Tricephalon Monster
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The Tricephalon Monster is a possibly-mechanical three-headed monster that appears exclusively in the 1979 HG Toys playset Godzilla Battles the Tricephalon Monster.
Name
The "Tricephalon" portion of the Tricephalon Monster's name is likely derived from the English affixes tri (meaning "three") and cephalo (relating to the brain or head), the latter derived from the Ancient Greek κεφαλή (kephalḗ, "head"). This is the same etymology as the words tricephalous and tricephalic, which mean "having three heads." "Cephalon" also exists as a word in English, though it refers specifically to the head of a trilobite.
The capitalization of the Tricephalon Monster's name is inconsistent. The box for the Godzilla Battles the Tricephalon Monster playset displays the name in full capitals, making its intended capitalization unclear. However, it is rendered as "tricephalon monster" in the Fall-Winter 1980 H-G Toys catalog,[1] and as both "Tricephalon monster" and "Tricephalon Monster" in a 1982 advertisement published in Famous Monsters of Filmland #184.[2]
Development
The box art for Godzilla Battles the Tricephalon Monster is reused art from an HG Toys Godzilla puzzle, which actually depicted it with four heads.
Design
The Tricephalon Monster toy depicts it as a bright green, three-headed, quadrupedal monster with flippers and a Dimetrodon-like sail on its back.
This differs greatly from the art on the playset's box, which only shows the creature's necks and heads, and seems to depict them as being made of a silver metal.
Abilities
Laser beam
The Tricephalon Monster is shown firing some form of laser beam from its heads on the playset's box art, though the toy itself does not include this feature.
Trivia
- The Tricephalon Monster is similar in name and appearance to the Marvel Comics monster Tricephalous.
- HG Toys would re-use the Tricephalon Monster mold for a dragon in a "Sword & Sorcery" playset, though cast in red plastic instead of green.
External links
References
This is a list of references for Tricephalon Monster. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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