#cycloptic alien monster

[critter-casey]

“i 💘 Books” (digital illustration) — CW

[sonicasura]

Time to drop Kaiju No 8's Kafka Hibino into a different franchise again! Our target this is Transformers but I'll be messing around with two iterations: Prime and Earthspark. (The former is based on a crack post right here.) I'm starting with Prime first as the other one will get their own page.

Before I go into this, I want to say that Skybound is definitely something I'll be experimenting on in the future. Currently waiting for more volumes to come out first though. It's best to have some extra material to use just in case. For now, let's get started.

Transformers Prime: The Kaiju

(I'm going to do things out of order for this since Season 3 doesn't have that much room to experiment there timeline wise. Shockwave is found after the Orion Pax three parter with Ultra Magnus on his trail. Megatron manage to trick the amnesiac Prime in helping to track down the mad scientist faster.)

Kafka is brought into the TFPverse through Shockwave's attempts at improving their groundbridge. The absolute worst time since the man turned Kaiju been currently fighting a Honju(type of middle sized kaiju). You can bet Megatron was pissed when two unknown monsters brought their scuffle into the Nemesis.

Shockwave however watches the scene before him in sheer curiosity. His intrigue only grows as the 'smaller creature' ends the much larger one into with what had to be an organic booster propelled punch. The blow was so powerful that it shook the entire Nemesis than just paint the entire room and Shockwave red in gore.

Kafka finally notices the now very alien surroundings alongside the giant robot he covered in Honju blood. He decides to get hell out of dodge once Vehicons begin storm inside. Kafka doesn't know what's going on and rather not do it in obviously hostile territory. (He did have a fit above jumping off an airship.)

Shockwave sends out Predaking in pursuit of his newest test subject. The Decepticon couldn't let such a fascinating creature escape so easily. (Plus it would reduce any punishment from Megatron.)

Immediate fight in the sky as Kafka is forced to fight off the mechanical dragon. With some quick thinking, he uses Predaking to safely(for the kaiju) reach the ground and escapes while the Predacon reels from the crash impact. The Autobots find out when a land survey drone catches what looked to be Predaking fighting an unknown smaller creature.

Both factions are put on high alert thanks to the immense power Kafka had display. Meanwhile the man is trying to get his feet up and understand how he can escape this mess. A world where kaiju doesn't exist but alien robots do already spells trouble in his opinion.

Kafka comes to the conclusion that maybe finding the extraterrestrials in question might hold the answers he needs. Thus he spends a good chunk of his time in the TFPverse hunting for clues. Kafka has no idea about the massive war or the cycloptic scientist obsessed with him.

If he runs into any 'robot', he tries to keep them from seeing his human form. A smart call once he catches a peek of Knockout transforming outta vehicle mode. Kafka has managed to dodge detection by himself but his luck eventually catches up.

How? Well when the latest stop accidentally leads to one of Shockwave's secret labs with incubating Predacons. These particular clones have something extra added to them, a blood sample from Kafka's Kaiju form. (You can thank the airborne scuffle between Predaking for that.)

The man's close proximity forces them all to awaken early much to our himbo's panic. Unlike Predaking, none of these clones are even close to adulthood thus the Kaiju blood inside decided the most reasonable stage to emerge as: Sparklings. (5 males: Kenji, Yuma, Takato, Hiro, Kafka Jr; 4 females: Sora, Ryu, Mira, Kura.) Nothing like babies, particularly ones the size of go kart, to make life on the run harder.

Kafka is absolutely freaking out since kaiju instincts immediately pick up the blood connection between them and he so isn't ready for parenthood. A choice he doesn't have as the Predacon pups imprinted on him but also the alarm in Shockwave's lab has gone off. Kafka flees with the bitlits whilst Predaking angrily follows.

Luckily for him, the Autobots take a page from Soundwave's book and use the groundbridge to warp Kafka alongside the Sparkling Predacons into base. (A tactic which garners Predaking's hatred towards them in return.) Team Prime better hope they have enough Energon to support 9 extra mouths.

Or are prepared for Kafka to further complicate everything. This just doesn't include claiming 9 once extinct Cybertronian species as his own and being from a version of Earth infested with giant monsters. Kafka has two Decepticons that want him too than just their creations back.

[bearmemesreviews]

Skylanders Review: Spyro Part 1

Ah, Skylanders, the Juggernaut of the Ingenius but short-lived toys-to-life genre. Before Battlepasses, Gachas, and DLC packages that added things that probably should have been in base game, we had the clever idea of making kids buy the characters they wanted to play as. Why grind or achieve some in-game feat to unlock your favorite character when you could spend extra money to get more than the three options you got when buying the game itself!

Is it sad to say that I think if this game came out now they wouldn't even bother with starter figures and you'd just get the game for Forty Dollars?

Anyways, some backstory before we get into our flagship Skylander, and the reason why most of you are here.

Skylanders began as a project for Spyro the Dragon, a task given to the company Toys for Bob. They toyed with a bunch of ideas that other games have done when they needed a reboot - even the dark and gritty remake route - but these ideas soon settled onto a pitch for "Spyro's Kingdom" which would lay the groundwork for Skylanders.

Quoting the wiki, ideas included Spyro and friends being living toys in a post-apocalyptic earth, this was scrapped but became the marketing heart of the franchise - toys you'd "bring to life" by placing them upon a station connected to your gaming set-up. Every Skylander would be a real-life figure, non-posable but fully painted and detailed, that you could collect to broaden your options for playable characters.

The story of Spyro's Kingdom had Spyro be an older guide to the player, now a king of his own kingdom. Obviously a reboot cannot have its title character play second fiddle to a bunch of newbies, so this would be altered. Spyro's Kingdom would've had new characters, who would receive quests from the adult dragon and these included five specific proto-Skylanders.

My god these figures, Hagen Renaker eat your heart out. Four out of five of these figures would be reworked into future Skylanders, except for the Cycloptic Blue Blob who suspiciously resembles the guy from Monsters vs Aliens. Guess they Old Yeller'd him, RIP.

In the middle sits a pissed off red-recolor of Spyro, with a very familiar headshape. This "Fire Dragon," who would serve as the player character before rightfully giving that spot up to his purple superior, never got around to getting a real name. In fact, all these figures had Placemarker names due to how early they were in the game's creation. From left to right we have "Rock Dragon", "Ghost Eater", "Fire Dragon", "Tarclops", and "Bomb Troll".

Only one to get a name and only one to not become an official Skylander, if only he had that second eye.

Fire Dragon is obviously the Spyro we would soon get, and soon Master Eon would take Spyro's old position so that the purple dragon can finally take his role as the de-facto leader of this group of toyetic weirdos.

[Image: Spyro the Dragon, Official Skylanders Series 1 Render. Spyro is a quadrupedal purple dragon with almost Mustard Yellow accents. He has three-toed claws, bat-like wings, two medium length curved horns, and fin-shaped spikes going down the back of his head and along the top of his tail. His bulky tail also ends win a yellow spike, almost structured like an armored sheath attached to the tip of his tail.]

Spyro here retains most of the characteristics from previous incarnations, but has a notably pug-like, squashed snout. Pug Spyro was a bit of a Black Sheep in the old days, especially since Skylanders took a massive departure from the dragon's previous games. In fact, outside of Cynder and Malefor, you wouldn't need to know anything about the previous games to get into this new canon.

Yeah, here's something I have to admit. I have no real history with Spyro games, and I was first exposed to him from his self-titled adventure in Skylands. I'm also one of 50 people who watched the Netflix series, which you should watch because the way THAT reinterprets the game's canon needs to be seen.

Said Netflix series basically make him Harry Potter, learning from Eon - a master of Portals and Tutorials - on how to be a Skylander with Stealth Elf and Eruptor because f*ck Gill Grunt and Trigger Happy I guess. Skylanders are protectors of Skylands (Literal Islands in the Sky), who have been banished to Hell Earth by Invader Zim the evil wizard Kaos, and apparently the heat created by Atmospheric reentry can convert you into a plastic toy that retains enough sentience to understand how horrific being an immobile plaything would be. Eon then enlists you, adults who thought this was a new Spyro game and random children, as Portal Masters. Portals are the platform onto which you place the figures on to unlock their character in-game, and it allows you to puppeteer the Skylanders as an extension of your own being.

If you think that sounds morally dubious now, wait until we get to Trap Team.

As a Design by Himself, Spyro is a good flagship character. To the kids he's just a good old dragon, with all that entails. And he draws eyes to this game in the same way a Licensed Guest character would, acting a bit like the Wolverine to Skylander's X-Men.

I like the pug-face, though it leaves much to be desired at certain angles. However, that's not all that Spyro has to offer, after all, I have yet to fully explain his whole deal, because in part two we get into his Element and new Lore!

Please look up "Skylanders Costumes", every time I visited Halloween City I would just see these guys and die.

[knotical-cosmo]

The Shopkeeper's Secret

The chameleon like shopkeeper’s eyes darted around as two new customers hesitantly closed in.

“Excuse me sir” the cycloptic alien sheepishly asks “could we per chance buy some … powdered silver?”

The shopkeeper’s eyes stop their mindless wandering and dart to the cyclops’s position.

“Powdered silver?” the shopkeeper thinks for a second “You kids got a blood curse or something?”

The shopkeeper laughs at his rhetorical question, the two shop-goers stay silent with the thick sentiment of embarrassment.

“We heard t-that silver p-powder can help w-with vampirism” the small hairy one said, with 3 very bloodshot eyes, its nervousness makes the shopkeeper take pity on the poor thing. The shopkeeper rises above the counter separating them to get a better look at his customers.

“Got bit by a vamp, right?”

The hairy one nods, pointing at a fresh wound.

“Have you bit anyone yet?”

The hairy one shakes its head.

“Well, at least you don’t have to apologize to anyone” the shopkeeper sighs, his eyes scan his shelves. “You will be fine, just mix this powdered silver with your food to help it go down.”

The shopkeeper places a vial on the counter.

“You will feel quite ill as the silver absorbs the curse so make sure you take lots of rest and have some nutritious foods.”

The cyclops picks up the vial for the hairy one and reaches for some credits and the shopkeeper halts him.

“Don’t worry about the payment, just … be careful out there” the shopkeeper leans back in his chair with a smirk “and make sure to point others in my direction, always glad to have new customers.”

The two thanked the shopkeeper and went on their way. Once they were out of view the shopkeeper sighs and reaches for a sharpened stake.

The shopkeeper makes his way down the long corridors crisscrossing the interior of asteroid he and the rest of the rest of the space bound denizens call home. He follows the scent of fresh blood down a long abandoned mine. He fears what he might find, but he is prepared to do what he must.

The mine opens up to a small base camp, in the middle next to a small campfire a creature stands to meet its visitor.

“Hello old friend” the shopkeeper says sorrow in his voice as he sees fresh blood on the creature’s lips. “I thought you were getting better.”

“I’m sorry” the creature says slumping over “the hunger … it just … took over.”

“I am sorry too” the shopkeeper’s grip on his stake tightens “if you are losing control, there is nothing I can do for you.”

“Then do as you must” the creature closed its eyes “the infection is too far ingrained.”

The shopkeeper looks over all the magical paraphernalia collected to try and treat his dear friend.

None of it worked.

Now there is one last option.

The creature knew its guilt.

The shopkeeper raised the stake and plunged it though the heart of the creature.

The creature shrieked in pain as the monster inside began to thrash with rage and anguish.

The shopkeeper was thrown to the side of the room as he watched the shadows of what once was his friend twist and turn on the cavernous walls.

And then there was silence.

[bentbliley]

i would just like to say that i’m a big fan of galactic man but there isn’t a lot of lore behind the toy(s) and since i’m probably the most knowledgeable person on the lore of galactic man who didn’t actually write the toy bios, i figured i’d compile my research into one place. i might also put an addendum w/ the short bts history of the original galactic man toy (which would also include a bit of tandy, radio shack, transformers, and transformers generations selects history) but for now, here’s my research into the lore of galactic man. if you just want the blurb of lore, scroll down until you see a bolder paragraph.

#long post #hyperfixation #fantasy firearms

ok so this is practically headcanon but there’s no canon so i’m just piecing together what i can from backs of boxes and 2 product catalog listings but here’s what i believe to be the story of galactic man.

id: the original galactic man, a monotone cycloptic robot w/ a bulky chest, a red eye on a hexagon head, and a gun barrel for a left hand. end id.

so let’s start w/ galactic man, he’s a metallic humanoid who can manipulate parts of his body to become weaponry. his three weapon modes are handheld laser gun for assisting in one-on-one battles, vulcan base destroyer to keep evil enemies from conquering the universe, and anti aircraft gun for protecting his outpost on an alien planet.

id: the back of galactic man’s box. the first galactic man logo is at the top and fades down from green to blue. a subtitle describes him as an “electronic space robot slash gun.” then 4 pictures of his 4 modes are shown. clockwise starting w/ top left, they are robot, hand gun, anti aircraft gun, and vulcan base destroyer. 5 bullet points under the pictures that describe the features of the toy. “twist and turn galactic man to create three menacing-looking galactic weapons,” ”anti-aircraft gun protect’s galactic man’s outpost from attacking invaders,” “vulcan base destroyer helps you keep your evil enemies from conquering the universe,” “handheld laser gun lets you battle one-on-one in thrilling space duels,” “exciting rapid-fire and long-beam sound effects with pulsating light for super galactic action.” end id

this product catalog tells us a little more about galactic man. not much but just enough. there’s a mystery as to whether he’s a man or machine implying that he is human sized and shrinks for the handgun mode and that other inhabitants of this universe don’t know either.

id: black and white high contrast print ad for galactic man. only his robot mode can be seen. the text that’s important to this post: “is he a man or machine? twist and turn to create an anti-aircraft gun, vulcan base destroyer or laser gun. exciting sound effects. seven inches tall.” end id.

so w/ all this, we can tell pretty clearly that galactic man is in an outpost on an alien planet and that the aliens who are trying to attack the outpost are called vulcans.

now, i can hear you all asking “what about robocop?” so here’s robocop. he was sold in 2 colour schemes, red and silver and then grey. the back of the box says “team up with galactic man” and basically says this is galactic man, not the robot that we associate w/ the name. this in addition to the lack of any mentions of vulcans and the new logo make me believe this is a completely different galactic man unrelated to the vulcan fighting machine or man. there’s a chance he’s like, the second galactic man or galactic man is a group which explains the pallet swap. this galactic man was supposedly released around 1990, a full 5 years after the original hit radio shack shelves, so it kinda makes sense that they wouldn’t be connected.

id: left: red and silver robocop galactic man holding a golden machine gun. right: grey robocop galactic man holding a yellow laser gun. end id

id: the entire left half is robocop’s face w/ a bright red lit up visor. the top right corner has the second galactic man logo. the flavour text reads as follows: “team up with galactic man to defend the universe! he has three mighty weapons to choose from - laser gun, machine gun and light sword. press on if the eight buttons on his back for exciting sound effects!” end id

i did find two other galactic blank toys sold by radio shack that could be related but idk. gonna talk about them anyway.

the galactic walker is probably a knockoff of tomy’s starriors strazor runabout. the logo for the galactic walker is different from either of the galactic man logos, the box doesn’t mention vulcans by name, and it’s totally out of scale as the gold pilot is about the same size as diaclone pilots at the time. i don’t believe the galactic walker is related to either of the galactic mans but i also don’t know if it was released in 1985 or 1990 so it could have been intended to be part of either galactic man toy “lines.”

id: galactic walker in dynatron mode which can best be described as a white robot sauropod w/ blue limbs and an orange cockpit face. end id.

id: side of galactic walker box. six bullet points describe the toy and are as follows: “conquers the enemy four different ways,” “motor power creatures over the toughest terrains,” “durable plastic body,” “leads the fight against evil space monsters,” “provides hours of fun for children of all ages,” “quickly changes into new shape,” end id.

lastly, the galactic space pistol which has a fourth logo style and doesn’t mention vulcans BUT it was released alongside the original galactic man as seen in the full page the earlier print ad came from as seen below. again, neither the box nor the ad mention vulcans, it’s really just by association.

id: blocky white sci-if pistol. missing battery cover on grip. end id.

id: the full page of radio shack ads. end id.

id: side of the galactic space pistol’s box. three bullet points reading: “defend your territory against the aliens,” “red and green pulsating lights flash in unison with the sound,” “rugged, milder design for hours of action.” end id.

so what have we learned today? that tandy really likes reusing the word galactic and they really don’t care because at the end of the day, mass market toys are just meant to take money out from parents’ wallets. the story, if any, is secondary and any comic, cartoon, or book made to go w/ the toys is purely advertising material and tandy didn’t care enough to actually make a story that could be easily found. but i think i can scrounge a quick summary of what the story might be, feel free to chime in w/ your own interpretations but mine is just a rearrangement of the bullet points on the boxes for reader digestibility.

so, galactic man is a mysterious robot who may be human or may just be a simple machine meant to protect the inhabitants of an outpost on an alien planet from the creatures known as vulcans. galactic man can change shape and size to turn into weaponry for the outposters. an anti-aircraft gun for protection from the vulcans’ aerial assault. a handheld pistol for limited space mono e mono (in the english misinterpretation, not the spanish translation). and lastly, a weapon designed specifically to take down vulcan bases of operation. a pistol is also available for the outposters for protection when galactic man isn’t available.

NOTE: i can’t tell what the outposters are. is it an apocalypse setting? are they colonisers? are they scientific researchers? hard to say. could be all three, who knows? do i really want a galactic man comic or cartoon or something? h*ll yes i do. will i write fan fic for galactic man? maybe nebulously in the future when i have time. i know for a fact i definitely want that gens selects galactic man just for my love of all this, i’m debatably the biggest galactic man fan so it’d be weird if i didn’t wanna get it at some point. it’s also the perfect intersection between my love of shapeshifting robot toys and 80s computers as the tandy that owned radio shack at the time is the same tandy that produced computers in the 80s.

[hyp3rfixation-h3ll]

⚠️ CW !! THIS SONA ENTRY REVOLVES A LOT AROUND A FICTIONAL MILITARY + HAS A LOT OF GUN MENTIONS !! PLS LOOK AWAY OR SKIP OVER THIS POST IF YOU LIKE NEITHER OF THESE THINGS OR THEY SQUICK YOU OUT ! ⚠️

Remember when I said I had a Keroro Gunso/Sgt Frog self insert who was Giroro’s boyfriend ???

yea well here he is in all of his glory!

(PRONOUNS ARE HE/HIM, THEY/THEM, IT/ITS, 🔫/🔫S AND BULLET/BULLETS)

ANYWAYS MEET CORPORAL CAPAPA OF THE PRINTER INK PLATOON (which is an ACTUAL MILITARY PLATOON, that consists of at least 44 “keronians”, at least 6 of whom are not actual Keronians but other alien species’ like robot axolotians, salamandians (keronian mimic species) or other wacked up artificial keronians! i’ll let you do the math on that 💛) !!! He’s a weapons/explosives specialist just like Giroro (which honestly??? i didnt intend for them to be the exact rank and specialty, that just HAPPENED /gen /pos) and he’s rivals with Private 2nd Class Tamama ! ( dont ask me how that happened, Capapa just thought he was rude and an ingrateful little bastard 💛)

PERSONALITY

Capapa is easily excitable and very trigger happy, and he’s always willing to motivate his team to invade Pekopon ! He’s always wanting to lend a helping hand and do what’s right for both his platoon and Keroro’s >:] He’s very friend-oriented and likes making new friends, often giving new platoon members old guns he no longer uses as gifts !

BACKGROUND

Capapa comes from the species of Salamandians, which are the evolutionary predecessors to Axolotians and an imitation species to Keronians! More often than not, Salamandians imitate Keronian and Axolotian forms for the purpose of infiltration and hunting, in the case of Keronians. Capapa is a special case, as he is one of the few who actively do not hunt Keronians, and instead eats other meats such as pekoponian frogs, beef, etc.

Capapa grew up on Keron, participating in their military school system alongside perfecting their disguise, and grew a love for guns and explosives over time, eventually being granted the role of Corporal, directly under 1st Class Sgt. Lunana (an oc made by my pal @papermarioorigamikin !! ) as her second-in-command! Capapa, along with the rest of the Printer Ink Platoon, was sent to Pekopon to help Keroro’s platoon with the in-progress invasion.

BONUS INFO

- Bullet’s favourite foods are salmon and mac n cheese with ground beef, with pizza being a close second ! He also tends to enjoy energy drinks like Monster and also really likes lemonade.

- 🔫’s perception of Keroro is...mixed to say the least. On one hand, he sees that Keroro has the GREAT potential to be a wonderful sergeant, capable of anything he puts his mind to, but his incompetence and lack of drive to do anything that would be considered of great skill (aside from building his massive gunpla/gundum collection) frustrates them, as well as his general narcissism. It tends to talk to mainly Giroro and Dororo about such feelings, since Dororo, Giroro and Keroro were close, which are indeed resonated and returned amongst all three of them.

- As i mentioned before, Tamama and Capapa do not have a good friendship. At all. Capapa sees Tamama as a bit of a nuisance and even a spoiled brat at times, finding his attitude when he doesn’t get his way very...unprofessional, to say the least, for a Private 2nd Class, and Tamama often gets upset when Capapa either brushes him off or tells him he doesnt get special treatment for being the youngest/“cutest” of the group.

- Capapa is fully capable of switching between having the standard two eyes or the singular cycloptic look of their true form while in their keronian disguise, often doing such when surprised/flustered. [pictured below!]

———————-

BONUS DOODLES:

to the left are some random misc. doodles of Capapa, including some Capagiro and Capapa with the singular eyeball !! I’m not gonna show much else but note that since I DO selfship with Giroro you all are going to have to be forced thru watching me flood the sgt frog giroro tag with Capagiro and THERE IS NOTHING YOU IDIOTS CAN DO TO STOP ME !!!!! [does a little evil gremlin laugh that makes u wanna hit me with ur car XD]

Anyways, now that i finished writing all of this, y’all know the rules!

(WRITERS NOTE: I’m gonna be a lil rude here and just say it to completely clarify: While I don’t have any grudges towards ppl who ship Giroro with anyone in Keroro’s or Garuru’s platoon itself [GiroDoro, GiroKuru, etc], if you ship GiroNatsu or GiroGaru or anything along that line that is REMOTELY fucking suspicious [KeroFuyu, MomoFuyu, etc], I’m going to immediately label you as someone who I’m going to hardblock on my account cuz we don’t do that here <3 most of the ships I listed are under pro-ship criteria and MomoFuyu makes me generally uncomfy.)

[aion-rsa]

Star Wars: The Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 1 Easter Eggs Explained

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This Star Wars: The Mandalorian article contains spoilers.

Mando and Child return to Tatooine for The Mandalorian season 2 premiere, “The Marshal.” As you’d expect of a modern Star Wars production, the season kicks off full of familiar alien races, locations, and other minutiae from the galaxy far, far away. If you’ve ever wondered what daily life in the deep desert was like for Luke Skywalker and his distant neighbors, this Tatooine-set episode provides a perfect chance to find out.

Plus we get plenty of references to characters from Star Wars‘ past, including one big cameo from galaxy’s most infamous bounty hunter. Here are all of the easter eggs and Star Wars connections we spotted in this episode:

Boba Fett

– While the episode spends a lot of time obsessing over Boba Fett’s long lost Mandalorian armor, the bounty hunter himself makes an appearance in the final seconds of “The Marshal,” looking on at Mando as he rides through the Tatooine desert. He is played on The Mandalorian by Temuera Morrison, the Star Wars veteran best known for playing Jango Fett and the clone troopers in the Prequel Trilogy. Here, Morrison portrays an older, scowling Boba who likely wants his armor back.

We wrote way more about what Boba Fett’s return means for the show and the Star Wars universe here.

Stream your Star Wars favorites right here!

– One other thing of note about Boba Fett’s appearance in this episode is that he’s wearing a black robe and spurs, which likely means that he’s mysterious stranger who was first teased at the very end of last year’s episode, “The Gunslinger.” Is Boba Fett showing up only for the briefest of moments at the end of episodes going to become a thread throughout the show?

– If you need to know more about this beloved Star Wars character, here are a few things you might not know about Boba Fett!

Cobb Vanth

– Timothy Olyphant’s charismatic marshal of Mos Pelgo, Cobb Vanth, first appeared as an interlude character in the Aftermath series of novels by Chuck Wendig. A lawman in the books as well, Cobb was a former slave dedicated to protecting a settlement called Freetown. He recruited Malakili, Jabba the Hutt’s former rancor keeper, to fight off the Red Key Raiders, which seem to have been replaced by the mining syndicate revealed on the show during the flashback sequence. As in the books, Cobb doesn’t know the provenance of the Mandalorian armor and wants to use it to protect townspeople.

You can learn way more about Cobb’s backstory here.

– Vanth survives by trading a camtono of valuable crystals for the armor. While it was also used as a container in season one, the camtono was a bit of a Star Wars joke before that as the “ice cream machine” carried by background character Willrow Hood in The Empire Strikes Back.

– A moment during the krayt dragon battle sequence, in which Mando hits Cobb’s jetpack and the marshall goes hurlting uncontrollably through the air, is a direct reference to Han Solo accidentally hitting Boba’s jetpack, which sent him flying into the sarlacc pit in Return of the Jedi. It’s a nice touch for the episode that also reveals Boba is alive!

Gor Koresh

– The fast-talking informant with an eye for Mando’s beskar armor doesn’t get much screentime, but Gor Koresh is notable for who plays him. It’s none other than actor and stand-up comedian John Leguizamo, who makes his Star Wars debut in this episode.

– Gor is an Abyssin, a cycloptic alien race native to the planet Byss. This race first appeared as one of the many aliens in the famous Mos Eisley cantina scene in A New Hope.

Krayt Dragon

Cobb and Mando spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to kill the krayt dragon stalking both the people of Mos Pelgo and the Tusken Raiders who live in the Dune Sea. Krayt dragons first appeared as a massive skeleton in the Tatooine desert in A New Hope and The Mandalorian finally brings this monster to life on the screen.

We only really get to see the head and neck of the beast and not its full kaiju-like body. The way we watch the krayt dragon slither underground before popping up to munch on its prey is very reminiscent to the gigantic sandworms in the Frank Herbert sci-fi masterpiece Dune, a seminal novel that was a big influence on the creation of Star Wars, especially when it comes to the planet of Tatooine.

But unlike the sandworms in Dune, Cobb and Mando are more interested in blowing up the krayt dragon than they are in mastering and riding it. It’s very true to the more brutish Star Wars way of solving problems.

In Legends canon, krayt dragons were depicted as having four legs and were generally smaller than what we see in this episode. Maybe this is a krayt dragon queen or something?

Alien Races

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

– Mando’s first stop is an underground fight club to meet Gor, who says he has information regarding the location of more Mandalorians, which Mando needs to track down Baby Yoda’s people. The scene is full of familiar aliens from the movies, such as the Twi’lek answering the door just like Bib Fortuna did in Jabba’s Palace in Return of the Jedi, the Gamorrean brawlers with energy shields, and the Zabrak heavy-hitter who gets a knife to the chest courtesy of the bounty hunter.

One other note about this scene: some of the graffiti is reminiscent of the painting style used by Sabine Wren in Star Wars Rebels, which seems like more than a coincidence since it’s been rumored that WWE superstar Sasha Banks is set to play the Mandalorian freedom fighter on the live-action series.

– A friendly Weequay tends the bar in Mos Pelgo. Weequays were first introduced in Jabba’s Palace in Return of the Jedi.

– Jawas and their sandcrawlers are also back this season, but this time to help Cobb when he’s on the verge of death in the flashback sequence.

– The episode also points a more sympathetic eye at Tusken Raiders, who have been portrayed as savage and cruel in past Star Wars movies. Here, they’re given a language, rituals, and a bigger sense of culture than ever before.

True to the movies, the Tuskens ride banthas and we can hear their signature shout from the movies as they try to lure out the krayt dragon from its cave.

Creatures

– Peli Motto, the Mos Eisley mechanic played by Amy Sedaris, is quick to reference womp rats, the little mammals Luke liked to shoot at with his T-16 back in the day.

– The little creatures outside Mos Pelgo are called scurriers, which were introduced in the Special Edition version of A New Hope.

– The Tusken’s doglike guard animals are called massiffs and are reptilian.

– I’m not sure about the creatures that eat Gor in the opening scene. Let me know in the comments if you know what we’re looking at in that scene. Either way, those glowing red eyes in the night are spooky.

Podracer Bike

The episode also features a nice little nod to The Phantom Menace. The speeder bike Cobb rides through the desert is mostly made up of a modified podracer engine. It’s a cool detail that also perfectly fits in with the scrapped-together, worn setting.

The post Star Wars: The Mandalorian Season 2 Episode 1 Easter Eggs Explained appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3jIZLpR

[postapocalypticflimflam]

Googling Grell, I'm not finding anything like what you just posted; what's the source on that bubbling cycloptic alien?

For those not familiar, the Grell is a monster that first appeared in the 1st edition AD&D, from the Fiend Folio:

Illustrated by the peerless Russ Nicholson.

If you poke around, you’ll find my ‘grell’ tag isn’t limited to D&D canon; I’ll reblog just about any floating or crawling or violent brain monster, whether or not it has a beak and/or dangling tentacles. I consider all grell or grell-like beasts an ideal mutant for a Gamma World game.

As for the GIF in my post, I followed it back to the OP and it seems to be from a 1960 Mexican movie called ‘Conquistador De La Luna’:

A couple travels by accident to the Moon and have to deal with aliens lurking for the earth's destruction.

Which gets a 6.2 out of 10 on IMDb.

[critter-casey]

“Dual Portal” digital drawing — CW

[critter-casey]

“Not For Burning” (digital illustration) — CW

[critter-casey]

“Electrical Disturbance” (digital drawing/animated GIF) — CW

[critter-casey]

“Quick Change” (digital drawing/animated gif) — CW

[critter-casey]

“Rainy Thoughts” (digital drawing/watercolor) — CW

[critter-casey]

“Strong Today” (digital illustration) — CW

[critter-casey]

“Unexpected Visitor” (black ink pen, markers, colored pencils, white gel pen) — CW

[critter-casey]

“Cam's Zucchini Car” (digital drawing) — CW