Buckle up, because this is going to get crazy really fast, as what I’m going to go over today is one of the weirdest bits of Ultra apocrypha out there.
After Ultraman 80‘s failure, the Ultra Series went on a long, decade and a half hiatus until 1996’s Ultraman Tiga. The series wouldn’t truly be dead, as there would be several attempts at reviving the brand in this strange period (including some foreign attempts). Among the strangest of these projects to help keep Ultra in the public eye was the multi-media series known as Andro Melos. Andro Melos has it’s roots in Mamoru Uchiyama’s The Ultraman manga, which featured an armored Ultraman named Melos. This character would become a bit of a meme among fans for his outlandish behavior and over the top attitude, and represent the particular space opera-tinted stories Uchiyama used the Ultras to tell.
Now, forget all of that since we’re looking at a different character entirely. While Uchiyama’s Melos proved to be the inspiration behind the hero we’re looking at today, this particular Andro Melos is a separate individual, despite sharing the same name and being an armored Ultraman. This Andro Melos was the leader of the Andro Super Warriors, a group of similarly armored Ultras who battled the evil Guar Army. The adventures of these heroes were unique amongst the other Ultra heroes we’ve encountered since their adventures were spread across magazine stories utilizing photographs of the heroes and monsters in place of illustrations, a manga and even a TV show made up of 45 episodes that ran for 5 minutes a piece in 1983. While Melos wasn’t on the level as the previous series, it did retain a bit of a cult following, enough that starting in the mid-2010’s, that various elements from this bizarre entry would begin popping up more and more in various specials.
We’ll mostly be looking at the television incarnation of this story, mainly because the magazine story’s scans are incredibly obscure and not as well documented as the TV version. Now, I sadly haven’t seen all of Andro Melos, so my commentary is somewhat limited, but thankfully there’s plenty of references I’ve been able to find and use until I am able to watch this in full.
THE GUAR SIBLINGS
Leading the Guar Army are the Guar brothers (and the Guar sister Gina). Serving as the show’s main antagonists, I recall learning about these guys back in the day and thinking they were the coolest shit ever. And honestly? They still are. I love the idea of three robot space demons being the main antagonists of an Ultra show, and I sorta feel like they’re all wasted in something like this. Design wise, it’s clear Juda and Mold are inspired by the evil Jackal, a similarly gold space devil from Uchiyama’s own Ultraman Melos stories. While I like them both, I do feel Gina has the stronger design, with her helmet that forms a cobra hood and has snakes coming out on top ala Medusa. In addition, her silver and red colors contrast well with her brothers’ black and gold. That being said, I do think Juda’s got quite a fun personality, as he’s laid back-enough to joke around with his monsters.
While we’ll cover the Guar Siblings’ return appearances in later articles, I should mention that Juda did manage to appear in 1984’s Ultraman Story. Much like how Story provides a bit of a headache in terms of continuity for Ultraman Taro’s origin, the Juda seen in Story is treated almost like a separate character in it! Juda also got himself a nice pair of wings in the magazine story after coming back as Cyborg Juda, a design element I wish was more prominent on his character.
GUAR ARMY
Before we look at the kaiju of the Guar Army, let’s look at some of their minions! Early on we get to see the return of the Magma from Ultraman Leo. Love how the leader has half of his face be cybernetic! These guys were a trio who trained themselves to be powerful warriors in hopes of someday conquering the universe, which gets them involved with working alongside the Guar Empire.
The tokusatsu version of Andro Melos would also give us the Guar Soldiers, who as toku goons go, aren’t too bad. I feel like their bandaged designs make them more fitting for a race of bandit aliens over troops working for an army of space demons, but hey, sometimes you gotta break the theme a tad.
The magazine stories would give us some more minions, specifically ones that act as crew for the Monster Battleships. There’s not too much on those guys, but I will say I really dig the look of the Pessda Soldiers which help operate the Pestria since they have a nice kitbashed look to them.
DAKUMIRAN
The Guar Army utilizes monsters known as Fightin BEMs, which are created and trained by the Guar Army leaders, and unlike most Ultra kaiju, they’re sentient. Dakumiran, a crustacean monster, is our first look at this particular breed of beasts. As far as he goes, he’s not too shabby. I like his head protrusions, and the red spikes and claws are always a welcome addition to any monster design. He’s utilized by Juda to try and defeat Andro Mars in a contest of strength.
BASELIA
Gina’s Fighting BEM is probably my favorite of the various kaiju used by the Guar Army, Baselia is a really rad plant monster with all sorts of cool features like the shaggy, vegetation covered legs, the Venus Fly Trap shaped hands and how the flower itself forms a collar and a head for the monster! Baselia sets a trap for Andro Flor using hypnotic flowers, which is fitting for a guy who is just a big, ol’ flower.
SHIZURUN
Supposedly an antlion themed monster, Shizurun isn’t quite as fascinating as the last couple creatures design wise, but he does have some cool geometric patterns on his body that help keep him visually interesting, almost as if he’s a walking mosaic. I like that single red eye poking out from on top as well. He battles the Andro Super Warriors by creating a sandstorm and dragging the heroes into the dunes as his methods of attack, befitting his name at least.
ZAVIDEN
A silver-clawed space monster, Zaviden feels very much in line with the aliens one would see in Ultraseven, with his claws, lack of human face, ribbed limbs and pointed shoes. He’s one of the better designed monsters seen from this particular piece of Ultra history. Juda has the ability to revive this guy with his supernatural powers and once revived, he cannot be killed by whatever method first downed him, making him a very dangerous opponent.
MECHA BALTAN
Arguably too cool for the likes of this show, Mecha Baltan is the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup of aliens, taking two great things (Baltan and robots) and bringing them together to make a arguably the coolest robot space ninja ever. I’m a little shocked that the concept of Mecha Baltan hasn’t ever been revived for the more mainline entries, but perhaps they’re aware that if they bring this guy back, it’ll be impossible to top him, so they keep him locked away in this rinky-dink little corner of the franchise. According to the magazine Ultraman AGE, this is the original Baltan defeated by Ultraman way, way back in episode 2 of the original show, and while it’s probably not taken too seriously, I love the idea of the original Baltan being converted into a cyborg in order to take revenge on the Ultras. There’s lots of cool changes to the original design too such as the asymmetrical claws, as well as turning the cicada mouth into a tubed breathing apparatus!
Mecha Baltan would never escape Andro Melos proper, but would live on as one of the mainstays of Bandai’s six-inch Ultra Monster line for decades. An impressive feat for such an obscure character.
ELPA
Not all of the beings seen in Andro Melos are evil however, as there’s Elpa, a friendly ape-like alien who is a friend to Andro Wolf, helping out the team in order to liberate his home planet from the Guar Army. He’s definitely an odd duck as far as aliens come, but very fitting to such an odd and cheap installment of the franchise, feeling more in line with Tsuburaya’s 1974 Planet of the Apes inspired tokusatsu Army of Apes, or perhaps even the 1980 Rankin-Bass film The Ivory Ape which featured many Tsuburaya personnel working on it. Poor Elpa dies at the hands of the Guar Army (the villains turn him into a monster in the magazine version, but I haven’t been able to find a picture of this iteration) though with how cheap the suit is, he’d be easy to bring back into the series put him in Ultra Galaxy Fight 3 you cowards .
EDRAS
Elpa’s a good way to segue into Edras, a monster who’s sent out to imitate Elpa and attack the Andro Super Warriors. It’s your typical doppleganger scenario, and his design isn’t as exotic or impressive as some of the creatures we’ve seen from Melos, though I do like his brass armor he’s got on.
MODIFIED BLACK KING
I wasn’t going to go too in-depth with the kaiju exclusive to the magazine version of Melos, but I feel like I need to take a moment to talk about Modified Black King. While most of the modified versions of returning monsters in the magazine stories were indistinguishable from their original incarnations, Modified Black King is a bit more special, having a drill in place of his horn! He was a character I recall becoming fascinated with when I was a newer fan and was sad that he didn’t make an appearance in the tokusatsu version.
THE MONSTER BATTLESHIPS
The most impressive weapons in the Guar Army’s arsenal, the Monster Battleships are some massive mechs that are piloted by the Guar siblings, so these guys are among some of the biggest seen in the franchise! The mechs themselves, King Joegue, Bemzn and Gyeronia, are pretty impressive creations, and I love how dirty they look, since it makes them look like old, industrial equipment, and fits the show’s more kitschy aesthetic. The idea of mechs big enough for the already giant sized villains is incredibly silly, but in the best sort of way. I love that, it seems like the sort of thing a child would come up with in order to make a giant robot even more threatening. I am however, a tad perplexed on why Gyeron was chosen for the likeness for one of these mechs. This isn’t a knock against Gyeron, as he is a very iconic monster, but he is in a bit of a different league than characters like Bemstar and King Joe whom are usually at the forefront for representing the Ultra kaiju. That being said, I’m glad we were given a giant, robotic Gyeron.
There was a fourth monster battleship, the Pestar inspired Pestria, who was a magazine exclusive machine. It’s a bit of a shame, since a mecha based on Pestar is such a fun idea. I wasn’t able to find any good scans of the magazine illustrations of this guy, so enjoy some concept art of Pestria.
GUAR
The true leader of the Guar Army however, is Guar himself of course. The Guar siblings in actuality are Guar split into thirds, and once they coalesce, Guar is reborn! I’m quite sad that Guar has been banished into obscure kaiju limbo, because oh my god, look at this design. It looks like they came up with this one on the fly, and the three heads of the siblings growing out of Guar’s slab-like body goes straight into bad design territory before flipping back all the way to being perfection. Move over Reiblood, Empera and Belial, this guy is what every evil space emperor should aspire to be. The fact that Tsuburaya has brought back the Guar siblings, but not their combined form is a crime in and of itself.
Easter's Kaiju Kompendium 