Kaiju Minis: Round 2

Behold! Another installment of the art trade between me and , 12 more adorably miniature kaiju! With generous descriptions and reference links provided for each.

#1 - Eleking, from "Ultra Seven" Episode 3 "The Secret of the Lake"

Don't let his glowing grin lower your guard...the consequences could be shocking.

The bizarre slug / eel-like pet of the female Pitt Aliens, who true to his name, is a water dwelling monster that can generate massive amounts of electricity against his opponents, along with an extremely long tail that wraps around them with 'Boa Constricting' strength. Eleking tackled the title hero's own pet monster, the buffalo-looking Mikulas, before taking on, and ultimately getting beheaded, by Ultra Seven himself.

Eleking would return in a number of other series within the Ultraman franchise, and more recently as a recurring good guy; first off in "Ultraman Mebius" (2006-2007), as the miniature baby Rimu-Eleking, then later as a fully adult hero monster in "Ultra Galaxy: Mega-Monster Battles" (2007-2009).

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#2 - Guilala, from "The X from Outer Space" (1967)

A tiny Martian spore hitches a ride back to Earth on an exploratory space vessel. Once on Earth, the spore mutates and grows into a gigantic, energy eating, chicken-headed destroyer, who goes on a berserk rampage across Japan until he is reverted back to his original state, by some 'in-movie' super science device. Still, this makes more sense than the computer virus defeating the aliens in Independence Day.

Guilala is without a doubt one of the weirdest movie monsters ever made (Japan or otherwise), but despite his wacky, almost adorable look, he is a surprisingly destructive and unstoppable villain beast. Guilala returned in the 2008 comedy sequel "Monster X Strikes Back - Attack The G8 Summit", as well as making an even more unexpected appearance in an American commercial for The Ladders search sites.

I tried to imagine what creatures would emerge if the reverse happened (an Earth spore ends up on another planet via spacecraft), but all I got were planets covered in gray-green fuzz.

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#3 - The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, from "Ghostbusters" (1984)

And now for a locally-grown giant monster, and possibly a testament to America's obsession with sugary foods.

One of many monstrous forms taken by the inter-dimensional evil dubbed Gozer the Destructor, spawned from the childhood memories of an otherwise innocent Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), in order to destroy the Earth in a fitting (if not ironic) visage.

In the animated spin-off series, "The Real Ghostbusters", 'Mister Stay Puft' was heavily altered character-wise from his movie counterpart; becoming his own benevolent individual, as well as one of the few supernatural allies of the Ghostbusters. Especially when dealing with other giant-sized specters, such as the possessed parade balloon Murray the Mantis, and the heat-producing manta ray-like Phantom.

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#4 - The Wizard of Rock (read description for origin)

He may look more statue than sorceror, but his powers shouldn't be taken for granite.

Original character by whose name pretty much says it all - a giant wizard made of stone and crystal. His great power is only hampered by his limited speech, as most spell casting involves incantations - something of great annoyance for this would-be conqueror.

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#5 - Gomora, from "Ultraman" (1966-1967)

This is one mole you would not want to find in your backyard garden!

Although he started off as a fearsome but sympathetic threat against the alien superhero Ultraman, Gomora, the burrowing dino-monster, has since become a full-fledged hero in the series "Ultra Galaxy: Mega-Monster Battles" (2007-2009). Gomora has alongside humans, Ultra-Beings, and fellow good-guy kaiju alike against several villainous forces, most notably the evil alien warrior ghost of Reiblood Alien.

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#6 - Orga, from "Godzilla 2000" (1999)

Its appearance and quest for DNA are rather Zerg-like. I wouldn't be too surprised if I saw it open a Thor like a plastic-wrapped sandwich and eat Zealots and Marines as hors d'oevures.

Orga made its debut in the first of the so-called Millennium-era of the Godzilla film series (1999-2004), which was an attempt to cleanse the pallet from the disappointing American Godzilla of 1998. And since we've already done Godzilla 2000 himself for Round 1 ([link]), it was only fitting we miniaturized his extraterrestrial challenger from this same film as well!

The ancient, surviving consciousness of the Millennium Alien, trapped within its still functioning spaceship, seeks out Godzilla's unique DNA, in order to reconstruct its original body. But tragically, the Millennium Alien's plan backfires, as Godzilla's regenerative cells overwhelms the being, and the mutates it into the hulking beast dubbed Orga. As a last ditch effort, Orga battles Godzilla and attempts to consume him outright, with equally disastrous results.

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#7 - Jet Jaguar, from "Godzilla vs Megalon" (1973)

I suppose this is what would happen if a RoboGames veteran won the lottery.

Built by the inventor Goro Ibuki, Jet Jaguar is a home-made robot superhero who has an independent electronic mind and the ability to grow giant when the need arises. Jet Jaguar partnered up with Godzilla in order to battle against the insectoid Megalon and the alien cyborg Gigan.

If that sounded ludicrous even by Godzilla's standards, it should, since Jet Jaguar was purposely created to ride upon the wave of live-action superhero shows and giant robot anime that bombarded Japanese television in the 1970's. And although Jet Jaguar has yet to resurface in another Godzilla movie, he has become a cult figure amongst fans, appearing in spin-off media, such as video games and the obscure late 1990's television show "Godzilla Island".

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#8 - Dora Knight, AKA The Knasty Knight, from "Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger" (1992-1993) and "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" (1993-1995)

This knight moves for no man. None shall pass!

The monsters-of-the-week in the Super Sentai series "Zyuranger" were called Dora Monsters - elaborate Golem-type beings based on characters from folklore, mythology, and sometimes even classical literature, such as "Frankenstein" and "Journey To the West".

Dora Knight was a powerful combatant based on the Black Knight archetype of fairy tales, possessing great skill with a sword and the magical ability to reflect an opponent's energy back at them during battle, and effectively damaging their weapons in the process.

Dora Knight was used again in the first season of "Power Rangers", with the rather silly, if not outright questionable, name of The Knasty Knight; thankfully even the campy, early 1990's nature of the American series couldn't put a damper on the evil knight's awesome design and overall coolness factor.

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#9 - Goddess of the Blue Snake Cult (read description for origin)

In Soviet Russia, snake charms you!

Another original character by , she's an ancient Naga who has created a niche for herself as the false goddess of a mid-American country cult. Although dangerous, shallow and selfish, The Goddess of the Blue Snake Cult is more of a humorous villain than a downright evil one.

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#10 - Gamera, from "Gamera the Giant Monster" (1965)

Gamera's massive rocket shell could be useful in MarioKart, except it would squash you as well as the other racers and set fire to the entire track. Plus, its weight would probably shatter Rainbow Road.

Created to by rival studio Daiei to steal some of Toho's thunder from the Godzilla franchise, Gamera has nontheless become a pop culture favorite on his own, with twelve movies under his belt (shell?) between 1965-2005, and his own rouge gallery of kaiju villains, many of which as fantastical as he is, design and ability wise.

The version I've done is the original 'Showa-era' (1965-1981) version of the fire-breathing turtle, who started off as a destructive entity but quickly grew into a hero monster, a protector of children and the world at large.

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#11 - Pantheon God Sphinx, AKA Itassis, from "Mahou Sentai Magiranger" (2005-2006) and "Power Rangers Mystic Force" (2006)

Her alignment might be best described as, "Lawful evil to the point of being lawful good".

"Magiranger" was heavily inspired by more recent magic-based fantasy film series like "Harry Potter" and "The Chronicles of Narnia", hence almost all the villains being based on mythological monsters.

Sphinx is a member of the ten giants collectively known as the Pantheon Gods, who serve the evil Lovecraftean overlord N.Ma - ruler of the magical underworld of Infershia. Despite being a being of darkness and black magic, Sphinx was ultimately a wise sage and good guy, who soon realized that N.Ma was more harm than good for the citizens of Infershia. She later joined forces the title heroes, the Ozu Family of sorcerers, to rebel against N.Ma and free both of their worlds from his terrible grip. Unfortunately, this meant that Sphinx had to go against and eventually kill Dagon, the fish-headed leader of the Pantheon Gods and her oldest friend, due to Dagon's absolute and almost fanatical loyalty to N.Ma.

After N.Ma's destruction, Pantheon God Sphinx became the queen of the newly reformed Infershia, and remained close friends with the Ozu Family. Sphinx was renamed Itassis of the Ten Terrors in the American remake "Power Rangers Mystic Force", and her character arc remains more or less the same, minus the royal upgrade at the end.

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#12 - The Kraken, from "Clash of the Titans" (1981)

Some say he's the inspiration for Cthulhu, and he is often mistaken for a giant octopus or squid. All we know is, he's called The Kraken.

Contrary to popular belief, the Kraken from "Clash of the Titans" (1981) is a purely cinematic creation and does not appear in the original Greek myths, from which the film was inspired. The original tales had a sea serpent / dragon named Cetus, but stop-motion effects master Ray Harryhausen had done similar monsters before, and so replaced the relatively mundane Cetus with his own, more imaginative creation.

Referred to as the last survivor of the terrifying Titans, the aquatic Kraken was kept under lock and key, released on rare occasion by the Gods to exact retribution on defiant mortals and their sea-side cities. Princess Andromeda was to be sacrificed to the Kraken for the crimes committed by her mother, but the hero Perseus and his winged horse Pegasus manage to save the princess. They then destroyed the Kraken with the petrifying gaze of Medusa the Gorgon's severed head, creating what some might call the most epic statue since the Colossus of Rhodes.

A newer version of the Kraken appeared in the 2010 remake, but amazingly this supposedly improved Kraken greatly lacked the screen presence and overall looming threat of the original stop-motion monster. In fact, Enshohma and I have often joked that the 2010 Kraken is the big-budgeted CGI equivalent of a briefly used hand puppet! Thus the little sight gag you see above.

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