Pachimon Kaiju Showcase: Doilar

The Pachimon Kaiju Showcase returns with today's subject, Doilar!

Cleaned-up and enlarged version of Doilar's bromide by your truly

For the uninitiated, the so-called Pachimon phenomena were cheap bromides (collectible postcards) created by Yokopro in the 1970's, around the time when movie monsters and television superheroes were very popular among children within Japan, all apart of The Henshin Boom or The Second Kaiju Boom as some pop culture scholars have dubbed it.

These bromide cards consists of 'new monsters' created from altered or touched up images of pre-existing characters, ranging from icons like Godzilla, Gamera, or the many opponents of Ultraman, to unorthodox sources like illustrated dinosaur books, real-world animal photography, foreign comic books, and lesser-known television monsters.

"Pachimon" itself is an unofficial and relatively recent fan-made term meaning 'stolen monster' which gives you a clear sign how suspect if not shoddy Yokopro's otherwise successful attempt was.

Although still quite obscure, The Pachimon Kaiju have garnered something of a cult following among modern-day collectors and otaku, which have resulted in vinyl figures (both official products and custom-built independents), fan-made video games, artwork, direct-to-video films, comedy spoofs, and other inspired extrapolations.

Unaltered version of the original Doilar bromide

Originally presented in Yamapro Edition set, Doilar is a thinly disguised Gorosaurus, a fictional descendant of Allosaurus who first appeared in King Kong Escapes (1967) as one of the dangerous beasts who roamed the equally fictional Mondo island.

Gorosaurus was meant as a one-time only homage to The Meat-Eater from the original King Kong but, due to a fortunate stroke of luck via quality prop storage over at Toho Studios, Gorosaurs was re-used in the 1968 multiple-monster-romp Destroy All Monsters where the former antagonist joined the heroic Kaiju of Earth to battle against the evil space dragon King Ghidorah, delivering a memorably fearsome kangaroo kick to the three-headed villain's back.

Doilar vs. Gorosaurus: Compare and Contrast

The image source used for Doilar's creation isn't a publicity photo of the Toho dinosaur but a beautifully rendered illustration taken from Ultra Books: Destroy All Monsters, a tie-in book and record album combo based around said film.

Upon retrospect, I believe a lot of the Pachimon based on the more famous movie monsters used secondhand materials, perhaps in a half-hearted attempt to avoid lawsuits or copyright infringement. it obviously worked considering how many of these oddball cards that there was.

LIES! The freeways in downtown Los Angeles are never this nice or vacant!

Speaking of things that makes ones heart sinks: I couldn't find the background of an urban highway used in Doilar's card though I'm tempted to say it's downtown Los Angeles due to how it reminds me so much of the area, particularly the road bridges overhead, having driven through it myself many times before, trapped in way worse traffic than what's falsely presented above (Rainbows? Bull!).

In typical Pachimon fashion, not a single driver seems phased by the giant Doilar creeping towards them.

Doilar's Arctic Holiday (1967...NOT)

While I usually don't do corresponding artwork for my Pachimon Kaiju Showcase articles (cannot afford the time and related stress), I did manage to whip up this photo-manipulated mock-up, taking a publicity photo from Gorosaurus' debut and added some rhinoceros horns and stegosaurs back-plates, all to give you Doilar's Arctic Holiday: a not-at-all-real production where the monstrous reptile saves a struggling ski resort and science station from a nefarious land developer.

Again, in true Pachimon fashion, I threw in some indifferent, un-phased, non-reactive vacationers (familial in-jokes) into the picture, like the indifferent, un-phased, non-reactive Londoners surrounding Danopura.

Lastly, here's an alternate version with just Doilar all by himself.

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.

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.

The Bizarre and Tragic World of Fake Psychics

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.

Direct Link: https://youtu.be/qFyCJU3AFSA

Kaiju Gallery: Lygon from Giant Robo

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.

From the 1967-1968 series Giant Robo comes Lygon, a giant Egyptian-style android statue monster built and operated by the intergalactic criminal organization known as Big Fire, or The Gargoyle Gang as they were renamed in The American International Pictures dubbed version, Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot.

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!?!?

The following set of screenshots were taken from a very old Angelfire (Tripod?) web-site and slightly cleaned up by yours truly, again. Unfortunately, I've long lost the link and cannot give adequate credit to the screen-captures' originator. Apologizes in advance to you, good sir.

RELATED LINK: Lygon's Page on Tokupedia

Godzilla: Singular Point, First Episode Impressions

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 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