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glarnboudin · 3 years

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Tiratola, the Long-Tailed Terror!

Aliases: the Dragon of Etna, the Serpentine Savior, Our Lady of Flame

Date Discovered: May 20th, 1954

Place of Origin: Mt. Etna

Notable Stomping Grounds: Mt. Etna, Messina, Pisa, Stromboli Kaiju Reserve

Height: Generally holds head around 15 meters above the ground, but can rear up to tower at around 34 meters at her tallest.

Length: 115 meters

Biology:

A prehistoric varanid of enormous size from the same lineage that produced Kraydi, Tiratola brings to mind the dragons of yore, slinking and serpentine and adorned with a crown of fearsome crests and horns. Indeed, her Mediterranean location closely matches with depictions of dragons from the ancient Greeks and Romans, although her demeanor is hardly that of a rapacious devourer of maidens and hoarder of gold.

Rather than her jaws, Tiratola’s primary weapon of choice is her tail - even for a reptile, hers is incredibly long and dexterous, making up more than half of her total body length and as flexible and powerful as the body of any snake. With it, she can lash at targets several hundred feet away, coil and constrict her opponents, and even pick up and hurl objects as big as buildings or handle very small objects with the very tip of the tail like an elephant’s trunk. Indeed, her style of combat is very similar to that of the American kaiju Gorgolisk, preferring to coil and constrict her opponents with her powerful body.

As a kaiju, Tiratola also sports a fairly standard powerset:

Super strength

An enhanced healing factor

Immunity to radiation

She also has one more trick up her sleeve - like many other prehistoric varanids as well as Tyrantis himself, the Terror of Italia sports venom glands within her jaws that she can either ‘chew’ into her opponents or spray like a spitting cobra, and like Tyrantis, this venom has further honed into a flammable compound like something out of the pages of myth and legend.

Of course, comparing Tiratola’s fire spitting with Tyrantis’ flaming breath would be akin to comparing a firecracker with a flamethrower - rather than napalm-like torrents of ignited venom, the enormous reptile’s sprayed venom ignites into a cloud of scalding sparks and embers that explodes outwards in a shotgun-like blast with a loud crack and a blinding flash. While it’s not the best at actually damaging opponents, it still stings and burns quite painfully for targets, especially if hit in the eyes and other sensitive areas, and the sharp rapport of the venom combusting can cause a few seconds of disorientation. Injecting the stuff into the bodies of opponents, however, produces rather more grisly results as it reacts with oxygen in the bloodstream, causing the wounds inflicted by her teeth to burst open a few seconds after she lets go. To a kaiju’s durability and regeneration, it’s not nearly as harmful as it looks unless Tiratola injects a truly immense amount of venom or her opponent is considerably smaller than herself, but it’s still quite painful to experience.

History & Personality:

When the Superquake of ‘54 rocked the world, the actual tremors weren’t the only force behind the resulting destruction - tidal waves lashed the coasts, avalanches and rockslides buried towns, and a number of already-rumbling volcanoes were roused to erupt once more, pushing up not only molten material but all manner of strange new landforms forged from the Yamaneon tunnels beneath the earth. Home to several volcanoes as they are, Greece and Italy were particularly subject to this, disgorging an assortment of subterranean environments alongside quite a number of kaiju. Among them was the great reptile Tiratola - emerging from the volcanic aftermath of Mt. Etna, the serpentine saurian made herself known to the public at large when she swept through the outskirts of Messina and smothered a major fire when she settled herself on top of it for warmth, inadvertently saving much of the city from burning to the ground. In the aftermath of the fire, she would go on to save even more lives as she nosed around the rubble, unearthing nearly two dozen people that had been trapped beneath fallen debris.

Since her awakening, Tiratola has come to roam across Italy and Greece, frequently digging people out of rubble wherever she went and frequently engaging smaller mutants emerging from local Yamaneon tunnels as well as the occasional full-on kaiju - her most famous scuffles include preying upon a hoard of Paleozoic invertebrates that emerged from a Carboniferous swamp in the Greek Kassandra Peninsula and engaging a hulking one-eyed hominid kaiju that had been menacing the city of Taranto, dragging it down to its doom beneath the waves before it could do anything worse than superficial damage to buildings. Aside from an incident involving the Leaning Tower of Pisa, she’s been responsible for relatively little destruction, and has become somewhat of a local hero to the populace of the regions, something that Tiratola has come to notice.

Low to the ground as she is, the Whip-Tailed Terror is by her nature literally closer to human beings than many other kaiju, and is more aware of their activities as a result. She’s come to recognize how people react to her presence and realizes how easily she can reshape the tiny world that she now finds herself in. Were she a more malevolent sort, this awareness and her ability to easily wind through city streets could potentially make her an incredibly dangerous thrat to human beings, but the ultimate result of this is that Tiratola has come to realize that she quite enjoys the attention and praise she gets from acts of heroism. Being a reptile, she is by nature a very energy-efficient creature, conserving her strength when she does need to exert herself… but being a kaiju, acts of aid towards humans are trivially easy for her. A couple sweeps of her tail can smother a major fire beneath dirt and water and pulling people from danger can be easily accomplished by simply pushing her head into, say, a burning building and using her keen senses to locate survivors in the same way that modern varanids break into termite mounds and locate warm chambers to lay their eggs in or mother crocodiles dig out their young from nests. It costs little to the great reptile to lend her aid to others, and the reward for doing so is more than worth it - adoration and cheers whenever she enters a populated area, occasional offerings of fish and other treats, even occasional cleanings by teams of volunteers that scrub her down and aid in peeling off any lingering bits of unshed skin. The latter task has also provided another boon to the people of Greece and Italy - analysis of Tiratola’s shed skin has shed a lot of light on kaiju cellular biology, and the scales themselves are durable enough to be shaped and worked like metal or glass, fostering a small but lucrative industry of decorative items made from the kaiju’s scales.

However, there may also be another reason for her gentleness towards humans - while unearthing survivors from rubble, Tiratola frequently makes vocalizations not unlike those of crocodilian and alligator parents when unearthing their buried young, even scooping them up in her jaws in a similar fashion to carry them to safety. It may be that trapped survivors reminds the the whip-tailed dragon of her own offspring, buried in sand and soil - joint Reptodite-human expeditions into the collapsed tunnels where the kaiju emerged have even found the crystallized remains of ruined nests and cracked eggs, suggesting that she may have produced several clutches of offspring before via parthenogenesis in the same manner as some species of monitor lizard, although none seem to have survived.

Behind the Scenes:

Behold, my entry to @tyrantisterror ’s ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest 3D, Tiratola! I’ve entered both of his previous contests, and I didn’t want to miss out here, although this is admittedly my first time posting one here to Tumblr; there’s a bunch of really creative kaiju already entered into the competition, and I highly recommend checking them out. My entry really isn’t the best by far (I wanted to make Tiratola a lot lengthier and more serpentine, but I didn’t have the space to do it, and I can’t really do detail work for shit), but I’m still reasonably happy with how my girl Tiratola came out!

Tiratola is meant to be an homage to that tried-and-true staple of the monster movie genre - movie companies from other countries trying to cash in on a trend! It’s how the world got creatures like Gorgo, Paleosaurus, and Reptilicus - creatures whose movies were far from the source material, but were packaged as being the same thing in their posters and translated titles overseas, leading to weirdness like Godzilla vs Mothra becoming ‘Watang and the Fabulous Kingdom of Monsters’ in its Italian release, the infamous cut of ‘The Volcano Monsters,’ and so on. As such, she takes the basic concept of Tyrantis - ‘giant green prehistoric reptilian monster with a long tail and horns that breathes fire’, and reconstructs it through that lens. To that end, she’s also somewhat based on slurpasaurs and on cheap rubber props, staples of Italian monster cinema.

Designwise, I based her quite heavily on, well, monitor lizards as well as the classic LEGO dragon model plus the movie poster design for Reptilicus - both are a nice combination of reptilian features that doesn’t really lend itself to any particular order, with Kraydi factoring in as another reference. Indeed, Tiratola’s meant to be a cousin to that kaiju, another of the varanid lizard lineage that would have lead to dragons and their kin in the Lost Epoch - she’s meant to be a bit farther down that evolutionary line than Kraydi is, but still not exactly a direct ancestor.

I was struggling to get a feel for Tiratola’s personality at first, but I managed to get something when I reread ATOM and the way that its reptilian stars think, plus some takes on protective dragons and why they defend humans so much smaller and weaker than they. A big part of this series is about how the kaiju are far more intelligent and empathetic than they let on - I thought it’d be neat to play off of that. While her motivations come from a very different place than they would in a human being or a similar creature, the end result is still the same: if it feels good to help others, and doing so is relatively easy, why not do so? I also added a good deal of Ogra and Reptisaurus as well - I figured it would be only fitting.

The thing about her visiting Pisa is a nod to Dinosaurs Attack, the card where the Rhedosaurus and Giant Behemoth teamed up to destroy the Leaning Tower, while her battle with the giant is taken from the battle between the dragon Taro and the Cyclops in The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. The date of her discovery is also the date that Reptilicus was released in theaters, albeit moved back a few years.

#tyrantisterror #kaiju #atomic time of monsters #Reptilicus #gorgo #dragons #my crappy art #The ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest 3D #slurpasaur #tiratola #italy #dinosaurs attack #tyrantis

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cerothenull · 3 years

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The ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest 3D

Name: Naeranti

Aliases: The Skyweaver, Zeppelin Queen, Mother of Webs, UFO Bane

Date Discovered: 1944

Place of Origin: New Zealand

Notable Stomping Grounds: Typhon Island, Stratosphere

Height: 90ft

Width: 160ft

Biology: This arachnid kaiju shares many similarities with both the mundane Spiny Orb Weaver Spiders and the Ogre-faced or Net-Casting Spiders. Her similar bodyplan and typically peaceful nature have caused many kaijuologists to speculate and theorize that Naeranti is a “relative” of the friendly Kaiju known as Bobo.

Much like Bobo, Naeranti is capable of producing vast amounts of silken webbing, but rather than spinning a web or creating a nest, Naeranti takes a more unique approach. With web strands that were stronger than steel cable and deceptively light the Skyweaver weaves herself a vast structure of interwoven threads that allows the spider kaiju to drift effortlessly upon the air currents and thermals of the atmosphere.

Beyond constructing her massive gliding structures, which can grow to several times her own size, she is known to create a variety of net, bolos, or even harpoon-like constructs that with her eyesight, she can aim and fire with frightening accuracy.

Her carapace sports large spines that arc out away from her body that, while intimidating, are actually used as supports to anchor Naeranti’s elaborate web constructions. Also present in her chitin is the presence of special super-reflective cells that give her a dazzling mirror ball appearance, the cells capable of deflecting or reflecting energy if Naeranti focuses.

One of her more striking features is her immense pair of central eyes. Kaijuologists theorize that the powerful eyes are capable of clearly perceiving events on the group while high in the stratosphere with more fantastical claims saying the spider is capable of reading a newspaper from near orbit. In fact Naeranti has been observed just as frequently observing the goings-on of the ground dwelling humans and kaiju as she did seeming to stare up at the night sky studying the stars. Some researchers believe that because of her powerful vision that Naeranti was quite possibly the first Earthling to spy the approach of the Beyonder invaders.

Super strength

An enhanced healing factor

Immunity to radiation

Super webbing and manipulation

Neurotoxic venom

Telescopic vision

Reflective chitin

Yamaneon powered flight

Personality: Naeranti is a reclusive kaiju most of the time. Seemingly content just to drift along the air currents high in the atmosphere Naeranti will tolerate and even socialize with flying Kaiju that find themselves peacefully flying with her but she will respond with seeming annoyance and spite if any attempt to disrupt her flight. A lesson that kaiju like the ill-tempered Ahuul had to learn several times of becoming webbed up before he learned better.

Rarely will she deign to land but when she does it has usually been to visit with kaiju she’s befriended upon the ground, her “cousin” Bobo and the massive Scutlgor among the number.

One of the more mellow kaiju she is not above a playful spar or even an aerial dogfight if her opponents intents are good-natured. Against aggressors or dangerous she is more likely to end the conflict as quickly as possibly by using her webbing to immobilize them long enough to inject them with her venom. Despite this, she is far from a frail spider and has shown to be deceptively strong in the more intense fights she’s been observed in.

History: It is not certain when the first true sighting of Naeranti but the first official sighting was recorded in New Zealand where she was recorded taking flight upon a massive, balloon-like web construct that lifted the arachnid into the air.

At first the sight of the massive spider was met with alarm and fear, especially after an encounter with the Air Force that caused the destruction of several aircraft, with reports claiming that all pilots had been killed in action. These reports were redacted several days later when the pilots were found alive and unharmed, if hungry, tangled in a mass of knotted webbing that Naeranti had dropped on a soccer field in southern China.

Deemed a potential flight hazard but non-aggressive Kaiju, Naeranti was continuously observed for some time before she suddenly disappeared. Her disappearance was nearly overlooked as shortly after the Beyonder Invasion was launched in full swing.

It was partway through the Invasion that reports of Beyonder starships crash landing tangled up in large amounts of webbing. Not long after Naeranti was spotted fighting with flying Beyonder kaiju, the spider often gaining the upperhand long enough to web up her foe and leaving them to drop to Earth, occasionally into the awaiting talons and fangs of allied terrestrial Kaiju.

Despite suffering numerous injuries Naeranti continued to fight throughout the Invasion, destroying and disabling many of the Invaders starships, her reflective carapace providing a significant defense against their energy weaponry. This earning her title as a formidable foe for any flying aliens that attempted to darken her skies.

It was during the height of the Invasion when Naeranti was observed utilizing a skill very few kaiju seem to realize or even attempt. The spiders web constructs mostly shredded from the battle and streaming from her spines like warbanners, Naeranti flew around the battlefield with a deadly grace she rarely demonstrated before.

In the relative calm of the invasions aftermath Naeranti recuperated on Typhon Island for a time but eventually returned to her usual routine of peacefully drifting among the atmopshere, her eyes now trained on the stars more often.

#the atom create a kaiju contest 3d #kaiju #spider #here's another heroic arthropod kaiju #I'm becoming predictable lol

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multiversefan · 3 years

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Name: Yamaneon King

Aliases: The Crystal Creation Monster, Asset Hydra, The Living Kaiju Factory, The Purple Menace

Date Discovered: March 21, 1954

Place of Origin: Pacific Ocean

Notable Stomping Grounds: Spooks Organization Outpost 68, Oriagow City, Echidna Island, Ogasawara Kaiju Sanctuary, The Wells-Verne Kaiju Sanctuary, The Siberian Monster Zone, Typhon Island, Fitzgerald Island, Bunyip Park Reserve, Bermuda Kaiju Sanctuary, Challenger Mesa, Jotunheim Icefield

Height: 105 feet(110 at crown)

Length: 225 feet

Biology: Yamaneon King is a member of the Transitional Tyrant class of Retrosaurs, of the aquatic variety, and is very closely related to his Paleo Tyrant ancestors, as, compared to his more bizarre Transitional Tyrant Retrosaurs, Yamaneon King looks more like what you expect a Retrosaur to look like, only with a shorter neck. One of the more unique features of of Yamaneon King are the crystal blade-like horn and spikes covering his back, shoulders, tail, and head. An examination by Kaijuologists confirmed that these spikes are not natural, but are in fact pure Yamaneon Crystals growing out of its body, with no organic material present in them. However, Yamaneon King doesn’t seem to mind the crystals out of his body, though whether he is unaware that they are abnormal or is simply use to them is unknown.

Yamaneon King also has the ability to spew green flames from his mouth. However, unlike Tyrantis and Diablosaurus, Yamaneon King lacks the venom sac that allows other Kaiju with a similar ability to breathe fire. Further research into his Yamaneon Flame Breath has revealed that the ability is not a natural one, and is powered directly by the Yamaneon Crystals on his body. Due to this, if Yamaneon King uses his Yamaneon Flame Breath too much, he will eventually become physically exhausted.

Yamaneon King also emits far more radiation than that is normal for Yamaneon Crystals. This results in one of Yamaneon King’s most strange, unique, and dangerous ability: Accelerated Atomic Fossilization. Should any creature stay within Yamaneon King’s presence for an extended period of time, they will eventually become a Kaiju themselves. A process that takes a decade to even start, can be completed in a mere month by Yamaneon King.

This also leads to Yamaneon King’s most dangerous ability, his Yamaneon Burst. If Yamaneon King is in a a severe amount of stress or pain, he unleashed a massive burst of Yamaneon radiation. This blast has enormous power to severely damage and, in some cases, kill his opponents. This burst is also similar to the kind normal Yamaneon Crystals give off when exposed to a violent burst of energy. Thus, any non-Kaiju organism in Yamaneon King’s presence when he uses Yamaneon Burst ability will undergo instant Atomic Fossilization, becoming Kaiju in minutes. After Yamaneon King releases this burst of energy, he becomes physically exhausted, unable to continue fighting and will slip away during the ensuing chaos. Because of the, Yamaneon King rarely uses this ability, and will only do so when backed in a corner.

Because of the strange abilities the Kaiju has, and the fact that Yamaneon Crystals are growing unnaturally out of his body, Yamaneon King is believed to be by many Kaijuologists to one of the few Retrosaur Kaiju that came to be through instant Atomic Fossilization. How this happened can only be speculated, but the leading theory is that Yamaneon King was near an underwater volcano with a patch of Yamaneon Crystals when it erupted, the chain reaction causing the Retrosaur’s instant transformation into a Kaiju.

Yamaneon King’s powers include:

• Super strength

• An enhanced healing factor

• Immunity to radiation

• Yamaneon Flame Breath

• Accelerated Atomic Fossilization

• Yamaneon Burst

Personality: First appearing leading a pack of prehistoric Kaiju in Japan, Yamaneon King’s discovery wasn’t that notable compared to the many other Kaiju to first appear in the Atomic Time of Monsters. Since he was one of the first Kaiju to appear in Japan, people wouldn’t have notice the glowing green crystals on his body would be unusual. It wasn’t until after his initial defeat and separation from his pack that Yamaneon King ‘s Accelerated Atomic Fossilization ability was discovered. It was observed that Yamaneon King would settle in an area and allow the radiation he emits to mutate the local wildlife into Kaiju. It was even observed that Yamaneon King would keep certain animals in the area that interest him to be mutated into Kaiju, so the Kaiju is is aware of this ability.

It was unfortunate then, that this was discovered by the Spooks Organization, who had spent a few months observing Yamaneon King, and then captured the Kaiju. Yamaneon King was then transported to Spooks Organization Outpost 68, where he was subjected to severe experiments. It was during one of these experiments that Yamaneon King’s Yamaneon Burst ability was discovered, when he was subjected to such severe pain he let loose a burst of Yamaneon radiation, mutating the nearby animals into Kaiju.

Upon discovering this, the Spooks Organization subjected Yamaneon King to severe pain several times to trigger his Yamaneon Burst, contributing to their other Kaiju experiments to combat the Kaiju crisis. These expiramemts took a toll on Yamaneon King, traumatizing the Kaiju, much to the indifference to the Sppoks staff. Indeed, Spooks Organization Outpost 68 earned itself a reputation among the larger Spooks Organization in a short amount of time, creating more Kaiju than any other Spooks instillation thanks to Yamaneon King. This lead to the both the installation and the Kaiju being nicknamed “The Living Kaiju Factory” by those working for Spooks.

Eventually, Yamaneon King had enough, and he convinced a good portion of the Kaiju held in Spooks Organization Outpost 68(many of which he created) into a jailbreak. Yamaneon King and his Kaiju pack fought against the forces of Spooks Organization Outpost 68, which included a few Mechs and many Kaiju under their control(many of which were also created by Yamaneon King). Yamaneon King and his pack killed them all. And then they turned their eyes on the human staff. When the military were sent to investigate Spooks Organization Outpost 68, all they found were giant scraps of metal that could barely be put into human shape, piles of Yamaneon Crystals, several crushed human corpses, and data and notes on the Kaiju experiments that were conducted, the most documented Kaiju being the one the outpost shared a nickname with.

What’s worse Spooks Organization Outpost 68 was stationed near Oriagow city, and when Yamaneon King and his pack broke free, they came across the city and destroyed it, killing most of its inhabitants. Yamaneon King’s experience with the Spooks Organization deeply affected the Kaiju’s view of humanity, and made him deeply antagonistic to all humans he comes across.

At first, it was believed that the Kaiju had some sort of psychic connection to the Kaiju he created due to how most if not all of them join his pack. However, upon further, proper examination by Kaijuologists, they discovered that Yamaneon King simply has a natural charisma about him. This discovery was made when it was noticed that Kaiju that existed before even coming in contact with Yamaneon King joined his pack. It was also observed that Yamaneon King is often something of a mentor to the Kaiju he creates, helping them come to terms with their new existence, and appears to care for them deeply. Yamaneon King is also friendly with other Kaiju as well, and can be very influential among his fellow monsters.

Because of Yamaneon King being such a social Kaiju, in theory, he should be the ideal Kaiju that the Kaiju Sanctuaies were built for. In reality, however, Yamaneon King is an explorer at his heart, and wishes to explore the world, not wanting to be kept in one place. What’s worse, Yamaneon King has not forgotten his treatment at the hands of the Spooks Organization, and thus has developed a deeply antagonistic relationship with humanity. Because of this, Yamaneon King is not thrilled to be kept in a single place run by humans.

Because his experiences prior, Yamaneon King has lead many “jail breaks” in the Kaiju Sanctuaries, by convincing several of his fellow Kaiju to escape and overwhelming the Sanctuary’s defenses, similar to Spooks Organization Outpost 68(though thankfully not nearly as destructive, and with few, if any, casualties). This was very much a problem as the first Kaiju Sanctuary that Yamaneon King was sent to was Echidna Island to study his Accelerated Atomic Fossilization ability and to hopefully rehabilitate him so he can become less antagonistic to humanity.

However, what happened instead was Yamaneon King influenced the residents of Echidna Island to assist him in these jail breaks and explore the world with him. Having a breakout of Kaiju is bad enough, but what was worse was that the Kaiju of Echidna Island are some of the most dangerous and unstable Kaiju in the world, and can’t be let loose upon it. Worse, Yamaneon King was a bad influence on his fellow Kaiju, setting their rehabilitation progress back by significant margin. Due to this, and even though Echidna Island was the ideal Kaiju Sanctuary for him, Yamaneon King was transported to the Ogasawara Kaiju Sanctuary not long after it opened, along with a team of Kaijuologists from Echidna Island to hopefully continue the Kaiju’s rehabilitation. Unfortunately, Yamaneon King was still able to influence his fellow Kaiju into helping him in breaking out. Worse, while the Kaiju of the Ogasawara Kaiju Sanctuary aren’t as dangerous as the ones of Echidna Island, they are greater in number, and thus far more Kaiju were able to escape. This resulted in Yamaneon King having to be relocated to another Kaiju Sanctuary.

Indeed Yamaneon King has accomplished more jail breaks than any other Kaiju, and has been sent to every Kaiju Sanctuary in an attempt to find one that he could call home and settle down. However, when put into different Kaiju Sanctuaries, Yamaneon King would either be planning a breakout, befriending his fellow Kaiju to assist him in a breakout, or leading a breakout. Yamaneon King was even sent to Typhon Island in the hopes that the a Kaiju stationed there would be a positive influence on him, but he still managed to convince the more problematic Kaiju to help him in another successful breakout(though one where only Yamaneon King was able to escape).

Usually, when Yamaneon King breaks out of a Kaiju Sanctuary, he will often hide out in a secluded area with a lot of animals for about a month or two, and allow his Atomic Fossilization ability to mutate the local wildlife. Yamaneon King is a social creature, and prefers the presence of his fellow Kaiju. Because of this, he will not go exploring unless he has the presence of a pack, so he will often make one Himself. Once the new Kaiju have muted and gotten use to their new existence, Yamaneon King will lead them on his explorations of the surface world. In combat, Yamaneon King is a tooth and nail fighter, often using his claws, mouth, feet, and tail. Due to Yamaneon King’ Yamaneon Flame Breath can become physically exhausting to use, he will use it sparingly. If a battle is getting extremely dire, such as his opponent trying to kill or capture him, Yamaneon King will deploy his Yamaneon Burst ability as a last resort, causing instant Atomic Fossilizion in the local animals, and try to exhaustedly escape from the ensuing chaos.

Yamaneon King is extremely friendly with his fellow Kaiju, even ones he doesn’t create. It has been observed that when he isn’t planning a jail break, he will often play fight with his fellow Kaiju. What’s more interesting, he will also act as referee when Kaiju from his own pack that are fighting each other, helping improve their fighting styles and making sure they don’t hurt each other too bad. However, his relationship with humanity, as mentioned before, is not a good. If Yamaneon King comes across a human settlement during his travels, he will often lead his pack to attack it, trying to kill as many humans as possible. Though it should be noted that Yamaneon King does not actively seek out humans in any way. The human settlements he attacks are simply ones he comes across on his travels.

As stated before, Yamaneon King is very social and charismatic Kaiju, often convincing Kaiju to join his pack. Yamaneon King is also convincing enough that many Kaiju that were neutral on humanity to attack it. In fact, during the Beyonder invasion, Yamaneon King was able to convince a squad of Alien Kaiju to rebel against their masters… only to lead them to continue attacking humanity, only with him now leading them before they were stopped. However, despite being very friendly with his fellow monsters, Yamaneon King has a burning hatred for Kaiju that defend humanity. While normally Yamaneon King would fight like most other Kaiju, not trying to kill his opponent, when he comes across a giant defender for humanity, he will immediately go for the kill. Yamaneon King can not understand why any Kaiju would willingly defend humanity, as he had experienced the worst of them under the hands of the Spooks Organization. Normally, if Yamaneon King is defeated in combat by a Kaiju, he will often hold a great deal of respect and admiration for his foe, and may even look towards try to get them to join his pack. However, if a Kaiju that defeats him was doing so while defending humanity, Yamaneon King will hold a massive grudge against them, being immediately hostile in any future confrontations. This is made worse for Kaiju that Yamaneon King created that betrayed him, that saw the good in humanity and did not want to kill them.

Because of the influence he has on other Kaiju, it was eventually decided to separate Yamaneon King from other Kaiju, especially the ones he created. This angered Yamaneon King a great deal and strengthened his animosity towards humanity, even though the Kaijuologists were only trying to help him and the Kaiju he created. The Kaiju Sanctuary that worked best for Yamaneon King for a while was the Challanger Mesa due to it being a massive mountain with no nearby water mass for him to swim away. However, Yamaneon King was still able to escape by mutating a bird into a Kaiju and have it carry him of the mountain.

Finally, Yamaneon King found a permanent home at the end of the Atomic Time of Monsters. Unfortunately, his attitude towards humanity and it’s defenders never changed for the positive, and so Yamaneon King was put on ice in the Jotunheim Icefield, where he remains frozen to this day.

The story of Yamaneon King is a tragic one. At the beginning of the Atomic Time of Monsters, other than his strange abilities, Yamaneon King was simply another Kaiju. If left alone, And with his natural charisma and Accelerated Atomic Fossilizion, Yamaneon King could have been one of the greatest defenders of mankind. Plus, his exploratory nature may have allowed him to come across Kaiju’s attacking humanity and defended humanity, which would may have allowed the Kaiju Sanctuaries to let Yamaneon King to explore on his own, and maybe even convince the Kaiju he came across to come to the Kaiju Sanctuaries. The potential of this could even be seen with some of the Kaiju Yamaneon King created, as they went on to help send the earth during the Beyonder Invasion(ironic given what Yamaneon King was doing during this event) and help stop Kaiju from attacking humanity, becoming heroes themselves. Even his first “attack” on Japan could barely be called that one as, upon closer inspection, showed that Yamaneon King and his pack were simply exploring a new environment, and any destruction they caused was due to their nature of being Kaiju. Instead, the interference of the Spooks Organization took what could have been a great hero to humanity and turned him into one of its greatest villains. What worse, was that Yamaneon King ironically helped the Spooks Organization goal of destroying all the Kaiju in small way, as he became the face of many anti-Kaiju protests due to his numerous and repeated attacks on humanity, hurting the progress of the Kaiju Sanctuary program. This culminated with Yamaneon King’s frozen imprisonment in the Jotunheim Icefield, considered by many to be the worst Kaiju Sanctuary. Yamaneon King desired adventure and, like most Kaiju, friends and family. In the end however, he was frozen in one place, and alone.

Author’s Notes:

• Yamaneon King has two main inspirations.

• The first is the Kaiju from Ultraman and other Tsuburaya shows that have “King” in their name. The most famous is obviously Red King, but there are others, such as Black King, Grand King, Snake King, Five King, Live King and many more.

• The second source of inspiration is from the Kaiju from Matthew Dennion’s novel Atomic Rex. Assuming you haven’t read it, in the setting of Atomic Rex, the world is divided into territory among Kaiju. The Kaiju also give off strong radiation that can mutate them into Kaiju as well, who are either driven off into other Kaiju’s territory to challenge them, or hunted for food by the True Kaiju. Plus I’m a fan of monsters that can create other monsters.

• When I first made the concept for Yamaneon King, the first thought I had was an antagonist. This is due to pretty much most of the other contest entries being heroic Kaiju, defending humanity from Kaiju. So the idea is for Yamaneon King be a Kaiju those heroic Kaiju defend humanity from. As such, I also made Yamaneon King have three colors associated with evil(even though Yamaneon King himself isn’t really that evil): Red, purple, and lime green.

• Yamaneon King has only four toes, all of them being front ones. I’m not good at drawing fingers and feet.

• There are two reason why I listed all the Kaiju Sanctuaries in the notable Stomping Grounds section. The first is to explore what would happen if a Kaiju would be incompatible with the Kaiju Sanctuaries. The reason Kaiju Sanctuaries work so well is because they meet the needs and wants of their Kaiju residents. However, what if a Kaiju wanted to explore the world, which would require him from moving place to place, and not staying place in one Kaiju Sanctuary. Yamaneon King would most likely still try to escape the Kaiju Sanctuaries even if he wasn’t captured by Spooks, though it would probably been more of a game to him as he wouldn’t be so antagonistic towards humans.

• The second is to give him an excuse to meet and fight those heroic Kaiju of the world. Like I stated above, a lot of previous contest Kaiju were heroic, so I made Yamaneon Kind be an antagonist. Him being moved and relocated to all these different Kaiju Sanctuaries is also a bit of an excuse for him to meet and fight these heroic Kaiju.

EDIT: just made a few corrections to some grammar mistakes.

#the atom create a kaiju contest 3d #Tyrantis #Tyrantisterror #Yamaneon King #Kaiju #ATOM #Atomic Time of Monsters

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downtofragglerock · 3 years

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ATOM Kaiju contest submission

Name: Saroguana

Alias: “The Shark of the Skies”

Date Discovered: December 26, 1956

Place of Origin: The Pacific Northwest

Stomping Grounds: The Pacific Northwest, Typhon Island

Height: 60 feet

Length: 90 feet

Wingspan: 110 Feet

Biology: Saroguana is a rather interesting look into the evolutionary process between the Tiny Tyrant and Flying Tyrant Retrosaur clades. Whereas evolution gradually transformed the arms of some species of Tiny Tyrants into wings, Saroguana seems to belong to an offshoot where the opposite occurred, their forelimbs remained relatively unchanged, but their hindlimbs became great sets of wings. Because of this, Saroguana’s center of gravity and the maintaining of that center is more complicated than that of most Flying Tyrants. Their bright orange body naturally leans forward more, on account for the fact that their forelimbs are being used for support. Saroguana has a rather flexible neck to compensate for this so they can still have a full field of vision. Saroguana also has various structures to help maintain balance, mainly their tail and backfins. The tail, while long, acts more like the short rudder tail seen on some Flying Tyrants, rather than the lizard like one seen on most long-tailed Flying Tyrants. The backfins are a more interesting case. They’re lime green, much like a lot of the accents on Saroguana’s body, and have an odd, hockey stick-like shape to them. They stand straight up on the kaiju’s back when grounded and during takeoff, but during flight, they collapse on top of one another, creating a fin-like shape that makes the body more aerodynamic, especially during Saroguana’s divebomb descents, the source for the creature’s moniker of “The Shark of the Skies”.

Personality: Saroguana is seemingly scatterbrained kaiju, never being able to focus on one thing at a time for very long. While the way they dance around in the air is oddly graceful, they’re quite clumsy when it comes to walking on the ground. Most of the time they waddle around wide-eyed like a confused toddler. They’re a bit of a kleptomaniac, taking seemingly random things either because said things are shiny or just interesting in the kaiju’s eyes. Researchers are still trying to figure out what qualifies as “interesting” to this kaiju, as there is almost no legitimate correlation between items. Saroguana is quite friendly, although they have a somewhat hard time befriending other kaiju due to their klutzy and slightly random nature, and despite being in the size range to get some sustenance out of human meat, has no record of actually eating humans strangely enough. And despite their scatterbrain-ed ness, Saroguana is quite curious, investigating even seemingly innocuous things. Of course, these fixations are quite sporadic, quickly moving from one thing to the next and back again, but the dedication seen in those periods is actually quite admirable.

History: It wasn’t too long after Christmas that reports came in about missing… well, just about everything past a certain size. Cars, cattle, roofs, even lampposts where there one moment and seemingly taken the next. A few years prior, this would had left authorities baffled, but the world was now firmly in an age of giant monsters, and the now-reasonable assumption that a kaiju was behind this was quickly assumed. But what kind of monster and where it was were questions still up in the air. A couple days later, a nearby thermal power plant reported disturbances, and several hunches where proven (as well as several bets won) when those assigned to investigate saw two large deep blue eyes staring right at them. The kaiju went on a brief rampage, surprising some with its leg-wings and besting various fighter jets with its dive-bombing prowess. However, during said scuffle, the creature spontaneously retreated and was later found resting in the same plant it was found in. The beast’s motives were realized when a crude cow carcass-ridden nest made up of wrecked cars, building pieces, and lampposts was discovered in one of the hotter areas of the plant, with the kaiju nestled in there like a bird. The creature (which would later be dubbed Saroguana for unknown reasons) was a large reptile in the height of winter, and simply trying to find a nice warm place to rest for the season, like a family during the holidays. Saroguana would later be shipped off to Typhon island where they have acclimated rather well to their new warmer surroundings.

---

At first it was a bit challenging trying to come up with an idea for a kaiju that fit within the parameters of ATOM’s fictional universe, since I’m more of a fan of the “ancient quasi mythical” aspect of kaiju rather than the “giant creature products of the atomic age” that ATOM’s kaiju are more inclined to. My original idea was a heavily mutated deranged crow, as sort of a reference to the infamous knife-wielding crow of Vancouver and the Giant Claw, but it didn’t really feel right. Considering a majority of ATOM’s kaiju are a reference to some distinct type of Mesozoic reptile, I decided to go from there. I wanted my kaiju to stand out, so I looked at the Triassic, and its menagerie of somewhat unappreciated reptilian oddities, for inspiration. I remember a majority of the dinosaur books I had as a kid, during the obligatory “before the dinosaurs” bit, had various stock species shown off, and two creatures that where often featured together where Longisquama and Sharovipteryx, mainly because of the outdated belief that they were connected in some way to pterosaur evolution. I had also been playing around with a speculative evolutionary concept involving the latter animal, wondering if the hind leg gliders could have evolved into full blown wings, said concept was also partly inspired by Sebulba from Star Wars. So, taking a page out of Toho’s notebook of prehistoric chimera kaiju, I decided to combine them, taking Longisquama’s quills and the main body plan of Sharovipteryx. The name is also a combination of the two as well, though I did change “guama” to “guana” to make it sound more like iguana, since the retrosaurs are tied to the old belief of dinosaurs being “big lizards”.

While the color scheme wasn’t featured on the illustration, (I’ve grown more confident in my drawing skills over the years, my coloring abilities, not so much) I decided to base Saroguana’s colors off of the Nui Rama from Bionicle. One was bright orange and the other was lime green, so much like with the design and name, I combined the color schemes into one.

The discovery date is the original Japanese release date for Rodan. It was the first kaiju film I ever saw, and seeing as how I was creating a flying monster, I decided to give it a little shoutout.

For @tyrantisterror and his kaiju contest

#The ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest 3D #Kaiju

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virovac · 3 years

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Had a dream before

I dreamed I had somehow forgot that Tyrantisterror had made a monster similar to my entry for the contest, making my idea look unoriginal.

If I was a lucid dreamer I would have realized that’s BS.

#dreams #The ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest 3D #TheAtomicTimeofMonsters

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highly-radioactive-nerd · 3 years

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My entry for @tyrantisterror 's Create a Kaiju Contest 3D!

Meet Gunmetal Jeeves!

Following the 1954 Superquake and subsequent emergence of colossal retrosaurs, the world was scrambling to build new means of defense. At the forefront of this new push was robotics. To build cybertronic war machines capable of directly combating the prehistoric menace was on the mind of every developed militarized nation in the world and they believed the man to achieve this technology would be Dr. Daigo Ishikawa.

Ishikawa was discovered, however, to be uncompromising in his refusal to develop combat machines. Ishikawa had been widowed by World War Two and had seen enough death and destruction brought about by technology to cement his position as a pacifist one-hundred times over. Instead, he lent his expertise to as many non-lethal projects he could find, believing it morally just to return these displaced beasts back to their proper environment.

His work was long and regretfully kept him estranged from his only son, Yukio. The boy was growing into a young adult, entering formative years where he would come to truly understand the reality of the world and he wouldn't have his father or his mother there to help him. Daigo resolved to establish som sort of presence in his son's life and so, in secret, he built Gunmetal Jeeves.

Jeeves was a cybernetic butler. Originally programmed to accomplish simple tasks like cooking and cleaning, assisting with homework, and serving as a communication link between father and son. However, as any teenage boy gifted with a ten-foot tall robotic companion might, Yukio saw Jeeves as something more.

Yukio and Jeeves would go on countless adventures together, foiling bankrobbers, fighting monsters, saving people from danger, evading government spies, impressing attractive peers, etc. In each voyage, Jeeves would be pressed more and more. How could it help some people without harming others? How could it protect Yukio? The robot would constantly be faced with new problems that challenged its computer brain and it had no choice but to adapt and evolve. It would ask questions to Yukio, to Daigo, it would philosophize on the Laws of Robotics and pacifism as well as the morality of killing and protecting. Slowly but surely the machine began to develop it's own sense of self, it's own morals and principles and the ability to act on them.

Daigo and Yukio watched the machines enlightenment and learned along with it. The machine learning to become human became an example to the distant father and rebellious son. It was difficult being a dysfunctional, broken family in a new age of monsters, but perhaps with Jeeves help their relationship could be salvaged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jeeves is a walking super computer, built to be an electronic babysitter and companion. The robot stands ten feet tall.

In terms of machinery, Jeeves has cameras for eyes capable of reading infrared heat signatures and electromagnetic fields. The black 'horn' on its head opens into a radio transmitter. The battery back on it's back has a collection of extendable cords that can be used to recharge its battery and utilize communication lines for telephones and television. It has motorized tires in its feet for high speed locomotion. Jeeves can easily skate like this at 60mph.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jeeves biggest inspiration is Jet Jaguar. I asked 'Why was JJ built?' Because no one in Godzilla vs Megalon did and went from there. Developing the story developed the characters in this case. Theres also some Lt Commander Data in there, in regards to personality and motivation, and I suppose Robotic assistant is a little Lost in Space? The riveted look is from MechaGodzilla who is like, peak retrofuture robot for me, so I hope the retro future vibes shine through here. The machinery here might be pushing it for ATOMs setting, maybe a little advanced, which is why I held off on more extravagant technologies like changing sizes or flight. I hope he inspires as much fun in others as those original characters inspired in me!

#my art #my ocs #tyrantisterror #create a kaiju 3d

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tyrantisterror · 2 years

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Ok, hey, remember that third ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest I held... over a year ago jesus christ? Well, I was going to announce the winners as I normally do, i.e. by posting the files when they get done, but HAHA it’s been over a year and I’ve only got two done! Two! Haha! Jesus Christ!

So, in addition to Yamaneolith by @polygonfighter and Kukulkuzana by @ariccio50, our winners are:

Fleagor by @evolutionsvoid

Argonautilus and Scuttlebutt by @dragonzzilla

And Jadeera by Sir K, who submitted his entry by google doc

THESE WILL GET FILES, I PROMISE! And the grand prize winner WILL get their figure made. Before the end of the year, in fact! I’ll make it happen! IT WILL HAPPEN!

In the meantime, hopefully this alleviates the tension a bit

#The ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest 3D #Probably the last of these create a kaiju contests given how bad my art output has become to be honest

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tyrantisterror · 3 years

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The ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest 3-D: Entry Roundup

You’ve been patiently waiting for the results of the ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest 3-D, and now... you have to wait a bit longer, but at least you’ve got an entry roundup with lots of sketches and a good bit of feedback for all the entrants! My goal is to get the finalists illustrated in a week or two, and after that, the grand prize winner will be announced. But, for now, the official entry roundup! After the cut:

I should note that while I sketched these in the order they were submitted, my scanner saved the documents with random names, so they’re a bit jumbled. You know, just in case you’re like me and would get confused noticing that it’s almost in chronological order but with some entries jumbled around.

@bugcthulhu’s Obsideban was designed as a counterpart to Rohobaron - the Black King to Rohobaron’s Red King, if you will. Or, well, Black Queen in this case, as Obsideban also takes her personality from the “delinquent girl” archetype in Japanese media. Bug’s designs always ooze personality, and I had a lot of fun translating this big, gnarly retrosaur into my own style.

@toothlessloveshiccup‘s Argonox is the first - but far from the last - monster in this breakdown that brings in a bit of fantasy influence to ATOM’s roster. A golden-fleeced ram with a vicious streak, this sheep is both treasure and dragon at once. And while it wasn’t written in the monster’s profile, given the Yamaneon-rich nature of its wool, Argonox might be able to replicate the healing power of the golden fleece too! A very fun mammalian kaiju and excellent entry.

@highly-radioactive-nerd submitted Gunmetal Jeeves, a robot butler who can gigantomax temporarily create a holographic/hard light version of himself to fight kaiju. That detail was a late revision added to the entry before the contest’s deadline, made after the creator realized that ATOM allows for some truly ludicrous bullshit, which is something everyone should exploit when making entries for this in my opinion. Also, this is a robot butler who can size shift. Revel in its awesome absurdity!

Ultranerd submitted Rajasaurus, a dimetrodon-like synapsid kaiju with electric powers. His origin specifies that the electric powers are a result of the volatile nature of the Yamaneon deposits he mutated under, which is an interesting idea. That’s another theme that cropped up a lot in this contest’s entries, actually - people really wanted to play with what Yamaneon can do.

Case in point, @polygonfighter’s Yamaneolith takes the Monolith Monsters homage at the heart of Yamaneon even more apparent. I like the implication that there is a second mineral-based lifeform at the root of this Yamaneon cluster’s anomalous behavior - a parasite, perhaps? It brings up some interesting possibilities.

@ariccio50 submitted Kukulkuzana, and damn is this a cool spin on the body plan of my martians. I made a few changes here and there (splitting its tail into two is probably the biggest one), but tried to keep true to the original design, because holy hell is it gorgeous. The idea that this is a mountain-dwelling creature is really intriguing to me, as it looks like a sea creature, but at the same time, that flexible and low-slung build WOULD work pretty well in mountains, and it’s just the right mix of plausible weirdness that makes for a fun alien design.

@akitymh submitted Aramzados, a Venusian monster that’s basically an organic hot rod car. I like the idea of organic machinery being the gimmick for Venusian kaiju, and Aramzado’s does it subtly enough to not feel like that gimmick is the sole thing going for it. I especially love this monster’s stange, apparently mouth-less blade-beaked face.

@virovac submitted Rurzar and Zar Rider, a Beyonder kaiju and mecha (respecitvely) that were both modified and repurposed by humans reverse engineering Beyonder technology to make, like, a motorcycle-saurus essentially. It is a delightfully absurd concept, and a very, very detailed one (13 pages of description). There’s a dark undercurrent beneath the sillyness, though, as this pair show that humanity might still be following the same path as the Beyonders before them.

@dinosaurana brings us Krangor, a humanoid monstrosity of living kelp! The goal here was to create a Jack Kirby-esque monster dude, complete with the gibberish name and all. He’s also made out of kelp, which feels very classic 1950′s monster-y despite me not being able to think of any monsters that were explicitly made of kelp. I love him.

@kiryuthechimera submitted Genkakurah, a psychic retrosaur with some draconic features. Though his substantial powerset is probably the biggest distinguishing feature of this kaiju (given that most ATOM kaiju pretty much have the same standard powers), what really draws me to him is that reptilian pseudo-beard. It’s just a fun detail!

@glarnboudin submits Tiratola, and see, there’s that fantasy influence again! Even more explicitly dragon-y than Kraydi, Tiratola still manages to toe the line between sci-fi and fantasy enough to fit ATOM as is while still cementing its ties to my own slice of fantasy fiction. Man it’s good I’m doing a Midgaheim book next, huh?

@dragonzzilla submitted Scuttlebutt/Argonautilus, a hermit crab kaiju who lives in/with a hollowed out mecha. That’s a twist I can’t recall ever hearing before, and the idea of a kaiju and a mecha having an equal partnership that doesn’t involve one being grafted to the other is really intriguing to me. A very unique concept!

@evolutionsvoid submitted Fleagor, an enormous flea who has no idea what to do with itself now that there’s no creature large enough for it to parasitize. I love that concept - it takes the core idea of the giant bug kaiju archetype (i.e. unsettling the audience by showing how terrifying small, “insignificant” creatures would be if our sizes were reversed) and really turns it on its head. The name also plays on the Universal Monsters, who were a huge part of 1950′s pop culture thanks to their movies being re-released in that era, so all and all this one is very on brand for ATOM!

@skarmorysilver submitted Lilacorn, another entry that plays up that Midgaheim/ATOM connection. Reinterpreting the mythological unicorn as an Cenozoic wooly rhinoceros-inspired monster gives it a very unique look, both in ATOM and in the general world of unicorns, and she has a bad-girl with a heart of gold personality to boot!

dracosaurus-rex submitted Florasaura, a two-headed plant/retrosaur hybrid monster. I love me some plant monsters, I love me some retrosaurs, and I love me some rhyming the word “flora” with other words that contain similar vowell sounds, so this one has me written all over it!

@downtofragglerock submitted Sauroguana, a delightfully odd flying retrosaur. There’s a great deal of charm to the original illustration that this sketch doesn’t quite capture - it’s a deceptively simple design with a lot of personality in it, and with those unique leg-wings it really doesn’t need a whole lot of frills to stand out.

Draxi submitted Brakan, an unimpressive burrowing retrosaur kaiju whose mastery of illusions allows it to convince other kaiju it’s actually a big, super-powerful badass that’s the ultimate fighter in the universe. It’s a delightful parody of the concept of a fan self-insert god-mode character, with a really fun story built into it to boot!

@quinnred submitted O.N.I.A.C., a mysterious cocooned kaiju whose chrysalis has been turned into an organic computer of sorts by the people studying it, and seems to possess a fairly advanced intelligence for a kaiju. It’s a really bizarre and ominous idea, with built in intrigue given how vague its nature is. Is it just a kaijufied butterfly/moth who got stuck mid transformation? A relative of the Mothmanuds? Something else, perhaps equally alien? Good story potential here.

shadyserpent submitted Vespilitor, a bat/retrosaur hybrid made by the nefarious Spooks Organization. A mercurial prankster whose tendency to stir up trouble never crosses the line into maliciousness, he’s the kind of monster who would make a great foil to a lot of ATOM’s cast. I’d especially like to see him in a prank off with Ahuul - it’d be like Bugs Bunny fighting Daffy Duck, but on a kaiju scale.

@multiversefan submitted the Yamaneon King, a nomadic kaiju whose refusal to settle down causes problems as he stirs up trouble at kaiju sanctuaries all over the globe by showing up unannounced and stirring up the locals. He was basically designed to be a monster that the kaiju sanctuary initiative would struggle to deal with, which is a good idea for a post-ATOM Volume 2 story conflict.

Sir K submitted Jadeera, a kirin kaiju that can actually forcibly convert most of its body to Yamaneon to enter a dormant, statue-like state in a loose homage to King Shisa. Though the fantasy elements are far more present than I usually prefer for ATOM kaiju, I think it should be noted they’re pushed that far for a purpose - a theme in Jadeera’s entry, which continues where its creator left off with their submission to the previous ATOM create a kaiju contest (Yokaigon), is that the world of kaiju is more complicated and challenging than many are willing to accept, which is a theme in ATOM itself. Yokaigon’s more supernatural/occult powers are based on the ghost parascience of my setting, which ATOM has delved into a bit (Pathogen being the big example), so it’s not as out of left field as some might think.

@cerothenull brings us our final entry (unless some got lost thanks to tumblr’s shitty tagging system), the flying spider Naeranti. She’s a kaiju spider who uses silk to make complicate hot-air balloons, more or less, and that’s just delightful. ATOM could always use more spider-monsters, and with a really unique gimmick backing up a wonderfully distinct look, Naeranti is sure to stand out among her fellow giant arachnids.

Well, that’s the roundup! In a week (or two, depending on how much my hand cramps) we’ll have the five finalists, and sometime after that, the grand prize winner!

#The Atomic Time of Monsters #The ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest 3D

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tyrantisterror · 3 years

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Well, I wanted to post all five finalists at once, but life has been STRESSFUL and I really don’t want a whole month (or more) to pass without SOME progress on this being shown, so: here’s the first of our five finalists for the ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest 3D, @polygonfighter’s Yamaneolith!

#The ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest 3D #Yamaneolith #kaiju

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tyrantisterror · 3 years

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oh thank fuck I finally finished another one of these

Hey! It’s the second finalist in the ATOM Create A Kaiju Contest 3-D, @ariccio50′s martian monster Kukulkuzana! Modified to fit my martian anatomy rules (and make it less painful on my carpal tunnel hands), but hopefully still recognizable!

Three to go!

#The ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest 3D #Kukulkuzana #Martian

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tyrantisterror · 3 years

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THE A.T.O.M. CREATE A KAIJU CONTEST 3-D!!!

YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE SAFE! YOU THOUGHT THAT THE TIME OF MONSTERS WAS AT AN END! BUT YOU WERE WRONG, FOR NOW YOU MUST WITNESS…

THE A.T.O.M. CREATE A KAIJU CONTEST 3-D!!!

That’s right, it’s back! Celebrating the publication of The Atomic Time of Monsters Volume 2: Tyrantis Roams the Earth! (which in turn completes The Ballad of Tyrantis arc for this series), I’m holding another monster design jam. The third of such jams, in fact!

Like the first A.T.O.M. Create a Kaiju Contest, the aim of this contest is to create kaiju that would fit within the setting of my big kaiju story series, The Atomic Time of Monsters. Think of it as me letting you into my sandbox to play with my toys for a bit, or like you’re being put in the director’s chair of a new ATOM-verse kaiju movie. That means your entry does have to fit into ATOM’s world, which in turn means that yes, there are limitations to your creativity here. But limitations can be good sometimes - they can make us explore options we wouldn’t consider when given completely free rein to do what we want!

(also you don’t have to make a three dimensional image or anything, the title’s just a pun on how the third movie in a monster movie franchise will often be a 3-D film)

Read below the cut to learn the rules and whatnot:

THE RULES:

1. You are limited to one entry per person. Work hard and make your entry count!

2. Your kaiju must have some sort of description of its physical appearance and its personality - you can submit a drawing or a written description (or both!) for the physical appearance depending on what you’re most comfortable with. Using the same template/format as my official ATOM Kaiju Files (https://horrorflora.com/monster-menageries/atom-kaiju-files/) isn’t required, but it was cool when people did it in the last contest, so feel free to do so this time too!

3. The kaiju you create must specifically be created for this contest - no repurposing characters you made for other, wildly different stories. This is not “trick TT into drawing/canonizing my main OC” time.

4. The kaiju must fit the setting and aesthetics of ATOM. I’ll explain this in more detail down below.

5. The kaiju should add something meaningful to the world of ATOM. The more unique and interesting your kaiju is, the more likely you will win the contest.

6. Don’t make your kaiju too dependent on pre-existing ATOM characters - no “Tyrantis’s long lost evil brother who’s the strongest kaiju in the world.” These should be to Tyrantis’s story what War of the Gargantuas is to Godzilla’s movies – heroes (well, monsters) of another story in the same world.

THE REWARDS:

I will make pencil sketches of the top 5 entries in the contest.

I will then make fully rendered illustrations (lineart, colors, & shading) of the top three entries.

The winning entry will be made into a model ala the ones I’ve been making for ATOM’s core 50 monsters, which can then be shipped to the person who created it (should they be able to cover the shipping costs). That’s right, your kaiju could be brought to life in THREE GLORIOUS TECHNICOLOR DIMENSIONS! (Hey, we worked the gag title in to the prizes!)

THE DEADLINE: All entries must be submitted by July 3rd, 2021. You can submit it here on tumblr, via the horror flora e-mail, or any other channel you know how to reach me through. I’m in a lot of places.

THE GUIDELINES (TO HELP YOUR ENTRY FIT THE RULES AND WIN):

The smartest thing you could do if you want to win this contest is familiarize yourself with the world of ATOM by, y’know, reading all the material I’ve published on the subject. In addition to the many kaiju files that are free to read on horrorflora.com, there are now TWO, count ‘em, TWO novels in this series for you to peruse, both of which establish many of the rules of the setting as well as its general themes and tone! You can get them in either paperback or e-book formatting (I’d recommend the former over the latter since I lack the technology to make a really nice ebook, but if money is an object, the kindle version is only $1). Here’s the links again if you missed them:

Vol. 1: Tyrantis Walks Among Us!

Vol. 2: Tyrantis Roams the Earth!

However, since I know reading a bunch of stuff is, y’know, not something everyone is inclined to do, I’ll jot some good bullet points for you in an attempt to outline how ATOM works in a brief, easily digested way:

ATOM is an homage to the monster fiction of the 1950’s and 60’s (i.e. the Atomic Age), and is set in those two decades, albeit an alternate universe version of them where, y’know, monsters and space aliens exist. If you aren’t familiar with the monster fiction I’m referring to, there will be some reference material provided at the end of this post along with some recommendations for further research.

Kaiju/giant monsters in ATOM work under very specific rules. There’s a full description of those rules at this link, but here’s the jist:

ATOM Kaiju are created created by the radiation of a mineral called Yamaneon, which naturally converts harmful radiation into its own unique energy. In natural circumstances, it takes hundreds of years of exposure to Yamaneon radiation for a creature to become fully transform into a kaiju (luckily, Yamaneon radiation slows the aging process while speeding up the healing process). However, an explosive burst of energy - such as the geothermal and kinetic energy released by an earthquake, or the blast of a nuclear weapon - can speed up the process, turning a normal animal into a kaiju within a matter of seconds.

All ATOM kaiju can heal grievous wounds within minutes or even seconds, are supernaturally strong and durable, and can convert harmful radiation to harmless energy that they then feed off of. Kaiju do not have an equivalent of old age, and can theoretically live forever (though their violent lifestyle means that few do).

ATOM Kaiju generally don’t need to eat unless they are severely injured, getting most of the energy they need from solar or geothermal radiation - but many still have instincts that drive them to seek out food from time to time.

Most ATOM kaiju stand roughly 100 feet tall (depending on their body shape), i.e. smaller than the original 1954 Godzilla. There are exceptions to this rule - younger kaiju can be smaller, while exceedingly old kaiju can be significantly larger, but these are rare.

In general, ATOM kaiju are significantly more intelligent and emotionally complex than people expect animals to be, though most are incapable of speech or complex tool use. There’s a reason ATOM Kaiju Files have a “personality” section.

Most ATOM Kaiju are tooth and claw fighters - ranged weapons are a rarity in this setting.

While the terrestrial monsters in ATOM look strange, they are intended to fit within the taxonomy of animals in reality - reptiles, mammals, fish, arthropods, molluscs, etc.

ATOM’s mesozoic era was dominated by a fictional clade of crocodile-relatives called retrosaurs, which are based on the outdated paleoart that one would find in the 1950’s/60’s fiction - i.e. when dinosaurs were viewed as trail dragging lizards instead of strange birds. You can learn more about retrosaurs here (https://horrorflora.com/2016/11/15/atom-kaiju-file-bonus-a-guide-to-retrosaurs/).

Kaiju appear on every continent in ATOM, but certain areas tend to be dominated by different types.

North America is mainly besieged by retrosaur kaiju and giant arthropods.

East Asia is technically also mainly plagued by retrosaurs and big arthropods, though they tend to look more fantastical and mythic - and, often, oddly well suited to being portrayed by a person wearing a monster suit.

Russia is beset by prehistoric monsters that seem to come from the Cenozoic, particularly the Ice Age.

Western Europe is plagued by creatures that vaguely resemble creatures from myth, if they were also prehistoric. Dragon-y lizards, fiery birds, etc.

Towards the mid-way point of ATOM’s timeline, earth is invaded by a coalition of aliens from different solar systems called the Beyonder Alliance, and as a result a bunch of alien monsters can be found on earth.

Mars and Venus both host (or hosted in Mars’s case) animal life. The surviving Martians colonized Venus, and sent some of their kaiju guardians to earth to help us fend off the Beyonders (who are responsible for the destruction of Mars’s ecosystem). Martian and Venusian kaiju have specific anatomical quirks, which you can see by looking at these kaiju files:

Venusians:

https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/03/atom-kaiju-file-29-karamtor/

Martians:

https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/17/atom-kaiju-file-39-kemlasulla/

https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/17/atom-kaiju-file-40-podritak/

https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/17/atom-kaiju-file-41-sombarvot/

https://horrorflora.com/2017/01/17/atom-kaiju-file-38-ullawdra/

Giant robots exist in ATOM, but are big, bulky, and incredibly expensive. Fancy beam weapons also exist, but are similarly clunky - there are no sleek, elegant machines in ATOM.

Since the fiction ATOM takes inspiration from was made at a time when interplanetary travel was only just beginning to be possible, its scope is significantly smaller than modern sci-fi. Alternate universes/dimensions were pretty uncommon because the idea of alien planets still held a lot of wonder to it. So, as a general rule, don’t try to go farther than the one galaxy.

ATOM is a setting for stories that are focused on humanity learning to coexist with monsters, rather than humanity destroying them. A certain level of sympathy is put into almost every creature of its canon, even the ones that are meant to be villains.

REFERENCE MATERIAL

Here is a playlist of 1950′s monster movie trailers.

Here is some reference material from various monster comics of the 50′s and 60′s.

Good movies to track down to understand ATOM’s inspiration and tone include Ghidorah the 3 Headed Monster, Son of Godzilla, Destroy All Monsters, Them!, The Black Scorpion, 20 Million Miles to Earth, Gamera, The Giant Claw, and The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra.

And here’s the intro cutscenes for all the different giant monsters in the PS2 videogame War of the Monsters.

#The Atomic Time of Monsters #The ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest 3D

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