Showing posts with label Aliens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Aliens. Show all posts

Monday, September 23, 2024

Big Drawer

Big Drawer (Super Giant Heavy Industrial Machine) - Dekaranger, EP 18 "Samurai Go West" Japan 6/13/2004

Marato (The Robot God) - Power Rangers SPD, EP 18 "Samurai" US 6/11/2005

*********

The kaiju gimmick for 2004's Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger were the Heavy Industrial Machines: giant battle robots piloted by the show's various alien criminals in place of the usual method of growing Godzilla-size themselves, minus a handful of exceptions. The Heavy Industrial Machines were often distributed by Agent Abrella, a bat-like Rainian arms merchant and the closest thing to a main overarching villain within Dekaranger.



One of the more unique and clunkier robots was Big Drawer, a bigger-than-average Heavy Industrial Machine that could teleport away structures and people with a blue-green light ray, housing the captured inside energy spheres and further placed within its many drawers for safe imprisonment. Big Drawer was also armed with multiple flare-like missiles from the center drawer located in its center.

The pilot of Big Drawer was a blue-colored Batsuroid, one of the many middle-grade robot foot soldiers also sold by Agent Abrella throughout the series' run.

There was a white and gold Big Drawer II who showed up in episode 44 but I couldn't find any good screen-captures of that model so we'll save him for a later date (maybe) though you can see it in the concept art alongside its predecessor.

Big Drawer was later adapted into Power Rangers SPD with an admittedly cooler sounding name of Marato, The Robot God though this title ended up being just salesman ballyhoo from Broodwing, the equally greedy American adaptation of Agent Abrella.









RELATED LINK: Power Rangers SPD - Samurai (official episode upload).

Thursday, March 9, 2023

Raijin God = Mecha-Daimajin?!


Raijin God - Sazer X EP 25 "A Recreated History" Japan 3/25/2006

Super Fleet Sazer-X (2005-2006) was a Toho production aping the Super Sentai and Metal Hero genres, though with a bigger emphasis on giant robot action whenever possible, likely due to Koichi Kawakita as the show's special effects director.

Raijin God (雷神ゴード) was the guardian deity of the descendants of the ancient Lighting Clan and was summoned by Lightning Shogun Thundera, the last living modern member of said clan (the cute alien gal in the tight blue pants), from the bottom of a lake.

The robotic giant was a fierce combatant, holding its own in a four-way battle with three other mecha opponents, until Thundera saw reason and sends God Raijin back into the lake, never to be seen again in the series, unfortunately.

As you can tell by God Raijin's appearance, choice of weaponry (The Divine Sword Godius神剣ゴーディウス ]), and overall iconography (the parting of the waves), he is a direct homage to Daimajin and his 1966 trilogy of fantasy films. If you're a fan of Daimajin, be happy to know God Raijin represents the demonic status of divine retribution quite well as, again, he was a real bruiser in the fight and could have won without a scratch had he not been returned to his aquatic sleep.


The character was played by television suit actor Shinya Iwasaki who mostly does work in the 2000s Ultraman franchise based on what I could find.

MORE IMAGES:




















Thursday, July 29, 2021

Kaiju Videos for July 29th 2021

Here's some intriguing kaiju and other giant monster-related videos to for me to share and for you all to enjoy. I will be keeping up this feature as-often-as-possible for the remainder of 2021.

Direct from Matt Draper:

A comprehensive look at The Millennium Era of Toho Godzilla, including a look at the history of Roland Emmerich's Godzilla '98, how Toho returned Godzilla ahead of schedule with Godzilla 2000, and the many reboots and evolutions found within The Millennium Era, covering 6 films made from 1999 through 2004. This is Part 3 of an ongoing Godzilla series.

Direct Link: https://youtu.be/8o-_VPDC4-8


Direct from MONSTROSITIES Tokusatsu Vlog:

A look at GODZILLA SINGULAR POINT's beautiful yet briefly seen version of Mothra.

Direct Link: https://youtu.be/NhyLpqHXBxs


In his latest video essay
"How Toei Changed Sunday Mornings", MercuryFalcon takes an extensive look at The Toei Fushigi Comedy Series: a loosely connected franchise of lighthearted fantasy adventures and mystery comedies that had major influences on the creation of SAILOR MOON and how it all came to an unlikely but satisfyingly end in a kaiju-filled crossover with the one and only ULTRAMAN.

Direct Link: https://youtu.be/PecckVgJvSE


Direct from Supervoid Cinema:

After Sam Riami's 'Spider-Man 4' never happened the character was rebooted with 'The Amazing Spider-Man'. There were ambitious plans for a whole slew of movies set in that universe. Drew Goddard was at one point time attached to write and direct a 'Sinister Six' movie for Sony, as part of 'The Amazing Spider-man' and when that fell apart he would be offered a potential 'The Spectacular Spider-Man' reboot (Which later became Spider-Man: Homecoming). Here's the story of why complete with dinosaurs and giant monsters attacking New York.

Direct Link: https://youtu.be/vS42hyhnMSc



Sunday, March 28, 2021

Mystery Science Theater 3000 vs. Gamera: Round 2

While we all eagerly await for Godzilla vs Kong this coming Wednesday, I would like to share something humorous and offbeat in a turtle shell to help ease your kaiju cravings if at all possible.

Back in 2019, me and my friends wrote, filmed, preformed, and produced a fan-made series entitled MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER VS GAMERA: ROUND II, featuring the two-of-three older era Gamera films that were never featured on the cult comedy series. Here's the very first entry featuring GAMERA vs. VIRAS (1968).

Here is the second episode, featuring GAMERA vs. JIGER (1970), my personal favorite of the two produced thus far.

In the wake of the 2020 pandemic, production for episode three centered around GAMERA: SUPER MONSTER (1981) has been slow-downed: the safety and well-being of the crew (my friends and I) is the absolute priority and, in the interest of social distancing, at this time we're unable to begin filming.

However pre-production has wrapped and we will continue as scheduled as soon as it is deemed safest for all to do so later in 2021. 

We're all putting this time to use, sets and costumes have been retrofitted, several new physical models and props are being constructed, and higher quality filming/lighting equipment has been invested in to make the presentation of our Super Monster fan-episode (and potentially future ones) much better.

Saturday, February 6, 2021

First Look at Pacific Rim: The Black

First full trailer for PACIFIC RIM: THE BLACK recently dropped and... It actually looks good for a CGI anime show! That or I'll take anything after Pacific Rim: Uprising but that's a totally different story.

The appearance of tangible human antagonist gives me pause for concern: like most anime series, it will begin with a fantastical otherworldly threat that will disappear several episodes in while a 'normal human' (cheaper to animate) one takes over as the main focus.

However, it would be cool to see equal amounts of human and non-human antagonists which this trailer also hints at with the smaller dog-like kaiju, a rogue hybrid Kaiju Yeager, and a strange mystery child.


Direct Text Link: https://youtu.be/umtOGzti-XQ

Thursday, January 28, 2021

First Look at Shin Ultraman

The teaser trailer for SHIN ULTRAMAN dropped earlier today: a co-production between Tsuburaya Productions, Toho Company and Khara inc. stated as a movie adaptation of the original Ultraman series as well as an indirect follow-up to Shin Godzilla on Toho, Shinji Higuchi, and Hideaki Anno's parts (Good!, Never make a Shin Godzilla II and fly free like the bearded angels that you are).

While its intriguing, the CGI is a little simple to state it lightly even if, apparently, that's the filmmakers' intent to echo the original Ultraman's unrealistic effects and fantastical fairy tale nature.

SHIN ULTRAMAN also has a way a better chance of widespread exposure here in American than more recent Ultraman content, hopefully with a similar theatrical roll out that Shin Godzilla received back in 2016.

Listen, I'm happy for the success Tsuburaya Productions have found through online streaming and the Mill Creek box sets but it's all still relatively quint by mainstream American standards.

There also the Marvel Comics' ULTRAMAN series but... That series is purely American in many regards and isn't really advertising its Japanese origins very well: the sheer number of major news outlets assuming that Ultraman is an original 2020 Marvel creation proves that. Plus, the Marvel Comics' story is rather lame (seriously? 5 issues to barely battle Bemular? Pointless even by slow burn story logic).


Direct Text Link: https://youtu.be/AnYP1yzSe5E

Sunday, July 5, 2020

Zelmkethou, The Living Threshold

Time for old kooky Enshohma to once again share his original creations with you.


Zelmkethou, The Living Threshold

NAME: Zelmkethou (pronounced Zelm-Keth-Thoo)
SUBTITLE: The Living Threshold
ALTERNATE NAMES: The Abyssal God; Great Zelmkethou
SPECIES: Extradimensional

GENDER: Nonsexual (completely lacking any form of gender in a true evolutionary sense - extremely difficult for most humans to comprehend)

LENGTH: 299 meters (roughly 980 feet)
WEIGHT: 100,000 metric tons (estimated)
EYES: None

Zelmkethou is a gigantic sea dwelling monster who originated beyond our known universe and possesses a unique feature to its biology: housed within its orb-shaped shell lies a fully stable dimensional wormhole that reacts to the willing mental desires of anyone who enters it, hence making Zelmkethou a living gateway to anywhere within The Whole of Existence that anyone can wish to be transported to.

While this sounds like a living miracle, there are several key issues with this gateway, the first being that it's on the back of a giant monster and one that's particularly hostile towards anything outside of itself. Many attempts to reach Zelmkethou's shell via spaceship, submarine, and massive-sized robot have almost all but failed.

Secondly, smaller scale attempts such as single individuals simply swimming up to the beast is as dangerous for Zelmkethou is ignorant if not unresponsive to anything too small for its notice and thus many have been accidentally killed by beast during such attempts.

Thirdly, The Zelmkethou Gateway, the orb-like shell itself, is a one-way trip as those who have made it to the portal have never returned. This is simply the nature of The Zelmkethou Gateway much like how most time travel methods are highly limited to one temporal direction. There have been evidence confirming the lucky few have survived after entering the dimensional orb but this has still led to widespread conspiracies across the universe theorizing that there is no portal and Zelmkethough is simply using a giant deception to lure in smaller-sized prey - The Zelmkethou Gateway being nothing more than a illusion-sporting digestive organ.

Finally, the fourth reason why it's nearly impossible to reach The Zelmkethou Gateway... No one agrees what planet the great monster resides upon or within. It's fully agreed that Zelmkethou lives in a water-heavy environment to support its great weight but the exact identity of said world's been lost over time.

The gorgeous water world of Jumo-Umo, the dying oily seas of Ranagader Ex-Prime, the vapory gas giant of Vinhea, the weather chaotic world of Barley Open, the silver seas of Dahmeia Third, the water-ammonia oceans of Neptune, and the briny seas of Earth, all have been believed in being the home-world of Zelmkethou but no positive identification been made on the matter.

The Great Zelmkethou is a living miracle, a colossal hazard, and a frustrating mystery all wrapped up into one gigantic monstrous package.

ENSHOHMA'S COMMENTS:

Despite my love for the works of cosmic horror author H.P. Lovecraft and his various contemporaries, I have an admittedly tertiary knowledge of The Cthuhlu Mythos as a whole. Because of this, Zelmkethou is something of a repurposed blunder since its design started out as my misinformed (and misnamed) rendition on the titular monster from The Dweller in The Gulf, a 1932 short story written by Clark Ashton Smith.


I didn't even get The Dweller In The Gulf's name right!

Also known as The Eidolon of the Blind, The Dweller is is an ancient, possibly immortal subterranean creature that dwells deep within the planet Aihai (known to us humans as Mars). It is served and worshiped by a cult of Martians who have been captured and blinded by the beast as its equipped with two proboscises for the extraction of eyes (how charming, Clark).

While The Dweller in the Gulf resembled a tortoise, albeit one of gargantuan proportions, its more alien or at least chimeric in overall form and, despite its connections to The Cthuhlu Mythos, is a relatively tangible animal instead of the reality warping cosmic entity I had originally imagined based on a scantly read character description.

When I returned to revisit this design and compared it to its source inspiration, I realized it wouldn't work as an adaptation of The Dweller in The Gulf and revised it as my own loosely inspired creature, hence Zelmkethou The Living Threshold.

My friend Jesse Alonso helped with the monster's name which is a play on the Czech phrase for globe, zeměkoule.

RELATED LINKS:

The Dweller in the Gulf at Monster Wiki:

https://monster.fandom.com/wiki/Dweller_in_the_Gulf

The Dweller in the Gulf at H.P. Lovecraft Wiki:

https://lovecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Dweller_in_the_Gulf

Monday, June 1, 2020

Buuu, The Telepathic Terror of Tiny Town

Buuu, an original character from yours truly

NAME: Buuu (pronounced 'Boo')

ALSO KNOWN AS: The Boyish Wonder; The Gray Guardian; The Telepathic Terror of Tiny Town

AGE: 19 (145 in Earth years)
SPECIES: Zetaculian (extraterrestrial)
GENDER: Female
BIRTHPLACE: Zeta-5500 (massive space colony)
HEIGHT: 2 ft, 5 inches
WEIGHT: Variable
EYES: Marble black with bright blue pupils
HAIR: Non... Like at all
SKIN: Purplish gray
KNOWN RELATIVES: Dood (father)

LIKES: Jake Tanaka, breakfast, animals, upbeat music, good friends, happy people, sunny days, slapstick comedies, telepathic flight, barbecues, horse riding, the great outdoors, wood carvings, camping, county fairs, barn raising, Jake's marijuana cookies, empathy, hiking, Baltimore, and benevolent clowns.

DISLIKES: Jack Hogson, urban decay, cloudy days, politicians, cages, insincere superheroes, government agents, Areas 51-56, inter-dimensional police officers, chocolate, Z-Men, bullies in general, mentally projected walls, shopping for clothes, apathy, hive minds, and evil clowns.


Fan art of Buuu by my friend Earth-Baragon

Buuu is a small telepathic alien of the Zetaculian variety who flies and floats around through her telekinetic abilities. Buuu is the fifth joining member of the struggling California-based super-villain organization G.L.U.E. though she didn't start out nefariously:

During her teenage years in Intergalactic Community Collage, Buuu stumbled upon an illegally imported copy of Action Comics #1 and, inspired by the tales of heroism found within, soon dropped out of her studies and headed for Earth in 1948 to become a superhero much to her father Dood's disapproval.

Unfortunately, her career as a superhero was far from ideal, starting out as a sidekick to the corporate-mascot-turned-crime-fighter Waffleman (secretly Bruce Mansly, the CEO of Mansly Bakery Goods Incorporated) and later, long after cutting ties with Waffleman, tried the hero game solo as The Gray Guardian of whom her current outfit was originally tailored made for though it was a single bright gray color back then.

Being a space alien, however, kept Buuu from enjoying any long-term success as an independent heroine as the governments of the world showed great contempt for all benevolent extraterrestrials - all this while truly malevolent otherworldly beings were treated far better, both out of hypocritical fear and for selfish ulterior motives on the humans' parts.


Buuu The Boyish Wonder, sidekick to Waffleman

In 1978, Buuu retired as a private citizen and moved to upstate California where she purchased some farm land and a woodland cabin. She quickly came to love the country life, making many local human friends along the way. Life was peaceful until 1986 when Buuu ran afoul of the newly formed super-villain organization known as The Global Lords United Endeavor, or simply G.L.U.E. for short.

G.L.U.E.'s founding leaders, The Head Representative and Queen Noleena The Oversexed, tried to illegally buyout California's government before Buuu put an end to their operation... Only to then have her heroic actions met with hostility as xenophobic US authorities arrested her right after, banishing Buuu to a military prison for five long months before breaking herself out via embarrassing means that are best not mentioned here.

With her superhero career seemingly in ruins, an abashed Buuu had no other choice but to become a super-villain and with the only evil society equally desperate enough to hire her also being the same one she had recently vanquished: G.L.U.E.

It wasn’t an ideal working relationship at first, especially with the more nefarious G.L.U.E. members constantly keeping a watchful murderous eye on her, but Buuu eventually proved herself by helping G.L.U.E. win many small victories against the clandestine governmental forces, often the same ones that caused Buuu to join the proverbial dark side in the first place.

What truly took the tiny alien aback during her first few months in G.L.U.E., however, was just how amazingly inept her partners-in-crime were, constantly endangering themselves when left to their own devices, vices, and corresponding stupidity.

Because of this, the G.L.U.E. members came to value Buuu’s positive presence serving as the group’s quasi-conscience, which has kept them from going overboard in their self-destructive villainy...At least most of the time as some of their own madness has long since rubbed off on poor Buuu.


From left-to-right: Slimeball, Buuu, and Jack Hogson

ADDITIONAL FACTS ABOUT BUUU:

*Buuu has a romantic longing and sexual lusting for her fellow G.L.U.E. teammate Jake ‘Orange Coat’ Tanaka, whose good mental vibes and handsome human looks makes him irresistible to the diminutive alien. Despite caring for her as a friend and coworker, Jake, unfortunately, finds Buuu disturbing looking and compares a possible relationship with her to  ‘trying to do it with a baby sea-lion or a spooky-looking Muppet’.

*Buuu’s actually quite adorable in an unnerving thin-bodied sort of way but she's also too self-conscious about her appearance when around regular Earthlings and is almost always seen wearing her large hat and cloak to hide said body. Another reason Buuu dons this get-up is because the limited alternatives are the baby and per-school children's wear sections at clothing stores - something she deeply loathes shopping for.

*Buuu's large hat holds an ember-like head jewel that heightens her Mind Bullets: a laser-like  percussion ability that's Buuu's main form of attack.

*While on Earth, Buuu has lived among friendly and good nature country folks that her extraterrestrial people would usually prey upon for suspicious scientific reasons. Because of which, Buuu considers herself a country girl at heart, living in a comfortable cabin in the woods far beyond city limits. This trait also explains Buuu’s love for westerns, farms, pony rides, county fairs, and pie-eating competitions.


Buuu at a county fair pie eating contest

*Buuu has come to befriend and form strong bonds with most of the members of G.L.U.E. with the two major exceptions being Jack Hogson, the violent and childish scientific officer, and Johnny Laser-Fin, the treasurer and sleazy cyborg business person, both of whom she openly states of being total jerks that radiate bad mental vibes all the time. Needless to say, hilarity ensues when Buuu is forcefully paired up with either of them if not both.

ENSHOHMA'S COMMENTS ON BUUU:


Well, DeviantART done gone and funk itself all sorts of messed up!

The art sharing web-site that I had once called home, my main online port of call, was bought out by the web-design company Wix and, like all new owners taking over established businesses, had to give everything their own face lift / urine soaked marking.

While I have seen far worse online, DeviantART's new design and interface still sucks, turning a once simple straight line of user friendliness into a vague maze of time-sucking confusion. I still plan to keep my DeviantART account but will also be using my other online outlets as coherent alternatives when sharing my artwork and original characters, with little Buuu here being the first of many.

I have a lot to say about Buuu's creation BUT I will save most of my thoughts for later this month through a second article and a series videos that also features little Buuu.

I will note, however, that Buuu’s based off the famous Grays of modern extraterrestrial lore though her pointy ears and a yellow-colored carapace covering her cranium (all hidden by her hat) was from older movie alien influences like “This Island Earth” and "Invasion of The Saucer Men".

Excerpt from Reader's Digest Mysteries of the Unexplained (1985)



Sunday, May 10, 2020

Two Schmucks Watch THE GREEN SLIME!!!

Here's a humorous video featuring me and BranzantFiLMS' live viewing / audio commentary of the 1968 American-Japanese co-production The Green Slime, staring a whole lot of B-list white people and a whole lot of green-colored monster suits operated by Japanese child extras (not all but most of them are).

The audio commentary here is unlisted hence why I'm sharing it through my blog here:


For a second opinion, here's Brandon Tenold's 20-minute-long review of the exact same film:


Friday, April 19, 2019

Good Bad Flicks vs The Giant Monsters!

There is an alarmingly massive amount movie reviewers and related retrospectives online with an even smaller number of which dedicated to some semblance of serious film appreciation beyond the mainstream weekly film review outlets. Than there are those bizarre yet wonderful movie lovers who balances both extremes but never abandoning the latter (analysis) over the former (funny business).

Among this rare breed is the always entertaining YouTube channel Good Bad Flicks, overseen by its uniquely named host Cecil Trachenburg.

Recently, Good Bad Flicks posted a sincere video asking for help to keep up their channel's quality so that they won't have to resort to desperate advertising measures as The Unfathomable Beast Dubbed YouTube continues to breath down their undeserving backs (excessive word usage is fun).

Seriously though, this channel could use all the love and support it can garner (here's the Patreon page) even if its just through shared awareness among your own friends online.



Since this is a blog primarily dedicated to overlooked giant monsters (something I've strangely gotten a lot of negative flack for from mainstream Godzilla fans), the following collection of videos feature such 'Fantastic Gigantics' in no particular order:

Baby: Secret of The Lost Legend Review

Island Claws Review

Grabbers Retrospective

Monsters Retrospective

Troll Hunter Retrospective

The Stuff Retrospective

Jurassic Park III Retrospective

Moontrap Review

Up From The Depths Review

The Crater Lake Monster Review

Arachnoquake Review

Peter Benchley's The Beast Review

Spiders Review

Robot Jox Review

Robot Wars Review

The Blob Review

The following films discussed by Good Bad Flicks do feature giant monsters in them, they're tertiary elements compared to the bulk of said stories but I wanted to share these Good Bad Flicks episodes regardless:

Spaced Invaders Review

Ghostbusters II Retrospective

In The Mouth of Madness Retrospective

The Guardian Retrospective

My Science Project Review

Killer Klowns from Outer Space Review

The Relic Retrospective

Rare Exports Retrospective

Mosquito Retrospective

Hulk Retrospective

Crash and Burn Review

Krull Review

Prophecy Review

The Guyver Review

Howard The Duck Review

Thursday, April 11, 2019

Cicada Human? More Like Cicada GIANT!

With the recent loss of www.cyberkids1954.com, an old Japanese site dedicated various fantasy film productions that were never made (including some extreme obscurities that would cause your common Godzilla fan's brains to melt and pour out from their ear-holes), I've decided to use Enshohma's Corner as a archival back-up for any and all giant monster obscurities that I may stumble upon... Even if some of my own knowledge on the featured materials are as limited as your typical Godzilla fan, I must sadly admit.

I'm no August Ragone but I freaking doing my best, okay?!?!

*Ahem*

Nothing major for this first attempt, just a little show and tell, showcasing an awesome illustration from the Japanese children's book "Original Reprint Edition: Ultra Q" (rough translation).

This illustration features a 'what if' scenario where the creatures Gorgos, Cicada Human, and M1 in mortal combat with each other.



What makes the artwork even more intriguing is the fact that both Cicada Human and M1 were small human-sized characters in the original "Ultra Q" series and have never achieved giant monster status even in their later return appearances.

So it's honestly cool to find this image and see both of them pumped up to Gorgos' level even if M1 (the ape-like fellow in the lower right corner) is still relatively puny, looking like he's barely 16-feet in height when compared to the fleeing humans on the opposite end.

As for the 'Giant Cicada Human'; I honestly have no idea what's up with that yellow scarf wrapped so stylishly around his neck. At first, I thought it was a direct reference to another insect-theme character from Japanese fiction, the iconic Kamen Rider, but that notion seemed doubtful as that grasshopper-inspired superhero was still five years away from "Ultra Q" original broadcast.




However, the book's title of "Original Reprint Edition: Ultra Q"  may suggest that the yellow-colored sight gag was both timely to Kamen Rider's 1971 debut and, as such, most deliberate.


All these book images were found on this Japanese web-site: https://kodansha-cc.co.jp/comic/ultraq/

Saturday, June 16, 2018

The Angry Red Video Omnibus

At first I was just going to share Brandon Tenold's latest review for THE ANGRY RED PLANET (1959) but, instead, let's do a whole line up of related videos.

Here's the original theatrical trailer for the film over-hyping the Cinemagic technique, courtesy of Scream Factory:


TEXT LINK: https://youtu.be/cBAJEczBaHY

Next, Brandon's humorous take on the film with title card art by yours truly. Wait for the twist ending:

TEXT LINK: https://youtu.be/QDK8PcuyzuY

Next up is the uncut voice-over I did for the previous video, poking fun at the otherwise ominous Martian warning from the film's end. The skit was also inspired by Brandon's numerous subscribers who keep requesting film reviews from him for good or ill. Big thanks to Brayton Conner for the video editing:


TEXT LINK: https://youtu.be/pw5EyNmcm5k

Now for some second opinions on the film, starting with Kaiju Movie Reviews:


TEXT LINK: https://youtu.be/lGkyFew3nTE

Here's The Retro Nerd Girl rather affectionate review for the movie:


TEXT LINK: https://youtu.be/iJpvZe-VXAg

Here's Gary and Iain of Off The Shelf Reviews share their thoughts on the film:


TEXT LINK: https://youtu.be/xLCmQxY3tCw

And, finally, a nearly hour-and-a-half podcast from Film Struck:


TEXT LINK: https://youtu.be/WHLCRok13fI

Sunday, January 7, 2018

Shout Outs: Doctor Who Reviews

Shout Outs is where I showcase works from other independent creators such as artists I know from DeviantART or producers from YouTube. Expect a lot of these throughout 2018 because I cannot vouch for the availability of my own original works around here anymore.

Today, we have Richard D. Carrier's fantastic series of fan-made documentaries looking back at the history of the long-running Doctor Who franchise.

Unlike the simple v-logs found on the subject, Richard's videos are on par with the special features from official Doctor Who releases and educational for those wishing to get into the older series that ran from from November 23rd, 1963 until December 6th, 1989.

Support Richard at his Facebook page FOUND HERE.

Doctor Who Review, Part 1 - Introduction and Overview:




Doctor Who Review, Part 2 - The William Hartnell Era:




Doctor Who Review, Part 3 - The Patrick Troughton Era:




Doctor Who Review, Part 4 - The Jon Pertwee Era:




Doctor Who Review, Part 5 - The Tom Baker Era:




Clearly, Richard's retrospective is far from completed and I'll share each new entry as they are posted along with updating this same article.

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

Caltiki, The (Not So) Immortal Video Collection!

It's October, the month of Halloween, so what better time than to share some of the more macabre giant monster movies ever made, starting with tonight's featured film Caltiki The Immortal Monster (1959)

The story concerns a team of archaeologists investigating Mayan ruins who come across a deadly creature that is a shapeless amorphous blob. They manage to defeat it using fire while keeping a surviving sample of the creature which, ultimately, leads to more death and destruction when the archaeologists return to Mexico City.

You can read more about Caltiki through this well-written review from the blog-site Cool Ass Cinema.

Here's the trailer to wet your gooey appetites:



Alternative upload of the trailer, just in case:



Here's the feature-length film itself:



An alternate upload of the same film because, again, we're dealing with YouTube here:



If you enjoyed the film than I'd recommend the recent Blu-ray release from Arrow Video which, as you'll see in this ad, is teaming with bonus features:



And, lastly, a humorous second opinion from Dark Corners Reviews:



Monday, July 11, 2016

MONSTROSITIES Reviews Godzilla vs Gigan (1972)

What's this? Enshohma's using other Kaiju fans works to pump up his own blog's content? Is this a case of spreading the monster love online? Or monster-sized plagiarism from an  untalented weirdo ultra-talented God(zilla) among men and ladies?

YOU DECIDE!

Anyhow...The boys over at the MONSTROSITIES: Tokusatsu Vlog continue their series of classic Toho monster movie reviews with their take on 1972's "Godzilla vs Gigan". And I must agree with them that there is quite a lot to love about this otherwise not-all-that-great entry into the Godzilla film series.

Give it a watch and support these guys when you can.




Direct Linkage: https://youtu.be/5MrlkzZ7558


UPDATE FOR 7/12/2016: MONSTROSITIES posted a deleted scene from main review as its own video review, discussing the bizarrely 'fan-popular' fictional monsters WITHIN the fictional monster movie, Shukra and Momagon.





Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Poison Gas Monster Dorugo

As mentioned in my longer version of that overlong snails article, there's a lot of overlooked and obscure Kaiju (Giant Monsters) that need more exposure online.

And well beyond unreliable if not flimsy internet archives such as message board forums, Tumblr or Facebook, which might be fun services for those with the shortest of attention spans (common of most Humans these days), but not for the more serious-minded monster fans and 'pop culture scholars' like myself and my many(?) fans.

Today's obscure Kaiju has been featured before on numerous fan sites, but again all those being things like message boards, Tumblr and Facebook posts, and thus I wanted to give this trunk-faced fellow a more solid home so-to-speak.
I know some miserable negativists might say the same about a blog like the one that you're currently reading, but I trust that my non-negativist readers are way smarter than that.

And if you still feel otherwise, well than screw you because its my blog!


Today's monstrous subject, Dorugo.

Most modern-day Americans really have no idea just how BIG the Kaiju Boom of the 1960's and its proceeding successor of the Henshin Boom during the 1970's really was.
Not only were there fantastical and colorful monsters in movies and on television, but also board games, toys, books, newspaper articles, novels, manga, magazines, bromide postcards, trading cards, radio programs, vinyl records, a renewed interest in Yokai mythology, and even imported fantasy shows and films from other countries such as the works of Irwin Allen and Ray Harryhausen.

And our following subject is among the book-based creations of this Monster Boom.

Poison Gas Monster Dorugo originates from the Japanese book “Shin Sekai No Kaiju” (“New World of Monsters”), which was the sequel to the 1967 book "Sekai No Kaiju" ("World of Giant Monsters"). 

And sadly that's all I really know about these books and Dorugo itself (and such a long, slightly vindictive intro for this relatively short article), though the character subtitle of Poison Gas Monster gives a good impression of its deadly powers, despite the goofy elephant-like appearance. It has been heavily suggested that Dorugo might be a space alien in origin, but I can't confirm nor deny that character tidbit at the time of this writing.

Like a lot of the original monsters from these books, more recent vinyl figures of Dorugo were produced decades late, becoming collector items for people ignorant (if not uncaring) of the character's conceptual history.


Photos courtesy of Trampt.com

And something common of printed monster media from this era, here's a cross-section of Dorugo's internal workings.

Thankfully, my friend and fellow Kaiju fanatic Titanollante, one of the founders of Wikizilla, helped translate the anatomy image, as seen in the secondary version beneath the first. This reveals that Dorugo can also shoot fourth a deadly energy beam from its trunk in addition to the alternative of lethal gas, as Dorugo possess two organs (sacks) for either ability.




To all other 'Kaijuhistorians' reading this: these simplistic articles that I'm posting are simply here to make these obscurities more well known online. And with that said, if you find more extensive information on both Dorugo or his debut book "Shin Sekai no Kaiju", by all means PLEASE make your own articles and spread the obscure love across the web!

The foolish mentality of 'Reviewer Dibs' don't mean crap where the unknown and unloved is concerned.

And an additional HUGE THANKS to the tumblr site Kaijusaurus for helping me create this article in the first place.

Thanking a singular tumblr after bad mouthing the very concept itself - hypocrite much, Enshohma?