My Halloween special! The Kappa, a Japanese water goblin!!!
More information on the kappa see here:
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No idea what scale but the figure is about 3in/7cm tall. Seems like it’s not in production anymore though…
https://www.hlj.com/fukusaki-yokai-plastic-model-kappa-gajiro-fsc38003
Hello!
Looks to me like a frog on steroids, complete with the agressive attitude… What about that turtle shell though?
Thanks for sharing and have a nice day!
Paweł
OHO!
So that is what Michealangelo looks out of Super turtle garb?
Very interesting. I like how you did it. Also loke the definition of what it is. Kinda cool tho. I live on a lake so I better keep peace with them. lol
Gam…
I had one of these pass me on the freeway. He was croaking at me as he sped by. Hope he wasn’t hexing me. [;)]
Nice work painting it, Gam. [Y]
Does anyone else think if you put a stovepipe hat on the guy and gave him a guitar, he’d look like Slash from Guns N Roses? [:P]
In Shinto, one of the native religions of Japan. It’s animistic in nature, with a number of kami, the embodiment of religious or divine (or near-divine) forces.
There are several hundred nominated Kami (in Japan, they are traditionally emnumerated as “8 million” a number meant to emulate “infinty”).
Kappa (water child) or Kawatoro (water boy) combines several aquatic features, none explicitly inimical nor specifically benign. It’s held that the favorite food of Kappa is cucumbers, and these are features in the festivals meant to honor the water spirits.
Having a bald pate reflects the Japanese habit where monks shaved their heads to indicate their religious status.
There are all sorts of kami.
Cap’n, interesting info, as usual!
A possible date for Goleum? Stranger things have happened, you never know.
From what my parents told me when I was small, the Kappa’s bald head was concave to hold water. If the Kappa spilled its water, it would be weak and vulnerable. The kit box mentioned they coveted those little balls, which they would extact from people they dragged underwater. [:|]
Thanks Captain!!!
A lot of what you related wasn’t in the reference material I looked up. Thanks for filling in the details!
BTW: There’s a rather silly comic relief kappa in ‘Spook Warfare’ (1968).
And a bit more menacing one (though still one of the good guys) in ‘The Great Yokai War’ (2005).
Both are fun movies and chock full of whacky crazy Japanese monsters.
My favorite was the umbrella ghost or Kasa-obake! I need to build one, doesn’t look all that hard.
Pawel: Thanks!!!
T.B. It is rumored that the Ninja Turtles were inspired by the kappa!
Lurch: As the Captain said leave out some cucumbers. They’re one of it’s favorite foods. Dunno about pickles though!
Bakster: Lol, I was worried it might bother your trawler. But it’s a fresh water monster- as long as you stay in the ocean you should be safe!
Real G: Lol that might be it’s new nickname! I was called it Unreal G while building it! And yeah I’d always heard about the head bowl. I wasn’t sure what the ball things were- I hoped they weren’t someone’s eyeballs or gonads so I painted them as pearls. It’s a fresh water monster so I’m not sure why it would have pearls but what the heck- it looks good painted that way to me.
Ikar: Yeah, if your Gollum you can’t be too picky!
Thanks a bundle guys!!! I wanted a monster to paint for Halloween and dug this one out. I’d recommend the figure if they still made it! Hopefully it will be reissued.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!
I’ve been working on a creature that I hoped I coiuld finish by tonight, but no luck, still a few things to do yet, then it’s on to the figure group build.
Mine is the alien from the original Outer Limits series episode called The Mice.
Oh cool! The weird blobby alien? May I ask what brand and scale it is?
Gamera I donthave to leave them out. My wife had a garden and they were disappearing all the time. Possibly the kappa got them.She thinks the rabbita and dear. Now I know better. LOLOLOLOL I will let her know next year when they disappear again.
There are several salt-water Kami as well. One being the Arashikami, the storm wind that can raise the kamikaze which angry.
There’s also at least on kami of Hiki nami, the under-tow of the surf. (Or the “undertoad” for Garp fans [:)] )
A bunch of the “alters” in anime are just emulations of various Kami, if exaggerated to fit the narative.
Bakster would also want to watch out as there is at least on monkey-based Kami, too . . .
And another that hordes over precious metals, who might foil old Nemo and his gold wagon . . .
And don’t forget the Umibozu.
NOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Thanks for warning Bakster- hopefully Nemo can deal with these yokai!
Holy Kami! GAM…what have you started? Capn says hordes. Good thing I have the railgun built. Maybe I should mount that on the trawler.
I’m sure if Nemo can take out a krakon/giant squid he can handle some yokai.
Maybe assign Ned Land and his harpoon to the trawler?