Monster Discussion #10: Maguma

[JAGzilla]

I've never seen his movie, but the concept alone is worth a lot. A giant walrus. It's idiotic in the best possible way. I'd love to see this guy return someday as a nuisance kaiju or something.

[Destroyer]

You saw Gorath? Nice man.

Anyways, Maguma looks pretty cool. I haven't seen the film, but I really want to. I've always been a sucker for Toho's giant animals and would love a figure of him.

I found it on EpiX, so I quickly watched it. It's good, but how could America do such a cruel thing taking out the only monster in the film? There is one vinyl figure of him, albeit very expensive.

[Sydney Aradi]

I guess the reason why Maguma was taken out of the US version of Gorath was because of his rather unthreatening apperance

[Cimmerian Dragon]

Unthreatening? Ha! Maguma is the lone Walrus of the Apocalypse! Fear his flipper-y wrath!

[Kiryu2012]

Ah, Maguma. The walrus that got cut from the American Gorath. The walrus that seems like an overgrown mammal.

He also is Gwangi's greatest rival in terms of manly power, but that's not important...

[dogora]

maguma, odd monster, havent seen the movie yet that varan, and atrogon are my next buys anyways i like the look of him a lot i think he should have had a final wars appearnce, he does remined me of gigass from ultraman for sme reson. also has does anyone know what the harkers are?

[DaveTheAnalyzer]

Maguma is certainly unique, since he's one of the few mammal kaiju that Toho created, and he's based on the walrus at that. I like him, and need to see Gorath.

[edgaguirus]

It's disappointing Maguma wasn't in the American version, but they felt the giant walrus wasn't that important to the movie. The situation with Maguma did have an important aspect. A rocket produces heat, and that heat will disturb the cold environment. Maguma was nature reacting to man's enterprise.

[Goji]

It was apparently cut because it was "too fake looking", or something along those lines.

[Dr. Nishiyama]

Goji's right on the money. Brenco, the US distributor of Gorath, played the Maguma scene for test audiences who basically laughed the critter off the screen, hence the reason why it was cut. I wished they cut the WHOLE scene out since the heroes fire their laser at absolutely nothing, and in one shot you can see Maguma's corpse in the background! It's been forever since I saw the US cut (the VHS tape I bought at Kmart in the dollar bin YEARS ago only played right once, it was all wavy lines after that)

I think Maguma is kind of "meh". If he had a better looking suit and was part of the actual plot I'd remember him more fondly. His entire existence can be credited to producer Tomoyuki Tanaka to give Gorath a wider appeal by having a monster in it (Tanaka did the exact same thing in the Mysterians with Mogera, and in Atragon with Manda, but at least Manda was made part of the story)

[Living Corpse]

I'm curios to know what Toho's plans were for him and Ebirah if they had kept them in DAM like they had originally planed.

[edgaguirus]

Ebirah or Maguma would have been perfect for attacking a coastal city.

[The One and Only]

Here's the trailer to GORATH featuring a bit of the wrathful walrus himself(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1eL1REDeqU&feature=related). While to some the idear of a giant walrus sounds a bit more of joke than a serious threat. When I was a wee lad back in the day, in the old flick, Sinbad &The Eye of the Tiger. The heroes of the story were at one point terrorized by a elephant sized walrus. And I remember the bugger being a bit scary back in the day. Hell, Maguma would be interesting to see in the Legendary flick. Not as a main opponent, but maybe another mutation that was spotted.

[Living Corpse]

Ebirah or Maguma would have been perfect for attacking a coastal city.

Like Manda got in the Tokyo scene. Who knows, at beast they would get some screen time at worse they would be reduced to a cameo like Varan was.

[The H-Man]

I remember reading somewhere that Maguma was supposed to defend the Kilaak base from the defence forces, but I don't know if that was just fan speculation or an actual part of the early DAM script

[JVM]

I remember reading somewhere that Maguma was supposed to defend the Kilaak base from the defence forces, but I don't know if that was just fan speculation or an actual part of the early DAM script

It's at TK's official site and while I'm not sure how Arbok gets his info, my guess is either he has the script or read it in a book.

[Rody]

I've been appreciating Toho's more simplistic kaiju lately, so I'm very interested in seeing Maguma; the suit doesn't look that great, though.

At least he has an awesome roar.

[JAGzilla]

That is an awesome roar. Sounds pretty appropriate for a flopping, psychotic monster like this, too.

[hammysammy59]

Oh man, I was just thinking that (judging from the trailer) the prop was looking pretty sweet. I'll have to Netflix the Gorath disc sometime soon and check this out.

I really wish Maguma would have gotten a second chance. He's a really cool monster in my book, even if it is kind of a silly concept.

[Goji]

Netflix what GORATH disc? It doesn't have a R1 release.