Monday, July 06, 2009

Awesome


The coolness of the above image shatters every conceivable scale that mankind could possibly have in place to measure it, I'm sure you'll agree. But what is it? Well, I'll tell you.

The image is from a Japanese movie magazine circa 1975 or early 1976. It's an artist's conception of what the supposedly functional 40-ft robot gorilla Dino De Laurentiis was constructing for his il-fated 1976 remake of "King Kong" might look like. Eagle-eyed viewers will note that there are no pneumatics or wiring within, just a metal skeleton (much like Homer Simpson's failed robot), but these are minor scientific quibbles.

Reminds me of the incredible cutaway illustrations of Kaiju from a Japanese book called "An Anatomical Guide to Monsters" published in the 60's. I would pay a king's ransom for this book, but after searching for it pretty consistently since I become aware of it's existence some years ago, I fear I shall never hold it in my hands. One could say with little exaggeration that it is my white whale. I keep hoping someone will reprint it. But at least I have jpgs of some of the pages, and now, thanks to the magic of click and drag, so do you.







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