Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Necro's Fortress!



Necro's Fortress (A.K.A. Neclos or Nekurosu's fortress) was a japanese game and toy line consisting of both tiny rubber figures and colorfully illustrated cards representing dozens of heroes, monsters and items. You can browse the entire line's worth of cards HERE.

My personal favorites:


I didn't think I'd ever love a giant foot monster this much. His vacant stare is surprisingly creepy, and look at the little octopus face on the wart!


Well, that's the coolest apple I've ever seen...though it should have had a worm in there somewhere, like for a tongue.


A nice, nasty blob critter with the always interesting stalked + unstalked eye combo...or maybe only the stalked set are actual eyes? I know "nume" means something like "slippery." The octopus insignia is on a couple of monsters, seemingly under the command of an octopus villain!


I'm still childish enough to laugh.


....Apply directly to the forehead?



Hell yes giant gastropods! No fantasy bestiary feels complete to me without one, and it's always fun to see what kind of weird monster face the artist gives them. These two are especially distinct those those coneheads and fangly lips.


The disturbing thing about "CLOWN" is the item he comes with:

Yeah, did I mention every one of these came with a specific item card? Some of them are relevant to the monster, some aren't. You'll have to check the rest out for yourself.


Every Japanese roleplaying world has its trademark slime enemy, and this is probably one of the coolest efforts I've seen. You can't go wrong with putting eyeballs in mouths.


There's something extremely appealing to me about this cactus monster, too. I like the single eye on its own branch.


Earl? What in God's name ARE you? Your eye sockets are positively outlandish, and is half of you a tree? For that matter, why do you come with...

...This?


It took me a moment to notice the other set of eyes...which set am I referring to? I'll never tell!


You don't see enough of these as monsters.


Oh, crap! This is obviously H.P. Lovecraft's Tsathoggua!


And this here may actually be the best Cthulhu design I've ever seen.


What the...why an Ultraman head?


Hey, neat! It's another of those Japanese Martians, and not just as a monster card...this is a playable hero!

Viy



From the 1967 Russian horror film Vij or Viy, this climactic sequence features some of the coolest demons I've ever seen on film. The shambling, greyscale freaks, with their expressionless cartoon eyes, are far more disturbing than any bestial, flailing CG creation of today.