A project I've been working on recently, and finally finished - custom 1984, 1989, and 1994 Godzilla figures!

Well, there's a bit of story to these guys, so strap in, folks!

- 1994

NECA's Godzilla 1994 figure I personally find to be their best Godzilla figure (though their upcoming 1954 figure looks promising). However, I just found the glossy black unappealing, and with some outdoor craft paints, painted him up! I don't even really think it was skill here, as the flat look of the paint was what did it. The sculpt just pops so much better, and it even FEELS much better. I took him with me to G-Fest, and he got quite the attention - some even mistook him for an SH Monsterarts figure! He's been touched up since then (to what you see above), mostly just to get spots I missed, but the paint has held extraordinarily well. No primer or lacquer was needed (as goes for all three). It's a great figure, and I recommend it as it is - but boy, does that paint turn it into a whole new beast.

- 1984

While NECA's 1985 figure is fine, as it captures the design pretty well, I felt it didn't capture the massiveness of the suit, especially when compared to the '94 figure. I mean, canonically, it is smaller than 1994, but it still felt off to me. Truth be told, I actually expected it to be retooled from the '94 figure, with a new head and the fins flipped around (so this custom kinda makes that come full circle). Well, before I painted '94, I swapped the heads just to try it (they don't fit as is, mind you, but a little tinkering can do the trick), and to my surprise, the '85 head looked better on the larger '94 body, and the '94 head on the '85 body made it look like the Bio-Goji (1989).

Because I liked my '94 too much, I ended up getting another one. Rearranging the fins was a bit tricky - I cut up some staples and used them to reinforce the fins while the glue dried, and with some trim work and sculpting dough, I was able to fit the head on the neck (it does sacrifice the articulation, but it's no biggie for me). After that, I painted him up, but I made him a bluish gray based on a chibi I got at G-Fest.

- 1989

If I wasn't able to pull this one off, then I wouldn't have done the 1984 figure, and vice versa; I wasn't keen on sacrificing an entire figure. I'll admit, it's not perfect, but I think it gets the point across.

Just like '84, I plucked off the fins and rearranged them (again, using staples to hold them in place). Now I did say I swapped their heads, but that was just the basic idea - while it does "fit" on the ball joint, it's not the same size, and naturally, really loose; a few scraps of rubber from the trim work fixed that easily. I used a carving tool to re-sculpt the "scalp", as it wasn't flush with the neck, let alone not accurate to '89. And to finish, it was painted in a darker shade of gray than '94.

Unlike the other two, I painted the eyes on this one (see head pics); while it's not really accurate, as the actual design has color in the eyes, it captures what I personally found rather scary about the Bio-Goji.

Godzilla © Toho