#The ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest 3D

[tyrantisterror]

What’s this?  A Create a Kaiju Contest entry is finished?  Yes!  YES!  I’m getting them done! Like I said I would!

Dragonzilla’s entry is the third of our five winners, and a unique combination of kaiju and mecha that I don’t think anyone has ever done before to my knowledge.  Check them out, won’t you?

[quinnred]

T H E - T H I N K E R - O . N . I . A. C . Lore Below!

Name: O.N.I.A.C. Aliases: The Thinker, The Box, Chrysalis, The Lamp, The Structure   Date Discovered: 1943 Place of Origin: UNKNOWN Notable Stomping Grounds: CLASSIFIED Height: 160 ft Width: 40ft Biology: The O.N.I.A.C. (Organic Numerical Integrator and Calculator) is a mysterious organic structure with no clear origin and appears to be a form of chrysalis constructed of yamaneon mineral. It's surface is wrinkled like a brain and of a deep near-black blue and gold iridescence, pulsing with a red energy. It is supported by silk covering it's chamber, though it acts strangely buoyant for it's size. Pale butterflies the size of horses cluster around the O.N.I.A.C., attracted by the yamaneon radiation and the vibrations singing from below the surface. Luckily they are mostly harmless, though attentive to any perceived ill acts towards the structure. Although the nature of its discovery has been kept under lock and key, it is known that a facility was built around it's chamber in order to conceal it from civilian witnesses and foreign powers, or other, stranger threats. It has been under constant observation and experimentation for years, yielding a curious result. When asked a question translated into higher frequencies, O.N.I.A.C. will reverberate and repeat the signal throughout it's shell until it transforms the signal into a direct and simple answer. This behaviour has made it a significant asset to those that keep it, using it as a super computer for calculating the most sophisticated equations they can  throw at it. Due to its yamaneon nature, the O.N.I.A.C. can passively emit high quantities of radiation, though it will control it's emissions depending on who enters it's chamber. If disturbed enough it will vibrate violently and disrupt molecular structures, causing a loss of solidity in some organic beings, or simply being irritating or painful to others. It may also flood the area in intense radiation and allow the pale wing butterflies to devour the fluids of an intruder. Additionally it's frequencies can harass the brain and harshly mulch memories and scramble functions.  It is theorized that the O.N.I.A.C. may be an ancient caterpillar mutated mid-pupation, but nothing can be truly confirmed until the chrysalis opens. Until then, it simply is endless potential and hypothesis.     Personality: O.N.I.A.C. is eager to answer questions, though seems monotonally coy about questions of the future or of it's exact nature, or simply dosent know and wont completely admit it. It seems to have picked up the likes and dislikes of its captors, enjoying the "smell" of coffee brewing while despising Mondays.

[glarnboudin]

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.

[cerothenull]

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.

[downtofragglerock]

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

[virovac]

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.

[tyrantisterror]

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

[tyrantisterror]

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!

[tyrantisterror]

Entry number 3!  Thank you very much!

For @tyrantisterror 's ATOM create a Kaiju, I present Argonox, the Golden Terror of Greece!

Created by the SPOOKS organization in their heyday, Argonox is a large, sheep like creature with several bovine traits hidden beneath his thick wool. Tiny, nearly microscopic particles of Yamenon go through each hair, and the wool itself is able to deflect missile fire, leaving Argonox a VERY well armored kaiju. A greenish gold color, like a patina on bronze, Argonox was named for the myth of Jason and the Argonauts and the Golden Fleece, but by personality he's very much the dragon of the same myth. Stubborn and aggressive, Argonox is firmly in the "charge and trample first, ask your name second" camp. About the only other thing he fears is the sound of a "humane" sheep killing dart gun going off. This was used, in conjunction with giant speakers, to keep Argonox in line.

-----

Honestly? I just wanted to make a pun but then I remembered it was golden fleece, not leather, felt stupid, but refused to drop the pun... and here we go!

[tyrantisterror]

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!

[tyrantisterror]

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!

[tyrantisterror]

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.

[tyrantisterror]

Another marvelous entry1

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!

[tyrantisterror]

The window to submit entries to The ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest 3-D is officially closed!

Thank you to all 21 people who contributed!  I will post a roundup as soon as I get these sketches done, and start determining the winners in the coming days!

[tyrantisterror]

The ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest 3D Entry Roundup should be finished this week

That’s the part where I sketch each of the kaiju and give some preliminary thoughts on them.

I’ll hopefully have the finalists done the following week, and the grand prize winner after that.

Thank you all for your patience!

[tyrantisterror]

I posted 2,371 times in 2021

576 posts created (24%)

1795 posts reblogged (76%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 3.1 posts.

I added 137 tags in 2021

#the atomic time of monsters - 29 posts

#the atom create a kaiju contest 3d - 28 posts

#wizard school mysteries - 20 posts

#4 horror war - 16 posts

#tyrantis - 13 posts

#midgaheim - 9 posts

#nickelsmarts - 7 posts

#no sympathies - 7 posts

#the max goof hit - 4 posts

#kimtieu2000 - 4 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#i loved sword and shield but i know i would have loved it better if the devs had been given enough time to make it as great as it could be

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

This is a Princess Diana Bear

It was made for the collector’s market

When Ty realized they could sell toys to adults as well as children

It was not made to be played with

It was not made to be hugged or snuggled

It was not made to be loved

It was made to be bought by a middle-aged housewife

And placed in a plastic box where it could not even gather dust

Waiting for the day it could be sold for ludicrous sums

And to this day its peers are still waiting

Their owners placing them on eBay

With prices in the thousands of dollars

That no one will pay

But this bear sat in a thrift store

Priced at two dollars

Its precious tag missing

Its fur slightly ruffled

And now it is a toy

To be played with

To be hugged and snuggled

To be loved

676 notes • Posted 2021-12-14 00:50:50 GMT

#4

I never stop getting a kick out of seeing explicit references to anime I grew up with in modern cartoons - all the American superhero shows that have clear bits of Sailor Moon in their transformation sequences, little nods to DBZ, all of it genuine in the way, say, cartoons fifteen years ago weren’t when they referenced anime.  Eda from The Owl House being inspired by Ryoko from Tenchi Muyo > that tired ass shit from that one Fairly Odd Parents episode where Timmy Turner stepped into Butch Hartman’s reductive concept of what anime is.

Anyway the reason I made this post is that a bunch of the recent cartoons clearly show how much No Face from Spirited Away scarred my generation, because holy shit SO many villains reference his transformation now.

736 notes • Posted 2021-08-04 03:00:24 GMT

#3

Made a pretty cool Halloween decoration out of junk at work today.

889 notes • Posted 2021-09-29 22:56:15 GMT

#2

I want a dinosaur documentary series that has an episode called “T.rex has a nice day,” where instead of the standard Dino doc late cretaceous stuff (life or death fight with armored herbivore followed by death via apocalyptic meteor), the T.rex just has a nice day.  Wakes up, eats the carcass of yesterday’s kill, goes on a walk through their territory, drinks from a steam, walks some more, goes back to the kill for dinner, sleeps.  Just a pleasant day for T.rex.

2704 notes • Posted 2021-08-13 05:20:32 GMT

#1

Still can’t get over his fruit punch mouth.

6115 notes • Posted 2021-03-20 22:42:42 GMT

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