Ultraman: Towards the Future

Since I am hopefully going to be doing my next article on some cheap Ultraman figures, I thought I'd slip in a quick one about the Ultraman figures I have now. The figures were produced by a company called Dreamworks (no relation to SKG), not Bandai, as I first assumed. I couldn't find much information on any other known toylines by the same company, but did verify that the figures were based on a short lived Fox series entitled Ultraman: Towards the Future. I have nearly every figure from the line but never acquired any of the vehicles from the series. Apparently, despite being clearly displayed on the back of the boxes only one of the vehicles, the Hummer, an aircraft of some type, was ever released.


First up is the Ultraman himself. Referred to as Ultraman, Defender of the Universe on the box art. He came with his tiny and completely out of proportion alter ego figure Jack Shindo. I still have Jack around here somewhere, boxed up for safekeeping hopefully. I did find that the one I have is wearing a red speed suit, that there are alternate ones include with him wearing a blue suit. He's a little worse for wear, but still fighting fit at the ripe ol' age of 17!

And here's Barrangas....


Possibly my least favorite of all the "monster" figures. I never saw the series when it originally aired and this guy just doesn't look like much of a threat, more like some kind of lap dog for the big bad of the series. Which brings up an interesting note about the 'big bad' of the series, Gudis.
Gudis apparently had two different forms in the original series, as Sentai monsters are wont to do, but neither were released in the Dreamworks line. There was a release by Bandai in Japan, which leads me to assume that Dreamworks was a version of Bandai US or at most a distributor stateside. Although, from what I've read the Bandai figures featured greater articulation (at least on the Ultraman figure) than those released by Dreamworks.

Then we have Bogun:

Probably one of my faves, just for his extreme weirdness. He looks like a cross between a frog, a seal and 1/8th of an octopus. This guy makes me want to go digging for the episode of the series he appeared in, just out of curiosity. If you don't know, the Ultraman series was a little bit Power Rangers and a little bit Godzilla. So all these monsters were a guy, or guys, in a rubber suit. So when I see a monstrosity like Bogun, I really have to wonder how they pulled it off, especially that head tentacle.

Gerukadon!

Until I found out about Gudis, this was the main monster, and he looks it too! More or less humanoid, with more useful appendages than the average Ultraman baddy, he was in charge of my Ultra-villains from day one. Too bad he was just a pauper.....

And saving the best for last: KILAZEE!!!!!!

By far my favorite of the Ultra-monsters! The long plesiosaur-like neck, bat wings, that weird forked tail and the double barreld fists! And a single horn, like a beautiful unicorn. He was always the Starscream to Gerukadon's Megatron. An usurper to the throne. It was really hard not to let him run things his way...who could say no to this smile:

It just screams: TRUST ME! TRUST ME OR I WILL DESTROY YOU ALL!
Ahhh, Killazee, what won't you do for the illusion of power?

That about does it for Ultraman for me, except for the one that got away. I had all but forgotten about Majaba. Quite possibly the most hideous of all of Gudis' minions and the only one I never claimed for my own. Here's a photo of my missing prize now:

Wait that's not Majaba! It's UNKNOWN CHICKEN MONSTER!!!! Yes UCM, you are an Ultraman figure, but you are not from the Dreamworks series, and you'll never be Majaba!

Sigh. Anyway there are tons more monsters from the Ultraman series and tons more Ultramen and Ultrawomen as well. Too many to list here in what is supposed to be a placeholder for an article on much crappier toys.

Next time: Crappy toys that are supposed to be Ultraman but in reality are not!