Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Ultraman's Gerukadon from Bandai


As seen in Ultraman: Towards the Future, one night an abandoned carnival was reactivated by mysterious circumstances (yep, it's already creepy beyond belief). When the local police arrived to check it out, the legendary monster Gerukadon affected the officer's minds. Completely overcome by fear, the officers fled the scene while Gerukadon gained power from the Gudis device hidden in the abandoned carnival. One thing leads to another, like in the case of all Ultraman episodes, and the monster finally arrives to stomp the crap out of buildings and bring about the appearance of Ultraman. The fight is quick and to the point, Ultraman blasts Gerukadon with his power beam and the day is saved by our silver and red friend.

(This show was the reason I became an insomniac at an early age. It wasn't very popular in my market which won it a 5am time slot on Sunday mornings.)

All in all, I'm not a fan of this episode. The story is weak, it's fairly boring and with this episode being Gerukadon's only appearance in the Ultraman saga makes him one of the more forgettable characters. Unfortunate since I rather liked the monster's design; giant lizard with a beak, four arms and bat wings. But so was the case with most of the characters from Towards the Future, great designs and poor stories.
(I am vengeance, I am the night.......I AM BAT-LIZARD)



I'm rather fond of this version of Gerukadon, I prefer him to the larger American release from Dreamworks (not the Steven Spielburg special effects company, but a short lived toy manufacturer). The colors are much more vibrant and the sculpt is more like the monster from the show. The only detracting point is the silver accents, I think they could be duller and do more to compliment the color scheme in my opinion. Articulation on this particular figure is rather plentiful; at 2 of the shoulders, hips, waist, neck and mid tail. In the end, he's one of my favorite one episode wonders.



2 comments:

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  2. Good review of a rather rare figure of a rather obscure Ultraman monster. That said i don't mind Gerukadon considering that he looks rather cool for a four-armed flying lizard monster. Add to the fact that he appeared in Ultraman towards the future makes Gerukadon a somewhat underrated monster.

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