One of the true benefits of being a skeptic against the so-called paranormal is to call out opportunistic crooks, grifters, and villains on their cruel con jobs. Sadly, the psychic industry continues to benefit upon the gullible and often with disastrous, sometimes tragic, results.
The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters.
This informative video from the channel Super Eyepatch Wolf goes into greater detail.
Nothing too spectacular for today, just another image gallery based around one of my many, many, MANY favorite giant monsters from Japanese fiction. The header illustration, by-the-by, was drawn by yours truly.
Similarly, Lygon was renamed Ligon-Tyrox for said American broadcast.
Lygon appears in episodes 4 (Monster Ligon-Tyrox, A Strange Monster) and 10 (The Transformed Humans) and is probably my top favorite monster from the whole series as Egyptian-themed monsters are always cool which Japanese fiction seems to have an abundance of while android monsters, giant robots made to look like living breathing beasts as opposed to more obvious machine-based ones and temporary disguises (see Fake Godzilla), are a rare sub-genre that's barley been played around with.
Lygon perfectly captures the fun aspects of both creature motifs / sub-genres in-my-opinion while also being a real bruiser when in combat against the titular Giant Robo despite his virtually thin and tall feline frame.
Plus, the guy fights with an optional drill horn and a gold metal chain! How ridiculously cool is that!?!?
RELATED LINK: Lygon's Page on Tokupedia
Thanks to the magic of the mighty Surfing Shark of V.P.N., I was able to view the first episode of GODZILLA: SINGULAR POINT which is being released on Netflix Japan on a weekly basis instead of a full season drop (still no word of an international release date though one is still coming this year).
Similar to the first act of "Gamera: Guardian of the Universe" (1995), the first episode is a slow burn building up the mystery behind a missing scientist and a haunting 1930s love song that's somehow being used to summon and/or resurrect the ancient monsters, with the 'Rodan the First' only appearing in the closing minutes to menace our heroes (as seen in the Toho Animation video clip released recently online).
I'd go more into the plot but, unfortunately, no English subtitles were available to me. However, unlike other untranslated kaiju media heavy on dialog, the human cast instantly made an impression with their appealing character designs alongside quirky personality moments and related visual gags, all of which kept my interest.
In addition to the previously mentioned "Gamera" comparisons, the first episode's atmospheres and the near future world presented within was also reminiscent of "Ultra Q" and early Showa-era science fiction films like "The Mysterians" (1957), "The H-Man" (1958), and "Rodan" (1956): a virtually quiet, normal world on the eve of a monstrous cataclysm or an otherworldly event.
The twist was that Godzilla was dead all along!
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.
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
I'm going back to many of my past live-streams and adding some much-needed timestamps for my viewers' listening convenience: from this year's Halloween watchalong, me and my spooky guests Andres, Andrew, and Brayton revisit the 1987 cult classic THE MONSTER SQUAD.
You know, the one where Dracula calls a small child a swear word, a werewolf is physically abused in the testicles, and The Mummy comes out of the closet! Oh, what a wholesome fun ride for the coke-out 1980s family!
4:10 - We don't like Neppo or other cartoon sidekicks for that matter
8:52 - Contemporary Star Trek is stupid
11:29 - Thundercats Roar and the decline of animation
21:41 - Anything pass 2005 in too old for hipsters
22:53 - Sexy animation background extras
28:45 - Batman's open house-cave of fun!
29:59 - The Beast Wars for Cybertron
34:01 - That sicko Bruce Timm answers to no one!
35:09 - Transformers voice actor controversy
41:38 - KaijuNoir's Halloween memories
48:27 - Andrew Batman enters the show
1:08:45 - Brayton and The Munsters / Addams Family gang wars
1:12:03 - The failings of The Universal Monsters
1:14:56 - James Rolfe stops by
1:15:50 - Closing out the pre-show
1:20:00 - Extreme technical difficulties with The Monster Squad
1:23:30 - Andrew recommends Night of The Creeps
1:25:21 - Dear Audience: Bring your own copies
1:30:30 - Savage Honesty, starring Cameron Mitchell
1:33:53 - Verbal proof that this live-watch is cursed
1:40:20 - The hosts go mad with insanity
1:44:00 - OUR FEATURE PRESENTATION (Finally!)
3:06:06 - Post-show thoughts and regrets
Today, we're looking at the titular winged menaces from the second episode segment of "The New Adventures of Superman", "The Prehistoric Pterodactyls" (Filmation, September 17th 1966).
Playfully nicknamed by Superman as Terry #1 and Terry #2, they're a pair of gigantic pterodactyls awakened from suspended animation deep within some arctic icebergs.
Soon after awakening, the flying beasts began a brief reign of mayhem by attacking jet bombers, naval ships, and threatening Louis Lane (of course) in San Francisco before Superman battled and ultimately subdues the winged giants.
Captured and tied up in nets made of electric cables, Terry #1 and Terry #2 were then flown into space by Superman and safely exiled to an alien world where they can live peacefully.
It's likely pure coincidence but the script and its titular pterodactyls share some similarities with the more famous titular monsters of "Rodan" (1956) who were also jumbo-sized pteranodons awakened from a long slumber though in their case it was eggs buried deep underground and revived with super-heated volcanic water.
Despite being one of the earliest superheroes known for his incredible strengths and feats, I prefer Superman stories were a giant monster (or monsters) is either a worthy challenge to or equal force against The Last Son of Krypton. This balance of power works great for more energetic adventure stories but way less so for character-driven (talking head) tales. Hence why we see a lot of Superman vs. giant monster entries in older comic books and animated shows while modern media limit said giants to one-hit cameo defeats.
One-hit cameo defeats are highly impressive for Superman's abilities but also exceptionally of lame for us giant monster and action fans.
The Two Terrys are definitely among the simpler fair (fare?) coming from a Filmation produced children's cartoon but I honestly don't mind these slim-down Saturday morning shows of the sixties even if Hanna-Barbera were making superior versions of the same material with the likes of "The Herculoids" and "Space Ghost and Dino Boy".
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF THE PREHISTORIC PTERODACTYLS:
