#promythigor

ATOM Stop Motion Model: Pathogen

ATOM Stop Motion Models: Tweaks and the Gang So Far

I decided to refurbish Tyrantis and Gorgolisk’s models a bit while I was making new ones. I made Tyrantis’s eyes a little larger and gave them some skin around their sides to show that he’s a creature with forward facing eyes and, y’know, make them look less buggy.  Gorgolisk’s modifications were more extensive - I replaced her old neck and tail armature pieces with a series of smaller ones, making her far more articulated and capable of coiling.  I would have done that in the first place but I wanted to save those small pieces in case other armatures needed them.  I also gave her a complete set of dorsal plats and a better rattle, because I half assed it the first time and she deserves better than that.

TRIPLE KAIJU UPDATE!  What a glorious Friday the 13th celebration!

Our first monster today is Kraydi, pictures above (and in the main link for this post).  For the first time in over ten years, Kraydi gets to have his orignal, flashy color scheme.  Hey, some desert lizards are brightly colored, so it’s not like it’s completely out of nowhere - plus it better emphasizes his weird psychic nature.  He deserves to stand out a bit.

Kraydi is also ATOM’s last easter egg from/subtle nod to my fantasy setting.  While the 1950′s human characters of ATOM only see Kraydi as a weird prehistoric monitor lizard, savvy real life fans of my fantasy setting will recognize he’s actually a very primitive dragon.  You won’t need to know (or care about!) anything from my fantasy stories to understand ATOM, mind you - it’s just fun for me to have these little links.

(Speaking of, I didn’t mention it when I posted his file, but there’s probably some connection between Pathogen and the Demon Prince Abaddon from No Sympathies...)

After Kraydi comes Minerva, the 100 foot woman.  Her design hasn’t changed all that much - I just modified her armor a bit and tried to make her legs a bit larger than is normal for humans, because that what I do with the other monsters.  It’s always been hard to balance the monster to human ratio with her.

For those who are completely new to the series: Minerva is a clone of the human protagonist, Dr. Lerna, that was artificially turned into a kaiju by mad scientists in Area 51.  You know, the usual stuff.  She fights monsters!

Finally for this batch, we have Promythigor, who up till now went by the slightly less silly but also infinitely more bland name of Prometheus.  Thank god Ridley Scott ruined that name for me forever, because “Promythigor” is a much cooler monster name.  I mean, yeah, it sounds a little cheesy, but it’s cheesy in a Jack Kirby sort of way.  Everything’s good when it’s cheesy in a Jack Kirby sort of way.

Tyrantis is a take on the “green fire breathing prehistoric reptile” kaiju archetype - we could be cynical and shorten that to “Godzilla ripoff” instead, but there’s enough variations of it in published media where I feel safe in calling it a trope of its own.  It only followed that he’d eventually have the nemesis of that archetype - for every green fire breathing prehistoric reptile, there must be the giant ape, and the two must likewise hate each other.  Normally the ape gets to be the hero, but, well, me being me, I decided the reptile should get the hero’s part and the mammal should play the villain for once.

Promythigor is by far the second most villainous kaiju in my story, but unlike the absolute most villainous (Pathogen), he’s still got a little pathos to him.  Promythigor was tortured for years and basically has the viciousness of a beaten dog - if you treat an animal with enough cruelty, eventually cruelty becomes all they know.  Promythigor is a monster by monsters’ standards, but he didn’t have to be that way.  Like the Writhing Flesh, he’s an example of how humans can make the kaiju problem much, much worse if they continue to react to it violently.

As an opponent for Tyrantis, I designed Promythigor to turn Tyrantis’s main strengths against him.  Tyrantis’s most notable power is his fire breath.  Well, Promythigor can psychically control and manipulate fire.  Tyrantis likes to fight with tooth and claw.  Well, so does Promythigor - and worse still, Promythigor likes to do it while he’s literally on fire.  Tyrantis likes to use his environment to his advantage - and Promythigor likes to set the environment on fire.  While other kaiju may have more overwhelming brute strength, Promythigor presents a huge challenge to Tyrantis’s normal fighting strategies, and forces our hero to be even craftier as a result.

Also he’s a crazy ape, so that’s neat.

One final thing to blow your mind: Promythigor here is a prequel - and unrelated prequel, but nonetheless the direct precedent in the sequence - to our final batch of monsters, all of which are aliens.  Yes, you read that correctly: Prometheus Promythigor is a prequel to aliens.

ATOM Stop Motion Models: Ahuul and Promythigor