Toho Godzilla Suit 4
MosuGoji (1964)
- Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)
- Godzilla vs. The Thing (1964)
Widely regarded as the best Godzilla suit of all time.
The body of the Mosugoji was sleek and bell-shaped with a pronounced breast bone and knees. The hands featured slender, sharp claws with the fingers held apart, which looked like they could tear the nicest high-rise OC apartments to ribbons. The dorsal plates were nearly identical to those of the Kingoji. The head was well proportioned to the body and the facial features were chillingly defind, with pronounced brows and splendidly evil eyes.Â
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The Mosu-Goji ("Moth-Godzi") design, was made by sculptor Teizo Toshimitsu with more input from suitmation actor Haruo Nakajima than ever before.
The costume-making process took about two months prior to filming with Nakajima visiting the workshop often, and the result is a lighter costume that allows for more fluid movement. Mosu-Goji, widely regarded as the best Godzilla suit in the entire series, is colored a deep gray that personifies the beast’s dark side. Godilla’s head is more articulated than before, with a rubbery upper lip that trembles when the monster roars and sinister, staring eyes. The body is slightly more slender than the Kin-Goji, but Godzilla seems all-powerful nonetheless as Nakajima constantly assumes the “attack posture” — walking upright, slightly bent forward, with Godzilla’s tallons extended in front — and Tsuburaya’s use of high-speed photography once again creates the illusion of a monolithic, slow-moving creature. Nakajima’s input also resulted in another costume improvement that goes largely unnoticed: Reinforced heels were added to the feet, allowing Nakajima to do flips and rolls without losing his footing (this was especially important in the two titanic battles with the adult and larval Mothras, as Godzilla was constantlyfalling and getting up again). After I retired, they didn’t put heels in the costumes anymore,” Nakajima said.
MosuGoji Suit Reference Images
The images below were captured from the original Japanese Blu-ray, found online, and scanned in from books. Some of the images may have been modified to see the textures more easily.
