Different versions and looks of Godzilla

So, answer me this, G-Fan history buffs.

There have been many different designs throughout each series, but for the ones that have connected continuity, Showa specifically, was there a different suit each time there was a major design shift? I ask because the start of this era had VERY different designs from the end of this period of films.

Also, when it comes to the similar but subtle different suit designs, was it the same suit changed up, or did they keep making suits? Just curious is all.

TheGMan123,
A lot of what your asking depends on the suit. August Ragone has explained that one of the reasons so many Godzilla suits in the Showa era had wildly different designs was because Eiji Tsuburaya liked to change things up. He was never married to one design. (His death in 1970 may explain why the 1968 SoshingekiGoji suit was used until it was literally falling apart in 1972. Had he lived longer, I think it likely he would've shelved it earlier.)

But there's also the fact that the Showa series suits, built by Teizo Toshimitsu and Nobuyuki Yasumaru, did not use molds. So they couldn't recreate the same exact design even if they tried. They didn't have molds to save the individual designs.

This doesn't mean some suits weren't updated. For example, the head of 1973's MegaroGoji suit was tweaked once for Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla and then again in Terror of MechaGodzilla. Although it's the same suit, it was adjusted for the more serious atmosphere of Megalon's follow-ups:

Now when the Heisei series came along, molds started being used by the new suit maker Tomomi Kobayashi. Although the Heisei movies had five different suits (two of which were heavily updated) the design remained more consistent due to the use of molds.

Additionally, Koichi Kawakita was less interested in playing with Godzilla's design. (Obviously Godzilla's look changed between The Return of Godzilla and Godzilla vs. Biollante, but Koichi Kawakita didn't take over the special effects for the series until the latter film.) According to Ed Godziszewski, "This was his [Kawakita's] Godzilla. So he wanted to keep the basic design the same."

As a result of the more consistent design, the 1989 BioGoji was updated into the 1991 GhidoGoji (and also used for half of 1992's Godzilla vs. Mothra). The 1992 BatoGoji was built from scratch and later used for the battle against Rodan in Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II. And of course the 1993 RadoGoji suit was also built from the ground up. (The upper half of the RadoGoji was later updated into a version of the DesuGoji used for water scenes only.)

The 1994 MogeGoji was the last suit built from scratch in the Heisei series. It was later heavily updated into the DesuGoji for Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. The crew for these movies would decide whether or not they should build a new suit depending on animatronic advancements/innovations or simply if the current suit was too worn to be used for the entire production.

All of these suits were completed from molds, but because new mechanical components within the latter suits needed more space it would inadvertently change the design's shape. One excellent comparison is when you look at the profile of the 1989 suit with the 1993 costume. Same design, same molds, different suit with different mechanical components inside:

There were some adjustments made on purpose--Such as the eye color, the ribbed neck or a different combination of dorsal plates. Otherwise the pieces were largely the same.

The Millennium series made a more conscious effort to change Godzilla's look since it was an anthology series. By that time Shinichi Wakasa, who was responsible for Rodan (93), MechaGodzilla (93), SpaceGodzilla and Destoroyah suits/puppets, was building Godzilla. (With the exception of GMK.) Molds were used for almost every suit sans the Final Wars costume which he claims to have "sculpted" himself.

I've heard an entirely new costume was made for Megaguirus, despite how new the suit was in Godzilla 2000. I'm not sure I believe that, but it's possible since the molds were available. Obviously the '02 and '03 costumes were new suits, but the bodies were made from molds of the '99/'00 costumes.

It's also worth noting that new suits would often not be used for water sequences in the Showa series. Water ruined these costumes which is why the 1965 suit was used for water sequences in Son of Godzilla, Destroy All Monsters and Godzilla vs. Hedorah--Yet when Godzilla came on land it was a different suit. After the 1965 suit was doused in sludge by Hedorah, the 1967 Son of Godzilla costume was used for Godzilla vs. Gigan's swimming shots. Promotional suits, not built to be used onscreen, would take over this task in the MechaGodzilla movies.

In the latter two series a secondary water suit, much closer to the dry land costumes, would be built specifically for shots in the big pool. The Heisei series had it easy--Sometimes they would just use "dry land" costumes from the prior film if they had a new suit for the current production.

Hopefully that gives you some idea as to how they did things.

^ Excellent insight into the hows and whys of the design changes throughout the films. That actually explains quite a bit.

Directed toward the original question, it was relatively rare for a suit in the earlier part of the Showa series to receive primary use in multiple films, so usually every major design shift signified a new suit. MosuGoji was used for both Mothra vs. Godzilla and Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, but its head was replaced between films. The DaisensoGoji suit was used in Invasion of Astro-Monster and Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, but since its head was on loan to Tsuburaya Productions for use as the monster Jirass in Ultraman, Toho had to construct an imperfect replica of its head to film many scenes in its second film appearance. The original DaisensoGoji head is still used in Ebirah, but the lower-quality replica head gets a fair deal of screentime too. I think the replica head is still on the DaisensoGoji for its use as the "stunt suit" in Son of Godzilla and Godzilla vs. Hedorah. SoshingekiGoji was used for four films with minimal alteration, but it's always stuck out to me how its eyes seem to face sideways in Godzilla vs. Hedorah specifically. The MegaroGoji suit, depicted in the diagram Gman posted, had its head changed between films, and is otherwise the same suit. It was also the suit used in Zone Fighter, and looks mostly identical to how it did in Godzilla vs. Megalon.

That's just the best description of suit alterations in the Showa era I can come up with. Gman perfectly analyzed the suit changes throughout the Heisei and Millennium eras. 

^Fantastic add-on. I anticipated you'd hit some of the Showa suits I missed--Specifically the DaisensoGoji. Although I knew the head was used for Jirass in Ultraman, I was unaware it forced Toho to create a replica. That explains a great deal, however. The suit looks fine early in the movie and I had merely assumed wear-and-tear had caught up with the head toward the end. A different head on the suit makes a lot of sense. Where did you find that one out?

And I know the SoshingekiGoji received minor alterations, but they're hard to pin. I've always hoped for some official explanation on the adjustments that suit went through.

I forget the original source my fellow editors on Wikizilla found for the existence of the replica head (I'll have to do some digging and see if I can find it again), but one of them did capture a fantastic side-by-side comparison of the heads. It's especially jarring if you're looking for it, because the heads can seemingly change from shot to shot later in the film.

Honestly, I've also considered the possibility that it was given an entirely different head in Son of Godzilla that looks more like the MusukoGoji. I have no proof of this, but I feel the head in this shot looks noticeably different from both the original DaisensoGoji head and the supposed replica:

I too have always been curious about what intentional alterations were made to the SoshingekiGoji. Obviously there is some very visible wear-and-tear by Godzilla vs. Gigan, but the only major change I've ever been able to nail down is the positioning of the eyes in Godzilla vs. Hedorah. In the other films, the eyes face forward, but in Godzilla vs. Hedorah the pupils are further back and seem to face sideways. This seems to have been reversed by Godzilla vs. Gigan.

I can't really nail down any other changes, but I feel like maybe the forehead/brow area was adjusted.

I love a lot of em, but my favorite goes to the 1964 design. Can't get enough of that one

Haven't seen this topic in a few years Currently, my favorite suit is KiryuGoji.

The King of the Monsters,
That is jarring. Reminds me of the head changes to the MusukoGoji. I've been unable to find any sources confirming whether or not an entirely different suit was built or if the head was merely adjusted during production. Still, it's pretty obvious there's a different head used in the movie depending on the scene:

90s Goji, GMK Goji, 54 Goji, 2000 Goji, Kiryu Saga Goji, 2004 Goji, and 2014 Goji.

My favorite suits would be

5- KiryuGoji

4- MosuGoji

3- LegendaryGoji

2- ShinGoji

1- BioGoji

My all time favourite g design was the burning Godzilla suit from Godzilla vs destroyed 1995

Son of Godzilla was the worst. What happened there?

if you want to know more about the free Blu Ray Player for PC and why the computer can’t play Blu-ray movies, and just look at this passage.

I love Legendary/Monsterverse Godzilla

Godzilla 89-92 look awesome , 66 and 67 just look so derpy and all the millennium Godzilla just look badass. But the best is Godzilla 62 

Burning Godzilla is my favorite, with Shin Godzilla being a close second. Such an incredible re-design.

Yeah Son of Godzilla looked so bad...

My favorite design has to be between Tristar's 1998 design (just because he looks like a huge dinosaur [#Zilla]), Toho's 2001 design (because he looks the most natural out of all Millennium era Godzillas [#GMKGodzilla]) Legendary's 2014 design, or Legendary's 2019 design.

Yay! A Fellow Legendary/Monsterverse fan. I also liked the Tri-star godzilla design, just wished the movie was a lot better.

Yeah, same. But at least a good(ish) series came out of that film, right?

Wrong.

Ok, yeah. It was bad.

I never saw the Godzilla animated series... other than Godzilla Power Hour

The 1974 version of Megarogoji is my favorite showa design

My favorite suit overall is 1999's Miregoji

The ideal Godzilla look to me is the Gojira X SupesuGojira (Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla) suit. Every time I think of Godzilla, that is the one that comes to mind.

1994 is my fav

I've always liked the GMK design, the blank eyes are just very menacing, I'm surprised that eyes like that haven't been used in more of his designs especially when he is the villain

Godzilla V megusuarus 

Xenotaris My opinions have changed since my comment in Aug. 7, 2018 on the 1998 Godzilla: the Series, and I actually like it. I only said it was bad because I had never seen it before at the time, and now that I have the whole series on DvD, I actually like it (and so does my brother). And it's better than bad or good(ish). For both of us, it's actually super awesome. I'm sorry that I made the lie that it was bad on my other account, but I was just forced to say no because of G. H. (Gman)'s prescence and opinion. I hope I can be forgiven.

G. H. (Gman) Yes, I actually DO have the 1998 Godzilla: the Series on DvD, and I actually DO like it, so whether you like my opinion or not, I say this to you, and I quote myself: "To each his own." Thank you for reading this, and I hope you have a pleasant day.

I love  all of the Godzilla suits. If I had to pick one, it'd probably be one of the Monsterverse/ legendary era Godzillas. They have such great details and they look  so realistic!

The best I'd say is Godzilla final wars 

THIS

I like the original 1954, but also GMK and the suit from Space Godzilla.

os meus favoritos são o de olhos brancos o de 2021 e o primeiro

It has to be MosuGoji from 1964's "Godzilla vs The Thing." Pure evil. Look at those eyes.