Godzilla has taken many forms over the years in both Japanese and
American cinema. And the corpus of literature addressing the ultimate embodiment of a daikaijū is almost as large as its subject!
I am by no means an ardent kaiju fan. I saw Godzilla, King of the Monsters (1956; this was the "Americanized" re-release of the 1954 original) and King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962; 1963[US]) in the theatre. Most of the Showa-series features were standard fare on weekend TV for me through the 60s. After that, I frankly lost interest, though the Ultra Series was a mainstay of mine through the early 70s.
In 1964, Aurora released models of both King Kong and Godzilla--I am reasonably certain that this was not a coincidence. Both releases were favourites of mine, especially the latter: fuchsia-coloured, non-brittle plastic; a rather involved scenic urban groundwork/base. . . and having my mother help me create what was in retrospect a rather Gogos-esque interpretation of the boxart. In spite of that, it still didn't ring quite true to the Godzilla to which I had been exposed--though it was quite dinosaur-ish, which at the time was a definite plus!
Half a century later, I am rediscovering the appeal of the daikaijū. Fortunately, I am neither com- pelled to hunt down an Aurora/Monogram/Polar lights 1964 Godzilla, or make my way through the myriad of Japanese vinyl kits out there: in 1995, Lindberg released Godzilla, King of the Monsters.
Think or say what you will of Lindberg, this is an exceptional(!) kit!! It scales out to approximately 1/450 scale, which makes it quite a sizeable offering. My sample is VG- overall: some detail is on the "soft" side of things, and fit is somewhat less than precise (hardly surprising given that it is marketed as featuring "snap-fit" assembly), but nothing that I would consider insurmountable for someone beyond the advanced beginner level willing to expend a modicum of effort.
This kit is representative of a Heisei-series Godzilla, that flourished from 1989-1997. Given that the respective differences are more subtle and less dramatic than their Showa predecessors, and the fact that suits and portions thereof were used throughout the film series, determining the pre- cise suit style is made more difficult. Having said that, I believe the BatoGoji suit (1992) is the inspiration for this model, and I will be using it as my design baseline.
Stay tuned!!!
“When the cost of a hobby exceeds the fun and doesn't attract new people, the game is over.” -
Oscar Koveleski, August 2003
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