File talk:KMA Stactus artwork 2.png

Feet

Why does the "larger" upload have feet, when the smaller image does not? Are these two separate versions of the artwork, or was the smaller one edited to remove the feet? As far as I'm aware, the enemy has no feet in the game, so the fact that there is art of it with feet seems rather odd to me.--Vellidragon (talk) 22:19, 6 December 2021 (UTC)

I looked around a bit, and from what I can tell, this feet-sporting version comes from a press kit, and is not used as the final version of the artwork. The original version of this file without feet likely comes from the Japanese 20th anniversary artbook, but someone will have to go recapture that, since the original version we had came from FANDOM, which never sources its files, so we can't be sure. --Samwell (talk) 23:05, 6 December 2021 (UTC)

Sounds like it could be an earlier design. The version without feet should probably be the main image for the enemy, and this press kit art can be placed elsewhere with context of where it came from. The small image seems sourced from the same one I uploaded way back when I made the original Kakusan article, but it looks like both that uploaded image and article are gone (they were probably lost in one of the many database losses the site was suffering back then). Given that I had it, the scan probably came from Rainbow Resort (we never took images from the wikia as a rule).--Vellidragon (talk) 23:46, 6 December 2021 (UTC)

I second that the thing in-game has no feet. I saw an upload of the Japanese 20th anniversary artbook, and the feet-less version is there, as Samwell suggested, on page 109. The upload is here, and the page itself here. I know that that scan isn't in the best quality if we want to grab a scan of the book as the source, but that at least confirms us that a feet-less version of the artwork officially exist, and that said version is the definitive one, because if the one with feets were the definitive one, HAL would have used that version in that book instead. Maybe Kirby Wiki did grab that image from a scan of that book directly.

I haven't encountered a press kit of that game, so if it exist, it isn't so available to the public. Kirby's Rainbow Resort page about images of games lacks a Mass Attack section, so I doubt that they have a version of that artwork there. Though maybe they did once, but was deleted, so I will check with the Wayback Machine later, in any case. -Kirbeat (talk) 00:04, 7 December 2021 (UTC)

That's weird. I really don't remember where I cropped it from, I can only tell by looking that it must be from the same scan as the original upload here, just edited a bit differently. My file is from January 2012, so it's definitely not from the anniversary art book... It was probably a manual scan, but I can't find a source image anywhere on my harddrive.--Vellidragon (talk) 02:38, 7 December 2021 (UTC)

Well, if it was a manual scan, it would not have been the European manual, since that one does not have artwork of Stactus in it. I checked the archived websites for both Japan and North America as well, and didn't see it there either. It could be in either the Japanese or NA Manuals, but I can't find either of those on the internets. I suppose we could just use the piece of artwork you have and mark it as needing a source, which we can find later. --Samwell (talk) 02:47, 7 December 2021 (UTC)

So, our page of Mass Attack have a link to the European version of the manual, and I have physically the American version of it. I checked both, and in neither is a artwork of the Stactus, basically it is impossible to know that the Stactus even exist by just seeing the manual (quick note: the pages 2, 3, 4, 5, 18 and 19 of both manuals are a bit different, while the pages 6 to 17 are essentially identical, though the European version has more space, it probably is thanks to it being in PDF).
The point is that neither version of that artwork can be gathered from the English manuals, as it isn't there. I haven't checked the Japanese version because I can't find a scan of it online, so for starters, do you, Vellidragon, remember even checking the Japanese manual ever? If you never did, then the manuals are out.

Samwell said that the original no-feet version comes from Kirby Wiki (FANDOM) which is this one, and they also have the yes-feet version by the way. In the comments of the feet-censored one, the uploader says that it is a "Screen captures off official site". So, let's check every official webpage of the game then :P
And other thing, the Kirby Wiki feetn't one was uploaded before Vellidragon's version, and the Kirby Wiki feet one was also uploaded before ours, but it is also smaller than ours. So Results May Vary should have had a very obscure source to upload a version bigger than the one there. -Kirbeat (talk) 03:17, 7 December 2021 (UTC)

Not sure, but I do remember that I cropped it from something that was more than just the Kakusan itself (and I most definitely didn't get it from the wikia). I'm currently thinking it was probably cut out from a screenshot of the game's official (Japanese?) website, which would be in line with the source given for the wikia image. Unfortunately, it was made in Flash and I don't know how to access it to confirm, if it's possible at all.--Vellidragon (talk) 21:03, 7 December 2021 (UTC)

Just when talking yesterday about this on Discord, SaviroZenu found a scan of the Japanese manual, which Samwell linked in our Mass Attack page, and that manual is the same as the others, so that artwork isn't there. About the website, our Mass Attack page has a link to this one, and that Japanese website does not have that artwork either. So is there another official Japanese website aside from that one? -Kirbeat (talk) 21:26, 7 December 2021 (UTC)

How are you viewing the website?--Vellidragon (talk) 22:49, 7 December 2021 (UTC)

EDIT: The image comes from the Flash version of the website, which can no longer be opened in a browser under normal circumstances. I was able to download the main.swf from the archived site and run it offline in the Flash Player debugger. The website had a feature where pictures of enemies sometimes appear and you could click them to see a larger version of the art and some info. Here is the infobox pop-up for the Kakusan, which I'm very sure is the source of the image.--Vellidragon (talk) 23:39, 7 December 2021 (UTC)