Pulgasari made his debut in the 1985 film, "Pulgasari". In this film, it is 14th century Korea, a peasant rebellion is going on against the current ruler. During this rebellion, a blacksmith is captured and jailed without food, but when he finally gets something to eat (rice), he instead makes a doll of the legendary monster Pulgasari. It is his final creation, but when his daughter bleeds on it, it suddenly comes to life. The little Pulgasari stays its current size until it feeds on iron, then it begins to grow very quickly, and the iron intake increases when he joins the rebellion. He soon reaches kaiju-size, around 50 meters, and helps out in the war against the evil ruler. The peasants are victorious because of him, however, he still needs to feed, but the iron supply runs out. However, when the blacksmith's daughter sacrifices herself to him, Pulgasari’s body crumbles and he dies.
Pulgasari stood at a height of 50 meters and weighed roughly 30,000 tons. This ancient kaiju posessed many abilities, including his armored hide, horns, spit, great strength, and its ability to grow by eating iron.
Check out this section in February, when the Kaiju of the Month will be... REPTILICUS!
FEBRUARY 2006
REPTILICUS
Reptilicus made his debut in the 1962 film of the same name. In this film, copper miners find the remains of a monster snake, which had been frozen for millions of years in arctic permafrost. After some further investigation of the remains, a length of the tail is carted back to Copenhagen, where a newspaper reporter coins the name Reptilicus during a press conference. However, after one of the examinations of the frozen tail, the freezing room door is left open and the tail section begins to rapidly regenerate into a whole creature! One stormy night it fully awakens and breaks free, that's when the army is called in to find and destroy the beast. Tanks and heavy artillery are no match for Reptilicus as it rampages through the city of Copenhagen, spitting acid slime at the citizens of the city. Finally, the military manages to mix up a special batch of tranquilizer to incapacitate Reptilicus, leaving it helpless for disposal and he was eventually killed. However, one of his legs had been blown off and begins to grow again!
Reptilicus was 60 meters long and weighed an unknown amount of tons. Now while never battling another kaiju, Reptilicus did feature basically the same abilities as Manda, the Mu Serpent God. Reptilicus would probably have used his teeth, claws, and coils in battle to constrict around an opponent and asphixiate it. However, Reptilicus had an ability Manda did not, and that was the ability to spit acid slim from its mouth.
Check out this section in March, when the Kaiju of the Month will be... MEGANURON!
MARCH 2006
MEGANURON
The Meganuron made its debut in the 1956 film, "Rodan." In this film, the Meganuron first appeared in a coal mine in rural Japan, right next to a small village. The Meganuron caused much confusion amoungst the villagers as they slowly killed the mine workers, causing them to put the blame on a single, innocent man who had gone missing. However, one day one of the Meganuron decided to move in and attack the village, revealing itself to the world as it attacked the village citizens until a squad of policemen arrive and force the Meganuron to retreat back into the coal mine. Now that the Meganurons were proven to be the murderers of the miners, the JSDF arrives on the scene and along with one of the head miners, named Shigeru, traveled into the depths of the mine to try and destroy the monster insects. When the group finally comes upon one of the Meganuron, it attacks and the JSDF fires at the creature with machine guns to no avail, but Shigeru comes up with a plan and rams a mine cart into the insect monster at high speed, killing it. Shigeru then attempts to return to the group, but is trapped by another Meganuron and a landslide, which kills the Meganuron and knocks Shigeru unconscious. Later, when Shigeru awakens, he is in a large cavern and sees dozens of Meganuron crawling everywhere, but he also sees a gigantic egg, which soon hatches to reveal a Rodan. After stretching his wings, the young monster quickly made a meal out of all the Meganuron in the cavern, apparently devouring them all since there have been no other Meganuron sightings in that area since.
The Meganuron from 1956 varied in size a bit, but the average size was 5 meters long and they weighed roughly one ton. Now the Meganuron were obviously not large enough or powerful enough to battle kaiju like Rodan, but they were large enough to kill a few humans. To do this, the Meganuron employed their claws and mandibles to rip their human victims to shreds. Also, when they needed to be defended from humans and their guns, they had a hard carapace that protected them. However, it wasn't hard enough to save them from a speeding coal mine cart or the Rodans.
Check out this section in April, when the Kaiju of the Month will be... GOMESS!
APRIL 2006
GOMESS
The monster Gomess his debut in the first episode of "Ultra Q" in 1966. In this episode, when a construction crew tunnels through a mountain with plans to build a railroad from Tokyo to Osaka, they awaken the subterranean monster Gomess, who attacks and destroys the backhoe that woke him up before tunneling away, uncovering a sphere-like object. The strange sphere is located and removed from the cave by the surviving members of the construction crew, but no one can figure out what the object is. Yuriko and Jun (the human stars of Ultra Q) venture into the dark caverns to look for clues, while their friends Ippei and Nitta speak with a geeky-looking boy name Jiro, who knows of a legend that might explain what the sphere-like object is. The three then travel to a nearby temple where the curator shows them an old scroll with drawings of a huge monster and a large bird. The sphere-like object turns out to be the egg of a powerful bird monster named Litra and the huge monster is Gomess. According to the scroll, when Litra’s egg is found, a Gomess will rise from underground to wreak havoc on the world. At the same time, Litra’s egg will hatch, who will then defeat Gomess and fulfill the prophecy. Then, Jun and Yuriko encounter Gomess in the mountain caves, who traps them in a small cavern. Meanwhile, Jiro and Ippei build a fire to hatch Litra’s egg and soon the egg begins to glow and Litra hatches out. The bird monster the flies up to a cliff and perches there, waiting. Back in the cave, Gomess still has Yuriko and Jun cornered, but when Yuriko drops her camera and the flash goes off, it temporarily blinds Gomess and they are saved. Gomess pursuits them out of the cave then begins destroying construction machinery until Litra arrives and attacks Gomess, pecking at his face. Gomess fights back and strikes Litra with his tail, knocking the monster bird to the ground. While Litra is stunned, Gomess grabs him and the two monsters grapple, but Litra pecks Gomess in the eyes, forcing him to let go and the monster bird takes to the air. Litra then blasts Gomess with his most powerful weapon, the Citronella Acid Ray, from his mouth and kills Gomess. Then, having fulfilled his destiny, Litra falls dead as well. Gomess stood at roughly 10 meters tall and weighed 30 tons (estimate). The ancient kaiju used his teeth, claws, and horns to battle his foes and also had the ability to tunel underground.
Check out this section in May, when the Kaiju of the Month will be... ZARKORR!
MAY 2006
ZARKORR
The monster Zarkorr made his debut in the 1996 film, "Zarkorr: The Invader". In this film, it is late at night on the West Coast of the United States, an enormous monster emerges from the side of a mountain and heads cross-country towards the East Coast. On the East Coast, a mailman is visited by an interplanetary messenger in the form of a 4-inch tall mall tramp. She tells him that the monster Zarkorr is headed straight for him because this man is the most average human on Earth, neither good nor evil. He is also told that he is the only one who can defeat Zarkorr, but must find out how to do so on his own with only the clue "energy must destroy energy" to aid him. Confused, the mailman seeks the aid of a crypto zoologist woman, who was trying to figure out what Zarkorr is from pictures she had acquired. She explains that there is no mass to the monster and that it’s nothing but energy. Then, with the help of her nerdy crippled hacker friend, they discover a small alien object that crash-landed in a diner. Meanwhile, Zarkorr is getting closer and closer, and it isn't until the mailman faces Zarkorr that he figures out that the object is a shield, capable of repelling Zarkorr's eye beams. He then uses the shield and reflects the energy back at the monster, ultimately destroying it.
Zarkorr stood at a height of 55 meters and weighed 300 tons. Now although he never battled another kaiju, we can still speculate on his fighting abilities. He most likely would have used his eye beams for long-range combat, while employing his claws, teeth, and tail for close-range battling.
Check out this section in June, when the Kaiju of the Month will be... LITRA!
JUNE 2006
LITRA
The monster Litra made his debut in the first episode of "Ultra Q" in 1966. In this episode, when a construction crew tunnels through a mountain with plans to build a railroad from Tokyo to Osaka, they awaken the subterranean monster Gomess, who attacks and destroys the backhoe that woke him up before tunneling away, uncovering a sphere-like object. The strange sphere is located and removed from the cave by the surviving members of the construction crew, but no one can figure out what the object is. Yuriko and Jun (the human stars of Ultra Q) venture into the dark caverns to look for clues, while their friends Ippei and Nitta speak with a geeky-looking boy name Jiro, who knows of a legend that might explain what the sphere-like object is. The three then travel to a nearby temple where the curator shows them an old scroll with drawings of a huge monster and a large bird. The sphere-like object turns out to be the egg of a powerful bird monster named Litra and the huge monster is Gomess. According to the scroll, when Litra’s egg is found, a Gomess will rise from underground to wreak havoc on the world. At the same time, Litra’s egg will hatch, who will then defeat Gomess and fulfill the prophecy. Then, Jun and Yuriko encounter Gomess in the mountain caves, who traps them in a small cavern. Meanwhile, Jiro and Ippei build a fire to hatch Litra’s egg and soon the egg begins to glow and Litra hatches out. The bird monster the flies up to a cliff and perches there, waiting. Back in the cave, Gomess still has Yuriko and Jun cornered, but when Yuriko drops her camera and the flash goes off, it temporarily blinds Gomess and they are saved. Gomess pursuits them out of the cave then begins destroying construction machinery until Litra arrives and attacks Gomess, pecking at his face. Gomess fights back and strikes Litra with his tail, knocking the monster bird to the ground. While Litra is stunned, Gomess grabs him and the two monsters grapple, but Litra pecks Gomess in the eyes, forcing him to let go and the monster bird takes to the air. Litra then blasts Gomess with his most powerful weapon, the Citronella Acid Ray, from his mouth and kills Gomess. Then, having fulfilled his destiny, Litra falls dead as well. Litra stood at roughly 5 meters tall, had a wingspan 15 meters wide, and weighed 10 tons (estimate). The ancient flying kaiju could fly at mach 2 and used his beak and talons to battle in close-range combat, but when at a distance, spat a citronella acid ray from his beak.
Check out this section in July, when the Kaiju of the Month will be... NAMEGON!
JULY 2006
NAMEGON
The monster Namegon made his debut in the third episode of "Ultra Q" in 1966. In this episode, coming from Mars inside a capsule that contains two golden spheres, which apparently are Namegon eggs. However, gangsters soon steal one of the eggs and take it to their hideout in a cave. As the crooks count their loot, the sphere is accidentally dropped and rolls into a nearby pool of hot spring water. While the gangsters continue to count their cash, they fail to notice the sphere growing to huge proportions and cracks open, releasing the giant slug Namegon. The gangsters quickly notice the monster and flee, but Namegon crawls after them, firing his eye beams which paralyze them. The next morning Ippei goes through Jun’s room and locates the other sphere, making a necklace out of it. They then go to find the other sphere in the cave along with Yuriko, but the police are already there. They soon find the paralyzed gangsters and Namegon, who chases them out of the mountain. Jun lures Namegon away from the others by firing one of the gangster’s guns that he found in the cave and Namegon pursues Jun full speed toward the edge of the cliff. At the last second, Jun jumps and grabs onto the edge of the cliff, but Namegon plummets off the cliff into the ocean, dissolving into nothingness when he hits the salt water. Later the other egg hatches another Namegon which crawls off into the night, but is doomed to die since Japan is surrounded by the ocean. The Namegon stood at roughly 30 meters tall and weighed 10,000 tons (estimate). The slug kaiju's only real offensive weapon was the ability to fire eye beams at his targets.
Check out this section in August, when the Kaiju of the Month will be... YMIR!
AUGUST 2006
YMIR
The monster Ymir made his debut in the 1957 film "20 Million Miles to Earth". In this film, a space probe returning from Venus is damaged by a meteor and crashes into the ocean off Sicily. A Venusian specimen the probe brought back, a tiny dinosaur-like creature, survives the impact, but Earth’s atmosphere causes it to grow at an accelerated rate and it quickly becomes as big as an elephant. The Ymir is attacked and knocked unconscious by military personnel and helicopters and then brought to the Rome Zoo, where it awakens and battles an elephant. Then, after being attacked by tank fire and flame-throwers, Ymir climbs up the Rome Coliseum and begins to toss down debris at the soldiers below. However, when shot with a bazooka, Ymir seems to be fatally wounded and falls to his death. Ymir stood at roughly 4 meters tall and weighed 12 tons (estimate). The Venusian kaiju employed his claws, teeth, tail, and strength in battle and as an added bonus, was also invulnerable to small arms fire.
Check out this section in September, when the Kaiju of the Month will be... ZONE FIGHTER!
SEPTEMBER 2006
ZONE FIGHTER
Zone Fighter made his debut in the first episode of the television series of the same name in 1973. In this TV series, when the Gorga Empire, a race of evil aliens, destroys the home planet of the Zone family, the family escapes to Earth and takes refuge there, using human names. However, the Gorga’s soon come to Earth in their conquest of the universe and discover the Zone family, but when the Gorga arrive, the Zone family’s three children (Hikaru, Hotaru, and Akira) transform into Zone Fighter, Zone Angel, and Zone Junior to defend the world. Zone Fighter is the only one of the three children who can grow to kaiju proportions. Throughout the entire series, the Gorga are Zone Fighter’s main enemy, throwing dozens of monsters at the alien hero and his family. However, in one two-part episode the Gorga summoned King Ghidorah to destroy Zone Fighter, but he defeats the space kaiju and sends him packing. Also, in five episodes, Godzilla actually shows up to aid Zone Fighter in battle (this was during Godzilla’s ultimate good-guy phase of the 1970s). Gigan also made an appearance in one episode, but Godzilla shows up and seemingly kills the cyborg kaiju. After the 26th episode of the series, Zone Fighter was cancelled, mainly due to the big energy crisis of 1973.
Zone Fighter stood at a height of 50 meters tall and weighed roughly 20,000 tons. The giant humanoid alien was able to use his strength, agility, and speed as well as hand-to-hand combat (Uzzi Punch and Side Chop) to aid in battling his foes up close, but for long-range fighting he employed his Meteor Proton beam from forehead, Meteor Missile Might bracelets, subduing mist, Zone-Barrier, Plasma Capsel, and Jet Speed to defeat his enemies.
Check out this section in October, when the Kaiju of the Month will be... LADY KONG!
OCTOBER 2006
LADY KONG
Lady Kong, King Kong’s female counterpart, made her debut in the 1986 film, “King Kong Lives.” In this film, ten years after being shot up and falling from the World Trade Center in New York City, King Kong apparently lives and is lying in a comatose state at the Atlanta Institute in Georgia. Here, with the help of Surgeon Amy Franklin, they hope to implant an artificial heart into Kong’s body and revive him. However, after being in a coma for so long, the giant ape’s blood isn’t up to snuff and without a blood transfusion, the operation cannot occur and Kong will eventually die. Meanwhile, in Borneo, explorer/adventurer Hank Mitchell discovers a second, female giant ape, which he captures and offers her to whichever University or Institute will pay the most money. He first offers “Lady Kong” to the Atlanta Institute, where they are eager to accept and quickly buy the female Kong. Lady Kong is then taken to the Institute where her blood is taken to be given to King Kong. Kong soon undergoes successful surgery and has the artificial heart installed in place of his real, damaged heart. Soon after, a celebration is held at the Institute, but notices that Amy is not there. He is informed that she is watching over Kong, where the giant ape soon regains consciousness and almost immediately senses the female’s presence, even though she is a mile away inside a warehouse. Kong then tries to escape to get to Lady Kong, but Amy sedates him to prevent excess strain on his heart. She then rushes to the party and confronts Dr. Ingersoll, demanding that Lady Kong’s new facility be finished as soon as possible. Soon it is time to move the female ape, but she struggles against her captors and her cries are heard by Kong, who awakens and breaks out of his warehouse. Kong soon tears into Lady Kong’s warehouse to save her, but is shot at by military personnel. Mitchell quickly springs into action to protect the giant apes and takes out the military with a vehicle as Kong picks up Lady Kong and carries her off into the nearby forest.
The army is then called in to deal with the apes, and Colonel Nevitt, the head officer, warns that any civilians entering the search area will be shot. However, both Amy and Mitchell set out to search for the Kongs anyway, but soon run into an army roadblock and take off into the forest. Along the way, Amy nearly falls to her death from a wooden bridge into a raging river, but Mitchell grabs Amy before she can be swept away. However, Amy is more concerned about the equipment she is carrying; a unit that can monitor and adjust Kong’s artificial heart. They soon find the apes and make camp for the night, but the next morning King Kong has disappeared, leaving Lady Kong alone. Seeing their opportunity, the army moves in and drops knockout gas on Lady Kong, who falls unconscious. Kong soon arrives to try and save her, but is too late as she is airlifted away by helicopters while King Kong is chased by the army, eventually being trapped atop a cliff, but then leaps into the river below and is swept away. Amy and Mitchell watch in horror as Kong struggles against the raging waters and then strikes his head against a jagged rock, blood filling the water and the giant ape sinks from view. Horrified, Amy then checks the heart monitor unit as it flat lines… Months later, we find out that Lady Kong has been kept in an underground missile silo at the army’s “Primate Holding Division”. Also, during all these months, Mitchell, Amy, and their colleagues have been trying to get permission to see her and finally get their wish thanks to an order signed by the Secretary of Defense. Once in, they find Lady Kong hunched in a corner, crying for Kong, who is apparently still alive. Soon after, Colonel Nevitt throws them out while they wonder how Kong has survived all this time without being seen. Meanwhile, Kong is indeed alive and hanging out in the swamps in the southern part of the state, eating alligators.
Some more time passes and Mitchell arrives back from Borneo, where he has been negotiating the Institute’s purchase of a reserve for the apes. Meanwhile, Kong has now wandered close enough to hear Lady Kong’s cries, prompting him to come out of hiding and he heads for her location, frightening several country-folk in the process. Upon hearing about Kong’s reappearance, Nevitt sends his soldiers to the town where Kong appeared and they find tons of drunken rednecks preparing to hunt down the giant ape himself. One group of hunters actually manages to find and trap Kong in an avalanche, but when they begin to torture him with smoldering wood Kong breaks free and kills all of his redneck captors. Amy and Mitchell soon arrive, also searching for Kong, and find the grizzly scene. With Kong now nearby, Amy attempts to monitor his heart, which is crippled and needs to be fixed with her heart monitor, but Kong then turns toward them and steps on the monitor, destroying it utterly before she could complete the correction sequence. Kong’s heart apparently won’t last more than a day now. Meanwhile, Colonel Nevitt is out to get Kong and ignores direct orders to take the giant ape alive while Amy and Mitchell break into the Primate Holding Division again to rescue Lady Kong, but are surprised to see that her belly has grown quite large and they soon realize that she is pregnant. They then proceed to release Lady Kong and bring her above ground, but a soldier slows them down until King Kong shows up and tears the roof of Lady Kong’s missile silo open, releasing her. Then, as Kong reaches in to lift his mate out, Lady Kong grabs Mitchell and he is carried away with her. Lady Kong eventually puts Mitchell down as the giant apes walk through a barn-dance and Lady Kong collapses onto a barn, apparently going into labor. Suddenly, Nevitt and his soldiers show up and start firing, but Kong shields the down Lady Kong and takes several hundred bullets as he tangles with the army, destroying everything in his path and then proceeds to smash Colonel Nevitt into the ground. With the military disposed of, Kong goes down thanks to a combination of the bullets and his malfunctioning artificial heart. However, at the same time, Amy and Mitchell arrive as Lady Kong gives birth to a six foot baby Kong (Kong Junior). Hoisting Kong Junior onto her belly, Lady Kong presents King Kong with his offspring. Kong reaches out and makes contact with his son before finally dying. After Kong’s death, Lady Kong and Kong Junior are captured and taken to the reserve in Borneo, where they seem to be living happily, although still missing King Kong.
Lady Kong stands at a height of 15 meters and weighs roughly 80 tons. Opting to be a lover rather than a fighter, Lady Kong doesn’t do much fighting. However, if provoked, she will attack her enemies with her strength and sharp teeth, especially if they mess with her son, Kong Junior.
Check out this section in November, when the Kaiju of the Month will be... CYKER!
NOVEMBER 2006
CYKER
Cyker, the space kaiju, made his debut in the 1999 Korean film, “Yonggary.” In this film, Cyker was a living weapon of an alien civilization that came to Earth and planned to conquer it. To do this, they revived the ancient monster Yonggary and controlled him, ordering him to destroy the Earth at their will. However, when humanity discovered that the diamond on Yonggary’s forehead was how the aliens were controlling him, they were able to destroy it and break the alien control. With their revived monster now out of their control and on the side of humanity, the aliens released Cyker to destroy both Yonggary and the Earth. Cyker and Yonggary engaged in a fierce battle, with Cyker sprouting new tentacles every time Yonggary managed to blast off one of his limbs. Finally, Yonggary was able to triumph over the evil monster by blowing Cyker’s entire body up and forcing the aliens to flee.
Cyker stood at a height of 100 meters tall, was 180 meters long, and weighed roughly 80,000 tons. The space kaiju was able to use his tail beam, teeth, tusks, pinchers, fire balls, tough armor, ability to sprout tentacles out of severed limbs, and ability to continue fighting even after being decapitated to bring Yonggary to the brink of defeat. However, in the end the powerful Yonggary was able to overcome the odds and defeat Cyker and the aliens once and for all.
Check out this section in December, when the Kaiju of the Month will be... ZILLA!
DECEMBER 2006
ZILLA
Zilla made his debut in the 2004 film, “Godzilla: Final Wars,” not counting GINO’s history from the 1998 Tristar film. In this film, it is the near future, a century of nuclear tests and modern warfare, as well as unchecked scientific advances, have resulted in serious damage to the planet’s environment. These events have also caused the creation or revival of many giant monsters. The mutated desert lizard, Zilla, was one of these monsters. Looking similar to the King of the Monsters, Godzilla, the creature was given the name “Zilla” because it didn’t evoke quite as much power as the true Monster King. Zilla was a creature native to Australia and the day that several monsters attacked cities all over the world, Zilla attacked Sydney, Australia’s largest city. Crowds of screaming people ran through the streets, trying to escape the rampaging monster as it smashed through the great city and even devoured some of its people. However, in the midst of its rampage, Zilla suddenly disappeared in a giant flash of light, as did the rest of the attacking monsters across the globe. It is soon discovered that this is being done by UFOs and after getting rid of the monsters, they all converge on Tokyo and form one gigantic ship. These aliens, called the Xiliens, convince the people of Earth that they are here to aid humanity by warning Earth about an impending danger, that the Planet Gorath is currently hurtling toward Earth and will destroy the planet unless all of Earth’s weapons are concentrated and fired at Gorath at one time. However, the Xiliens true intent is soon revealed: Gorath is a lie and they have come to Earth to make humans their food, for the Xiliens must consume the mitochodrate in human beings to survive. They also control all of the monsters that were attacking the cities, having reconstructed their DNA to include the M-Base, something that the Xiliens also have in their bodies, so that they could control them. The monsters are then once again unleashed upon the cities that they were attacking. A plan is formed by the few survivors and they take the Gotengo down to the South Pole and release Godzilla, who is trapped in the Antarctic ice thanks to the old Gotengo and is not under the control of the Xiliens, so that he may battle the monsters. The ship succeeds and Godzilla is freed. After a brief battle with Gigan, Godzilla begins chasing the Gotengo, thinking that his fight with the battleship back in the 1960s is still on, and follows it over land and sea. Godzilla, in his quest to destroy the Gotengo, eventually arrives in Sydney. The Xilien leader sends Zilla after Godzilla. Both monsters bellow at one another and then Zilla charges toward Godzilla, jumping over the Monster King, but Godzilla quickly spins and strikes Zilla with his tail, sending him careening into the Sydney Opera House. Godzilla then blasts the downed monster with his radioactive heat ray and destroys Zilla.
Zilla stood at a height of 90 meters tall and its weight is unknown. This mutation kaiju, while not seeing much kaiju-on-kaiju battle (not to mention not being very good at it), did have his offensive and defensive capabilities. For close-range combat Zilla employed his claws, teeth, and tail to battle his foes, but when the battle became too extreme and being devoid of any long-range weapons, Zilla would use his speed, his excellent swimming capabilities, and his ability to jump over large distances to escape his foes and fight another day. Unfortunately for Zilla, he was not quick enough to escape the true King of the Monsters, Godzilla.
Check out this section in January, when the Kaiju of the Month will be... GAMERA "TOTO" 2006!
