Mad Monster Party Commentary?

Today's date, March 8th, was the original release date for MAD MONSTER PARTY? (1967), an animated horror-comedy from Rankin-Bass productions which also features IT, a giant King Kong-inspired gorilla monster who appears in full in the third act.

Unlike the film's other supernatural weirdos, IT was not deliberately villainous, even showing moments of kindness and mercy, but was a destructive menace who ultimately doomed Dr. Frankenstein's Island and almost every soul living there.

While on the subject of Mad Monster Party?: several years ago, me and my friends Wyn, Brayton, and KaijuNoir did a live-watch and Mystery Science Theater 3000-style commentary track for the film, which can be viewed on the following link:

https://archive.org/details/livewatch-mad-monster-party

Enjoy!

Pachimon Kaiju Showcase: Tabby-Imago

The Pachimon Kaiju Showcase series returns with a vengeance! And this time, with kitties!

Pachimon is a modern slang term used to describe bootlegged and stolen versions of more famous kaiju, notably in regards to bromide cards and similar prints from the 1970s that reused and repurposed elements of pre-existing kaiju characters to create quote — unquote "NEW" monsters.

While the mainstream movie kaiju are the most recognizable examples (Godzilla, Gamera, Gappa, ect), the pachimon phenomenon is taken from multiple sources including-but-not-limited to: Ultraman and other tokusatsu characters, American movie and television creatures, vintage paleo-based artwork, real-life photography of animals and locations, science fiction illustrations, and lesser known manga and other foreign comic books.

Pachimon has garnered a cult following with modern Japanese otaku, toy collectors, independent filmmakers, and artists, often leading to limited edition and expensive vinyl figures based on these suspiciously familiar faces. FAR LESS so here in America, but obscure kaiju loving weirdos like myself try our best.

In the past, I've shared Pachimon who had an official name (as official as these illegal cons can muster), but there's also a larger number of these characters lacking such titles and it's about time I started highlighting them, starting with this adorable abomination.

Again, the monster lacks an official name (or a previous fan-made one), but I personally like to refer to this one as Tabby-Imago due to it being a young tabby cat spliced with colorful butterfly wings.

Sure, Tabbyra, like the moth monster Mothra, would have been the more obvious fan-moniker to adopt, BUT that would have been the obvious way out and Tabby-Imago has a better ring to it in my opinion.

According to the Japanese web-site Room103 and its Pachimon subsections (the site's very old, so beware its lack of security), today's feature was the first in the Iwata Pro Large Monster Edition, one of the latter-era series published and sold on the cheap (5 yen a piece, apparently).

As for the real-world location shown within the card image, that's the Nishinomaru-enokida gate of Nagoya Castle in Nagoya, Japan. The gate is probably most recognizable to American kaiju fans as one of Larva Battra's targets from Godzilla and Mothra: Battle for the Earth (1992), ripping its roof to shreds in a less-than-convincing composite shot.

I'll have another menace of Nagoya next week.

Barizogon: Hey! That's Not King Caesar!

I was originally going to add today’s entry into my Pachimon Kaiju Showcase series but, considering the long-after-the-fact-parody nature of this article's titular feature, I decided to keep it relatively separated.

Plus, there isn't much to say on the character beyond its origins and obvious appearance.

Amapro is a ridiculously small (seriously, there’s like two or three people running it) independent Japanese toy company that specializes in limited edition vinyl figures based on overlooked and obscure kaiju. In addition to those, Amapro also creates arguably weirder and sillier original characters.

Sitting between these two extremes are figures inspired by the aforementioned Pachimon, taking different elements from more famous movie and television kaiju,  haphazardly birthing supposedly new (rip-off) monsters in turn.

That said, Barizogon is basically King Caesar from Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974) but with condor-like wings and a third eye in place of Caesar's forehead jewel.

Based on what little I could find online (again, these guys are S-M-A-L-L), Amapro will often repurpose their toy molds to make variations by reincorporating different body parts from different figures like an interchangeable jigsaw. Barizogon seems to be their own King Caesar figure reworked with a pair of wings taken from their numerous other bird-based ones.

There's also the official Sailor Fight channel, based around the robotic heroine from a series of short films that also showcases these same oddball vinyl toys. This channel may-or-may-not have ties to Amapro, seeing how one of its two public faces hosts the aforementioned content.

Happy Easter, Rabbit, The Giant Rabbit!

My horrible timing once again ruins me as I completely oblivious that today is Easter Sunday and should have posted something Easter related for this group, whether it be original artwork or a rabbit-based kaiju like Lunaticks from Ultraman Ace or Hiso from Gekiranger (there's also the enlarged killer rabbits from Night of The Lepus but that would have been the easy way out).

Thankfully, l have a backlog of older commissions and thus I present to you a separate gallery featuring Rabbit: an enlarged rabbit kaiju I drew for the now obscure tabletop RPG Smash Monster Rampage, published by 5th Street Games back in 2010. The product didn't make any significant waves upon its release that same year but I was paid handsomely for the gig and deeply appreciate the assignment and its producers.

While not my design nor original character concept, I came to love the playful, strangely innocent, but no-less destructive Rabbit while illustrating this pieces.

Extra thanks to my friend Luis Calderon for assistants on the fittingly cartoony background inks.

Yes, that's supposed to be Dr. Serizawa from original Godzilla '54 below.

Battered and bruise, surrounded by hostile humans on all sides, Rabbit retreats in sorrow.