#metamals

[taz-metamals]

This weekend I completed Harold, the bulbulgoose.

Described in Steeplechase Ep 34 as “sort of a weaselly type creature with wings on its back. And this is a bulbul goose”, with the additional clarification of “a bulbul is a songbird that is called a bulbul, and a mongoose is a mongoose. And it is a hybrid of a mongoose and a bulbul.”

The references I used were a banded mongoose and a redwhiskered bulbul.

[taz-metamals]

Here he is. Orwell the armored gorilladactyl in all his glory. He has three pieces of armor, made of prints from other metamals. The chest plate comes from a crocodile, the right bracer from a hyena, and the left from a tiger.

I tried to give him a rhinoceros head helmet, but it just looked like a cute animal hat so I decided to go without.

I debated attaching the wings to his arms, but decided against it because of the scene in episode 35 where Orwell rescues the gang from their cage when the barristers show up. He carries them in his arms while also flying. I just can’t see how he could do that if his wings were attached to his arms. So instead, Orwell’s pterodactyl wings came with the arms they were already attached to.

Anyway. He took a really long time, and gave me some trouble, but I’m really proud of how he turned out

[taz-metamals]

Welcome to my TAZ sideblog! I’m working on drawing all the Steeplechase Metamals, and the purpose of this post is to organize and keep track of them.

Here are the Metamals in the order they were first introduced:

- Charles the Giraffesaurus rex

- Chihuahuowls

- Orwell the Armored Gorilladactyl

- Emperor Pumas (one is named Greg)

- Harold the Bulbulgoose

- Clarence the Beaver-eel

- Spider-spider monkey-monkeys

- Skunk-frogs

- Llama-sheep

- Yak-eagles

- Aardvark-coyotes

- Tiger-moles

- Pangolin-falcon

- Lance and Camille the Monkangaroos

- Turtle-lions

- Claude the Jagpanda

- Squieetahs

[taz-metamals]

Here we have the aquatic chihuahuowls. Now, chihuahua + owl is incredibly vague, at least, to a biology nerd like myself it is. So I decided to find the owl that is the most aquatic. I based these guys on the Blakiston’s fish owl (Ketupa blakistoni), one of the largest living owl species (though the term large is complicated to determine because it can refer to things like height, weight, mass, or all combined.). It’s a little unclear if they are the most aquatic, but they hunt lots of fish and wade through rivers. Now, the Jungle Island creators probably didn’t base their owl animatronics on an owl I, an animal enthusiast had not yet heard of, and they probably went with something more well known like a Great Horned owl (which is in the same family), or a barn owl, or maybe a snowy owl. But when Justin leaves the door wide open for interpretation, my instinct is always going be to go for as “scientifically accurate” as possible. Yes. These are a. animatronics, and b. hybrids, so it absolutely should not matter, but the biology brain doesn’t turn off and I’m having fun.

[taz-metamals]

I was planning to draw the metamals in the order they were introduced, but I love Claude and would die for him so here he is