THERE is nothing like a 250ft tall monster rampaging through a city to unleash my inner child.

Having been brought up captivated by the original King Kong, then later, the Japanese Godzilla movies, the latest giant creature feature Pacific Rim was always going to spark my interest.

And there is no doubt that the monster battles in Guillermo del Toro’s action adventure, which opened in cinemas last week, are awesome.

The design and execution of the Kaijus (alien monsters from another dimension beneath the ocean — don’t ask) and the Jaegers (the giant man-made robots built to vanquish them) is nothing short of astonishing, and the battle scenes are a triumph in terms of the skill involved in the special effects.

But my all-time favourites are still the hand-made stop-motion creations of the recently departed genius Ray Harryhausen.

Nowadays, monsters like the ones in Pacific Rim are all produced using the latest computer technology. The realism — well, as realistic as a 250ft cross between a lizard and a gorilla can get, anyway — takes an enormous amount of talent. There is no doubt that, despite the computer help, the skill needed to create them is immense.

However, apart from Kong (a movie creation that itself inspired Harryhausen), two of Ray’s monsters from the 1963 adventure Jason and the Argonauts still figure in my top 10 list.

First, is the 100ft tall bronze guardian, Talos, who creepily — and creakily — comes to life as Hercules, and his pal steal from the crypt full of treasure he is perched upon.

It still amazes me to consider that all Harryhausen’s creations were ‘brought to life’ by having to position and reposition the figure’s limbs 24 times to create one second of time on film.

Which is what makes my second choice all the more amazing; the legendary ‘fighting skeletons’ scene towards the end of the film. Harryhausen spent months painstakingly animating seven skeletons in a sword battle with Jason and his men among Greek ruins — a sequence that still has the power to impress.

The stop motion expert died in May, but the number of modern-day film-makers who cite him as a massive inspiration reads like a who’s who of cinema — Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, Tim Burton, the aforementioned del Toro and, of course, Wallace and Gromit creator, Chorley’s own Nick Park.

Coincidentally, the two scenes I have chosen are also Mr Park’s highlights. He also picks out Medusa, the Gorgon, stalking Perseus in her shadowy lair in the 1981 original version of Clash of the Titans.