Moonlight SY-3
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The Moonlight SY-3 (ムーンライト
Name
The Moonlight SY-3's name recalls its original function as a transport to and from the Moon. It is spoken in the Japanese dialogue of Destroy All Monsters as Mūnraito Esu Wai Surī (notably lacking the suffix 号 gō often present in the names of machines), and "SY-3" is written with a hyphen on its hull. However, these facts are not always reflected in official sources, which may add the 号 suffix[2] and/or drop the hyphen. It is nonetheless officially trademarked by Toho as ムーンライトSY-3. The "3" is listed as having valid pronunciations of both surī and san.[4]
The original theater program for Destroy All Monsters is extremely inconsistent about how it refers to the craft. The trademarked spelling is never used, but rather the version with -gō,[3] as well as the hyphenless Moonlight SY3 (ムーンライトSY3号 Mūnraito Esu Wai Surī-gō),[5] SY-3 Moonlight (SY-3ムーンライト Esu Wai Surī Mūnraito, or SY-3号ムーンライト Esu Wai Surī-gō Mūnraito),[1] Moon Light SY-3 (ムーン・ライトSY-3号 Mūn Raito Esu Wai Surī-gō),[1] and the nicknames SY3 (SY3号 Esu Wai Surī-gō),[6] SY-3 (SY-3号 Esu Wai Surī-gō),[1] and YS-3 (Wai Esu Surī, evidently a typo).[1]
The version of the SY-3 from Godziburst is never named onscreen, but SY-3 Tower (SY-3 タワー Esu Wai Surī Tawā) is included in its modelmakers' credit in the end credits.
History
- Destroy All Monsters (1968)
- Godziburst (web 2025–2026) [episodes 7–13, 15, 18]
Showa era
Destroy All Monsters
In the middle of a worldwide kaiju attack by the Kilaaks, the Moonlight SY-3 was launched to find the aliens' base and mind-control transmitter on the Moon. Landing on the Moon's Cassini Crater, an Exploration Car was deployed from the SY-3, driven by several scientists and soldiers. When the device was discovered, the ground erupted into flames as the aliens mounted a defensive attack from their base against the humans. The Exploration Car drove across the lunar landscape, and fired its missiles at the base's entrance, destroying it. Now, the SY-3 returned to the air, and flew towards the transmitter, attacking it with all of its weaponry, but the missiles and bullets shot at the transmitter did little damage. Then, an idea was thought of. Taking one of the lasers from the Exploration Car, the SY-3 fired its new weapon at the transmitter, causing it to fall to the ground, and freeing Earth's monsters from their alien controllers. Victorious, the SY-3 blasted off, and returned to Earth. The SY-3 arrived home as the Fire Dragon was in the process of wreaking havoc. Even though all the monsters had taken down King Ghidorah collectively, the spacecraft was too fast for them to attack, so the SY-3 flew in to help, engaging the spacecraft in battle and eventually managing to destroy it with a missile.
Reiwa era
Godziburst
"The Duel Verse" to "Greatest Battle in the Cyberduelverse"
The SY-3 Tower was present on the side of the arena in the Cyberduelverse. Almost every time a contestant was about to be teleported to the arena, the SY-3 Tower sounded an alarm accompanied with lights. The color of the lights was different each time—either white, yellow, purple, or in King Ghidorah's case, red. When King Ghidorah was about to arrive, the alarm was much louder than usual and the lights accompanying it were red for the first time. The SY-3 Tower itself also appeared to release yellow sparks of electricity, akin to those of King Ghidorah.
"Scout from the Darkness"
As the Cyberduelverse was being corrupted by newly-arrived mysterious black sludge, SY-3 and LittleGodzilla escaped into the SY-3 Tower and took off, headed to the Adventureverse. Arriving there, they found the realm destroyed, a complete wasteland. Anguirus found a way to the SY-3 Tower and joined LittleGodzilla and SY-3, and they then clashed with an invasive horde of black Hedorahs.
"Into the Demonic Verse!"
After SY-3 had concluded the black Hedorahs' place of origin was the Hellverse, another region of Godziburst, Thunder Godzilla and Anguirus decided to head there and deal with the source of the problem themselves. The two entered the SY-3 Tower and took off while SY-3 and LittleGodzilla remained back in the Adventureverse. The duo arrived in the terrible Hellverse and witnessed a devilish landscape marked by rivers of lava and thorny tree-like structures. There, they were confronted by King Ghidorah and Gigan.
"The King Who Rends the Dark"
With King Destoroyah defeated and the invasion of Godziburst stopped, the heroes left the terrible land of the Hellverse and took off in the SY-3 Tower.
Capabilities
Flight
The Moonlight SY-3 is capable of flight.
Space travel
The Moonlight SY-3 is capable of space travel.
Durability
The Moonlight SY-3 is made out of incredibly durable material, allowing it to remain undamaged from nearly any attack, even Godzilla's atomic breath.
Missiles
The Moonlight SY-3 can fire a variety of missiles.
Deployment
The Moonlight SY-3 is able to deploy an Exploration Car.
Retrofitting
The Moonlight SY-3 can be retrofitted with the Exploration Car's weaponry.
Video games
- Godzilla: Monster of Monsters! (1988) – Nintendo Entertainment System / Famicom
- Godzilla 2: War of the Monsters (1992) – Nintendo Entertainment System
- Godzilla: Trading Battle (1998) – Sony PlayStation
- Godzilla Defense Force (2019) – Android and iOS
Godzilla: Monster of Monsters!
The Moonlight SY-3 appears as an ally in Godzilla: Monster of Monsters!. Like the Super X, it flies along the top of the screen. Sometimes it may leave power-ups while firing at the enemies. Its colors are different based on which kaiju is being used by the player, being blue for Godzilla, and gold for Mothra.
Godzilla 2: War of the Monsters
The Moonlight SY-3 appears as a playable unit in Godzilla 2: War of the Monsters. It requires that three shipments of parts be sent from one base to another and then a few turns pass while it is being assembled, but it is the most powerful unit the player can control.
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The Moonlight SY-3 in Godzilla: Monster of Monsters! -
The Moonlight SY-3 in Godzilla 2: War of the Monsters -
The Moonlight SY-3 in Godzilla: Trading Battle
Comics
- Destroy All Monsters (1968) – Manga King
- Destroy All Monsters (1968) – Asahi Sonorama
- The Godzilla Comic Raids Again (1992) ["Miss Kano's Disgrace"]
Gallery
Production
Destroy All Monsters
Screenshots
Destroy All Monsters
Merchandise
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Toy Card Godzilla Wars SY-3 trading card
References
This is a list of references for Moonlight SY-3. 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]
Bibliography
- Destroy All Monsters (Theater program). Toho. 1 August 1968.
- Matsui, Satoshi, ed. (23 July 2014). Toho Special Effects All Monster Encyclopedia. Shogakukan. ISBN 4-096-82090-3.
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