“Godzilla and Biollante aren't monsters. It's the unscrupulous scientists who create them that are monsters.”
This quote from Dr. Shiragami in the awesome GODZILLA VS BIOLLANTE film blew my mind as a kid. The movie itself is awesome, and has one of Godzilla’s coolest-looking opponents. Biollante is Godzilla’s half-sister – and a half-plant - with the soul of a human girl thrown in for good measure. A monster with tentacles and a giant mouth full of teeth (that spews a glittery acid, no less), it was a really cool design. The movie was epic and was a great comeback for Godzilla.
Flash forward to today, and now I make toys and collectibles for a living. I’ve worked on Godzilla-related products in the past, but nothing like this. When I heard that Mondo had gotten the Toho license, and that we could make Godzilla product, my inner child bounced up and down, while adult me geeked out in a more appropriate fashion.
Godzilla 89 from GODZILLA VS BIOLLANTE seemed like the best place to start. The movie features one of Godzilla’s most iconic and memorable designs. Two rows of teeth?! Hell yeah!
Once we figured out all the details, we had to find a designer to put our ideas here in the Mondo collectibles department on paper.
Enter Eric Siebenaler. We tasked him with the job of bringing our ideas to life and getting a cool design across for us to submit to Toho. Below you can see Eric’s final pass.
Once we got the design locked in, it was time to find a sculptor. We turned to the awesome Mark Newman to lay in all the groundwork and overall sculpt.
He did an amazing job fleshing out the entire project. After his initial pass, I then went in and sculpted/adjusted areas in order to make sure we were being as faithful as possible to the look and aesthetic of the 89 design. 3D-sculpted turns of the final sculpt can be seen below.
Once it’s 3D-printed, we paint it. Painting Godzilla may look simple on its surface, but the subtle gradations of blacks and grays make it a bit challenging. The goal is the capture the look of the suit from the movies, while making sure the details still pop and aren’t lost amongst the darker colors. Out of the entire statue, I had the most fun painting the severed Biollante tentacle.
Final painted prototype:
The painted prototype is the last stage of our in-house production. After this, we send it to our manufacturer, where they reproduce our statue. In this case, we turned to Acro. Acro is well known for their amazing work manufacturing figures and statues for places like X-Plus, Sideshow, Prime 1, and many more.
Their credentials and quality of work is amazing, so going with them with our very first Godzilla statue was a no-brainer. One thing Mike and I love is the feel and weight of vinyl. Acro are the masters at making highly-detailed vinyl statues. Because of this, we decided to go a more traditional route with this statue and make Godzilla itself a vinyl statue with a polystone/resin base.
Below is the first blank sample Acro sent us:
Last but not least is the packaging. We wanted the packaging for this figure to be something really special, something that stood out and captured the spirit of the movie and the statue inside the box. For this, we turned to our good friend and collaborator Florian Bertmer, and he turned in this awesome artwork featuring Godzilla in the middle of an epic clash with Biollante. Adding the finishing touches to Florian’s amazing art was Mike Bonanno, who added the colors and designed the rest of the packaging art.
The end result is something we’re really proud of. I also want to also take this chance to point out some easter eggs we’ve included with the statue.
To anyone familiar with the movie, you all know what happens to the Super X2. You can find it here, crashed in between Godzilla’s legs. We felt it was important to add this particular ship to this statue. The Super X becomes a pretty important ship in the Godzilla mythos. Its debut in The Return of the Godzilla (with the epic theme song!) is an awesome moment in Godzilla history and continues in Godzilla vs Biollante.
Speaking of Biollante, the giant plant creature has some pretty nasty tentacles, most of which attack Godzilla. It wouldn’t be a love letter to that film if we didn’t include at least one reference to the monstrous appendage.
We also wanted to include the moment in the film when Biollante stabs Godzilla’s hands with one of its tentacles. It’s a crazy moment in the film and something that stuck with me as a kid. Included with the Mondo exclusive is a swappable arm recreating this moment in the movie.
Another must-have is Godzilla’s heat ray. We felt it was the finishing touch to our statue and something fans of the franchise would appreciate. Included with the Mondo exclusive, check out our interpretation of Godzilla’s famous energy blast below:
Godzilla has been a huge part of my life since I can remember. I got my first Godzilla movie when I was 5 and it blew me away. To this day, I’m still a huge fan of the entire series of films, and my love for the franchise is as big as ever. That said, we are proud to present Mondo’s biggest collectible to date: Godzilla 89 Premium Scale Statue. We hope that you all dig the care and work we’ve put into this statue. Stay safe out there, mask up, and hopefully we can see each other at a convention soon.
-Hector Arce: Creative Director, Toys and Collectibles/>
Also, I can’t end this without a tease for our next premium scale statue:
NOTE: The Limited Edition version of the Godzilla statue will come individually numbered and is an edition of 300./>
But wait, there’s more! Also for your consideration, we present the GODZILLA ’74 Tiki Mug - Heat Ray Variant.
NOTE: These mugs are handmade, making each one unique. Slight variations from images shown may occur.
