HOME | DD

Description
Several of the pieces in this compilation are the early predecessors of what would become the Kaiju Portraits. And like that current series, they're all obscure subjects who will only attract a limited number of weirdos who know of them.

God bless you all.

*********

The guy with an axe for a face is the often-mistaken-for-not-having-a-name monster Badaxtra; a rather opposing villain from the cartoon series "Dexter's Laboratory". Appearing only once in the episode "Last, But Not Beast", Badaxtra is accidentally awaken from his volcanic tomb by the title boy genius, after a giant-robot based contest with two Japanese school kids (and their orchid-haired lady teacher) gets a little out of hand.

Afetrwards, Badaxtra goes on a globe spanning rampage, facing against many super heroes and other secondary characters from the series; all failing in stopping the villainous beast. Ultimately, Dexter and his dimwitted family are forced to deal with Badaxtra themselves in the giant Multi-Formic Megabot, by the episode's climax.

"Last, But Not Beast" was meant to be the final episode of the "Dexter's Laboratory" TV series, hence the unusually powerful 'straight man' for an ultimate challenge in Badaxtra.

But by this time however, Cartoon Network had finally come out of its public stereotype as 'that channel that plays Hanna-Barbera reruns 24/7', with "Dexter" being its first, true break-out hit. This lead to the awesome hour-length film "Ego-Trip", and many years after that, the less successful second series, done by a different creative team.

*********

Standing next to Badaxtra, we have a monster rather close to my heart; Gudis is from the 1990 Japanese-Australian co-production "Ultraman: Towards the Future" (AKA "Ultraman Great"). And he was the main antanginist of the show's first six episodes story-arc.

An evil alien horror of unknown origins, Gudis could separate himself into millions of cells as a last resort when near death, and infect other worlds' ecosystems, mutating some unfortunates into both willing and unwilling monster slaves. It's hinted that Gudis' reign of terror happened far beyond our known galaxy, which caused Ultraman Great himself to intervene against the genetic-conqueror. But an unsuccessful battle on Mars caused Gudis to escape to Earth, and Ultraman Great forced to merge / join forces with the human astronaut Jack Shindo, who was stranded on Mars thanks to Gudis's actions.

Ultimately, Gudis is able to reform himself into a more malevolent looking form seen above, and actually wins against Great in their second rematch, absorbing the alien giant into his body.

But before consuming Great completely, Gudis is distracted by Jack Shindo's separate consciousness, who points out the ironic tragedy of Gudis' very existence; his gluttony for absolute power and organic matter always results in Gudis ending up alone. And no matter how many races and worlds he consumes, he'll always loose in the end.

While Gudis is angered by Jack Shindo's compassion, Ultraman Great breaks loose from the evil being, and destroys him in the process.

But this would not be the last of the tentacle fiend, for an obscure US produced comic book would feature two more storylines with Gudis as the main villain. Completely ignoring the continuity from the TV series, Gudis pops up in a three-part miniseries where he leads a small army of past monsters (both of his creating and not) against Great / Shindo, on the moon. And at the comic's final two-issue adventure, where Gudis, using the blood from Great's second human host Ace, transforms the violent albino criminal Raptor into the willing ally Blue Ultraman.

Even with the better monsters and aliens I've seen from the other entries in the Ultraman franchise, Gudis, along with a lot of the monsters from "Towards the Future", are still among my top-favorites. Second to Gomora, King Joe, and Dada of course!

*********

At the left end of the top row, we have Daitanix, a major monster from the 1998 Super Sentai entry "Gingaman". Born from a contaminated star, and sharing an evil partnership with the cruel space pirate Captain Zahaib, Daitanix is a cosmic glutton who feeds off the life-energy of planets, dooming any of the inhabitants of these unfortunate worlds.

Captain Zahaib manages to fit a castle onto the creature's back, and partially controlling the beast, plunders the victim planets with other alien villains, all of which are naturally drawn towards Daitanix's dark presence. Collectively, these villains would be dubbed the Barban Space Pirates. In addition, the power Daitanix consumes extends the lives of the Barban members, as well as granting them unique weapons and powers, such like the Star Soul Brooch, which Zahaib used to replace his own heart, thus granting him immortality.

However, Daitanix and his Barban parasites meet formidable opposition in the form of the Star Beasts (or Ginga-Beasts); benevolent comic monsters, along with their Gingamen allies - magical warriors who defended the ancient Earth, and succeeded by sending Daitanix into a corpse-like, stone state so long ago.

Many generations later, The Barban return to Earth, hoping to revive Daitanix, and it's up to a new team of Gingaman, along with the reawaken Star Beasts, to battle them once again.

DAMN...Super Sentai plots are freaking complicated!

Anyway, when footage from this series was used for its American counterpart, "Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy", Daitanix was not only lessened in character role and power, as the simple beast of burden for Captain Mutiny (Zahaib), but also renamed Titanisaur. And to fans of the Godzilla-based dinosaur of a similar name from "Terror of Mechagodzilla" - I'm not kidding.

It should also be noted, that Daitanix is one of several Super Sentai characters, deliberately meant as homage to Godzilla himself, with the most famous of these being Dragon Ceasar / Dragon Zord from "Zyuranger" amd "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers". Daitanix trumps Dragon Zord in this regard however, by actually having a Godzilla-style breath weapon!

(Big thanks to for help on Daitanix's background

*********

The black-and-white fellow below is Blitsbolts from the 1998 television series "Ultraman Gaia".

Acting as an agent of destruction, sent forth by the monstrous overlords of Galaxy M91, the bird-like Blitsbolts succeeds in destroying many Earth Defense Force bases across the globe. Until he we thwarted and ultimately killed by an unlikely alliance comprised of Ultraman Gaia, human soldiers and scientists, and Tigris; an ancient tiger monster who fights in the name of the Earth.

The episode in question is number forty-five, and is especially good for its healthy amounts of action and for Blitsbolts himself - a Japanese monster who certainly deserves a return appearance. The design is both strangely beautiful and subtlety fierce, complete with a handful of some really nifty powers. While Blitsbolts' suit actor does an awesome job at conveying an otherworldly creature with direct, bird-like mannerisms, and fighting moves.

More impressive however is Blitsbolts' battle with Tigris. Tigris is quadruped monster who actually works in a battle against a bipedal opponent, which is something that I rarely see done successfully in any tokusatsu films or TV shows. This is mostly thanks to the long neck and bulk of the Tigris suit, that can strike for the alien bird's neck with great ease.

*********

And finally...FINALLY...we have the American incarnation of the classic monster brute Red King, from the 1993 series "Ultraman The Ultimate hero" (AKA "Ultraman Powered")...which never made it to our screens because of a number of problems I'm NOT going to get into...

...Oh Tsuburaya Productions and your amazingly bad luck with English-speaking entertainment markets!

The traditional Japanese Red King is supposed to be a mix of gold and blue colors, but the American effects crew on "Ultimate Hero" gave Red King a proper crimson coat to finally match with his name. In addition to him, there was also a second, yellow colored, female Red King who served as the monster's mate and fighting partner against Ultraman Powered.

Although fans have often referred to this character as 'Red Queen', truth be told the only thing that comes close to an official naming for her is 'Red King's Mate'. If that wasn't unfortunate enough, she's also mistaken for being the lone 'man' of the episode by less informed fans and viewers.

Wow, sucks to be a lady giant monster sometimes, huh?

Description
Several of the pieces in this compilation are the early predecessors of what would become the Kaiju Portraits. And like that current series, they're all obscure subjects who will only attract a limited number of weirdos who know of them.

God bless you all.

*********

The guy with an axe for a face is the often-mistaken-for-not-having-a-name monster Badaxtra; a rather opposing villain from the cartoon series "Dexter's Laboratory". Appearing only once in the episode "Last, But Not Beast", Badaxtra is accidentally awaken from his volcanic tomb by the title boy genius, after a giant-robot based contest with two Japanese school kids (and their orchid-haired lady teacher) gets a little out of hand.

Afetrwards, Badaxtra goes on a globe spanning rampage, facing against many super heroes and other secondary characters from the series; all failing in stopping the villainous beast. Ultimately, Dexter and his dimwitted family are forced to deal with Badaxtra themselves in the giant Multi-Formic Megabot, by the episode's climax.

"Last, But Not Beast" was meant to be the final episode of the "Dexter's Laboratory" TV series, hence the unusually powerful 'straight man' for an ultimate challenge in Badaxtra.

But by this time however, Cartoon Network had finally come out of its public stereotype as 'that channel that plays Hanna-Barbera reruns 24/7', with "Dexter" being its first, true break-out hit. This lead to the awesome hour-length film "Ego-Trip", and many years after that, the less successful second series, done by a different creative team.

*********

Standing next to Badaxtra, we have a monster rather close to my heart; Gudis is from the 1990 Japanese-Australian co-production "Ultraman: Towards the Future" (AKA "Ultraman Great"). And he was the main antanginist of the show's first six episodes story-arc.

An evil alien horror of unknown origins, Gudis could separate himself into millions of cells as a last resort when near death, and infect other worlds' ecosystems, mutating some unfortunates into both willing and unwilling monster slaves. It's hinted that Gudis' reign of terror happened far beyond our known galaxy, which caused Ultraman Great himself to intervene against the genetic-conqueror. But an unsuccessful battle on Mars caused Gudis to escape to Earth, and Ultraman Great forced to merge / join forces with the human astronaut Jack Shindo, who was stranded on Mars thanks to Gudis's actions.

Ultimately, Gudis is able to reform himself into a more malevolent looking form seen above, and actually wins against Great in their second rematch, absorbing the alien giant into his body.

But before consuming Great completely, Gudis is distracted by Jack Shindo's separate consciousness, who points out the ironic tragedy of Gudis' very existence; his gluttony for absolute power and organic matter always results in Gudis ending up alone. And no matter how many races and worlds he consumes, he'll always loose in the end.

While Gudis is angered by Jack Shindo's compassion, Ultraman Great breaks loose from the evil being, and destroys him in the process.

But this would not be the last of the tentacle fiend, for an obscure US produced comic book would feature two more storylines with Gudis as the main villain. Completely ignoring the continuity from the TV series, Gudis pops up in a three-part miniseries where he leads a small army of past monsters (both of his creating and not) against Great / Shindo, on the moon. And at the comic's final two-issue adventure, where Gudis, using the blood from Great's second human host Ace, transforms the violent albino criminal Raptor into the willing ally Blue Ultraman.

Even with the better monsters and aliens I've seen from the other entries in the Ultraman franchise, Gudis, along with a lot of the monsters from "Towards the Future", are still among my top-favorites. Second to Gomora, King Joe, and Dada of course!

*********

At the left end of the top row, we have Daitanix, a major monster from the 1998 Super Sentai entry "Gingaman". Born from a contaminated star, and sharing an evil partnership with the cruel space pirate Captain Zahaib, Daitanix is a cosmic glutton who feeds off the life-energy of planets, dooming any of the inhabitants of these unfortunate worlds.

Captain Zahaib manages to fit a castle onto the creature's back, and partially controlling the beast, plunders the victim planets with other alien villains, all of which are naturally drawn towards Daitanix's dark presence. Collectively, these villains would be dubbed the Barban Space Pirates. In addition, the power Daitanix consumes extends the lives of the Barban members, as well as granting them unique weapons and powers, such like the Star Soul Brooch, which Zahaib used to replace his own heart, thus granting him immortality.

However, Daitanix and his Barban parasites meet formidable opposition in the form of the Star Beasts (or Ginga-Beasts); benevolent comic monsters, along with their Gingamen allies - magical warriors who defended the ancient Earth, and succeeded by sending Daitanix into a corpse-like, stone state so long ago.

Many generations later, The Barban return to Earth, hoping to revive Daitanix, and it's up to a new team of Gingaman, along with the reawaken Star Beasts, to battle them once again.

DAMN...Super Sentai plots are freaking complicated!

Anyway, when footage from this series was used for its American counterpart, "Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy", Daitanix was not only lessened in character role and power, as the simple beast of burden for Captain Mutiny (Zahaib), but also renamed Titanisaur. And to fans of the Godzilla-based dinosaur of a similar name from "Terror of Mechagodzilla" - I'm not kidding.

It should also be noted, that Daitanix is one of several Super Sentai characters, deliberately meant as homage to Godzilla himself, with the most famous of these being Dragon Ceasar / Dragon Zord from "Zyuranger" amd "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers". Daitanix trumps Dragon Zord in this regard however, by actually having a Godzilla-style breath weapon!

(Big thanks to for help on Daitanix's background

*********

The black-and-white fellow below is Blitsbolts from the 1998 television series "Ultraman Gaia".

Acting as an agent of destruction, sent forth by the monstrous overlords of Galaxy M91, the bird-like Blitsbolts succeeds in destroying many Earth Defense Force bases across the globe. Until he we thwarted and ultimately killed by an unlikely alliance comprised of Ultraman Gaia, human soldiers and scientists, and Tigris; an ancient tiger monster who fights in the name of the Earth.

The episode in question is number forty-five, and is especially good for its healthy amounts of action and for Blitsbolts himself - a Japanese monster who certainly deserves a return appearance. The design is both strangely beautiful and subtlety fierce, complete with a handful of some really nifty powers. While Blitsbolts' suit actor does an awesome job at conveying an otherworldly creature with direct, bird-like mannerisms, and fighting moves.

More impressive however is Blitsbolts' battle with Tigris. Tigris is quadruped monster who actually works in a battle against a bipedal opponent, which is something that I rarely see done successfully in any tokusatsu films or TV shows. This is mostly thanks to the long neck and bulk of the Tigris suit, that can strike for the alien bird's neck with great ease.

*********

And finally...FINALLY...we have the American incarnation of the classic monster brute Red King, from the 1993 series "Ultraman The Ultimate hero" (AKA "Ultraman Powered")...which never made it to our screens because of a number of problems I'm NOT going to get into...

...Oh Tsuburaya Productions and your amazingly bad luck with English-speaking entertainment markets!

The traditional Japanese Red King is supposed to be a mix of gold and blue colors, but the American effects crew on "Ultimate Hero" gave Red King a proper crimson coat to finally match with his name. In addition to him, there was also a second, yellow colored, female Red King who served as the monster's mate and fighting partner against Ultraman Powered.

Although fans have often referred to this character as 'Red Queen', truth be told the only thing that comes close to an official naming for her is 'Red King's Mate'. If that wasn't unfortunate enough, she's also mistaken for being the lone 'man' of the episode by less informed fans and viewers.

Wow, sucks to be a lady giant monster sometimes, huh?