Comparison

This is an Alert I am a description. Click the edit button to change this text.

Toggle #1

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

Toggle #2

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

Accordion #1

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

Accordion #2

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

Tab #1

Tab #2

Tab Title

Tab Title

Tab Title

Tab #1

Tab #2

Tab Title

Tab Title

Tab Title

My Skill

Web Designer 50%

Image Carousel

Days

Hours

Minutes

Seconds

This is the Call to Action box

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit dolor

Media Carousel

Previous

Next

Jim Fazar's Godzilla

This is the heading

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit dolor

Click Here

This is the heading

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit dolor

This is the heading

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit dolor

Click Here

This is the heading

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit dolor

This is the heading

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit dolor

Click Here

Slide 1 Heading

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit dolor

Click Here

Slide 2 Heading

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit dolor

Click Here

Slide 3 Heading

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet consectetur adipiscing elit dolor

Click Here

Previous slide

Next slide

Gallery

Planning Body SFX Head Hands/Feet Dorsal Plates Tail Texture Painting

The first thing I did was take several pictures of myself standing in different positions. Then I took the same pictures of the Billiken Godzilla 1975 Boxed Vinyl Figure. It's great to have a 3D and that way you can spin it around to help with getting everything just right. Godzilla figurine I was using as the basis for my costume. I needed these pictures to help me figure out how big to make Godzilla.

I used Photoshop to overlay my silhouette on top of the Godzilla pictures. Then I did my best to line up all the important joints like your shoulders, elbows and knees. I wanted to get these as close as possible for an accurate representation

After that I projected the final image on a wall at my exact height. I traced both outlines (Godzilla and myself) on large pieces of paper and viola, I now had a 1:1 scale diagram of me inside the costume!

I took that diagram to my work area and taped it on the wall with several other pictures of Godzilla screen shots from movies using the suit that I wanted to mimic. From the 1:1 diagram I was able to get almost exact size measurements for every detail of Godzilla.

I decided to hang up the costume as I worked on it. I used several plastic coat hangers, duct tape and the top of a curved plastic garbage can. I cut it to be about the width of my shoulders, the more I could do to mimic my own body’s size the better.

Instead of starting from scratch I decided to build upon something I already had. A flight suit. This was going to be a big costume, and it was going to be very warm since it would be almost 100% foam. I wanted to make sure it wasn’t skin tight so I decided on using clothing that was bulky, and this is important. Luckily I had an old flight suit that you can get from any online military surplus store to use. It’s nice because the flight suit is a one-piece but I’m sure you could start with an old pair of sweat pants/shirt if you needed.

I bought A LOT of foam from the fabric store (United States: Jo-Ann’s, Michaels. Etc) in different thicknesses and densities. If you want to save money I hear you can obtain very similar foam from old couches and chairs.

Throughout the entire project I used a lot of glue. The two that I used exclusively was Loctite Spray Adhesive, Heavy Duty Permanent and Beacon Adhesives Frabri-Tac Permanent Adhesive. I went through LOADS of glue and its not cheap so look for coupons!

I decided to use strips of foam instead of huge pieces for two reasons. First, if I just covered the entire flight suit with foam then it wouldn’t be flexible at all. Secondly by using strips I could control the varying contours of his body easier and I could leave area in-between them. In time I would place pillow filler in-between the larger strips to help fill him out, but more on that later. Basically I wanted to bulk up some areas more than others and this gave me more flexibility. I examined pictures of Godzilla and then decided on how big the strip should be then cut it.

After that I shaped the piece of foam with scissors to get rid of the 90-degree angles. Remember, Godzilla is a living, breathing thing and he needs to look as real as possible. I did my best to contour the strips that were already glued to the body, and also the pieces (like the one above) so they would fit correctly. Once the strip/piece was ready I spray glued the back of it and the wrapped it around suit and duct taped it to hold in until it was dry.

After I was finished with the basic bulking up of the main costume I started work on how the tail would connect. The tail was going to be big and heavy so I knew the connection to the main body would have to be very secure. I rolled a piece of foam and created a hallow tube that I cut to the exact shape of the body. I used a lot of glue and secured it at several points.

It was important to make the connection secure but I also wanted the tail to flow smoothly behind me. To do that I made sure not to connect the tail at all to my legs which would put unneeded pressure on the suit and tail. Towards the end of the process I used fabric to make sure the connection looked smooth even if they weren’t underneath.

It was important to make the connection secure but I also wanted the tail to flow smoothly behind me. To do that I made sure not to connect the tail at all to my legs which would put unneeded pressure on the suit and tail. Towards the end of the process I used fabric to make sure the connection looked smooth even if they weren’t underneath.

A large sheet of lycra fabric is wrapped around the structure and sowed instead of glued, this makes it easier for future modifications.

A large sheet of lycra fabric is wrapped around the structure and sowed instead of glued, this makes it easier for future modifications.

The previous lower half of the tail is salvaged for the new design.

Vacuum hose through the foam slabs.

I chose foam because it’s easy to shape, light and very flexible. If you watch any of the movies closely you’ll notice that when Godzilla is in the midst of destruction or battling another monster the dorsal plates flex a lot.

I copied the shape of each spine from the 1:1 blueprint onto tracing paper. Then I cut out the tracing paper shape and transferred that to a thicker papers stock (it was hard to trace the shape onto the foam from tracing paper). The I used the new paper stock shapes and a permanent marker to transfer that shape to the foam.

I carefully cut and shaped each spine with scissors and moved the numbers from the side to the bottom so I could keep track of them.

The dorsal plates are one of the most important visual shapes to Godzilla (the head/face being the first). So shaping the dorsal plates is very important and you should spend a lot of time getting it just how you want.

Many of Godzilla’s dorsal plates are on the tail so before I added the gray fabric I glued pieces of poster board to the discs. This pictures shows an abandoned idea with thicker sections for the tail, but the poster board idea is the same. I wanted to make sure the dorsal plates couldn’t be knocked off or even pulled off so I placed multiple pieces of poster board in the shape of an upside down T. For each of the large dorsal plates there is a piece of poster board that it attaches too. I partially split the spine at it’s base so it would fit over the poster board and secured them all with spray glue.

Portfolio

Godzilla Costumes

Fan created Godzilla costumes and how they built them.

Godzilla Costumes

Mechagodzilla Costumes

See how fans have brought to life one of Godzilla's greatest foes

Monstrously in love

Jim Fazar created this costume and this website for you.

View the creation of this costume

Previous slide

Next slide

Main areas

Where are they?

Jim Fazar

Jim created his Godzilla costume in Rochester, NY circa 2005. It was sold to a German advertising agency to make a commercial for a travel agency.

Keith Eng

A New York native that created an amazing suit.

Arnold Hidaka

Arnold made a fantastic little Godzilla costume for his son.

Billy Dubuse

A costume creator and a director of monster movies, Billy does it all.

Krys Baioa

Krys has been making costumes since he was 13 years old and his passion for the art of suit acting is unmatched.

Austin & Alex Bennett

In 2015 Austin and Alex created a Godzilla inspired monster for their senior thesis film.

Corey Harrison

Corey created a fantastic Kiryu (Mechagodzilla) costume.

Sean Sumagaysay

Sean's Godzilla 2002 and Kiryu are studio quality, the best of the best.

Bart & Rhea

Lorem ipsum pisaci volupt atem accusa saes ntisdumtiu loperm asaerks.

Robert Pruitt

Robert is an uber fan that loves taking his Heisei Godzilla costume to as many conventions as possible.

Tristan Domay

Tristan is in the midst of brand new Godzilla costume build for 2020.

Jacob Baker

The creator of Hyper Godzilla is an avid designer for many monster related costumes, not just Godzilla.

Total Fabrication

Headed by Emmy®-nominated designer Kenneth J. Hall, Total Fabrication has over 25 years experience in commercials, motion pictures, television, theater, theme parks, and trade shows

Mitchell Mettam

His hesiei costume is very big and very unique because of the illuminated dorsal plates.

Mabie Knot Designs

They created an inspiring burning Godzilla costume that even glows.

David Shoemaker

David always dreamed of being the 'guy in the suit' so he made his dream come true.

Ana G Costumes

Anna creates many different costumes but this may have been her biggest!

Dawn Lupton

Dawn spent a long time dreaming about making a Godzilla costume then decided to take the plunge.

Links

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.