DORA TITAN aka THE GIANT - KYORYU SENTAI ZYURANGER

N'a sûrement pas inspiré l'exploratrice...  Dora Titan, also known as The Giant, comes from the episodes 1 and 2 of the 1992 Japanese series "Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger", which of course was the basis for "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" one year later.

 A giant knight in Spaniard-style armor and brandishing a sword, Dora Titan was the first of the Dora Monsters seen in the 16th entry of the ongoing Super Sentai franchise.

 Dora Monsters are the specialized clay warriors of the Bandora Gang, lead by the prehistoric witch Bandora (aka Rita Repulsa), and sculpted by the fairy craftsmen Puripurikan (aka Finster), who brings them to flesh and blood life with his Neodora Machine.

 In other words, the Dora Monsters are elaborate takes on the Golem tales from Hebrew folklore - made all the more apparent with the lesser powered Bandora henchmen dubbed Golem Soldiers (aka The Putty Patrol).

 However, it appears that Dora Titan is the rare exception to this rule, as he was magically summoned by Bandora herself, suggesting that he is a true Giant from ancient times, as opposed to an artificial imitation like the other mythology based Dora Monsters.

 Dora Titan's job was to capture a shrunken Japanese space shuttle that held two child hostages (Satoru Yoshimaru and Yumeko Ishida), and hand it over to the Bandora Gang themselves. Later, after the mystical dinosaur knights dubbed the Zyurangers, manage to rescue the children, Dora Titan is called in to attack our heroes.

 He gives the Zyurangers a run for their money until the Guardian Beast Tyrannosaurus (aka Tyrannosaurus Dinozord) emerges from beneath the ground. Tyrannosaur has a brief but intense battle with Dora Titan, eventually winning in the end and finishing off the villainous Giant, who fades away upon his death.

 Dora Titan was renamed simply The Giant for the American spin-off "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers", and appeared in episode 2 of that series. But beyond that, his character remains more-or-less the same as the Japanese original.

Text by Rafael C. Gonzalez, screen captures courtesy of Ultrazilla 2000 aka Troy, thanks !