Rodan in the 60's

[Silver Kamen]

[Russzilla]

[Silver Kamen]

[Russzilla]

[Silver Kamen]

[klen7]

I had heard conflicting info on that, so that clarification clears things up for me

[Silver Kamen]

[Goji 84]

For a topic about '60s Rodan, there sure isn't a lot of talk of him going on in here. Yes, we all know the '56 Rodan is "the" preferred Rodan by practically the entire fandom. We get it.

Rodan in MONSTER ZERO was my first exposure to the character, so for me personally, I'll always have a huge soft spot for the more anthropomorphic Rodan from the '60's (even though I'm of the belief that the '56 Rodan is and will always be the best). The "banana beak" is grossly exaggerated by fans, and isn't nearly as ghastly as people make it out to be. Seriously, he looked just fine in MONSTER ZERO. DAM? Not so much.

I'll say that I much prefer the '65 suit to the '64 one, though I really dig the puppets/marionette's used in GHIDRAH.

[Russzilla]

[canofhumdingers]

[Russzilla]

[lhb412]

[canofhumdingers]

Looking at those pics I'm definitely convinced the '68 suit was just a renovated '65 suit. Plus in the commentary on the DAM bluray they talked about all the suits and how Godzilla and Angilas were the only two all new suits made for the film. And they also detailed some of the updates to the other suits - I specifically remember they mentioned King Ghidorah got new wings and a new, brighter paint job. But I can't remember what, if anything, they said about Rodan.

I can't tell from those pics if the '65 is an updated '64 or not but I find it really hard to believe they'd trash a suit that was just made brand new one film ago and make another entirely new suit... Unless it just got utterly destroyed in filming G:TTHM?

[Russzilla]

[Goji 84]

The '65 and '68 Rodan's are the same suit.

The '64 suit was only used in GHIDRAH.

[Russzilla]

[canofhumdingers]

So what made them build an all new Rodan suit for Monster Zero? Was the GTTHM Rodan suit just totally trashed after filming? Did something specific happen to damage it and make it unusable?

[Rody]

[Russzilla]

[william newell]

Count me in as one who prefers the '56 suit. In fact, effects-wise, I think this movie was the best that Tsuburaya ever did, at least as far as Kaiju films go. And compared to the other giant flying monster film which came out that same year, "The Giant Claw" makes it even more astonishing. The flying scenes with Rodan leaving visible contrails, the whole military confrontation, they were fantastic. It's also one of the films that I think the dubbed version is actually better. The added sound effects of the Meganulon's in the cave when Rodan is eating them, and, of course, the whole speech at the end make this version more powerful,imo. Back on topic, I know from watching the extra features on the Japanese Ghidrah DVD, the wings were built on fan-like strips of metal, which gave them their triangular shape. I think, but don't know, that this was done with the possibility of having Rodan fold his wings. Seeing as this effect was never used in the movie, I'm guessing that it didn't work as planned (or, quite possibly, I have no idea what I'm talking about, which wouldn't be the first time )so the decision was made to rebuild the suit. This is all conjecture on my part, so take it for what it's worth.

[tbeasley]

[nicecubes]

[klen7]

afaik you're right, i hadn't heard of a toggle-able version.

[SpaceMal]

[Legion]