is a giant monster, or kaiju, who first appeared in Jun Fukuda's 1973 film Godzilla vs. Megalon as the titular main antagonist. Megalon is depicted as a giant beetle-like creature capable of burrowing, flight, and shooting projectiles. Despite its major appearance in the thirteenth film in the Godzilla franchise, it is also his only film appearance to date.
Overview
Design
Megalon is a bipedal, humanoid, burrowing insect-like entity resembling a beetle, standing 55 meters (180 feet) tall and weighing 40,000 metric tons (44,092 short tons). The creature is worshiped as the god of the subterranean Kingdom of Seatopia. Following a series of nuclear tests in the 1973 film, Megalon was sent above ground to seek revenge against humanity.
Megalon has two drill-like front appendages, which it uses both for burrowing and as weapons, and it possesses a set of wings usually protected by a beetle-like shell. When flying, Megalon puts its two arms together and its outer wings open allowing two hindwings to be used for flying. When the left and right arms are combined, Megalon's arms turn into a rotating drill which grants it the ability to burrow through ground.
Megalon also has a horn similar to a Japanese rhinoceros beetle, which non-Japanese viewers found odd. Lightning-like bolts of electricity can be fired by Megalon from its horn, in a style similar to King Ghidorah's gravitational rays. Megalon generates napalm bombs in its stomach, which it spits from its mouth. Officially called Geothermal Napalm Bullets, these bombs act as timed explosives, giving other kaiju time to throw them back at Megalon. Megalon is also able to leap through the air for ten kilometers at a time, in a style similar to a grasshopper. Megalon can fly at speeds up to mach 3, burrow at mach 2, and can swim underwater at mach 4.
The suit created to portray Megalon was the heaviest created by Toho at the time, only being outclassed by the original Godzilla suit from the 1954 film. Megalon and Gigan are ultimately defeated, and Megalon burrows back underground to return to Seatopia.