Paul Gavin's Kiryu Costume

GODZILLA'S BIONIC DOUBLE

Paul Gavins' KIRYU

Madison Wisconsin U.S.A.
Decommisioned in 2023
“In 2003 I stood in my MG 1974 suit, in line for the costume show at G-FEST. Thru the suits view port, I noticed a really great Miss Namikawa in front of me. Afterward, I spoke to the girl in the great costume and we talked about the additive value of supportive characters/costumes within a shared theme. Kiryu and a Kiryu pilot came up. I ran into her at the show the next year. She had made a great Kiryu pilot costume and she asked where my Kiryu was and I realized that I hadn’t held up my side of what she had planned for (OOPS). My resolve renewed, I returned home and began to render the suit that I had only planned the year prior. These videos are a look into the process, the silliness and the end result and shows the things that don’t work as well as what does. I hope it demystifies the process and encourages fans who are sitting on the fence.”

— Paul Gavins

VIDEO

Building the Kiryu Suit: 2 hour feature

Back in 2005 Paul Gavins created a six part series of videos to showcase how he built his amazing Kiryu suit. This is all six videos combined and AI upscaled to document the construction.

“I would encourage you, no matter what you are doing, to build a suit if the thought moves you. It’s really about fun, it’s not about having the best suit… it’s about being out there in front of people who all love Kaiju!”

“You’re wearing the suit. And inside the suit – in your mind – you are the Kaiju. People are cheering for you and a lot of them are just thinking ‘jeezz, maybe next year I’ll build a suit!’ So it’s more about experimenting and having fun than having a perfect finished result.”

"Suit up!"

Here’s a very short video from a small indy film that came to shoot video during G-Fest. 

Kiryu: Completed Suit

If you watch the 2 hour ‘making of’ video above you’ll find this little clip at the very end. However, the real magic is contained within the full 2-hour video.

Becoming Godzilla

Contact

Have you already completed your own Godzilla costume and want to feature it here? Then by all means contact me and we’ll work together to add your costuming experience to this site.