The very first Godzilla was always going to be the very first Toho kaiju I wanted to tackle in sculpture form. Apart from its great granddaddy status there are a few specific aspects of this suit that I really love and wish were more commonplace throughout the character’s design history, namely the massive vampire fangs and the prominent triangular ears. Would you be surprised to learn that a considerable majority of official Godzilla designs are earless? He’s also got that craggy tree bark skin, which in black & white looks like gnarled ash. 

The 1954 Godzilla is a profound requiem for the victims of nuclear warfare. To my mind there is no other movie like it, and part of its power derives from its casting of the monster itself as a victim, however destructive and demonic it proves to be. Suit actor Haruo Nakajima deserves much of the credit for imbuing a 200-pound latex costume with animal pathos; so to do director Ishiro Honda, effects director Eiji Tsuburaya, and sculptors Kanju and Yasuei Yagi for their iconic melding of fantasy with terrible, tangible history.