Concept Art for Toys that Were Never Made

Author: Keith Aiken

A SCIFI JAPAN EXCLUSIVE

Months before Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin’s GODZILLA (1998) opened to disappointing ticket sales, poor word of mouth and scathing reviews, Sony Pictures’ reimagining of the Toho franchise was widely expected to be a box office and merchandising juggernaut. Nearly 300 companies signed on to create GODZILLA products and promotions. The most high profile licensee was Taco Bell, which ran a $60 million GODZILLA advertising campaign that featured a series of television commercials as well as products, including drink cups, a cup holder and kids meals with Godzilla toys.

The manufacturing firms that produced GODZILLA toys for Taco Bell pitched several different ideas, some of which never made it beyond the artwork stage. SciFi Japan now offers an exclusive look at heretofore unseen concept art for those unused toy designs.

With the toys being developed at the same time that GODZILLA was in production — and well before the film’s FX were completed — the licensee worked from photos of Patrick Tatopoulos’ creature design for the movie. The toy team produced rough sketches to familiarize themselves with the new look.

Art Director Steve Erwin — known to DC Comics fans for his work on Deathstroke The Terminator and Checkmate! — created a “softer interpretation” of the 1998 Godzilla with rounded dorsal fins and dewlap. The intention was to make the toys safe for children by reducing the sharper edges and pointed ends of the fins on the original design. The toys eventually released by Taco Bell stayed closer to Godzilla’s appearance in the film.

One abandoned idea was a wind-up, interlocking Godzilla figure. Separate parts (head and torso, arms, legs, tail) of the toy would be randomly included in kids meals. When the figure was completed, a crank on Godzilla’s side could be wound to generate movement of the monster’s limbs and jaws.

Another planned product was a small diorama of Godzilla attacking New York City.

For more information on the 1990s Sony Pictures’ GODZILLA, please see the earlier coverage here on SciFi Japan:



