The “Skull Monster” Red King — Reddo Kingu phonetically in Japanese — has been a fan favorite since he was introduced back in a live stage show that went in-between Ultra-Q and Ultraman. It had the Ultra Q monsters — Garamon, Kanegon and M1 — destroying a lab and being joined by Antlar, Alien Baltan, Chandlar and their leader, Red King, joining in. Only Ultraman could stop them, joined by a chorus of children singing, “The mark in his chest is a meteor / He beats down the enemies proudly with his jet / From the Land of Light for the sake of us / Here he comes, our hero Ultraman.”

Designed by Tohi Narita, Red King was sculpted and built by Ryosaku Takayama. He’s always been blue topped with gold, except in Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero, in which he finally was red. His roar, which is written as Shparr!” — is a combination of Gaira from War of the Gargantuas and Godzilla.

First showing up in the eighth episode of Ultraman, appeared along with Magular, Chandlar and Pigmon, one of the few monsters — maybe because he’s small — that is nice to humans. In that episode, Red King uses his strength — he has no other powers — to rip off Chandlar’s arm and wing, then kill Pigmon under a pile of rocks. Yes, Ultraman was pretty rough but kids back in 1966 were pretty tough.

The Ultraman series were masters of recycling. The Red King suit was later used to make Aboras, then reused when Red King returned to fight Ultraman again in episode 25. The arms were then used for Zetton. These days, however, all the kaiju of Ultraman are their own unique costumers (and they’re much better as costumes and not CGI). Red King Jr. fought Ultraman Taro in episode 40 and would come back as one of the spirits of defeated kaiju that would make the ultimate monster Tyrant. Red King Jr. would become the legs while the other parts were made from Alien Icarus, King Crab, Hanzagiran, Bemstar, Seagorath and Baraba.

From 2005’s Ultraman Max to today, there’s pretty much always been a Red King variant to challenge the Ultras and humans that help them.

You can check them all out in this set from Mill Creek, including the two Red Kings from the original series, Red King III from Ultraman 80, the armored Red King from Ultraman Max and the red Ex Red King from Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle — Never Ending Odyssey.

Other battles between Ultras and Red King on this set include him battling Ultraman Joneus in the animated The Ultraman, Ultraman 80 in Ultraman 80, three battles against DASH and Ultraman Max, a fight against Ultraman Mebius, one fight from Ultraman Galaxy Mega Monster Battle, three appearances against the ZAP SPACY, Gomora and Litra in Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle — Never Ending Odyssey (in which he even kind of becomes good), as a spark doll in Ultraman Ginga and Ultraman Ginga S, and “the most violent Red King of all time” even defeats Ultraman Rosso Aqua and Ultraman Blu Flame in Ultraman R/B.

If you already have all of the Mill Creek sets, you have all of these fights, but it’s a gorgeous package and all of the fights look wonderful on blu ray. I’m so excited to look at it amongst the many Ultraverse movies on my shelf.

You can get this Mill Creek box set from Deep Discount. You can also see all of their releases — 38 and more on the way — at The Ultraverse.

Sources

1. Battle Kaiju Series 01: Ultraman vs. Red King booklet.
2. Ultraman wiki: Red King.