King of the Monsters

Jim Fazar's Godzilla Costume

Building a 7 foot tall behemoth of a costume is a daunting task that can take a VERY long time to complete. It was early September 2005 when I started working. That left me less than 2 months before Halloween so to kick start this project I decided to take a week off of work. Yes, that’s commitment!

I wasn't able to complete it in time for the costume contest but I bided my time and finished it for the following year. Over the next ten years I took it to contests, work parties, Halloween parties and most importantly G-Fest in Chicago. Because of this costume I've made friends with people I'd never thought I'd meet and I'm so thankful that I did.

In 2018 I sold the costume to a German advertising company to be used in a travel agency commercial! See the video section below to watch.

materials

What Did I Use to Make the Costume?

There are lots of different ways to create a costume and even more types of materials to choose from. Here is a basic listing of what I used in the construction of my Godzilla costume:

Fabri-Tac Permanent Adhesive (12x)
Loctite Heavy Duty Spray Adhesive (5x)
Hot Glue Gun and Sticks (12)
Green High Density Foam (5.25 Y 1/2″)
Rigid Pink Insulation Foam
Stretchy Grey Fabric (11 Yards)
Black Vinyl (2.5 Yards)
Green Latex Paint (2 Gallons)
Spray Paint
Styrofoam
Garden Gloves

Slip-on Shoes
Flight Suit
Chicken Wire
Pillow Stuffing (Soft ‘n Crafty)
Backpack Straps
Velcro
Electric Carving Knife
Radio Shack 20 Second Recording Module
Battery Powered Speakers
Black Interfacing ( See-through fabric)
Toilet Basin Tube (Secure Tail)

Build Gallery

Visual Walk through of How the Costume Was Built

Within each image gallery you’ll discover how I was able to create my Godzilla costume. To read about how it was created you need to click the image thumbnail for the larger view. Below the large image you will see the description… I hope you enjoy!

Prep Body SFX Head Neck Hands Feet Dorsal Plates Tail Texture Painting

Godzilla Figure Next to Profile

Projecting Overlay on Wall

Overlay my silhouette on Godzilla's profile

1 to 1 Blueprint

Flight Suit as Base

Failed Wooden Frame

Reinforced Coat Hanger with Trash Can Lid

Fill Your Base Suit with Stuff

Bulking up the Flight Suit

Adhesives

Gluing Pieces of Foam to Body

Shaping Foam with Scissors

Adding the Base of the Tail

Making a Secure Connection

Reinforced Tail Connection

Male Female Connection

Adding the Godzilla Roar

Battery Powered Speakers

Secure Speakers with Duct Tape

Chest Mounted Speakers

Recorded the Roar off TV

Speaker Controlled by Hand

Internal Wiring

Photo Enlargements of Head

Styrofoam Head Test

Head Sculpt Progression

Test Fitting the Lower Jaw

How do I look?

Eyeball Stressballs

Hot Gluing Teeth to Toothpicks

Chicken-wire Neck Reinforcement

Neck Test Fitting

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Cover Chicken-wire with Foam

Preparing to Cut the Face Door

Face Door Cut

Full Frontal Face Door

Structure of the Face Door

Adding Peripheral View-ports

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Exhaust Fan for Ventilation

Cheap Gardening Gloves

Carving White Claws

Securing Claws to Gloves

Cover Claws with Hot Glue

Sound Effect Trigger Button

Wiring Run to Hand

Hand Attached and Fabric Added

Texture Added to Hands

Extra Sound Effects

Purchase Slip-on Shoes

Prepping the Foam Feet

Feet Foam Cut

Second Layer Added on Top

Shaping the Feet

Applying a Layer of Skin

Pedicure Time

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Dyeing the Color

Added Slip Protection

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1:1 diagram

Trace and Cut

Each Dorsal Plate Accounted For

Labeling the Plates

Cut and Shape

Continue to Shape

Secure with Poster Board

Inverted T Secured

Dorsal Skin Added

Gluing the Large Plates

Lining Up the Plates

Adding the Smaller Plates

Cardboard Braces for Dorsal Plates

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Imaginary Worlds

Becoming Godzilla Podcast by Imaginary Worlds

This week’s episode features another monster who comes from the sea and represents an existential threat — but he’s just so lovable. Journalist Dave Serchuk and graphic designer Jim Fazar both discovered Godzilla as kids and talk about his enduring appeal. But Jim went a step further and built a full body Godzilla suit. He and his brother Ron tell the story of how becoming Godzilla turned out to be much trickier than they anticipated. Their final hurtle wasn’t Mothra or Rodan — it was a costume contest where fate seemed to conspire against them.

finished costume

videos

English Translation:
He was really mad. Because he did not know that he would have saved monstrously as “Frühbucher” (Early booker).
See for yourself Frühbucher-Monster-discounts, or book yourself your Frühbucher-bargain at “off-on-holiday”

Tagline written in the commercial:
We send Germany on holiday.

Phrase seen on tablet:
Loading your dream vacation

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.