Saturday, October 23, 2010

31 favorite monsters: Gudis



I was going to write at some point about the monster Majaba and its significance to my childhood, but as you can see I've already blathered about that extensively, so let's talk about another monster I love from Ultraman Great - GUDIS!



GUDIS was the very first monster appearing in the series, and easily pummeled by our giant, silver superhero - or so it seemed. Before it could be killed, Gudis transformed itself into a sentient virus, basically its true form, and spread throughout the planet Earth, infecting random lifeforms and transforming them into the giant monsters Ultraman would face for the entire first half of the series.



Gudis would eventually piece itself into a new monster form, equally bizarre in appearance, and successfully absorb Ultraman into itself. The two proceeded to debate about ethics and the environment before Ultraman exploded from the monster's body, finally destroying it. Both forms have a lovably alien appearance, though I have to say I prefer the exposed brain and bug-teeth of the first one.

My figure of Majaba came from the short run of "Ultraman Great" toys released in America, which incorrectly described all the series monsters as Gudis creations. I now know that Majaba and many of the others appeared after the defeat of Gudis, though either way, why didn't he get a figure in the same line? If he had, I daresay I may have chosen him first over the Majaba figure, and perhaps developed just as much attachment. Gudis is my gross little monster pal that could have been...

1 Comments:

Anonymous ScutigeraColeoptrata said...

Yay Gudis! I prefer the first form as well, though I like both (the second form is actually a real pain in the video game). To me Ultraman Great, aka Towards the Future, is THE Ultraman, since the video game was my first exposure to the character. Seeing the movie later (actually the first six episodes stitched together) was a very cool and surreal experience since I had seen the monsters and scenes previously in the video game. Some will tell you that there are better Ultraman shows out there (and, objectively speaking, there are), but Great will always be my favourite.

Anyway, it was strange that there wasn't a Gudis figure in the line of 12 inch toys Dreamworks brought over, but there was a figure of Gudis' first form in the Japanese only 6 inch line, in both reddish and more accurate greenish colours. There was also a 2 inch candy toy version produced, along with one of Bogun and Kilazee. There was never a full sized version of Gudis II produced, although there was a small 1 inch 'SD' figure and, inexplicably, an evil knight toy with Gudis II's head, produced for a spin off Ultraman toyline.

3:20 PM  

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