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Description
One of the members of the Council of the Species Against the Earthlings, a breakaway coalition from the Federation of United Planets, comprised of a handful of some of the most notorious rouge planets and pariah species who had either tried and failed, or wanted to conquer Earth. The "Robot Monsters" as they were often called as an insult, or Ro-Men, were regarded as somewhat of a joke. Despite the extreme power of their calculator beams, internal bickering and frequent power struggles amongst the grunts of the species (as seen here) and the Great Guidances that ran Ro Men society often rendered them highly unorganised and inefficient. The history and origins of the Ro Men are difficult to quantify, based on the highly antagonistic and aggressive nature of their race, but certain things are known. First is that amongst the Ro Men they have a power structure similar to that of ants, with the Great Guidance being a sort of combined intelligence of most, if not all of the high elders of Ro Men society, capable of communicating to them all at once and across vast distances using the antenna built into the heads of the Ro-Men, with the grunts operating as ground troopers and manual workers. Second is that the Ro Men were clearly at one point far more mammalian, very similar in fact to the Earthlings, but that unlike Earthlings they retained far more of their own bestial nature of their bodies, covered in hair and resembling far more their evolutionary ancestor the gorilla than Earthling's ancestor the Chimp. The most striking and noticeable thing about the Ro Men when first meeting them, as can probably be seen, is the fact they seem to have replaced the entirety of their head and upper torso with electronic equipment. The head is not, as one might presume, merely a sort of space helmet used for breathing, but is in fact the head in it's entirety, and what, if anything lurks beneath has never been seen by a living soul (rumours of what lurks beneath include just a gorilla skull with wiring enveloping it, a disembodied brain attached to cables, or merely a severed spinal cord without anything atop it). However, some differences do remain. For one thing, certain Ro-Men seem to need an inbuilt filtration system, plugged straight into their lung system, in order to convert hostile atmospheres into breathable air for them (as can be seen by the scout grunt) with Great Guidances tending to be free of such tubing systems. At the back of the helmet/head too is an extended artificial tubing that one can see emanating out, which is in fact connected straight into their spinal cord. It seems through a complicated system of neural interlays, the Ro-Man's robotic aspects are entirely fused into their organic ones, enabling swift agility and heightened intelligence, with the commands of the robotic "brain" operating the rest of the ape body. It certainty seems at one point in their history the Ro-Men decided to forgo being totally organic beings, and decided instead to become cyborgs, integrating machine and ape almost entirely. Why they did this is unknown, and it is equally unknown if such a process was there early on in the Ro-Men's evolution, or was something only developed much, much later on (it is presumably the latter). One theory amongst xenologists is that they are in fact the product of active biological and cybernetic engineering by some higher species, which tried to create supersoldiers out of the gorilla beings, but lost control and/or simply abandoned their subjects, leaving them to roam freely amongst their planets as they are now. Despite their heightened intelligence due to their cybernetic implementations, what is interesting to note is that there is still seemingly a residual level of "bestial" nature to them, a sort of genetic memory, as they are still capable of ferocious animalistic aggression, capable of running on all fours, taking great strides across a landscape to capture prey and then tear them to pieces with the mighty trunk-like arms of the beast. It seems the inner ape aggression has been subsumed into the more cold, rational and emotionless task of colonisation, but has not been entirely eliminated. Ro-Men's food consists of globules of floating liquid that flies through the air and is consumed by the small hole at the front of their heads, which contains within it the equivalent calories and nutrition of a full scale meal, the Ro-Men having seemingly abandoned the consumption of solids years ago (from the outside appearance these often look like little more than harmless bubbles).
Considered by most of the other species aggressive, but also stupid, dull witted, boresome, obnoxious, insufferably arrogant and largely stupid, frequently interrupting meetings with wild gesticulations of their fists, overdramatic pointing, and lengthy soliloquies of the stupidity of all other species compared to themselves. When it came to the invasion of Earth, they were largely used as shock troopers, having no real role in the upper echelons of planning.

Note: Based on an idea i had, of an alternate earth series where the alien invasions and monster attacks on Earth during the 50s are part of a shared universe, and that the American government harnessed all the left over space wreckage from subsequent invasions and become a racist, authoritarian, xenophobic, highly advanced, technocratic space imperialist empire under the guidance of President McCarthy. My basic conceit is that in this alternate Earth the alien invasions essentially eliminated the 60s, meaning that although mankind (and specifically America) advanced in leaps and bounds technologically the political revolutions of the 60s effectively stagnated, as all effort was put into fighting back against the "greenies from the stars" as the propaganda adverts said, with gleaming silver rockets, death rays and rocket powered national guardsmen patrolling gleaming, Jetsons-esque New York, coexisting alongside segregation, virulent anti-communism and stay-at-home-wifery. Although tensions have not been eliminated, these exist under the rubric of a highly paranoid and racist Joe McCarthy presidency, who was swept to power under a tidal wave of terror and trauma from the repeated alien and monster attacks, with struggles by black people and feminists contending against the rocket-powered shock troops that terrorise the suburbs and impose rigid adherence to the new Constitution (the old one having been abolished under the guise of "emergency war time conditions") called the Dictates of Patriotism. Monsters and aliens from the previous decade have been dragged from time and space by an as yet unknown assailant to wage war against Earth, opposed as they are by a coalition of "good" alien species, composed of the Pairans, Klatuu's species, the Arousians and the Metalunans (before their planet was destroyed).

As for our dear Ro-Man himself, well, what is there to say. I must be one of the few people who actually quite likes the original design, or at least, sees the originality in it. In a sea of green aliens, blobs, and people who are basically humans with slightly odd looking faces and wearing crappy clothes (Plan 9, Cat Women of the Moon, Metalulans) there is something undeniably cool about seeing something just so....odd. There is something interesting and curious about it, it starts to tell it's own story just by looking at it. It's hard to work out precisely why it is like it is. Is he wearing a space helmet for breathing? Then why only his head? Why is he a gorilla? If he's a gorilla, why does he have none of the usual ape like behaviours? Is this what they wear on their home planet? (interesting to note that the Great Guidance on the TV screen does not have a tube to the front of his face and has a completely blank collar and face screen, indicating to me that, for whatever reason, the little "mouth piece" is for breathing and operating on foreign soil. I've tried updating the head thing to make it more integrated into the wider body, as i say in the piece, more a part of the overall body than just a deep sea diving helmet crudely plonked onto a gorilla body (i did that with the arm two). I really don't like the antenna, but it felt like a "part" of the Ro-Man look, even if it's silly as hell. But there is just no way to draw it that make's it look good. I've also decided to give a rational explanation for why the fuck there are bubbles spewing all over the place in the Ro-Man's cave and in the Great Gudiance's little work office (other than the obvious fact they clearly had no money and needed to put in something to look vaguely "spacey", and for seemingly god knows what reason, thought bubbles where the best way to communicate that. Overall, I'm very happy by this, and i personally love the image of a rampaging gorilla striding across a landscape but with a cyborg head on.

Description
One of the members of the Council of the Species Against the Earthlings, a breakaway coalition from the Federation of United Planets, comprised of a handful of some of the most notorious rouge planets and pariah species who had either tried and failed, or wanted to conquer Earth. The "Robot Monsters" as they were often called as an insult, or Ro-Men, were regarded as somewhat of a joke. Despite the extreme power of their calculator beams, internal bickering and frequent power struggles amongst the grunts of the species (as seen here) and the Great Guidances that ran Ro Men society often rendered them highly unorganised and inefficient. The history and origins of the Ro Men are difficult to quantify, based on the highly antagonistic and aggressive nature of their race, but certain things are known. First is that amongst the Ro Men they have a power structure similar to that of ants, with the Great Guidance being a sort of combined intelligence of most, if not all of the high elders of Ro Men society, capable of communicating to them all at once and across vast distances using the antenna built into the heads of the Ro-Men, with the grunts operating as ground troopers and manual workers. Second is that the Ro Men were clearly at one point far more mammalian, very similar in fact to the Earthlings, but that unlike Earthlings they retained far more of their own bestial nature of their bodies, covered in hair and resembling far more their evolutionary ancestor the gorilla than Earthling's ancestor the Chimp. The most striking and noticeable thing about the Ro Men when first meeting them, as can probably be seen, is the fact they seem to have replaced the entirety of their head and upper torso with electronic equipment. The head is not, as one might presume, merely a sort of space helmet used for breathing, but is in fact the head in it's entirety, and what, if anything lurks beneath has never been seen by a living soul (rumours of what lurks beneath include just a gorilla skull with wiring enveloping it, a disembodied brain attached to cables, or merely a severed spinal cord without anything atop it). However, some differences do remain. For one thing, certain Ro-Men seem to need an inbuilt filtration system, plugged straight into their lung system, in order to convert hostile atmospheres into breathable air for them (as can be seen by the scout grunt) with Great Guidances tending to be free of such tubing systems. At the back of the helmet/head too is an extended artificial tubing that one can see emanating out, which is in fact connected straight into their spinal cord. It seems through a complicated system of neural interlays, the Ro-Man's robotic aspects are entirely fused into their organic ones, enabling swift agility and heightened intelligence, with the commands of the robotic "brain" operating the rest of the ape body. It certainty seems at one point in their history the Ro-Men decided to forgo being totally organic beings, and decided instead to become cyborgs, integrating machine and ape almost entirely. Why they did this is unknown, and it is equally unknown if such a process was there early on in the Ro-Men's evolution, or was something only developed much, much later on (it is presumably the latter). One theory amongst xenologists is that they are in fact the product of active biological and cybernetic engineering by some higher species, which tried to create supersoldiers out of the gorilla beings, but lost control and/or simply abandoned their subjects, leaving them to roam freely amongst their planets as they are now. Despite their heightened intelligence due to their cybernetic implementations, what is interesting to note is that there is still seemingly a residual level of "bestial" nature to them, a sort of genetic memory, as they are still capable of ferocious animalistic aggression, capable of running on all fours, taking great strides across a landscape to capture prey and then tear them to pieces with the mighty trunk-like arms of the beast. It seems the inner ape aggression has been subsumed into the more cold, rational and emotionless task of colonisation, but has not been entirely eliminated. Ro-Men's food consists of globules of floating liquid that flies through the air and is consumed by the small hole at the front of their heads, which contains within it the equivalent calories and nutrition of a full scale meal, the Ro-Men having seemingly abandoned the consumption of solids years ago (from the outside appearance these often look like little more than harmless bubbles).
Considered by most of the other species aggressive, but also stupid, dull witted, boresome, obnoxious, insufferably arrogant and largely stupid, frequently interrupting meetings with wild gesticulations of their fists, overdramatic pointing, and lengthy soliloquies of the stupidity of all other species compared to themselves. When it came to the invasion of Earth, they were largely used as shock troopers, having no real role in the upper echelons of planning.

Note: Based on an idea i had, of an alternate earth series where the alien invasions and monster attacks on Earth during the 50s are part of a shared universe, and that the American government harnessed all the left over space wreckage from subsequent invasions and become a racist, authoritarian, xenophobic, highly advanced, technocratic space imperialist empire under the guidance of President McCarthy. My basic conceit is that in this alternate Earth the alien invasions essentially eliminated the 60s, meaning that although mankind (and specifically America) advanced in leaps and bounds technologically the political revolutions of the 60s effectively stagnated, as all effort was put into fighting back against the "greenies from the stars" as the propaganda adverts said, with gleaming silver rockets, death rays and rocket powered national guardsmen patrolling gleaming, Jetsons-esque New York, coexisting alongside segregation, virulent anti-communism and stay-at-home-wifery. Although tensions have not been eliminated, these exist under the rubric of a highly paranoid and racist Joe McCarthy presidency, who was swept to power under a tidal wave of terror and trauma from the repeated alien and monster attacks, with struggles by black people and feminists contending against the rocket-powered shock troops that terrorise the suburbs and impose rigid adherence to the new Constitution (the old one having been abolished under the guise of "emergency war time conditions") called the Dictates of Patriotism. Monsters and aliens from the previous decade have been dragged from time and space by an as yet unknown assailant to wage war against Earth, opposed as they are by a coalition of "good" alien species, composed of the Pairans, Klatuu's species, the Arousians and the Metalunans (before their planet was destroyed).

As for our dear Ro-Man himself, well, what is there to say. I must be one of the few people who actually quite likes the original design, or at least, sees the originality in it. In a sea of green aliens, blobs, and people who are basically humans with slightly odd looking faces and wearing crappy clothes (Plan 9, Cat Women of the Moon, Metalulans) there is something undeniably cool about seeing something just so....odd. There is something interesting and curious about it, it starts to tell it's own story just by looking at it. It's hard to work out precisely why it is like it is. Is he wearing a space helmet for breathing? Then why only his head? Why is he a gorilla? If he's a gorilla, why does he have none of the usual ape like behaviours? Is this what they wear on their home planet? (interesting to note that the Great Guidance on the TV screen does not have a tube to the front of his face and has a completely blank collar and face screen, indicating to me that, for whatever reason, the little "mouth piece" is for breathing and operating on foreign soil. I've tried updating the head thing to make it more integrated into the wider body, as i say in the piece, more a part of the overall body than just a deep sea diving helmet crudely plonked onto a gorilla body (i did that with the arm two). I really don't like the antenna, but it felt like a "part" of the Ro-Man look, even if it's silly as hell. But there is just no way to draw it that make's it look good. I've also decided to give a rational explanation for why the fuck there are bubbles spewing all over the place in the Ro-Man's cave and in the Great Gudiance's little work office (other than the obvious fact they clearly had no money and needed to put in something to look vaguely "spacey", and for seemingly god knows what reason, thought bubbles where the best way to communicate that. Overall, I'm very happy by this, and i personally love the image of a rampaging gorilla striding across a landscape but with a cyborg head on.