I looked into building a godzilla costume a while back. Aside from latex being expensive I had one major worry which was heat. From what I found about the original all latex costumes made way back in the day in japan not only were they very heavy but they could only be worn for a very short time because you would basically die of heat exhaustion because there was no airflow inside. I really like the idea of the foam, much less expensive and lighter. How long are you able to wear this for and how bad is it to wear and move in, is it hard to breath in? I was real gungho to build one until I started thinking about being miserable after 20 minutes and then not being able to get out of it easily.
This wasn't incredibly expensive. There's about 8 gallons of latex on this one, so that's at least $300 bucks and lots of labor. Chump change compared to the amount of clay and mold material to be used if I were to go that route.
It is a little heavy. I still haven't got into it.
A few Halloweens ago I wore the "Styrax" suit. I walked 4 city blocks down the main strip downtown from my van to a favorite bar. It was cool outside, but I was pretty hot by the time I got to the bar. An hour later I made the 4 block trek back. At that point it was about midnight and lots of people were poring out of the bars into the streets. The walk back was slower and like being in a sensory deprivation chamber and a mosh pit at the same time. Drunk people knocking into me and occasionally trying to ride me like a horse. I could hardly hear or feel anything, though I knew what was going on. It was lots of fun, but when I got back to the van I was spent, soaking wet and had to take it off. I can't imagine doing that for hours or in daytime/summer heat.
If the neck were a bit longer, it would be a perfect likeness!
Yea, the necks a bit too short and the heads a little off. There was a pencil design sketch I used as a profile to go by, but something didn't translate right when I started to refer to the pix of the maquette.
you need to get that to G-Con!!!
It must have took you forever to carve all the scales into it, I know it kills me just drawing Godzilla's scales so god knows how bad it was to actually sculpt them into it lol!!! did you use some kind of burning tool as the foam looks browner where sculpted?
Love to go to G-con. I've never been to any sort of con like that.
This took about a month and a half to make. Yes, all the scales are etched with a heavy duty soldering iron. VERY TOXIC! I don't recommend doing it anywhere but outdoors and with a heavy duty respirator! I also wear nitril or latex gloves when handling the etched foam.
Do you have pictures of your other suits?
Here's a few pix of a a guy I call "Styrax". He's modeled off a beautiful maquette called "dino dude" designed by a creature designer named Peter Konig. I kinda ran across it randomly on some message board maquette tutorial. That was my first go at a creature suit. I spent about 6 months noodling with it. I made it in 3 parts without an armature. Surprisingly it all came together ok.
I made this guy a year or two later in '09. He was originally going to be the Winston 'Zilla, but I decided to try an original design without a tail for the drunks to pull on.
