How Tall is Godzilla? A Quick Guide To The World’s Most Famous Kaiju

How Tall is Godzilla?

Published on: July 22, 2024 by The HLJ Team

Godzilla, A Cinema Legend

For 70 years, the giant monster called Godzilla has made himself known across the globe. Known in part due to their giant size and in part due to the ferocity he's unleashed across dozens of acclaimed movies, Godzilla is internationally understood as a symbol of destruction and a force of nature, as well as one of the originators of the now beloved ‘kaiju’ genre, inspiring various other giant monster media over the decades.

Here at HLJ, we have many Godzilla appreciators amongst our staff, and of course, our customers. But we also understand that many of you might not know anything about Godzilla, or why he’s worth paying attention to, which is why you might be here.

Once again we’re here to help - here’s a quick rundown of all the essential need-to-know info about Godzilla, the world’s most popular giant monster!

The History of Godzilla

Godzilla was created back in 1954 with the release of his first movie in Japan. Although there are many speculations about the original inspirations for Godzilla prior to the first move, it’s clear that everything we currently know about the creature was shaped by this original incarnation, which hit the screens in the 50’s as a walking metaphor for the dangers of nuclear war.

Despite early skepticism, the first Godzilla movie was a massive hit for the time, raking in huge amounts of money domestically - when adjusted for inflation, the original Godzilla movie has made 10s of billions of yen in its initial theatrical runs alone, which isn’t even counting the high numbers of re-releases the movie has gotten around the world in the decades since.

The bold nature of Godzilla’s destructive appearance in the first movie made an impact on cinema going forwards, and naturally, sequels were very quickly considered. The series continued with Godzilla Raids Again in 1955, the first sequel of many to come for the giant monster.

In the movies that followed in the 60’s and 70’s, the Godzilla series introduced a number of new giant monster characters for the creature to both ally with and contend with, including monsters that are now equally beloved - Mothra (a moth-type creature), King Ghidorah (a three-headed hydra-style dragon), Rodan (a winged pteranodon), Hedorah (my personal favorite weird blob thing), Mecha-Godzilla (a man-made mech opponent for the kaiju) and many, many more.

Godzilla's History, Continued

Over time, the image of Godzilla would soften and transition from a mere menacing creature to a menacing creature that would also protect earth from other menacing creatures. This kind of positioning for the character can be seen developing in some of the early ‘Showa Era’ (1954–1975) Godzilla movies, but really hit its stride in the Heisei Era with some of the more iconic ‘vs.’ movies like Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989) and Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991).

The Godzilla franchise would also have several attempts at being rebooted by American studios throughout the 2000s - even non-fans may remember 1998’s Godzilla, which at the time was critically lampooned and briefly stunted the future growth of the series in the west, thanks to a misunderstanding of the franchise's appeal. Later on, American studio Legendary tried a second time to revive the series in the states with 2014’s Godzilla, which has since received a number of sequels in a shared universe ('MonsterVerse') featuring other iconic kaiju, including King Kong.

The franchise continued in Japan throughout the 2000s and got more and more experimental and bombastic, eventually taking a long break after 2004’s Godzilla Final Wars. 2016’s Shin Godzilla eventually brought the franchise back to life with a unique, cerebral look at politics during a time of disaster, directed by Hideaki Anno of Neon Genesis Evangelion fame.

The next cinematic outing for Godzilla from a Japanese studio was 2023’s Godzilla Minus One, which took Godzilla back to its roots with a masterfully directed look at Godzilla in a post-war setting which examined the nature of war and PTSD. This was another huge hit for the franchise both domestically and internationally, and guarantees we’ll see more cinematic outings for Godzilla in the near future!

How Tall is Godzilla?

Godzilla’s height is relatively inconsistent between movies, but in the 1954 original, Godzilla’s height was 164 feet. Since then, the trend has been that Godzilla has generally gotten bigger with subsequent movie appearances, and because Godzilla’s cinematic appearances don’t all take place in the same continuity, there is no definitive height for the creature.

For example, 2023’s Godzilla from Godzilla Minus One returned him back to his classic height of 164 feet, but recent American versions of Godzilla have placed the character as large as 394 feet!

Where should I start with Godzilla?

Godzilla has been in a LOT of media over the last 70 years, in case that wasn’t obvious from the history section above. But if you’re new to the character and looking where to start, the answer is that there is no wrong answer, really! If you like to see buildings being destroyed and monsters fighting other monsters, this is definitely the series for you.

The 1954 original can be a good place to start, as this movie remains well-directed, focused and interesting to this day. The sense of Godzilla’s scale is felt throughout the film, guiding the audience through a thrilling disaster story with some powerful visuals! If you’re interested in the roots of Godzilla but also classic cinema, this is the perfect place to start.

If you want something exciting but a bit sillier with Godzilla fighting multiple monsters, I highly recommend Godzilla Vs. King Ghidorah from 1991, which is a Godzilla movie that inexplicably contains a bizarre time travel plot. This one really delivers on the title, but to be honest, a lot of movies from Godzilla’s Heisei Era really do!

If you’re looking for a more modern Godzilla movie, you can’t go wrong with either 2016’s Shin Godzilla or 2023’s Godzilla Minus One. Both of these movies present something different, but offer serious takes on the character through the lens of contemporary cinema. Both of these movies carry a large focus on the human characters that suffer at the hands of Godzilla, but these are both excellent entry points into the series.

Godzilla Figures, Model Kits and More!

Of course, this wouldn’t be a blog on hlj.com without us directing you to the wide world of merchandise based on everyone’s favorite giant lizard. Godzilla has had merchandise for almost as long as the series has been around, and it’s made its way into various different series within the hobby world.

To begin with, Godzilla has a lot of different figures from Bandai: firstly, there’s the retro style Movie Monster series, which renders Godzilla and other similarly sized movie monsters as retro style soft vinyl figures. This style of soft vinyl figures (‘also known as ‘sofubi’) have been intrinsically linked to the Godzilla franchise for as long as soft vinyl figures have been around, and despite offering limited articulation, provide a cheap and fun way to collect iconic monster characters.

You’ve also got the S.H.MonsterArts line by Bandai, which offers a lot in terms of posable figure versions of these iconic kaiju characters. Much like the standard S.H.Figuarts line, these figures offer a level of quality and possibility that makes the series ideal for both collectors and casual fans alike. In my personal experience, S.H.MonsterArts is definitely the best lineup when it comes to posable Godzilla figures.

In terms of Plastic Model Kits, there are a few options, with more coming in the future. At the moment, it’s easy to recommend the chibi 70th anniversary series from fujimi. These cute kits allow you to build cute versions of some of the series most iconic monsters including Godzilla himself, Ghidorah and even several variants of MechaGodzilla.

There’s also another Godzilla kit from Bandai coming later this year, based on Godzilla’s appearance in the recent Godzilla x Kong movie. What’s especially interesting about this kit is that early visuals seem to suggest that you’ll be able to build Godzilla’s skeleton first before adding his outer layer, making this a unique two-in-one kind of build that we’ve not seen before.

Outside of these options, there’s also lots of officially licensed fun goods, soft vinyl kits and much more from Godzilla available at hlj.com. Whether you’re a long time fan of the character or just starting out on your Kaiju media journey, we want to support you at hlj.com - stay tuned for new hobby porducts, hobby news and more!

How Tall is Godzilla?

Godzilla, A Cinema Legend

The History of Godzilla

Godzilla's History, Continued

How Tall is Godzilla?

Where should I start with Godzilla?

Godzilla Figures, Model Kits and More!

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