TOHO GODZILLA SUIT 18

FinalGoji (2004)

Giant monsters are being controlled by the evil Xilians and are rampaging across the globe. The Earth Defense Force struggles to find a way to defeat the malicious mutants, their only hope lies frozen in the Antarctic... Godzilla!

This suit can be seen in these movies:

For Godzilla’s 50th Anniversary film in 2004, Godzilla: Final Wars, director Ryuhei Kitamura wanted Godzilla to take on a leaner, meaner look while combining the looks of the previous three eras of Godzilla films

They seem to have succeeded in doing this. To create this leaner, more flexible suit, the suit makers at Toho used less urethane foam and rubber, instead adding a special material resulting in a lighter suit. The arms and legs are slimmer than usual, allowing the actor’s arms, fingers, and legs to fit perfectly into the suit. Toho managed to reduce the weight of the suit by almost 44 pounds, allowing the actor inside much more movement and flexibility, and making this one of the most realistic-looking suits ever.

Godzilla: Final Wars (2004) – Japanese Trailer

Smaller Dorsal Plates

They also made the dorsal plates smaller, making them look much like the dorsal plates of the Showa era with a single prominent row with smaller surrounding plates.

KiryuGoji Tail

Godzilla’s thighs are also one size smaller and the tail from the KiryuGoji suit used in the previous two films was reused.

More Noticeable Ears

This suit also has much more noticeable ears than previous suits, which sets this suit apart from the others.

kbc special effects documentary

Godzilla vs. Tomomi Muranaka: Final Wars

This was originally 45 minutes long and contained a lot of behind the scenes footage, crew interviews, and studio tours. I cut out most of the content that did not pertain to the monster costumes to keep it as short as possible.

making of featurette

The Making of Godzilla: Final Wars - EDITED

Here is the official making of Final Wars video but again, I edited it done a lot to just show the monster suits as much as possible.

FinalGoji Suit Reference Images

The screencaps were captured from the Sony Blu-ray and the behind the scenes images were scanned from the Japanese book: Godzilla Graphic Collection by Hobby Japan. Some of the images may have been modified to see the textures more easily.

Screencaps Behind the Scenes

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.