The Bug-Eyed Monsters
Much has been said about the giant insects that chirp and eat susci in the mines after the floor has been creeping in RODAN.
What they are supposed to be are the larvae of the Meganeuron, a giant dragonfly of prehistoric times. (The name means "giant nerve" basically, and refers to the big nerve running from its tiny "brain" to it's anus....or the giant nerves in the wings, depending on what prehistoric animal book you read.) The Meganeuron was very much like the dragonfly you would see at a lake or creek or swamp today...only about two feet long!!!
Since the physical appearance of the adult modern day dragonfly is the same as the adult Meganeuron, the larvae would be the same as well....and the larvae is a long, beetle like fellow with an extendable jaw and arm like feelers.
Since the Japanese made their monsters about a hundered times bigger than what they were supposedly based on, they made their Meganeuron the size of a hippo rather than the size it would normally have been (about the size of a dachshund...( Nippon monster movie rule of thumb...bigger is always better)
And they made a Meganeuron larva because they figured it would look creepier slithering around and doing home invasions on its tubular little feet. It did, but about a year and a half later Universal made MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS in which a life-sized (realistly speaking) Meganeuron...an adult, with a two foot wingspan, zipped around and fluttered its wings and hummed like a model airplane and looked fairly accurate (except for the dark strings it hung from).
I LOVED the big goofy bugs in RODAN when I saw the film at the tender age of five in a movie theater. Strange, though, I was not frightened by them, but fascinated by them...
Now the double bill I saw RODAN with...THE DALTON GIRLS....Now THAT was frightening!
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