#Egg Monsters From Mars

[danielstalter]

Egg Monsters from Mars was a refreshingly weird Goosebumps book. It had a good balance of the ridiculous and the grotesque. The pacing was solid and Stine avoided his most familiar tropes. The weakest point was its characters. Dana was a fine protagonist, but the plot relied on a villain with extremely questionable logic. I could also point out a few questionable choices made by Dana’s parents. There was a good steady build-up to the climax, even with the villain logic severely lacking. I was left wanting to know more about what the egg monsters were and what their true intent was. That said, I was also happy that there wasn’t a final-chapter infodump to try and over-explain everything. Stine’s tendency to infodump can really kill the magic; Say Cheese and Die is probably the most egregious example of this. Even though it left me wanting more, it was nice to see Egg Monsters from Mars avoid falling into that trap. I’ve said it before and I will keep saying it so long as I write these reviews: the best Goosebumps books are the ones that aren’t afraid to get weird. Egg Monsters not only embraced the weird, but it also delivered what might be the most disturbing ending I’ve come across in this series. I can’t say more without major spoilers, but you can rest assured that I have some thoughts to share below the jump.

Score: 3.5

My full review with memes, snark, and spoilers can be found here: https://www.danstalter.com/egg-monsters-from-mars/

[j4gm]

SPOILERS!!! REFERENCES AND EASTER EGGS IN F&C ep. 8: JERRY

The last of four posts for today.

This episode has a very dark setting. This is the universe where The Lich wished for the extinction of all life. There is nothing here. This establishing shot features the Squirrel's apple cart, from a few episodes ago, but he is long dead and it is long abandoned.

We are introduced to a new cosmic entity, Orbo, who is Scarab's boss but is not to be mistaken for Prismo's boss, whose identity remains a mystery.

Simon name drops a whole bunch of magical items from the original Adventure Time series; the Armour of Zeldron from Blood Under the Skin, the Wand of Dispersement from Sons of Mars, the Porcelain Lamb from Beyond This Earthly Realm, and the magic beans from The Pods.

This episode suggests that the nature of Simon and Betty's relationship was initially quite unhealthy. He was one of her lecturers, and she had an infatuation with him from first sight.

This illustration features the ancient wizards who sealed Coconteppi beneath Wizard City in the Distant Lands episode of the same name.

Simon's expedition to find the Enchiridion was first mentioned in the newspaper clipping in I Remember You, and was mentioned again in Temple of Mars.

BMO apparently survived The Lich's wish because he isn't technically alive. I wonder where Neptr and the other MOs are. Cannibalised for batteries, perhaps. Also, that BRB note is very sad and is identical to the one Finn wrote in Blenanas.

There are various familiar items in the thawed out remains of the Ice Kingdom; ninja paraphernalia from The Chamber of Frozen Blades, Ice King's diary from The Empress Eyes, and of course the tape collection from Holly Jolly Secrets.

Here's a deep cut: That machine in the background to the right of Simon is the machine that held the lightning power that Finn went to steal in What is Life, so that he could power up Neptr. The Demonic Wishing Eye is also in this shot.

For a single frame, Ice King and Gunter can be seen reduced to skeletons. Presumably this was the exact moment that the Lich's wish took effect. Everyone died instantly, in less than a frame.

When I watched this episode for the first time I was confused about where Fionna got the working crown. But you can just about see it inside the drum in this shot, where Ice King mentioned he had put it in his tape.

This is the exact moment the photograph was taken for the newspaper clipping seen in I Remember You.

We first heard the story about how Simon met Betty after they tried to check out the same library book in Broke His Crown. It's cool to see it playing out for real.

Simon throws a pebble at the window and accidentally hits Babette in the face, exactly like Finn and Jake did to Kim Kil Whan in the episode Ocarina.

This is the second time Simon caused Betty to miss this research trip to Australia. She says in Temple of Mars that she never got the opportunity to go, and resolves that her life might not have been so messed up if she'd followed her own dreams instead of following Simon's.

The song in this scene, the motif of which has been heard throughout the series, is by Half Shy, who also wrote "Monster" for Obsidian.

BMO is buried with a paper flower because there are no real ones left alive. His death seemed pointlessly cruel.

THE LICH! He is in his half-disguised Billy form, confirming that this is his wish-altered reality. Like in his other appearances, the first line he speaks is a single word command. This time, the command is "Cease." But with nothing left to do he has become depressed, and he doesn't bother killing our protagonists.

And finally, we are left on this cliffhanger. Fionna and Cake have returned to their world. Scarab has convinced the boss that Simon must be destroyed. And GOLBetty is here to claim them both while the Lich watches on.

This episode's dream features a pair of Lich skulls either side an effigy of GOLB.

[tlbodine]

Overthinking: Egg Monsters from Mars

Egg Monsters From Mars is Goosebumps #42, released in the spring of '96. I remember this one's cover but had never read it. I think I had a vague sense that it would be dumb, as a kid, which is a real shame because I actually thought this was refreshingly good in a run of so-so mid-era Goosebumps books. Let's see what it's about and what's special about it...

First, the Plot: Dana Johnson is a scientifically-minded kid with a couple scientist parents and a bratty little sister who tends to get whatever she wants. Since her birthday is close to Easter this year, she asked for an egg hunt for her party. All of her friends start hunting eggs in the yard, but the party swiftly descends into chaos when it's discovered that her mom didn't bother hard-boiling them. The ensuing egg fight makes a huge mess and sours their parents to the entire topic of eggs, which is a real shame because Dana found a very unusual egg down by the creek.

It's big. It's covered in veins. And it's pulsating.

Since his parents won't listen to him when he tries to explain, he puts it in his sock drawer, where it hatches into a...big quivering blob that looks kind of like scrambled eggs with beady eyes. He tries to show it to his best friend, who's less impressed by it than she should be, and encourages him to go take it to a laboratory in town. He does, and there encounters Dr. Gray.

At first, Dr. Gray seems very friendly. He explains that he's familiar with these creatures, that he's been studying them awhile and believes they are from Mars and came to earth via a meteor shower recently. He has them in a special part of his lab that's kept nice and cold so they don't overheat and melt.

The problem is that now that Dana has come into contact with them, Dr. Gray won't let him leave. So he keeps him locked in the lab with them. He spends a long, shivery night as a prisoner. His dad comes looking for him but cannot see him through the double-sided mirror Dr. Gray has set up. And the doctor is infuriated when Dana learns to communicate with the monsters and they merge together into a blanket to warm him in the night.

Dr. Gray insinuates that he needs to kill Dana to keep him quiet. Dana manages to escape with the help of the egg monsters. He explains what happened to his parents, who are deeply concerned but skeptical. When they go back to the lab, the egg monsters and the doctor are gone without a trace.

Dana gets examined by the family doctor and seems to be just fine. Except he has a new habit.....laying eggs.

Overthinking It:

There are few things Stine loves more than an evil scientist, likely owing to the popularity of that trope in his childhood (between Atomic Age uneasiness and Hays Code restrictions on the supernatural, scientists were the villains of many '40s and '50s horror movies). Some of his best books hinge on the stranger-danger of an adult with authority who means a child harm, and that's on display here.

Dr. Gray is straight up chilling (no pun intended). His cold, calculated approach to science and his complete heel-face-turn when it comes to excitedly sharing his find with Dana but his willingness to sacrifice the kid to the altar of science is legitimately frightening. Here is a book where the real monster is institutional power, and the alien creatures are misunderstood allies. Guillermo Del Toro would love this shit.

Something else I enjoyed about Egg Monsters is its willingness to deviate from some of Stine's usual stock character types. It's a refreshing change of pace to have Dana be a serious, studious, thoughtful kid as opposed to our usual practical joker type. His friend Anne brings some of that energy to the table, which is fine in the few scenes she's in. But having Dana be more solemn really helps sell the gravity of this situation.

Also, I can only imagine how terrifying this whole thing must have been for his parents!

I will say that the egg-fight setup and payoff does go on for quite a while. Like it takes up soooo much narrative space and that feels a little filler-y. But by the same token, the ensuing chaos of the egg goo everywhere is its own kind of horror. A birthday party descending into a food fight, where your friends won't listen even when you're begging them to stop, where the damage is real and lasting, where the crowd acts of its own accord and behaves as a mindless force of destruction....that is already pretty frightening, actually. It's played with a deft hand here because eggs are ultimately mostly harmless but it's easy to imagine these kids frenzying in some other, more horrifying way.

Honestly, this one is floating up to the top for me. I'll put this one up next to Cuckoo Clock of Doom for some of Stine's best experimental writing.

If You Liked This, THESE Will Really Give You Goosebumps:

I'm not joking about Del Toro here. If you like stories where the "monster" is misunderstood and the real villain is a regular guy with a cold-hearted commitment to his job, you're gonna love The Shape of Water.

If you wanted the egg monsters themselves to be a bigger threat, may I direct you instead to Alien?

Also a shout-out to Critters, which also come to earth in the form of supremely weird eggs

[astra-ravana]

Working With Medusa

The Queen Of Snakes

Colors: Green, silver, red, gold

Herbs: Vanilla, black snake root, frankincense, myyrh, dragon's blood, alkanet, amber, belladonna, juniper berries, clove, datura, black pepper, wormwood, rue, sulpher, henbane, agrimony, parsley

Crystals: Red coral, serpentine, malachite, petrified wood, snake skin jasper, lodestone, hematite, aquamarine, black moonstone, mother of pearl, bronzite, bloodstone, ruby, garnet

Element: Water

Planet: Moon/Mars/Pluto

Zodiac: Scorpio

Metal: Silver, bronze

Tarot: Death, Justice, Queen of Swords

Day: Wednesday

Animals: Snakes, jellyfish, lions

Domains: Feminine strength, perseverance, wisdom, serpents, sexuality, the blood of women, retribution/justice for victims, protection of girls and women, bodily autonomy, self defense, the truth, punishment of abusers, rapists and murderers, the evil eye, kundalini awakening, "kind monsters", beauty, divination, shadow work and healing from trauma, banishing

Offerings: Snake-themed items and figures, snake skin, water, wine, seafood, whole eggs, egg shells, apples, honey, beach sand, cave dirt, fossils, shells, candles in her colors, evil eye or eyeball charms, sea water/salt, driftwood, blood (especially menstrual blood), speaking your truth, participation in women's rights and victim advocacy movements

Symbols: Snakes (particularly two intertwined), eyes (evil eye), the Aegis (image of Medusa's head adorning Athena's shield), Gorgon eyes- or "divine eyes"- sometimes drawn as concentric circles or spirals, her astrological symbol-

[sloshed-cinema]

The Substance (2024)

Thanks, I’ll just stick with the botox for now. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat trots out easily recognized standby material when building the DNA of her body-horror satire on aging and self-perception, especially in the film industry. Cast out of her job as an aerobics program host the second she turns 50, Elisabeth Sparkle feels anything but lustrous. She gets flowers shrouded in plastic doomed to wilt and die, and even simple verb tenses like ‘were’ versus ‘are’ prove sore subjects. The film is introduced with the laying of her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, only to observe as it is marred and damaged by time. An oversized portrait of her in her living room is shattered, rendering her perfect appearance flawed and seeming to set the stage for a sort of Dorian Gray scenario. But while this sort of parable may feel a dime a dozen, its execution is anything but that. Namely, it knows just how ludicrous the premise of the film is, and decides it would be a waste to pull any punches. Demi Moore absolutely anchors the film, and her vulnerable frustration is palpable. Getting dressed up to go out and meet an old classmate of hers, Elisabeth is continually frustrated by insecurity over her age and attempts to cover it up to no avail with makeup. The sense of time catching up with Elisabeth is a very real one, but this is crazy world so Demi Moore also gets to act like a demented hag making nasty French food and hurling eggs at a television, and we love it. The conceit of a self-replicating compound that needs to split body time week over week, that a stabilizing secretion can be harvested like CSF and used to cheat this balance, and that it exacts a terrible toll on the host matrix, gets pushed beyond sanity to the point where Elisabeth-Sue becomes a monster and crashes the new year’s eve broadcast replicant Sue was supposed to host. Because if you’re going to have a cancer monster, might as well make it excrete a few tits and then hose down an entire studio audience with a never-ending geyser of blood before exploding itself. This has gooey body horror effects that make Brian Yuzna’s Society look downright normal by comparison, but the movie also knows that these monster effects are funny as shit and wants to have a ball with them.

Hollywood and television executives are monsters themselves, as evidenced by Dennis Quaid’s Harvey in all of his slimy, shrimp-chomping, sloppy boorishness. But you know what they also are? Horny. This movie is obsessed with asses to a degree that boggles the mind. When first discovering her new body as Sue, Elisabeth checks herself out, pleased with how everything is now so much firmer and perkier. The new Pump It Up aerobics show is now basically softcore porn, the choreo switched from Jane Fonda style jazzercise to twerking and grinding. Camera operators crowd around to squint at a frame-by-frame replay of Sue’s gyrating hips to check for abnormalities. Old lady goblin ass contrasts against hot young buck ass. Perhaps Sir Mix-A-Lot was brought on to consult on such matters.

Throbbing, bassy soundtrack from Raffertie and sound that overwhelms at points of complete breakdown. This feels like waking up from a hangover and walking out into the living room, not sure what the fuck the you of the night before did. Well, the you of the night before wanted just one more, and now the present you is paying the price.

THE RULES

SIP

Someone says 'Sparkle'.

Long The Shining hallways in a scene.

A switch happens between Elisabeth and Sue.

Stabilizer fluid is used.

BIG DRINK

Dennis Quaid makes aaaaOOOOOOHHHooohhh noises.

Closeup of a shower head.

Butt shot.

[thebibliomancer]

Earth X #X

What the hell does #X mean??

Well, it means the end. The end of Earth… X. There’s two sequel series after this.

Mar-Vell gets the cover to the last issue. And thank goodness for lens flares because I’m fairly sure he’s very casual Friday.

Earth X. It’s hard to summarize the previous 13 (because #0) issues.

Long story short, the Earth is an egg. All superpowers and mutation are because the Celestials manipulated human evolution to make them guardians of the egg.

The mass mutation of Earth’s population has kicked off 200 years early because Black Bolt set off a terrigen bomb.

A psychic kid called the Skull rose as a Celestial failsafe to control the aggressive and unruly mutated population but Captain America killed him.

So the Celestials landed on Earth to wipe out all life before it threatens the egg but Black Bolt sacrifices himself to shout really loudly into space for Galactus.

Celestials vs Galactus.

Kind of a lose/lose situation for humanity.

The Earth X X issue is double sized. There’s a lot to cover but the subplots have mostly dried up.

Here’s one I’ll get out of the way early.

Reed Richards suddenly remembers that he promised Medusa that he’d help find her missing son.

God. I had completely forgotten about that. It was almost an inciting subplot that got the Inhumans bumping into Reed. But anyway, since Reed got Black Bolt killed, he feels obligated to duck out mid-plot resolution and reunite Medusa and her son.

Who was the new Black Knight all along.

Cool to wrap that up.

But back to the headlining fight.

According to New Watcher Aaron Stack, Galactus is tougher than one Celestial but might get overwhelmed by a Host of them.

And he keeps tinkering with his Galactus machines instead of punching giant space gods.

Luckily, Galactus gets some backup.

Namor toots as he pleases to summon sea monsters to attack the Celestials in the name of ancient-er Atlantis and for the dinosaurs.

He gets smacked aside.

Silver Surfers Norrin Radd and Shalla-Bal attack the Celestials to buy some time. And Shalla-Bal gets blowed up. Dangit, she’d only just been introduced last issue.

Loki brings an army from Hel, after convincing them that death is fake and that their entire identity was imposed on them.

(That’s why he shanked himself last time.)

They buy some time until the Celestials convince them death is real and they drop dead from it.

And during this, Galactus makes some big moves of his own.

I can practically HEAR this panel.

Like a static-y reverbish BWOOOOOOOOM!

Anyway, the Celestials eventually decide “fuck this actually” or however space gods would phrase it. They fuck off back into space.

Which just leaves the problem that now Galactus hunters and there’s a tasty planet right here.

Or whoever new Galactus this is.

Reed Richards turned Galactus into a star. The running narration implied that someone else has filled the vacated role.

Which has all to do with the tiers of mutation discussed in the previous issue.

Tier 1 - everyone has different powers. Ex: Earth right now.

Tier 2 - homogenization of powers into shapeshifting. Ex: the Skrulls or Reed Richards

And revealed this issue Tier 3 - completely malleable in body, mind, and will. Incredibly powerful but constrained by how observers identify them. Ex: the Asgardians.

This Galactus has become Galactus because he believes he’s Galactus and is believed to be Galactus.

But originally his name was

Franklin Richards.

Franklin who has connections to Galactus and has been said to be destined to be the last survivor of this universe the way Galactus was of the previous.

(I don’t know whether all that stuff predates Earth X or was inspired by it. Possible tally marks.)

And Franklin whose name Black Bolt shouted into space, which drew Galactus to Earth to his confusion.

Reed can’t acknowledge Galactus is Franklin, not without leaving the universe without it’s counter to Celestials over-population. But he does suggest that Galactus is known for relocating the populations of the planets he eats. And since Franklactus is influenced by how he is viewed, the universe has a kinder Galactus now.

There’s no planet to relocate Inhumanity to so Galactus just slurps the Celestial embryo right out of Earth and flies off into space with it.

So the day is saved but damn that’s a sad and lonely existence for Franklin.

He doesn’t even get some Radd company because the Silver Surfer is staying on Earth.

Back on the Moon, Aaron Stack gets tired of Uatu’s blah blah blah.

He finds where the old Watcher is hiding, since he has only appeared on a screen. He throws Uatu’s prior dismissal of good and evil and says that evil is “to do nothing in the face of need.”

Then he unplugs Uatu from the observation equipment so that on top of being blind, he also can’t hear anything from Earth. A Watcher with nothing to observe.

“He doesn’t have the right to watch. He took my face.”

Aaron really held that grudge.

So now we get into the epilogues and sequel hooks for Universe X.

Now that he knows that the terrigen mist caused the mass mutation of humanity, Reed has some ideas on how to fix it.

But he’s getting some pushback. There are people who want to keep their cool new superpowers. And T’Challa thinks the mass mutation gave the animal spirits of Wakanda anthro bodies and he won’t endorse a plan that could reverse that.

Peter and May have repaired their relationship. May has been helping Peter get back in shape.

Cop Luke Cage is still after Peter to join the police but Peter laughs off the idea of becoming a cop.

The circus guys that became the new X-Men are going to stick around as X-Men.

I cannot fathom why these guys were given so much focus for the minimal impact they had on the plot. I could not tell you what their personalities or even powers are.

I also don’t understand why Circus Daredevil got so much attention.

Earth X still has its mysteries.

After being given some massive foreshadowing that he’d play a role, Mar-Vell finally shows up when the plot is done!

He assures Reed he’ll be huge in the sequel.

“There’s a lot that’s about to happen, Reed. I’m coming back. I’m coming back to save everyone. And they’re not going to like it.”

????

Reed asks him to clarify but Mar-Vell refuses.

He does find the time to imply he’s going to be born from Perfect Humans Adam Warlock and Her though.

Why? God knows.

Mar-Vell also suggests that the dream he kept giving Bruce was a big brain move to indirectly get Loki aware that the Asgardians are fiction so he’d shank himself, go to Hel, and recruit the inhabitants to help fight the Celestials.

That’s… either very big brain or a complete asspull.

Captain America is still sad he had to murder a child.

Aaron Stack decides he’s going to be the Watchman instead of the Watcher. Sounds like more of an active role and I dunno maybe he likes Alan Moore.

Luna finishes her transformation into a beautiful butterfly lady so she’s ready for her arranged marriage to Black Knight/the Prince. But he has no interest in her.

Oof, that’s rough.

And Reed finishes converting his old vibranium beacon towers into giant devices to siphon and burn the terrigen out of the atmosphere so things can eventually be normal.

He calls them Human Torches because even Reed Richards has his sentimental side.

So that’s Earth X.

I don’t love everything it does but it makes a decent stab at tying everything in Marvel up in a big Celestial-shaped bow. I can appreciate how fleshed out the setting is, how there’s still stuff going on that we don’t know, and how it’s tightly plotted so that a lot of what seems to be random weirdness plays into the resolution.

I like how many prominent heroes go from depressed and beaten down by the past to getting their groove back. Reed Richards, Tony Stark, Peter Parker all start in a bad place and find their heroism again.

The creative team must have been very confident it would succeed since there are SO MANY sequel hooks in the ending.

And it can’t be overstated how much of an impact Earth X had on the rest of Marvel. I tried to call out the times when something from Earth X inspired another Marvel book. And I probably missed a lot because the ideas have become common enough that I didn’t realize they originated here.

But the book never explains what the X in Earth X means so 0 out of 5 stars, bad comic.

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (9-15 Mar 2025)

this week's watching was book-ended by two great musicals!

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🥰 The Shots You Take (Rachel Reid, author; Greg Boudreaux, narrator) - 2nd chance romance between 2 former NHL players who haven't spoken in 12 years - I really appreciated how messy & flawed these middle-aged men were! That you can & do fuck up in your 20s and then learn & grow & atone and can build something really stellar. that not everyone knows themselves immediately for a variety of reasons.

😊 I, Barnes (debwalsh) - 76K stucky post-WS; half angsty WS recovery, then shifts to a pornathon via magical healing cock (positive)

🥰 don't go wastin your emotions (kissesforcas) - 51K, steddie canon-divergent last-stand-taking-down-vecna-AU

💖💖 +187K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

A/B/O as a Problematic Cultural Response To Transphobia, Gender Anxiety, and U.S. Policy (tomato_greens) - Multi-Fandom meta: 5K - some nice, chewy meta about omegaverse in current cultural context

Eric Adams' Latest Excuses TEASER (Poetry) - If Books Could Kill podcast, Leverage: gen, 1.1K - a teaser trailer and social media posts from the 'upcoming' ep of IBCK - really excellent use of multimedia storytelling

Imprimatur (Closer) - Suits: mike/harvey, 22K - great soulmates suits fic

alone again, or (96tears) - Stranger Things: steddie, 20K - solidly entertaining 'oh. I'm in love with my best friend' fic

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Anything Goes

Home Town Takeover - s3, e1

Um, Actually - s10, e4

Death in Paradise - s14, e4

No Taste Like Home with Antoni Porowski - "Florence Pugh's English Odyssey" (s1, e1)

Come From Away

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

You're Dead to Me - Legends of King Arthur: from medieval literature to modern myth

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Mailbag: Is it more fun to discuss something you love or something you hate? (PCHH+)

The Best Worst - Ep 1: Cheers

The Sporkful - Working With Bourdain And Batali, Laurie Woolever Saw It All

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - The Brutalist (Places Edition)

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Best Moments In Live TV

Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me! - Outtakes: You can now rent THIS to deal with high egg prices… (WW+)

Switched on Pop - How Missy Elliott and Timbaland Freaked the World

⭐ David Tennant Does a Podcast With…Russell T Davies

99% Invisible - What We're Reading

Vibe Check - Hit Him in the Pocketbook!

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Lady Gaga's Mayhem

⭐ Off Menu - Ep 282: Ellie Taylor

⭐ Films To Be Buried With - Julia Stiles

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Pulau Tiga, The Island That Made “Survivor”

Shedunnit - Book Club Conversation: Last Bus to Woodstock by Colin Dexter

⭐ Imaginary Worlds - Milicent Patrick: Disney Magic to Monster Mayhem

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Black Bag And What's Making Us Happy

Handsome - Pretty Little Episode #30

Short Wave - Love Fruit? Thank (Dinosaur) Mass Extinction

You're Dead to Me - Hernán Cortés and Malintzin: the Spanish conquest of Mexico

⭐ Hit Parade - Singing Nuns and Green Tambourines Edition

Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me! - Amanda Seyfried

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Presenting Joni Mitchell

Pirates of the Caribbean soundtracks

Lady Gaga discography (chronological order)

Revamp: The Songs Of Elton John & Bernie Taupin [Various artists] {2018}

Sub-Radio

Troye Sivan

Shout-Out Party Hits

Janelle Monáe

[xaghiofneon]

Me and my partners watched the first three episodes of classic tokusatsu series Ultra Q, and I figured I can't sleep so I'm posting my thoughts, the equivalent of screaming into the void since my blog here has nobody who reads it.

If you don't know, Ultra Q is a Japanese show made by Tsuburaya Productions and aired in 1966, and was one of the earliest examples of Toho style kaiju on the small screen. It began the Ultraman franchise, but there's no Ultraman here. Each episode focuses on a different kaiju, alien, or weird event, kind of like Twilight Zone or Outer Limits. It's also notable for using old suits from Toho kaiju films since Tsuburaya was able to get them from Toho. The main protagonists are two pilots and a reporter lady, who always investigate the strange events, and they're okay protags, they don't get much depth but the show isn't really about them, more the monsters and paranormal stuff that happens. Speaking of, let's talk about the episodes we watched and my thoughts. I'm not giving the episodes any score, I'm just gonna ramble.

Episode 1 - "Defeat Gomess!"

'Run! It's Godzilla!' 'It looks like Godzilla, but due to copyright laws, it's not.' 'Still, we should run like it is Godzilla!' 'Though it isn't. AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!'

The first episode actually has two kaiju. Gomess, pictured above, a prehistoric creature made from pieces of old Godzilla suits, and Litra, a bird creature made from old Rodan props. Both of them are dug up by miners, and are mortal enemies. Litra is still an egg when its found, but Gomess is fully grown and causes a cave in while the main pilot and reporter are in the mine it was found in. The comic relief pilot and a kid who works at the mine find an ancient legend about how they're destined to fight, and the kid wakes Litra up with heat. The fight is short and not impressive by today's standards but it's not boring to look at. Litra jabs Gomess in the eye and shoots acid at him which kills him, but then Litra dies herself, because of the acid? I think? They don't explain why, they just end the episode, since these are the episodes are the usual TV length, about 20 minutes. Gomess is a decent kaiju design, Litra is a little more derpy looking, but it just adds to the charm for me. Overall, it's a solid start to the series. For the time, seeing movie level special effects was mind blowing, and while it's in black and white and not as impressive as modern effects or CG, it's very fun and charming now, especially since CG is so prevalent, seeing suits lumbering around is fun.

Episode 2 - "Goro and Goroh"

'Mmm... Monkey...'

This one is very simple, and I liked it quite a bit. A monkey near a research facility consumed a bunch of walnuts laced with a chemical that made him grow giant. He then befriended the facility's custodian Goro, a deaf and mute man who took food from nearby farms and stores to feed him. Also milk. Goroh the Monkey loves milk. When Goro gets arrested for stealing, Goroh gets mad and goes on a rampage, and they have Goro feed him milk laced with sleeping pills to make him fall asleep. The reporter had just got back from an island also with large monkeys as well, and they decide to take him there, and Goro is sad. Goroh the Monkey was brought to life with a modified King Kong suit, and I just like monkeys. Simple, nice, monke.

Episode 3 - "The Gift From Space"

'Now, I'm not saying it was aliens... but it was aliens.'

The last episode we watched, and the first alien kaiju, a giant slug named Namegon. The protags find a UFO, which turns out to be a Mars probe thought destroyed, containing two tiny gold marbles. They're kept in a vault, but stolen by bank robbers, who wants to sell it. When one of the bank robbers tries to force the comic relief pilot to take him to a meet up on an island, he drops the second gold marble in a fight. Comic relief pilot then finds it and makes it into a necklace for the reporter. The bank robber, having found a different way to the island, drops the gold marble into hot water, and the marble expands into an egg, revealing Namegon. Namegon itself looks fine, it's just a big slug that shoots lasers. It's weakness is a little lame, though. When the protags and the police go to the island, Namegon chases them, falls into the ocean, and melts because of the saltwater. The second egg, still around the reporters neck, accidentally gets woken up too at the end, after a discussion of why the aliens who sent the probe back sent monster eggs with them, and the episode ends as they prepare the saltwater. The episode also introduces an old professor who hangs out with the protags and exposits. Not a bad episode, the weakness of Namegon isn't too disappointing, and we never see the aliens who sent the probe back, so our brains can fill in the gap.

Ultra Q is pretty fun so far. We're trying to watch at least three episodes a week, and I got my partners to agree to watch the Ultra Series with me. Give it a watch yourself if you haven't, it's fun kaiju stuff.

[haveyouseenthishorrormovie]

Stats from Movies 701-800

Top 10 Movies - Highest Number of Votes

Ringu (1998) had the most votes with 1,327 votes. Chillerama (2011) had the least votes with 360 votes.

The 10 Most Watched Films by Percentage

Beetlejuice (1988) was the most watched film with 80.9% of voters out of 780 saying they had seen it. Demonic Christmas Tree (2022) had the least "Yes" votes with 0.4% of voters out of 491.

The 10 Least Watched Films by Percentage

The Nun 2 (2023) was the least watched film with 70.6% of voters out of 633 saying they hadn’t seen it. Demonic Christmas Tree (2022) had the least "No" votes with 9.2% of voters out of 491.

The 10 Most Known Films by Percentage

Beetlejuice (1988) was the best known film, only 0.4% of voters out of 780 saying they’d never heard of it.

The 10 Least Known Films by Percentage

Demonic Christmas Tree (2022) was the least known film, 90,4% of voters out of 491 saying they’d never heard of it.

The movies part of the statistic count and their polls below the cut.

The Uninvited (1944) The Crazies (1973) Witchfinder General (1968) The Conspiracy (2012) When a Stranger Calls (1979) The Evictors (1979) The Birds (1963) Ice Spiders (2007) Rubber (2010) Eyes of Laura Mars (1978)

Daughters of Darkness (1971) Akira (1988) The End of Evangelion (1997) The Woman in Black (2012) Milfs vs. Zombies (2015) Knife + Heart (2018) It's a Wonderful Knife (2023) Attachment (2022) Gothic (1986) Jakob's Wife (2021)

Stranger by the Lake (2013) The Fog (2005) The Greasy Strangler (2016) Angel Heart (1987) Tumbbad (2018) The Snow Woman (1968) Sugar Hill (1974) Saloum (2021) WNUF Halloween Special (2013)

Sound of Violence (2021) Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) The Haunting of Molly Hartley (2008) Death Laid an Egg (1968) Baskin (2015) The Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh (2012) The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) The Haunting of Julia (1977) The House That Dripped Blood (1971) Megan Is Missing (2011)

Ringu (1998) Three... Extremes (2004) Trench 11 (2017) Out There Halloween Mega Tape (2022) Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) The Driller Killer (1979) Berberian Sound Studio (2012) One Cut of the Dead (2017) Demonic Christmas Tree (2022) Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (1981)

Urban Legends: Bloody Mary (2005) Motel Hell (1980) Shallow Ground (2004) Annabelle: Creation (2017) Annabelle Comes Home (2019) The Conjuring 2 (2016) The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021) Morgan (2016) Sputnik (2020) Devil's Pass (2013)

Dracula's Daughter (1936) Dagon (2001) We Are Still Here (2015) We Are What We Are (2013) Somos lo que hay (2010) The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) Midori (1992) The Believers (1987) Troll 2 (1990) Chillerama (2011)

The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976) The Mortuary Collection (2019) The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976) The Pit and the Pendulum (1991) House (1985) Flatliners (1990) The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014) Crimson Peak (2015) Frailty (2001) Hell Night (1981)

Eyes of Fire (1983) Sister Death (2023) Tonight She Comes (2016) Bad Dreams (1988) Dead Snow (2009) Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead (2014) Veronica (2017) The Nun II (2023) Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001) Maniac (1980)

Man's Best Friend (1993) M.O.M. Mothers of Monsters (2020) The Reptile (1966) She Creature (2001) Beetlejuice (1988) The Incredible Melting Man (1977) Kandisha (2020) So Vam (2021) Bit (2019) Death Proof (2007)

[xtruss]

A view of Cumbre Vieja Volcano from El Paso against a purple-blue sky. On the afternoon of September 19, the Cumbre Vieja volcano roared to life, spewing molten rock down its flanks and sending a column of ash billowing skyward. The Island's abundant Volcanoes are fed by a plume of hot rock that extends deep underground.

Dramatic Photos Show La Palma Volcano’s Ongoing Eruption

“I Never Dreamed About Being So Close To Something Like This,” Says Photographer Arturo Rodríguez. “It’s So Big, So Powerful.”

Photographer Arturo Rodríguez was taking a shower at his home in Tenerife, the largest of the Spanish Canary Islands, when he heard an alarmed voice blare from the TV in the next room. "It just erupted! It just erupted—I can't believe it!" the reporter yelled into the camera.

In the weeks leading up to that fateful September day, a swarm of earthquakes had rattled the neighboring Island of La Palma, hinting at the movement of magma under the surface. Rodríguez, who was born and raised in La Palma, was preparing for a trip to photograph scientists as they monitored the island's volcanoes, which had slumbered for the past 50 years. And then one roared awake.

Rodriguez rushed out of the shower to change his flight and made it to the island a few hours later. That night, he snapped photos as fountains of lava shot from the Cumbre Vieja volcanic ridge, casting an eerie glow over nearby towns. The volcano's roar filled his ears, like waves crashing on a cliff. Glassy shards of ash rained from the skies, and the scent of spoiled eggs permeated the air.

“I Never Dreamed About Being So Close To Something Like This,” He Says. “It’s So Big, So Powerful.”

So far, the ongoing eruption has destroyed more than 2,500 buildings and displaced thousands of people. Ash has fallen in thick layers, collapsing roofs and burying agricultural lands—and the lava has paved over everything in its path. "This monster erupted in the middle of the most populated area," Rodríguez says. "I can feel the pain of all the people here."

That pain became particularly acute when Rodríguez spotted his cousin among crowds of people he was photographing as they packed up to flee the encroaching lava. He put down his camera and rushed to help his cousin hastily pack belongings in boxes.

Now, two months after the first glowing lava emerged, the volcano continues its fiery blasts, and Rodríguez fears for his home island's future. The economy depends in large part on banana farming, but hundreds of acres of land once used to grow bananas have become entombed in lava. Many of the banana trees that have survived are covered in ash that mars the fruits' skin, which makes it impossible for farmers to export their crops.

Some people are now moving away, their homes and livelihoods buried in rock. The years ahead remain uncertain, Rodríguez says. "It's going to be rough for the island."

Over the course of the eruption, lava emerged from multiple points along a deep fracture in the volcanic ridge, sweeping across the island into nearby cities. Rodríguez arrived the day the eruption began, snapping the image on the bottom left during his first night. Photographs By Arturo Rodríguez

On September 28, nine days after the first blast, lava began flowing into the sea. The reaction between the sizzling hot rock and cold seawater generated laze—a noxious plume of steam laced with hydrochloric acid and shards of volcanic glass.

Scientists Have Collected Samples of Rock, monitored gasses, recorded earthquakes, and more to better understand the current eruption and the potential for more blasts. In this image, Sergeant Armando Salazar, who is part of an emergency response group with the Spanish military, wears a silver suit for protection against the volcano's scorching heat as he walks across the still-sizzling rocks.

Risking Their Lives For Science: Equipped like spacemen, in silver suits to protect them from lava and sizzling rocks, these researchers take measurements in the shadow of a still-erupting volcano.

Top: The ash that emerges from volcanoes is composed of shards of rock and glass. In some places on La Palma, the ash has built up so much that it's buried trees (shown above) and houses, some of which only have chimneys left poking through the volcanic blanket.

Bottom: Scientists from IGME and CSIC (the Spanish geological survey and National Research Council) are seeking any possible clues to better understand what's happening under the surface. A lava tube that formed in 1949 sits less than four miles away from Cumbre Vieja, so scientists placed gas sensors in the older tube to sniff out fractures that might connect to the ongoing eruption.

The night lava reached the ocean, scientists with the Spanish Institute of Oceanography studied the activity from the vessel Ramon Margalef. Since then, the eruption has built up a growing lava delta of jet-black rock.

The volcanic ash can build up so much that it causes roofs to collapse. Many people added extra support inside their houses, propping up their roofs with extra pillars of wood, Rodríguez says. Volunteers and public workers continue cleaning off roofs every day, but it's taxing and potentially dangerous work.

Top: Rodríguez ate breakfast each morning at a cafe near a banana plantation. One morning, he arrived to find volunteers helping move equipment from the restaurant to save whatever they could from the encroaching lava.

Bottom: Lava from Cumbre Vieja reached the village of La Laguna (above) at the end of October. In just a few hours, it had buried half the neighborhood. "There used to be a supermarket, a gas station," Rodríguez says. "Now there is nothing there. There's lava."

Locals and tourists watch the eruption from Tajuya Church, which is located almost two miles from the fiery peak. Meanwhile, a boy clears ash from the lines of a basketball court to play. "This is a relatively safe place to see the volcano," Rodríguez says.

Two months after the Cumbre Vieja volcano rumbled to life, molten rock continues to flow from the fiery peak. Scientists do not yet know when the eruption might come to an end.

[calebs-hangout-corner]

Tell me about Horrortown

Goosebumps: Horrortown is an absolutely fantastic city builder game set in a Goosebumps universe. Curly the Skeleton guides you through the game as its narrator, or at least he tries, Slappy likes to butt in with his own commentary occasionally. They are besties (There is one event that has different narrators who are actually based on two pretty cool horrortown YouTubers). It has multiple stories you can play through with the many different characters that are in this universe and live in this town.

It's also really funny because at the start of the game everyone is still new to monsters and such and freak out when they have to deal with them but the more the story progresses the more they're just "hey how much do you wanna bet our new neighbor is a monster?" and "man, another monster attack? This is the third time this week!" and not to forget "what? ANOTHER meteor crashed in town? Are we a magnet for this stuff or something?" They just become desensitized to the whole monster situation it's great. Sometimes the og characters from the books are here and I always love how they are integrated: Sometimes they are just here and will go through their stories (like Carly Beth Caldwell of Haunted Mask fame), sometimes they already went through what happened in their books (like Lizzie Morris, who comes to Horrortown to warn everyone of the Horrorland theme park), sometimes they went through their book with a different outcome (such as Dana from Egg Monsters from Mars, who died in the Horrortown timeline instead of surviving and his skeleton is visible in the freezer he was trapped in in the book, or Nat and Pat, whose sister Ginger, the protagonist of Beast From The East, is suspiciously missing from their life), and sometimes they're just adults and somewhere else (see: Zeke Matthews, who studies at College in Woods Mill and comes to visit, or Lucy and Randy Dark, who study abroad and are frequently mentioned)

The characters and their interpersonal relationships really make this game, idk how they did it but I absolutely adore playing through the different storylines and getting to know the characters!!! I also love some of the implications of the game that they never outright confirm but it feels really nice when you end up connecting the dots.

Example: Mrs. Dark, Randy and Lucy's mother, moved to Horrortown and sent her children to study far away because their father, her husband, was most likely killed by a monster hunter.

Example No. 2: Brooke Buchenberg's father is implied to be a hermit wizard that lives in the snowy mountains and abondened her when she was too young to remember him and she has untapped magical abilities because of it.

Example No. 3: Pat is trans, as she is a girl in the game but was a boy in the books and Nat and Pat are identical twins.

Example No. 4: Emile from Phantom of the Auditorium is probably a ghost in this timeline.

The game also still updates with events from time to time and I just AAAAAAA I love this game so much. I have literally so many ideas for it because the world just lends itself to so many different stories you could tell.

[vtgbooks]

R L STINE Egg Monsters From Mars Goosebumps 42 1996 Vintage Horror Outer Space

[tlbodine]

Overthinking: The Beast from the East

The Beast from the East is Goosebumps #43, released in May of '96. I remember this one's cover from childhood, because I always thought the creature was adorable. But I never read it for whatever reason. Also for some reason in my head this one and The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena always got mixed up.

Anyway. I'll be honest, I didn't love this one near as much as Egg Monsters from Mars. But it's a fun time, and sometimes that's all you need.

First, the Plot: Ginger is camping with her parents and twin brothers, Nat and Pat. She and her brothers get separated from their parents and end up in a very strange part of the woods, where all the plants are strange colors and the animals look like nothing from earth. They encounter big blue furry beasts who speak English and insist that the kids play a game with them.

The rules of the game are vague and seem to keep changing as they play. But the initial idea is basically tag: When you're "It", you need to tag someone else but can only do so from the East. If you're "it" by sundown, you get eaten.

It's pretty clear the beasts never expect to lose this game.

Ginger and her brothers try to survive, encountering various obstacles along the way, from a death pit to a nest of snakes to a hidden penalty rock and a cave full of bugs. Each time she thinks she's got a grasp on the rules, they change, and there's some new obscure reason why she has to keep playing.

They're separated early, such that the beasts only ever see one twin at a time. In the end, when both twins are present, the beasts believe that it's one person who has doubled himself and realize that these humans are higher-level players than they thought, so they have to let them go.

Unfortunately, it's nighttime now, and the kids have to play with higher level players now....

Overthinking It:

This book is one of the more whimsical romps, more of an adventure than a horror. Know that going in, and set your expectations accordingly.

Oh, sure, there is some terror inherent in the idea that you're playing a game with the penalty of death. But for all their posturing and hunger, the beasts aren't that intimidating. What they are is pedantic.

This book captures well the supreme irritation of playing a complex game with a bunch of rules lawyers. If you have ever tried to learn, say, Magic the Gathering by playing with a bunch of guys you just met at the comic shop, you've had an experience not unlike this book. Now just imagine those guys have insisted they can eat you at the end of the night (take that however you wish) and you've got The Beast from the East.

Something Stine often keys into with these books is unfairness as a lynch-pin of plot, and this is a really good example. Often in Goosebumps it's the unfairness of not being believed about something, or of being blamed for something. But here the unfairness is in navigating a complex system with incomplete information, and the maddening fact that the people taking advantage of you could tell you what to do but simply refuse.

It's filing your taxes, basically.

Anyway. I'm making this book sound somewhat more tedious than it is. I do like some of the world-building flourishes, and the characterization of the beasts is quite funny at times. There's also a whole introductory section about the song "Teddy Bear Picnic" and bed bugs that frankly feels like it's setting up this entire story to be a dream or fantasy, but that never pays off so...idk what that's all about. You tell me if you have any insights into that one.

If You Liked This, THESE Will Really Give You Goosebumps:

The setting and the beasts strongly reminded me of the film adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are, which is a movie everyone seems to have universally decided to ignore but which I remember enjoying in theaters.

If you like deadly games with ever-shifting rules, may I interest you in As the Gods Will where kids have to play deadly children's games? Warning for gore and exploding heads. If that's not enough weird Japanese horror for you, pair it off with Tag, which involves playing a game of tag with a deadly slicing wind. Just go with it.

For a different kind of game-based horror, enjoy the cheesy if-you-die-in-the-game-you-die-in-real-life movie, Stay Alive.

[thetentaclecommander]

Thanks for the tag @goth-automaton Rules: list the first line of your last 10 (posted) fics and see if there's a pattern! Lol I post at the pace of a snail but sure :) ... Calmness in a Human Sea I sniff your skin, smell your scent, and can feel the thin movement of hair…strange and nearly invisible along such pale pigmented flesh. Not Today, Satan A flurry of tentacles snapped forward, trying to get at her previously occupied blank space. Eggs. Just Eggs. (No, Not Like THAT!) A new popup eatery that launched days before Easter (almost tactically so) had opened its doors along the main street of a nondescript town USA.

There Is Always Another Time Sun-kissed white sands marred by passersby-made lines spread out for miles, glittering with a warm haze noticeable to the naked eye. The Prince of My Dreams The balcony hovers over a grand gala filled with rich tapestries, lighting, and all the opulence corporate money could buy. Fires and Ashes It was as if fire was under her feet as Jill nearly instinctively shoved herself to the far corner of the narrow hall. a gosling only seeks the warmth of his mother The rain hits the window hard in its aggression. On a Devil's Wings

It's hot…

Father

Why is it

So hot? Nemesis and Jill Go to Horny Jail The bedsheets muffled Jill’s lips as she gasps and murmurs along them, long soiled by the absent drool that ungracefully trailed from her. Domesticity The kitchen's screen door was open; the room was warm and filled with the activities of chopping, peeling, mixing, and creating from scratch today’s dinner. ... Hmm aside from a few starting off with one of the monster boys' thoughts, most tend to either start with a 'this is the setting like in a movie' opener, or right in middle of the action especially with the porn lol. I guess I just hate letting people wait forever to get to the good stuff I guess. I also just am a sensualist at heart. I want ya to feel that beach with the white sands, that fire on the mad boy's face or that Jill is definitely having a great time lawl ... All my writer mutes (tagged and untagged), have at! @the-bar-sinister @damadisangue @naerwenia @coiled-dragon @s-dei @lmshady @azulas-daddy-kink @depraveddove @unchartedperils @sweet7simple @katophoenix

[antonymphdraws]

Sunny Benedict! Daughter of the Egg Monsters from Mars!

Sunny Benedict

Daughter of The Egg Monsters

Parent

Egg Monsters from Mars

Age

16

Killer Style

I just adore bright, sunny clothing. Clothing that tells the world I’m ready to seize the day!

Freaky Flaw

I am practically a mother to my classmates both in good ways and bad ways. And by bad ways, I mean smothering ways.

Pet

Quiche! He’s a little chick I found one day. Isn’t he just the cutest?!

Favorite Activity

I love to “crack” jokes with my friends, especially egg puns. Some may say they’re overdone, but I think they’re “eggcellent”!

Pet Peeve

I’m an early bird at heart and I prefer to keep it that way. So don’t force me to stay up or I’ll flip! Really, I don’t like sudden routine changes in general.

Favorite Subject

Home Ick. My favorite parts are cooking for the Creepateria and sewing blankets!

Least Favorite Subject

Volcanology. I can’t take the heat, I’ll melt...or worse; cooked alive!

Favorite Colors

Yellow, Orange, White, and Pale Green

Favorite Food

Bacon and ham! And all kinds of breakfast food really! Except for eggs, no way would I eat my own kind!

Friends

Terra Firma (OC) Clara Shipman (OC) Roberta Krueger (OC) Edd Goldberg (EW MH AU Only)

Skillset

Cooking

Sunny is good at cooking, especially breakfast foods like bacon and pancakes.

Sewing Sunny knows how to sew, her favorite thing to sew being blankets

Personality

As her name would suggest, Sunny is a ray of, well, sunshine! She’s an optimist who always tries to look on the bright side. She can also be described as a   “mom friend” among the students who cares a lot for the safety and wellbeing of her peers. She also has a sense of humor, as she's fond of egg-based puns. Sunny is, however, a stickler for routine, and will often get upset if something or someone throws a wrench in it. She can also be a bit overprotective and smothering towards those she’s fond of.

Trivia/Additional Information

Sunny’s name comes from egg dishes. The first name from Sunny-Side-Up Eggs and the last name from Eggs Benedict.

Sunny’s pet is also named after an egg dish, that being a quiche.

Her birthday is April 12th. The month comes from when “Egg Monsters from Mars” was released, while the day comes from the fact there are a dozen eggs in a carton. This makes her an Aries.

Her headcanon voice actress is Erika Harlacher who voiced Ami Kawashima from Toradora.

[brandwhorestarscream]

On the Megatron as a Queen Mother with the (humane) breeding of cybertronians and eventually expanding to the colony mechs to be ome the Cybermorph All Mother.

I LOVE IT!

It also makes for intersting potentials as the Cybermorphs expand and eventually run into standard Xenomorphs.

How would that even go?

I can see a potential where the Deceptacon/Cybermorphs go to earth for energon and show up during a Xenomorph out break. And they wipe out the rival hive(s). Because fuck that competition. Accidentally winning the gratitude and service of what's left of humanity in the process. More interestingly actually finding out what the other half of the Cybermorph CNA lineage comes from. Nana Galvatron certainly wants to know.

And runing into the Predators/Yautja, what would that even look like? Their whole social standing is based on hunting worthy prey. And they consider Xenomorphs from humans as the most valuable/highest status prey to hunt. If they fuck around with Megatron, they will find out!

Oooh. That's an interesting one. The cybermorphs have long since begun to spread by the time they make it to earth: they're easily marked as the universe's dominant species. They can dispatch typical xenomorphs with ease: they're everything they are, after all, but better. Bigger, stronger, faster, with the added edge of being incomprehensibly intelligent. As scary as the xenomorphs are, at the end of the day, they are just animals. The cybermorphs wouldn't have any issue with them.

Though part of me thinks the cybermorphs might find them cute. They'd be like distant, primitive relatives, like humans vs. lemurs or other small primates and mammals. Go back far enough snd they share ancestry, and the little ones are purely instinctual. Some cybermorphs may keep them as exotic pets XD

But yes, the humans are very grateful. They're of course very unsure about the cybermorphs: they're the same monsters but much larger and more dangerous. Their being sentient doesn't do anything to soothe those fears. But the humans aren't in any real danger, inherently: they're far too small to be used as proper incubators (unless we decide to make minicon morphs, in which case yeah, maybe). And earth can't exactly make them leave: the xenomorph outbreak has decimated their weaponry, their government, pretty much everything: they're not organized enough to chase them away even if they did have the means to do so. While cybermorphs are techno-organic and can digest carbon-based fuel, they much prefer energon as a whole. Which can be synthesized by harnessing the earth's sun, so their fuel needs likely won't push them to hunt humanity, either. Whichever queen has landed on earth decides to take over the subterranean sections of the planet, leaving the humans to their own devices and promising protection from the xenos--after all, no competition can be allowed. This planet is squishy and warm and perfect for laying eggs; so long as the humans don't try to get in the way, they can keep the surface.

The rest of the solar system is probably being used too. Imagine a hive setting up in Jupiter's frozen oceans, or on the sunbaked red plains of Mars. They also probably import the incubator livestock and set up farms, though maybe not on earth itself. They've learned through trial and error that letting self-aware creatures know of other self-aware creatures being kept in such a manner oft leads to ruffled feathers.

As for the Predators... idk if they'd view cybermorphs as proper prey, because they're not fully organic. As naturally occurring cyborgs, would they be considered something worth hunting? Or would their brains basically being computers put them off? Idk anything about them and probably never will, so  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ but, if they do try to hunt cybermorphs, they're very much going to be curb stomped and eaten. They fucked around and found out and paid the ultimate price. You can't hunt something like a cybermorph. They always know where you are. They always know your next move. They will always find you. They will trap you, and they will eat you.