Godzilla, the OG kaiju, has been enjoying a resurgence of late in both Japan and Hollywood, but it’s the grounded back-to-basics take of Godzilla Minus One that most captured the hearts of fans and critics alike. It’s this version of Godzilla that inspired builder DeRa to bring the beast to life in LEGO and the results are as striking as an atomic blast. Once again, DeRa demonstrates an unmatched talent for blending LEGO sculpting, texturing, and articulation to create a model that pushes LEGO to its limits.
To match the monster’s muted colors, DeRa works with a mix of modern dark grey (aka “dark bley”), vintage dark grey, and tan. The yellowish tinge of dark grey bricks prior to 2003 helps bridge the bluish new dark grey with tan. DeRa uses a maximalist approach to texture, employing plenty of spikes, as well as textured rock pieces, frogs, drills, pistols, and even Bionicle masks, for Godzilla’s rugged body.
DeRa’s Godzilla comes just a month after the builder’s equally impressive take on the RX-78-2 Mobile Suit but the builder has been working on the model off and on for a year. The builder started by looking at a version of Godzilla’s head from this recreation of a promotional stunt that DeRa had built back when the film debuted in Japan.
DeRa had created the truck version in just a half day of building. The new version is a nearly complete redesign, built to ensure it would look great from every angle. The most complex sculpting is around the eyes, where three sets of minifig arms are angled into expressive brows. For the teeth, DeRa wedged a set of handcuffs into the upper jaw, an “illegal” technique that DeRa isn’t completely satisfied with but wins major points for ingenuity.
Over on their blog, DeRa walks through the build process in great detail. The builder explains the tension between achieving maximum articulation and creating a pleasing organic body (something DeRa grappled with on this amazing tiger build last year). For Godzilla, DeRa prioritized shape over flexibility, but the model is still quite poseable. Since Godzilla’s design is so bottom-heavy, the model is quite stable, but DeRa’s design is stable enough to stand even without the tail. Here’s a behind-the-scenes pic that offers a glimpse at the joint wizardry that went into giving Godzilla such a dramatic pose.
Terrorizing Tokyo can be quite exhausting, so DeRa also provided Godzilla a snack to keep the kaiju from getting derailed.
This magnificent Godzilla isn’t DeRa’s first kaiju model. The builder’s take on Mechagodzilla is also a worthy contendor to be King of Monsters.
The post LEGO Godzilla Minus One is double-plus-good appeared first on The Brothers Brick.
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