SKYDON - ULTRAMAN

Skydon était un des plus lourds monstres qu'affronta Ultraman. Quand il ne détruisait pas tout sur son passage, il dormait comme un bébé et c'est comme ca que la patrouille scientifique a pu lui injecter de l'hélium pour le retourner dans l'espace. Peine perdue, Ultraman devra s'en mêler ! Skydon comes from episode 34 of the original "Ultraman", entitled "A Gift From The Sky" (March 5th, 1967)

An unbelievably heavy space monster with a bloated Ankylosaurus-like appearance, Skydon fell to Earth and quickly became an incredible nuisance by going on brief rampages before going into narcoleptic-type naps. After a disastrous battle with Ultraman, the Science Patrol commit a series of attempts to send Skydon back into space. These too prove disastrous until they succeed by filling Skydon up with helium through his tail. Unfortunately, the Japanese air force mistakes the floating Skydon for a target balloon and shoot the gas out of him. As Skydon falls back down, Hayata, who at this point of the story has had enough, transforms into Ultraman, and then simply blows up the troublesome beast while in midair.

Skydon is very similar to two other offbeat monsters from the series, Gabadon and Seabone, but unlike those more sympathetic characters, Skydon is a purely comical creation who weighed a shocking 200,000 tons, easily making him one of the heaviest characters in Japanese monster history. He is also 196 feet in length.

Although Skydon has yet to return in any other Ultraman series, he is one of the many monstrous challenges is the spin-off video game "Kaiju Busters".

Pics and text by Raf C Gonzalez, thanks !