#The Giant Claw

[biorante]

[weirdlookindog]

Jeff Morrow in The Giant Claw (1957).

[thecreaturecodex]

Terochilus

Image accessed from the Ultraman Wiki here

[Terochilus is a monster that makes a big impression in Return of Ultraman (being the star of a two-part episode), but with very little impact on the franchise outside of it. Which is a shame. It feels like Ultraman's Rodan the way that Arstron feels like its Godzilla. It has a weirder power set than Rodan, though, with its toxic webbing and shooting lasers from its nose. It kind of reminds me of The Giant Claw, in the sense of being a superficially simple flying kaiju that is totally bizarre on closer inspection, and I designed its stats intentionally to be a counterpart to my cacagnea.

In the show, its webs emit toxic gas on exposure to automobile exhaust, making Terochilus another pollution-themed kaiju. Since cars don't exist in Pathfinder, I changed the trigger to the webs getting extra dangerous to fire, which is the typical adventurer solution to webbing. That, and it makes the Terochilus' lairing in volcanoes synergistic, and very dangerous.

Also, I can't prove it, but I suspect that Terochilus' pterosaur with feathers look inspired the winged fakeosaur that came in the same set as the ones that inspired the rust monster and bulette]

Terochilus

CR 19 LN Magical Beast

This creature resembles a strange cross between bird and pterosaur. It walks on two elephantine legs, and has membranous wings growing like a cape from its human-like arms. It has a head and neck covered with feathers, and a long straight bill.

A terochilus is a bestial, vaguely avian predator, something like a roc writ even larger. They are found lairing on volcanic islands and are extremely territorial—a terochilus patrols the water near the island for whales, large fish and the occasional sea monster to eat, and drives away anything else entering its hunting grounds. This territoriality extends to their volcanic lairs as well. A terochilus usually lives near the caldera and lines its nest with thick ashy webbing. This webbing is flammable, but burning it produces a highly potent toxic gas that causes immediate unconsciousness followed by systematic organ failure. The terochiluses are immune to these noxious fumes, and encourage periodic fires to burn the webbing and fumigate their lairs.

Terochiluses usually do not see creatures of human size and shape as prey. The danger comes from their territorial instinct—they attack boats that steer too close to their hunting grounds. If forced from their lairs by a stronger monster, they may settle closer to inhabited areas and wreak havoc enforcing their new territorial boundaries. In combat, a terochilus usually opens by spraying opponents with webbing, and then closing to melee with entangled enemies. A terochilus possesses a powerful breath weapon, which manifests as beams of deadly force fired from its nostrils. This breath weapon does not recharge quickly, and most terochiluses use it as a weapon of last resort only.

Terochilus CR 19

XP 204,800

LN Colossal magical beast

Init +9; Senses darkvision 120 ft., low-light vision, Perception +22, tremorsense 30 ft.

Defense

AC 34, touch 12, flat-footed 24 (-8 size, +9 Dex, +1 dodge, +22 natural)

hp 346 (21d10+231)

Fort +23, Ref +21, Will +12

DR 20/magic; Immune poison; Resist fire 30, force 30; SR 30

Offense

Speed 40 ft., fly 150 ft. (average)

Melee bite +27 (4d6+14/19-20 plus grab), 2 claws +27 (2d8+14), 2 wings +22 (2d8+7)

Space 30 ft.; Reach 30 ft.

Special Attacks breath weapon (150 ft. line, 1 minute, 19d10 force damage),hurricane hover,swallow whole(AC 21, 34 hp, 4d8+21 bludgeoning),toxic webbing, webs (+22 ranged, range increment 30 ft., 150 ft. range, DR 10/-, 21 hp, DC 31)

Statistics

Str 39, Dex 28, Con 32, Int 4, Wis 21, Cha 15

Base Atk +21; CMB +43 (+47 grapple); CMD 63

Feats Acrobatic,Blind-Fight, Combat Reflexes,Dodge, Flyby Attack, Greater Vital Strike, Hover (B), Improved Critical (bite), Improved Vital Strike, Mobility, Power Attack, Vital Strike

Skills Acrobatics +21 (+25 when jumping), Climb +26, Fly +13, Perception +22; Racial Modifiers +8 Perception

Languages Ignan (cannot speak)

Ecology

Environment warm land

Organization solitary or pair

Treasure incidental

Special Abilities

Hurricane Hover (Ex) A terochilus gains Hover as a bonus feat. When it uses the Hover feat, it creates hurricane force winds in a 60-foot radius, regardless of its distance from the surface.

Toxic Webbing (Ex) A terochilus’ webs release toxic gas when they take fire damage. This gas fills a 30 foot radius from the webbing, and lingers for 1d4+1 rounds before dissipating. This toxin has the following properties

Web fumes—inhaled; duration 1/round for 4 rounds; save Fort DC 31; initial effect unconsciousness 1 minute; secondary effect 1d6 Con damage and unconsciousness 10 minutes; cure 1 save. The save DC is Constitution based.

[monsterasia-zero]

This month The Giant Claw was released

[chernobog13]

The Giant Claw (1957)

So not good that it's absolutely bad.

[aunti-christ-ine]

From a few years ago.

Watch Svengoolie every Saturday night on MeTV!

[mattydemise]

The Giant Claw doesn't deserve the abysmal reputation it is! It's awful but its awfulness is fucking charming! Here's the watch party in full. Have fun!🦇

[avartwork]

FALLING BEAST OUT OF PREHISTORIC SKIES

AS BIG AS THE BIGGEST BATTLESHIP

A chonky Giant Claw from the request list!

[theknucklehead]

For those who don't know, AVGN has his own video game made by developers who are close friends with him, it's a side scrolling shoot-em-up platformer with NES style graphics and tons of call backs to his reviews of various different games. Now I could go through every one of those references, but this post would end up being way too long so instead I'm gonna focus on select moments that I particularly enjoyed from AVGN Adventures (1 & 2 Deluxe)

The Browntown section of the game in question is a reference to the NES Ninja Turtles game, but this moment in particular is based on a jump he struggled with for so long until he found out you can just walk across it.

The Assholevania is all a reference to Castlevania, including Nerd's opening line which is quoted from Simon's Quest whenever the game transitions from day to night.

At the very start of Dungeons & Dickholes, the first ladder you see leads to a very elaborate death trap, this is a reference to a joke he made in his Super Pitfall review regarding the first ladder you see in that game being a beginner's trap.

The penultimate stage Virtual Insanity is red & black just like the graphics on the Virtual Boy.

One of the new bonus levels in the deluxe version features a massive truck named after the game of the same Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing.

The boss battle for Dungeons & Dickholes is actually a reference to Cinemassacre's Monster Madness; The Giant Claw a 1957 horror movie with a laughably bad looking movie monster, and Nerd's quote is from the movie as everyone refers to the monster being as big as a battleship.

In the original 2nd game, the boss battle of Area 52 was the badguy in the AVGN movie, but for some reason they changed it to instead look like Darth Vader turning into a scorpion which is a reference to the Star Wars Famicom game.

This is a double reference here: the first is regarding the "Freddy's Coming" screen that appears in A Nightmare on Elm Street for NES (complete with the trademark attached). The other is Freddy Kruger and Jason Voorhees being called Jimmy and Bimmy which was a translation error in Double Dragon III (They misspelled Billy's name)

Fred Fuchs is still in the Deluxe version, but this time he's played by Gilbert Gottfried which he guest starred as in the Life of Black Tiger review.

And finally if you get a game over, the game over screen is written out the same way as it was joked about in his Friday the 13th on NES review.

[halloweenhundreds]

I’ve seen a couple of places call The Giant Claw some kind of American Rodan but it’s got none of the aplomb of its pterosaur cousin. Love this big ugly puppet though, 5 stars.

[qosmiq]

[frigginconfused]

Visiting All Monsters Attack this weekend has me thinking of some of my favorite kaiju

[weirdlookindog]

The Giant Claw (1957)

[movieposters1]

[thevideodungeon]

The Giant Claw (1957)

Fairly average 1950s giant monster film. If anything, maybe a tad on the better side. The effects are honestly not that bad by 50s standards. It's just become one of those stupid jokes to say how bad they are without ever having seen the movie.

5/10

[chernobog13]

THE GIANT CLAW (1957)