It’s one of the most eye-catching and memorable area bosses in videogame history. Dobkeratops, which scrolled into view in 1987’s side-scrolling shooter R-Type, was a nightmarish hodge-podge of eyeballs, snapping jaws and Giger-esque bio-mechanics.
The R-Type franchise may have long since vanished from view – R-Type Final rounded off the series over a decade ago – but for some fans, the games’ designs remain stuck in the memory.
Now, it looks as though Japanese company Good Smile is in the process of creating the ultimate tribute to the angry Dobkeratops – arguably the most famous of the Bydo Empire’s villains. As revealed by Toyark – not to mention thanks to Twitter user Tian-Liang, who first spotted it – the Wonder Festival toy fair carried a number of as-yet unreleased models and action figures, and there, sitting on a table, was an early prototype of a Dobkeratops monster.
Good Smile’s no stranger to making models based on videogame characters, whether it’s through its Nendoroid or Figma toy lines. Dobkeratops is a rather different proposition, though, because it’s so intricate and inhuman looking.
The prototype you can see above is clearly an early one, because it’s both unpainted and partly constructed from copper wire. We’re not sure how the makers will mass-produce this thing, or whether it’s even going to definitely try; it’s possible the figure was shown off at the toy fair to gauge the response from potential buyers.
It’s such a fine-looking sculpt, though, that to not put it in production seems almost cruel at this stage. In fact, if this never gets released, we’ll sulk. For days.
More R-Type and Dobkeratops news as we get it.
