Cybot Gozilla, Explained

Those who've only seen the recent American Godzilla movies have only seen CGI representations of the King of the Monsters. In the good-old days, Toho relied on performers in suits to embody their nuclear-powered horror-turned-hero. Digital VFX sells Godzilla well enough, but there's something enjoyably tactile about the old methods. In 1984, Godzilla celebrated his 30th birthday with a film called The Return of Godzilla, which was set to reset the character to his original horror roots. To that end, they created a bizarre animatronic beast popularly known as Cybot Godzilla.

The Godzilla franchise has gone through just about every tone a film series can expect to embody. The original 1954 classic was a harrowing horror epic that spoke to a very real fear alive in every viewer's heart. There have been silly comedies, schlocky action blockbusters, and grim explorations of the human condition in the intervening 70 years. Godzilla has changed form countless times. Some changes match the film's aesthetic, but others simply update the character for a new designer's vision.

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What was the Cybot Godzilla?

The Cybot Godzilla was a groundbreaking attempt to elevate the King of the Monsters to the new modern standard of 80s horror. To that end, they augmented their traditional methods of casting actors in suits with a massive animatronic version of Godzilla. Standing 16 feet tall and weighing over 1.2 tons, Cybot Godzilla was an early example of the kind of masterful works of art that brought dinosaurs to life in Jurassic Park. The term "Cybot" was a portmanteau of "cyborg" and "robot" used to describe the machine in promotional material. Promotion was the main purpose of the Cybot Godzilla, which drew a ton of media attention and appeared at several public media events. Within the context of filming, the primary goal of the Cybot Godzilla was to provide more realistic facial expressions and roaring gestures in close-up shots. The Cybot reportedly cost $475,000 to construct and contained more than 3,000 computer-operated mechanical parts. He consisted of a rubber skin stretched over a mechanical skeleton. Outlets at the time hailed the Cybot as a mechanical marvel and incorrectly assumed he'd be the primary Godzilla depicted in the next feature.

Where was Cybot Godzilla used?

Title	Return of Godzilla
Director	Koji Hashimoto
Screenplay	Shiuchi Nagahara
Story	Tomoyuki Tanaka
Stars	Ken Tanaka, Yasuko Sawaguchi, Yosuke Natsuki, and Kenpachiro Satsuma
Release Date	December 15, 1984
Runtime	103 Minutes
Streaming On	HBO Max

Toho created Cybot Godzilla for The Return of Godzilla in 1984. The film is a sort of legacy sequel in a model that has become very popular in the modern era. It ignored the many sequels to the 1954 original, attempting to go back to basics and recapture the glory of Ishiro Honda's classic. It's a monster movie that pits humanity against Godzilla without any other kaiju to mix things up. Godzilla is a horror movie monster again, terrorizing Japan and embodying the potential nightmare of nuclear devastation. The Cybot Godzilla allowed for some movements and shots that were not otherwise possible, but it turned out to be more useful outside the film than in it.

The Cybot Godzilla is barely in The Return of Godzilla. The overwhelming majority of monster footage in the film features longtime monster actor Kenpachiro Satsuma in a revamped new suit. The redesign updated many elements of the 1954 classic design into a modern context, combining details of the earliest depiction with new technological advancements. The Cybot Godzilla did stand in for close-up shots, as intended. Unfortunately, a mechanical error in his head resulted in his eyes frequently looking in slightly different directions. He had a charming Muppet-like quality in a lot of shots, detracting from the perceived horror of the film. As a result, Cybot Godzilla mostly appeared in promotional images and in film museums.

Why didn't Toho use Cybot Godzilla again?

Godzilla has been in 31 films since Return of Godzilla in 1984. Cybot Godzilla doesn't appear in any other films in the franchise. Though the machine was no longer in use, the next several Godzilla entries featured animatronics. Kenpachiro Satsuma, the actor inside the Godzilla suit from 1984 to 1995, discussed the immense added weight of moving mechanical parts in the suits he wore. This compromise made a lot of sense with a bit of foresight. Toho didn't need a full animatronic Godzilla; they just needed the facial movements. This made Satsuma's job much harder, but he remains one of the unsung heroes of monster movies in general.

The Cybot Godzilla was more of a marketing gimmick than a grand leap forward in kaiju technology. He was impressive for the time, but that single mechanical flaw made him far less useful on screen. Though he only appeared in one film, Cybot Godzilla remains a fascinating moment in the franchise's history. Cybot Godzilla wasn't the King of the Kings of the Monsters, but every Godzilla deserves respect.