Rodan

RODAN
<sub>Height: 105 ft (32m)
Length: 219 ft (66m)
Weight: 362 tons (328t)

Abilities and Characteristics
Rodan’s main offensive and defensive measures involve his incredible speed. In a dive, he is able to reach a top speed of nearly 800 mph, enough to break the sound barrier. The resulting sonic boom is enough to disorient opponents – both human and kaiju – when caught off guard. His vast wings also give him the ability to create intense, hurricane-force winds and may also kick up clouds of dust, acting as a makeshift smokescreen for the monster. Rodan is significantly more durable than his lithe form suggests; while he tends to engage in melee combat only as a last resort, he is nonetheless strong enough to pick up monsters of similar size in his talons for short distances.

Rodan's Story: DARKENED SKIES, PART I
The Japanese reconnaissance mission executed after Godzilla and Anguirus’s battle in Tokyo was indeed able to successfully locate the island and, through a series of low-altitude photographs, plot a safe course around the razor crags to the island’s shore. After months of preparation, an international science team was dispatched to Monster Island to research the effects of radiation on the island’s indigenous life, as well as to collect and study some of the creatures themselves. After trekking less than a mile through the island’s dense, forested perimeter, the team was already met with disaster. They were attacked of a swarm of predatorial, man-sized dragonflies. Although the lightly-armed team was able to fight the swarm off with minimal casualties, it was decided that journeying further into the island’s interior without some sort of military escort would be foolish. It was time to go back to the drawing board – Monster Island was even more hellish than anyone had imagined. Before departing, the surviving members of the research team managed to collect two unique specimens. The first was a batch of large, bulbous mushrooms, the other a pair of foot-long insects resembling enormous earwigs.

Upon returning to Tokyo, the science team had already begun to notice strange effects related to both of the monster island specimens. Those who had come into contact with the fungi had begun to develop itchy, blistering rashes. Meanwhile, the enclosure containing the earwig-like insects now contained three creatures rather than two – they were multiplying, and quickly! In the following days, researchers began to fervently regret ever removing species from the lost world. The fungus, since named Matango tsuburayai, seemed to be overtaking the nervous system of its hosts, turning them into mindless vegetables (literally). The multiplying insect problem was starting to grow out of control as well, and to make matters worse, the older individuals began to metamorphose into the giant dragonflies encountered on Monster Island – they were merely the nymph stage of the same species, Meganulon gigas.

Rodan, the third archosaur descendant identified from Monster Island, was well aware of the Meganulons’ speedy reproductive cycle. He was seemingly fanatical about the species’ utter annihilation, rooting out and massacring new broods of the arthropod on regular basis. His hunger for the species was insatiable, the sort of craving that only Godzilla could relate to. It should come as no surprise, then, that Rodan – like Godzilla and Anguirus before him – felt the instinctual urge to make his way to Tokyo to gratify his hunger for destruction.

To be continued…</sub>

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Yeah so I'm not too good at keeping any sort of schedule I guess. Sorry for the wait, especially since so many people seem to be digging these (By the way, thanks for the faves, everyone).

This is Rodan, one of the "big four" Toho kaiju, alongside Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah. He's supposed to be a Pterosaur, yet his Heisei design is the only incarnation that portrays this well - his Showa and Final Wars designs veered way too much into bird territory, if you ask me.

So, needless to say, my own version of Rodan is based mostly on that version. I did incorporate some elements of other designs - the leg scutes/armor comes directly from Final Wars, while the fan-shaped tail is one element of the birdier designs I attempted to recreate in a more reptilian fashion here. The wings, or more specifically the arms, are the one thing I don't think Toho ever did successfully, which is another drawback of the guy-in-suit philosophy (speaking of which, Final Wars Rodan has the most blatant guy-in-suit proportions ever). So, his arms are now much closer to actual Pterosaur arms, structurally, and I think it looks much more natural that way. His head more than anything else is based on the Heisei incarnation almost entirely.

I'm really, really pleased with how Rodan turned out. The colors were a bit tricky to nail down, as I didn't want them to be too saturated or too washed out. I think this is a pretty good balance.

By the way, the poses will hopefully get a bit more interesting than "just standing there" in the future.

Up next: Megaguirus