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Yuji Sakai Godzilla 1964 Arawaru Concept Works Box
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Yuji Sakai did the master sculpt of these Godzilla figurines that are no more than 6 to 8 cm high. An accomplished artist, he also did the monster designs in the movies Godzilla 2000 and Orochi the Eight Headed Dragon. Bandai also knocked it out of the park for the the mass production of these small figures. Each of these figures comes with a base that creates a vignette of a scene from one of the movies. There are dozens of these figures that were released as three blind box sets between 2004 and 2006 and I managed to get many of them at the time. When you line these figures up, the neatest thing you notice is that Godzilla's appearance changes a great deal from movie to movie. The Godzilla suits are different and the facial appearance is sometime more friendly, sometimes more mean, and sometimes more lizardy. Then in 2009, there were four new deluxe boxed versions of some iconic scenes released of which I managed to get one.
Sakai Yuji Concept Works: Arawaru Godzilla series
Arawaru means appearance, and this series shows the classic appearance of Godzilla from the movies: Godzilla, Godzilla vs Mothra, Godzilla vs King
Kong, and Godzilla vs Destroyah. I received the one from Godzilla vs. Mothra, where Godzilla is rising from his underground slumber at a the land reclamation project. Why Godzilla was sleeping there, who knows!
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Side of box showing a few of the other dioramas.
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Back of the box showing details about the small figure.
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The other possible dioramas to get from the other side of the box.
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Closeup of the front. The figure and base are small enough to fit on top of the palm of your hand.
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The pieces of the diorama when you get them out of the box. They are nicely painted. You need to put the little towers with marker lights on the seawall. The ground here was supposed to have been reclaimed from the sea.
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The completed figure and base. It looks really nice. Many of the Godzillas had pretty big eyebrows!
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More of front view.
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A slightly different angle.
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You can see a bit of the sea behind the seawall in this one.
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The arawaru diorama compared a few from the other collection figures.
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Yuji Sakai Godzilla Collections One Through Three
I missed a few figures from collection two (like burning Godzilla) and some from collection one. I picked these up online from Japan before everyone starting buying stuff from over there and mega stores were online. I don't have a clue how much these go for these days or even if they'll re-release or make new ones. These detailed little figures and bases are great for a shelf and were inexpensive at the time as I think each one would have cost $8 or so.
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Series 2 Box Art.
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These blind box figures came in a bigger box with ten of these boxes packed into it. Buying the bigger box got you a complete set. I only managed to buy loose ones, except for set 3. Each blind box is identical to the others and you have to open the box to find which one you got. Every box also had a little information sheet about the figure. Of course, all text is in Japanese. These figures are really detailed and well painted, bringing a lot of joy to any Godzilla collector. Each box would have seven unique scenes with a few duplicates.
The collections are titled:
- Sakai Yuji Godzilla Collection 1 Box (10pcs) - 2004. Not sure what all the scenes are, but it has one of my favourite dioramas from Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah.
- Sakai Yuji Godzilla Collection #2: 1Box (10pcs) - 2005. Some of the scenes are from Return of
Godzilla, Son of Godzilla, Godzilla vs. Hedora, Godzilla vs. Biollante,
and Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla.
- Sakai Yuji Godzilla Collection #3: 1 Box (10pcs) - 2006. The box art on this one was in black and white - very sombre.
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Series 3 Box Art.
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Below are some of the various dioramas. I particularly like the ones with large buildings and such as they give a sense of scale to the Godzilla. Godzilla also keeps getting bigger over time. You can see how big Godzilla is compared to the Tokyo Tower and the Fukuoka Tower. There were some very little and delicate parts to these dioramas, so you had to take some care in assembling them.
Some other Godzilla posts on this site:
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