Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

I came across this awesome picture showing the original Godzilla maquette sculpted for Godzilla 2000 from several angles:



I remember reading somewhere that when Shinichi Wakasa made the suit for the film, he didn't have this maquette or any of the concept art with him and had to work from memory. I took that with a grain of salt, because I can't really imagine the circumstances that could have kept him from having the maquette with him, but it does explain why the final suit ended up looking so different from the original vision of the design.

Personally, I think that maquette design looks cool as hell. I liked the Miregoji suit design a lot (the mechanics and craftsmanship of the suit itself are another story... ), but maquette just looks so much better. I wouldn't say it's completely ideal (I'd do something about the eyes and tweak the toes a little), but I like it more than most of the other G looks in the series. Though it's doubtful, I really hope that design gets used in a future Godzilla movie one day. It's just too kickin' to not make it onto the silver screen.


My question to y'all is: Would you rather have had that maquette design used in Godzilla 2000? Or do you prefer the Miregoji suit design that we got?

I have to go with the actual suit. I have always REALLY liked that suit and was sad to see the design go. I prefer the head to the Maquett, which looks a little too GFW for my tastes and I really hated THAT suit.

-Ray

I don't recall hearing the "Wakasa didn't have the maquette" story before. Usually the suits don't look like the maquettes (think of the original Godzilla for a great example). The maquette is the starting point but a lot of people have imput while the suit is being made so the design evolves during the process.

Here's what Shinichi Wakasa said when I interviewed him in 2004. It gives some insight into the suit-making process...

"Godzilla has a lot of hardcore fans, and if you ask a hundred of them what they'd want Godzilla to look like you'll get a hundred different answers: "I love the Mosugoji", "I love the Giragoji", "I love the Heisei Goji", or "Battogoji" or every other suit. My first Godzilla suit was for GODZILLA 2000. Some people said "I hate it because it looks like a frog" or "Whatever it is, I don't like it". I understand their feelings, but Godzilla 2000 was not my design. [Special effects director Kenji] Suzuki and other crewmembers said to make the head bigger and to have the mouth go back farther.

It was a very difficult job on GODZILLA 2000. I had a lot of ideas, but there was no time on the movie; there was only about 40 days, you know. I had to make a cast of Mr. [Tsutomu] Kitagawa's body, then sculpt the new Godzilla, do the molding, everything; the whole job in 40 days. It was very difficult. I was much more relaxed on GODZILLA AGAINST MECHAGODZILLA. In that case, Mr. [Masaaki] Tezuka was the only person making decisions about the suit and I trust Mr. Tezuka very much. He requested the smaller face and that Godzilla's mouth not be so big."

Cool.
A bunch of huge spikes with a Godzilla attached to them.

If I'm not mistaken, the maquette is an original Yuji Sakai design that was the concept used with inhancements that were applied by Wakasa. The dorsals were the truest of the concepts used but obviously Wakasa applied his artistic touches to the head in particular with shades of the '62 Godzilla and his pet cat.

I love the Mire-Goji design, but I feel the maquette as an actual suit would have made a great, horror-inducing Godzilla. Shogo Tomiyama at a live event at Shinjuku Loft Plus One in June of 1999 said they wanted this Godzilla to have an element of weirdness. This design, with the proper direction, lighting and suit acting would have filled the bill. Imagine these dorsals all lit all, with perhaps the eyes going all white in the middle of a pitch black night. This could have been a scary, truly malevolent Godzilla. If you make the story go in the direction of a really enraged kaiju, who is out to viciously wipe out energy sources as well as the people who operate them, then this design could have been mesmerizing.

I'm a big fan of the adaptation of the Kiryu-Goji suit more so than its original. While I do have a fondness for the dorsal plates on the Mire-Goji , I can't doubt that they look great also on the G 2000 maquette. With that said, I like the maquette a whole lot more than the design actually used. I like the upward pose of it. Looks more "Godzilla" to me. Same thing with the head and mouth. Mire-Goji represented a historic moment in the series, but the design does not compare to the first attempt.

That maquette wins for me by a mile. I love the King-Goji style head, and I definitely prefer the dorsal fins on the maquette.

The Maquette is one of my dream Godzilla designs so I voted for it. I happen to love the G2K Goji suit as well. It was definately one of the best in the millenium series.