#8: SLEDGEHAMMER ELEPHANT
Japanese Name: Elephan
Animal Basis:
This one's rather obvious- Sledgehammer Elephant is clearly an African Elephant, which is easily differentiated from the Asian variety due to its much more massive ears. Even the lack of other identifying features (size; hump on the back) doesn't prevent this from being clear.
-Elephants are part of the Order Proboscidea- home to the largest land animals on Earth. This obviously makes them pretty famous, as you'll see Elephants everywhere- Disney movies, background scenes in Africa, etc. They used to be a lot more widespread, especially with the Mammoths & Mastodons, but the centuries haven't been so kind- both modern-day species are endangered. Their fabled ivory tusks are a target for poachers, and the Asian species' land is up for grabs in the South Asian area. The earliest-known member of the Order was about the size of a fox, but generally they're all known for being exceptionally huge. Oddly enough, their closest relatives amongst animals are the tiny Hyraxes, and the aquatic Sirenians (Manatees & Dugongs).
-Elephants have great intelligence (considered Ape or Dolphin-like at times), and are known to have a great deal of self-awareness and empathy, finding the skeletons of other elephants fascinating to handle and observe.
-African Elephants are so powerful than virtually the only thing screwing with them are entire PACKS of lions, or humans from afar with their giant guns. Otherwise, this is the king of the mountain of the animal kingdom on land- nothing can stop them. They're so overwhelmingly powerful that they've caused permanent injuries to humans BY ACCIDENT, and even smaller ones have taken literally SEVENTY bullets from standard-issue police handguns before dropping. Their sheer bulk is unmatched- they grow continuously throughout their lives, so that a 50-year old male is noticeably larger than a 20-year old, despite both being adults. I can't even imagine the mindset of a Roman Legionnaire fighting the hordes of Carthage and seeing some of THESE things running around with guys on top of them (Elephant Cavalry easily disrupts Horse Cavalry, as Horses generally won't come close to Elephants). Humans simply... don't survive encounters with Elephants that turn violent. Unless they're extremely lucky and manage to grab hold of a leg or something.
-Elephants have numerous odd things due to their size. Their famous giant ears are full of blood-vessels, meant to easily expose their blood to the air to cool it down- animals at this size (particularly mammals- Dinosaurs were less affected presumably) overheat VERY quickly, and thus need little cheats like that and wallowing in mud or water to stay cool. Their feet have absorbent pads, allowing them to detect things at range- particularly other Elephants' low-pitched grumblings, or the presence of water underground (their fabled "Never Forget" ability is actually them detecting the water- not remembering where old veins of it were). And their trunk has more muscles than your whole body.
Danger to Humans: You have to ask? An angry Elephant is easily the most dangerous land creature in the Animal Kingdom. Given their intelligence, manual dexterity and mass, the only animal with a greater variety in ways to kill Man is Man himself. Given that they can weigh more than 12,000 pounds, Elephants are easily capable of killing people by ACCIDENT, much less on purpose. Elephants have calmly crushed people to death by pressing their heads onto them, cracked skulls open with their feet, thrown people with fatal force, and simply dismembered them. There have been numerous reports of hormone-crazed male elephants goring RHINOS to death, and tearing them to pieces.
-In India, where Elephants are often used for labor, they result in about 150 human fatalities a year, which is more than TIGERS manage. In Africa AND Asia, they are known to demolish entire villages because someone pissed them off. Exceptionally-intelligent and with the concept of revenge, combined with their power, adult Elephants have only one real enemy: us.
Toy Description: Another very iconic, distinctive Beast, I kind of glossed him over for years because mine had no arms, and I'd had him for so long he kind of became "plain" to me. But really- a PURPLE Elephant?!? He's one of the biggest stand-outs in terms of "Non-Natural Colors" for the Beasts- most just alter the base color slightly (a yellow Tiger, grey Platypus or fully-white Lion), but this one is straight-up way outside the bounds of reality. It's an odd pastel purple, too- likely to avoid clashing with whatever armor they gave him (in this case, dark grey). He's appropriately one of the most massive Beasts, as well. He's altogether very well put-together. However, one flaw I notice is that the plastic is prone to "yellowing"- much like the white-colored Beasts, this particular shade of purple will fade at the edges, turning him semi-transparent with a creamy color.
He has one of the largest heads of the Beasts, as his trunk and short tusks (which are not colored separately from the rest of him- kind of a flaw, given how large they are physically) extend a long ways down. His ears project out by quite a ways as well (marking him as an African, rather than an Asian, elephant). Like most early-number beasts, his number is on the back of his head, and the copywrite info is on his back. A small "A" is on his right boot.
Colors: Three. His body is a very light, pastel purple. His armor is dark grey (almost black), and his Secondary Color and eyes are dark yellow.
Armor: A fairly-large two-piece with more mass than extreme detail- his kneepads are very rounded, and his shoulder pads lie separate from the rest of the armor. Because of his trunk & tusks, his Symbol is placed far lower than normal- it's straight-up on his crotch! A fairly-long piece of armor is on top of his head- it curves around the top of his skull, ending in a large, raised bit with a yellow trapezoid at the peak. The bottom of his kneepads also have "headlights" of sorts.
Weapon: A long silver "sword" of sorts- it's kind of shaped like an inverted baseball bat (so that it's pointy on the end). A pair of spikes act as a small "crossguard", and there are four spikes circling near the tip. A nosecone caps off the thing.
Hands & Feet: One large "mitten" hand, and three-toed feet. His left hand is a large grey double-ended hammer.
Easily-Broken Bits: The tip of the trunk is prone to damage. And as I mentioned, the purple tends to miscolor with age- the toes, tip of the nose, and the edges of his huge ears are VERY prone to turning a "creamy" glue-like color with time and weathering. Both of mine are like this.
Had it as a Kid: Yep- armless and weathered.
Variants: None.
Overall Score: 7.5/10 (high-quality figure, though I'm not sold on the color scheme)
Edited by Jabroniville, 15 January 2018 - 10:55 PM.