It's the mid-1970s.
Yokopro and Yamapro, a Japanese joint venture, inspired by the Mars Attacks! trading cards craze as well as kaiju-related media being spawned by various toku popular at the time such as Godzilla, the Ultra Series, and Kamen Rider, has decided to ride the coattails of the popularity by creating their own "brand" of monsters into a series of vintage bromide trading cards for children to collect.
Pachimon note , the name given to identify Yokopro's and Yamapro's hordes of Not Zilla-monsters, created by mixing and matching various existing monsters "borrowed" from different media, quickly took over Japanese stores (and also various stores and toy shops in Asia) like a rampaging monster devouring everything in sight, as children lined up to collect and swap trading cards depicting monsters rampaging across Tokyo. Each card feature a kaiju's stats, affiliation, Boss Subtitles, and of course, having them rip apart something like classic Japanese monsters always do. For instance, here's an Eleking-esque marine monster who is totally NOT Eleking note destroying a harbor
◊, which is clearly made by superimposing an altered still of Eleking into an existing photograph of a harbor.
Despite (or more likely, because) the sheer cheesiness of these cards, Pachimon is a roaring success. Entire series of these cards are produced, and relaunched, again and again, from the vintage "Monster Collage" and "Dinosaur Edition" sets to the "Monster World Tour" featuring kaiju terrorizing different cities, as well as limited-editions available only in Japan and playing card versions of existing artwork. Toys, stickers, and various merchandise exists as well for a select few of the monsters popular enough to compete with their mainstream toku counterparts.
Now out of print, the Pachimon Collectible Card Game is still fondly remembered for nostalgia's sake. Various
online galleries are available forshowcasing the madness behind the Pachimon trading card craze of the past.
This series of cards contain examples of:
- Aerith and Bob: You'll find monsters with ominous-sounding names like Galtan, Doirah and Himura, but there's also monsters named Nash and Jacob.
- Behemoth Battle: Not all monsters depicted on the cards are actively destroying cities. Some of them are actually fighting each other on their cards, including Askeroni (based off Jamila) fighting an unidentified monster based on Gyango, Nash (based on Riggah) dueling an Agira-like monster — interestingly enough, in the Ultra Series, Rigga does in fact battle Agira in one episode. Mythology Gag? — and various unnamed monsters simply duking it out. Skinny Red King versus turtle Zetton◊ anyone?
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: Several of the monsters are based on giant insects, including a bee daikaiju almost as large as the earth itself on one card. These are usually unnamed however, due to their "generic" appearances, being original creations based on enlarging real-life insects rather than copying stuff from Toei, Toho and Tsuburaya.
- Breath Weapon: No knockoff-kaiju would be complete without ripping off Godzilla's iconic atomic breath, right?
- Cactus Person: One of the few "original" monsters, which is a cactus-insect hybrid behemoth simply referred to as "Cactus Man" terrorizing Polynesia.
- Captain Ersatz: Some of the non-kaiju characters featured on the cards whm appears to be heroes battling the kaiju are simply lifted from Ultraman, Kamen Rider, and various Toku popular at the time.
- An unnamed Spectreman-ersatz is seen fighting a monster based off Tondaile.
- There's also an Ultraseven-esque hero fighting a giant wasp.
- They even nicked the titular character from Super Robot Red Baron in a few of the cards! Yes, really◊.
- Corrupted Character Copy: Prachi and Nash are based on the Ultraseven monsters, Windam and Agira, but for some reason they're depicted as hostile, city-destroying behemoths, despite their inspirations being benign monsters and allies of humans.
- Cyclops: A few of the monsters, including Askeroni (Jamila from Ultraman, but with a single eye on it's face) and a giant unnamed one-eyed monkey monster.
- Cyborg: At least a few of these. Most notable being an unnamed monster that looks like Vakishim getting a mechanical makeover.
- Doofy Dodo: One of the monsters from the "Dinosaur" line, Giant Monster Bird Diatryma, who is a giant Gastornis.
- Eldritch Abomination: Several of these monsters doesn't even have a humanoid form, instead being a mass of limbs, tentacles, and just plain freaky-looking. Keshyusu the insect-man, the tentacled-face Betalas, and the one which is just a mass of tentacles with a face probably sticks out the most.
- Excuse Plot: Unlike Mars Attacks! which at least have a plot, there really isn't a story whatsoever besides "kaiju rampage".
- Eyes Do Not Belong There: One of the monsters, Betalas, has multiple tentacles in place of a head, with it's eyes growing from stalks on two of them.
- Fish People: Appropriately enough, some Ragon clones appear as assorted kaiju.
- Giant Crab: A few of the monsters are giant crustaceans. Notably, one of the largest of the bunch, Hishira the space crab about to drop into the Parisian harbour◊ to the chagrin of an unfortunate ship directly underneath it.
- Giant Flyer: Various winged monsters appear in the series, but the one which sticks out the most is probably Giant Monster Eyegan, a winged behemoth which looks like Rodan with a Chinese dragon's head.
- Giant Spider: Many of the monsters are based on spiders. One of them is notably seen fighting what appears to be a knockoff of Minila, probably inspired by the then-recent Son of Godzilla.
- Giant Squid: The Giant Sea Beast Chockak is a squid.
- GIS Syndrome: Several of the cards are literally just postcards from around the world with the monsters painted on them. Including cartoonish monsters hanging around Dutch windmills, St. Basil's Cathedral, and Mount Rushmore which has two monsters fighting atop it.
- Humongous Mecha: Not all monsters are organic. Some of them are mechanical and / or robotic in nature, including one which is simply called Robos (and who is a Palette Swap of U-Tom).
- Kaiju: Most of them which are, erm, "borrowed" from existing sources.
- King Kong Copy: Several of the monsters are simian-based, including the yeti-like Ninku and the gorilla-esque Walk.
- Mega Neko: One of few original monsters. Beware, the giant winged cat kaiju◊! Both of them◊.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Basically 70% of the "new" monsters, created by stitching together designs from various Toku.
- Monumental Damage: Several of them in the "Monster World Tour" collection, including the Pyramids being chomped on◊, a monster about to land on the Golden Gate Bridge◊, a Kingasurus III-clone trampling the Colesseum in Rome◊, the Statue of Liberty about to be screwed by an incoming monster◊ and things looking NOT really well for the Eiffel Tower◊.
- Multiple Head Case: Giant Monster Kodon, which is basically Banila mixed with Trachodon (from Tsuburaya's obscure Dinosaur Expedition Born Free).
- Mummy: Orpier the mummy-based monster, one of the less freaky-looking creatures.
- Not Zilla: A few of the unnamed monsters, which are designed with Godzilla as a template.
- Oni: A few of the monsters appears to be based on the classical depictions of Oni, probably in an attempt to imitate Ultraman Ace and Ultraman Taro who had several Oni-based kaiju in their line at the time.
- Our Monsters Are Weird: Some of the monsters certainly look, uhm, odd. Like this alien cyborg canary◊, the dodo with Extra Eyes, and the one whose oversized head appears to be a Flying Saucer (despite it having an organic body). And also Galtan whose head is a human skull.
- Palette Swap: Some of the monsters depicted on the cards aren't even well-disguised, to the point where Yokopro's artists merely took an existing monster, slapped a new coat of paint on them, and called it a day. Notably Saihatari, Jacob, Leccatholis and Kokuro which are merely repainted artwork of Gigass, Jirass, Alien Mefilas and Bemular. There's also a bird-like monster called Tonga which is Starbem Gyeron with an antenna and a fish monster called Tedra which is just a more muscular Peter.
- Prehistoric Monster: The monsters from the "Dinosaur" line, which are based on public-domain dinosaurs instead of existing monsters at the time.
- Skull for a Head: More than one of those monsters have giant, protruding skulls in place of their craniums, notable a tusked monster called Whatos and another called Galtan (which is a combination of Baltan's claws, Antlar's body and a human skull).
- Sea Monster: A few of the monsters are shown attacking ships on the seas, including Zanusek (about to flatten a ship) and Lygon (emerging from a harbour, ready to go on a rampage).
- Stock Ness Monster: A few aquatic monsters of the "Dinosaur" line inevitably falls under these, notably Corythosaurus, Mucasis, Jiptess... and one of which is named Nessie.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Combined with the GIS Syndrome above, thanks to plastering a painted monster over a postcard depicting London, somehow the local citizens are completely unflinched towards the sight of a monster trampling over double-decker buses◊. The hilariously fake painted explosion doesn't help, either...
- Waddling Head: The monster Etch, which is an armless red ball with a face supported by skinny legs.
- Wolf Man: One of the weirder original kaiju on the cards. Mage, a giant kung-fu fighting werewolf punching a building in two◊.
