Godzilla reigns eternal thanks to years of tiny design changes

polygon.com:

There are few pop culture icons more instantly recognizable than Godzilla — and much of that has to do with the fact that, for almost 70 years now, the King of the Monsters has typically been a gargantuan mutated dinosaur with plates on his back and atomic breath. However, upon closer examination, one can find that Godzilla has changed a lot over the years, often on a movie-by-movie basis.

The Godzilla that first debuted in 1954 looks way different than the one we see in 1974 or 1994 or 2014, and with the proliferation of Godzilla media hitting us this year, like Apple TV Plus’ Monarch: Legacy of Monsters and Toho’s Godzilla Minus One, there’s never been a better time to dive deep into the many styles of the world’s favorite nuclear reptile.

Brought to life with a blend of suitmation and puppetry (and becoming the godfather of the Japanese tokusatsu genre), the first Godzilla is a menacing creation. Stocky and scarred, this Godzilla is built for an unstoppable stomping charge across Tokyo (his arms are fairly immobile, a feature that won’t be revisited until the 2016 reboot, Shin Godzilla). Every movement feels deliberate, and many shots are devoted to the thick legs and feet plowing through buildings. However, not all of this was pure cinematic intention: Suit actor Haruo Nakajima suffered and sweated under a 100-kilogram suit made of inflexible material.

The suit for the first Godzilla sequel is markedly different from the original: It’s much leaner, with a thinner neck and legs and a head that looks extremely goofy when viewed from the front (the puppet work also takes a hit here). Much of this is due to Godzilla now having to wrestle with his first kaiju nemesis, the four-legged Anguirus. Since many of the films