tint, whereas Arabian Oryx have a more uniform white coat all around their bodies, that fades to brown around the legs and crest if you decide to make one. If you manage to achieve the the fade between the legs and the main body, your model will have a clear edge over the existing Arabian Oryx model on the market! *winkwink*
If you decide however to go for the more common Gemsbok, the face needs to change with bigger patches that connect all around the mouth, a dark strip all along the spine to the the tail that should be all black and down the throat as well. The main coat should be darker too.

Finally, I believe everyone will have their own preference as to which species should be represented, and my personal opinion will likely have no effect on your decision, but as a collector, (as has been foreseen by other people) is that you keep this figure an Arabian oryx, for the simple reason that they are less common on the market, and I would love for mine to have a friend (only 1 existing from a major brand as of now, vs at least 3 or 4 gemsbok models from major companies). Its unique History of extinction and reintroduction makes it a really unique animal too, which I believe needs more representation, and the extra work for the artists will be well worth it!

Okay I think I’m done, sorry about all the tiny annoying details, I am convinced you guys will do a great job with this figure no matter where you decide to go with it, and I can’t wait to get mine! :)

Marc


PS: here are some of the photos I’ve used to observe differences between the two species. There are more, but hopefully you can relate all my points to these photos. If an aspect is not clear in the photos, a simple google research is where I found all of these photos.

GEMSBOK:


https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-arabian-oryx-gemsbok-grazes-serengeti-image50104305

ARABIAN ORYX:
https://www.zoochat.com/community/media/oryx-leucoryx-arabian-oryx.221836/

https://fossilrim.org/animals/arabian-oryx/

https://www.marwell.org.uk/zoo/explore/animals/82/arabian-oryx

howaboutthiqusername wrote:

Hello, I apologise in advance for this long post, I’ve been dreaming my whole life to work in a figurine company and be part of the decision making process for wild animals, so this might be my only chance! LOL (I wasn’t part of the forum on the previous occasions this community has been called to help)

I am in no way an expert on Oryx’s anatomy, so all these comments are simple observations that I was able to see while I was researching on Google. Hopefully you will find some bits helpful…

First I’d like to agree with all of the comments above, which are all correct, however I have a few things to add..

The tail, whose only lower half is painted, seems to be accurate for the Arabian Oryx. The absence of the dark strip along the spine on the current model seems also right, even if it looks like on some specimens, a slightly faded strip on the top of the neck (up to the clavicles) is present, but not all of them.

The face as it is, is more accurate for an Arabian Oryx, but if the patch on the nose were a little shorter, in other words didn’t stop so close to the nostrils, the distinction between the two species would be clearer. The nostrils could also use a darker paint, and adding a patch of black in the continuation of the nostrils to the upper lip would be a nice detail to add as well.
I also have noticed that on Arabian oryx, and your model, the marking on their eyes do not connect to the central marking (which it does on Gemsbok), however there is a marking on the cheek/jaw, that connects under the eye, and seems to be going through under the face as well. There was something slightly off in the face, and I believe it is because the marking on the eye is lonely... This sometimes leads to having a thin faded strip on the underside of the neck on some specimens and sometimes not. On the other hand the throat of a Gemsbok seems to always have a thick dark line connecting the chin to the legs.
And this brings me to the legs, which as many people have said, are currently those of a Gemsbok. As it has been also been correctly pointed out, making the legs uniformly brown would solve the issue, but I would like to make note of two small details which seem important to me and are a constant through all the pictures I have seen. The first one is that between each brown leg and each black/grey hoof there is a small white white patch, like a sock. The second is that even when the dark strip along the throat is absent, the two front legs always seem to be connected by a brown patch on what I suppose you would call the top of the chest? In other words the brown of the front legs don’t seem to stop where you have it now, but continue under the animal between the front legs (I’m not sure this makes sense, see pictures for reference).

The last few points I noticed have all been mentioned before, but the horns should be slightly darker, and the side strips are also sometimes inexistent or much thinner and lower on the belly than what you currently have.
The overall colour could use a little bit of rework I believe as well.  The existing markings on the face, although correct in their shape, look really black on the photos, and if you could make it with more of a brown hue/tint I think it would be more appropriate for an Arabian Oryx (again this might just be the photos). The main coat as you have it looks closer to the one of a Gemsbok, grey with almost a beige tint, whereas Arabian Oryx have a more uniform white coat all around their bodies, that fades to brown around the legs and crest if you decide to make one. If you manage to achieve the the fade between the legs and the main body, your model will have a clear edge over the existing Arabian Oryx model on the market! *winkwink*
If you decide however to go for the more common Gemsbok, the face needs to change with bigger patches that connect all around the mouth, a dark strip all along the spine to the the tail that should be all black and down the throat as well. The main coat should be darker too.

Finally, I believe everyone will have their own preference as to which species should be represented, and my personal opinion will likely have no effect on your decision, but as a collector, (as has been foreseen by other people) is that you keep this figure an Arabian oryx, for the simple reason that they are less common on the market, and I would love for mine to have a friend (only 1 existing from a major brand as of now, vs at least 3 or 4 gemsbok models from major companies). Its unique History of extinction and reintroduction makes it a really unique animal too, which I believe needs more representation, and the extra work for the artists will be well worth it!

Okay I think I’m done, sorry about all the tiny annoying details, I am convinced you guys will do a great job with this figure no matter where you decide to go with it, and I can’t wait to get mine! :)

Marc


PS: here are some of the photos I’ve used to observe differences between the two species. There are more, but hopefully you can relate all my points to these photos. If an aspect is not clear in the photos, a simple google research is where I found all of these photos.

GEMSBOK:


https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-arabian-oryx-gemsbok-grazes-serengeti-image50104305

ARABIAN ORYX:
https://www.zoochat.com/community/media/oryx-leucoryx-arabian-oryx.221836/

https://fossilrim.org/animals/arabian-oryx/

https://www.marwell.org.uk/zoo/explore/animals/82/arabian-oryx

Welcome here :)

Hello Everyone!

Thank you for all of your comments, I really cant tell you how much we appreciate the feedback you've given us.
We have made some adjustments to the model paint style please see below and let me know what you think. :)

Wow, I think this is great improvement!

I absolutely agree, an big improvment!

Great work ..
Chris it's almost done.. the white is now more visible !! The iconic horns are fine , and the legs paint too, the body white has to reflect a little bit more ... These blokes are white ! When I travel to Oman next year I hope I find this figure in the stores there ..I will visit the Arabian Oryx santuary as well !!

Sent from Topic'it App

Ohmygoodness it is beautiful!! Big improvement, absolutely great work!

I think the same, a big improvment! I like it!

Good work, thanks, Mojo!

It is wonderful that you followed our suggestions and there's no doubts we are talking now about an Arabian oryx. It is much better, undoubtfully, the base color could be lighter and the flank strip less conspicuous but now those are details that may vary from ones personal taste. We are all very glad we could be of help.

Much better model now and congrats on the revamp!!!!!

What a good improvement! Now it looks realistic :) Congrats