That is awesome! I know nothing about Kaiju lore, lut this is fantastic artwork!

 

Baby Godzilla

Yeah, I figured these guys should get a spotlight as well.

I kinda admire that, like the figures of the adult, the gimmicks of the figures tended to focus on the different abilities. And all while sporting different colors to choose from.  

I wanted all the characters (not necessarily the toys, just all the characters). I still have my old "Razor Fang" Baby from back in the day, and it did do a job of killing two birds with one stone as it also doubled as a Minilla figure (albeit more ferocious looking). I'd even have "crossovers" with my Jurassic Park figures. Ironic since the Baby Godzillas kinda ripped off the JP toys, but that never really bothered me.

Anywho, I decided that I'd base the design - and naturally, the primary color palette - on Razor Fang, since it was slapped hardest with the redesign stick (let alone because it's one of the few Baby Godzillas I actually HAVE). I went with the Hammer Foot's color palette for the secondary colors.

And for giggles, I included Claw Slasher's colors.

 

Mecha-King Ghidorah

This is one I've had a lot of love for as a kid.  

I'd like to point out that this is actually based on the Power-Up MKG figure that Trendmasters made, rather than the regular version. The reasons I picked that one are as follows:

1) It's the Power-Up MKG.
2) It's the Power-Up MKG.
3) This is the one often remembered by fans of the Trendmasters stuff, and has a bit more of the redesign factor going for it. But mostly because - say it with me - it's the Power-Up MKG.

Plus, it was the first Ghidorah figure I got (mechanical or otherwise) when I was only 6.  

If you compare this image with the King Ghidorah I did, you'll notice that his organic parts aren't as glossy. That was intentional, since he's suffered a great defeat, and he's lost that glorious sheen he once had, which is now greatly overshadowed by his puppet strings - his mechanical enhancements.

I also had a LOT of fun doing the grid pattern on the wing. I was going to draw it out by hand, but I knew I'd make a mistake during the inking process, so I did it with the help of Illustrator. I may have to make a tutorial on it eventually.

The variant is, of course, based on the 40th Anniversary recolor set's MKG. As I've said with Ghidorah, the blackened scales kinda feel like his dark intent burned into the very fibers of his person; in this case, MKG's armor has been upgraded, but during that process, his scales grew darker, as his fiery anger has been stirring once again...no longer is the puppet being throttled by the strings.

Also, take note of the missile launcher on the back - the normal version has a red missile, while the variant has a blue missile. There are actually much rarer variants of the Power-Up figures (not just MKG) that come with blue missiles instead of red missiles.  

 

Mecha-Godzilla

This was, and still is, one of my favorite toys EVER, the Power-Up Mecha-Godzilla. Though some people call the Trendmasters designs "stylized" or outright "inaccurate" depictions, this was the figure that demonstrated Trendmasters was truly not blind to their source material at all, as it's heavily based on the design from one of the theatrical posters for GODZILLA VS MECHAGODZILLA (1993), then obviously utilized a few features from the actual film design.

I think my favorite features are the hollow fins.  

Despite the fun I had drawing and coloring it, I think this one really got me conflicted about which Mecha-Godzilla I should do - the Power-Up version, which everyone remembers (and again, one of my favorite toys of all time), or the 1993 design, which served as their standard releases of the character.

This entire project has been to showcase the designs Trendmasters came up with for the figures, from minor stylizing to outright overhaul. Of the standard-release figures, Mecha-Godzilla was the only one Trendmasters did not put their own spin on. If I recall, Trendmasters actually did base the 10-inch figure on a Bandai figure (which is pictured on the back of the King Of The Monsters packaging), and the 4-inch figure practically uses the exact same sculpt as the Bandai "Hyper" figure (I believe that's the one I'm thinking of). The Power-Up figure is the only one that's actually a different design and sculpt all around.

So why all this conflict on which one to do, then?

Well...despite not being redesigned, I do think Trendmasters did boost a bit of MG93's popularity, at least in the US. It may not have been the poster child for Trendmasters' tendency to put their own takes on the characters, but he still had a prominent role throughout the toylines. I eventually did settle on the Power-Up version because, again, he fits the entire idea of what this project is all about, as well as being probably the most remembered figure of the entire run.

But if I haven't implied it enough, I'll likely be doing the '93 design in similar fashion eventually.  

Anywho, I had a lot of fun with this one. Something I've tried to do with this ongoing project is try to loosen up and get a little "cartoony" with some of the poses and expressions, so I went with a macho "YEAH!" pose here.

To get the metallic effect, I've since adopted a method of shading with multiple layers - highlights (set to "overlay"), depth, and form - rather than shading directly onto the color layer, like I used to do. I just mess around with each layer's opacity, then I simply draw with black on the form and depth layers and white on the highlights layer. And primarily for metallic surfaces I add a fourth layer, gleam, to add that extra bit of shine.

And as a bonus, here's a little something I tweaked in Illustrator.

 

awesome

 

Oh, HECK yeah. Love me some Neo-Heisei Kaiju.

 

This is one I've been pretty eager to get to. For those unawares, Space Godzilla is in fact my favorite kaiju of the Godzilla franchise. I mean, of course, Godzilla is my #1 guy, but he's there by default. Along with a liking of villainous characters, I took one look at the Godzilla Wars packaging and thought, "Whoa, that guy kinda looks like an evil Godzilla!" Then I saw Space Godzilla's image on the back, and he instantly became my favorite. I've always seen him as the arch nemesis-type villain to Godzilla. Godzilla's worst enemies have always seemed to be "himself" in some shape or form, and Space Godzilla takes the cake. It's like if Luke Skywalker had to fight a Sith version of himself instead of Darth Vader; it's one thing to be related to your arch nemesis, but to have your arch nemesis actually BE you is something else entirely.

Anywho, I think as far as what Trendmasters did to put their own spin on the guy was, first and foremost, the color palette. He's a much more "icy" blue (which is another thing that scored points with me as a kid ;p) than his film counterpart, not to mention the splash of yellow, green, and red for his torso (it kinda grossed me out as a kid, it kinda looked like his guts were exposed). In terms of design, I'd say he's been slimmed down and appears a bit more flexible than his on-screen appearance, with a few tweaks here and there.

Now as much as I dig the blue-with-white-crystals hellbeast from the far side of the cosmos, I gotta say - I ADORE the black-with-red-crystals from the 40th Anniversary variant set. I've nicknamed it the "Revenge" color scheme due to him looking utterly enraged and looking to settle a score with Godzilla. And it's almost as if he's declaring himself the King of the Monsters, sporting imperial black and red.

I definitely had a lot of fun with the pose, especially with the tail wrapping around in front of him. And though the crystals were fun to draw, shading them was a tad difficult. But I think I pulled it off.  

 

These are fantastic. I never had any of the Trendmasters but I'm too struck by the style and attitude of it all to care. Angirus and Mechagodzilla look especially badass. Keep it up!

 

Thanks for all the feedback, guys. It's been one hell of a run with this project.

Supercharged Godzilla

*sigh*

This isn't the last Trendmasters fan art I will do (of course not!), but this is the last of the Red/Blue series I will be doing. And man, has it been an eventful journey. It feels like yesterday I drew Anguirus, and that was back in 2012.

There's really not much to say on the design on this one. Supercharged Goji was little more than a palette swap. Instead of green with silver fins, he's black with blue fins (for the standard colors, of course). But for art's sake, I did, however, spruce up the design a bit. I usually associate the normal Godzilla with the Bio-Goji, and this one I associate with its successor, the Ghido-Goji - naturally, I beefed him up and "sharpened" his fins.

As for the color variant - yep, that is more or less Trendmasters' take on Burning Godzilla, and he is a hot p'tater. That's the figure that helps give some narrative context to the color variants, so they aren't just, "WHOA, DUDE, TOTALLY TUBULAR EXTREME RADICAL!"

I mean, they ARE, but hey, they do have a logical explanation.  

So yeah, as I said, that concludes the Red/Blue Series of the Trendmasters Kaiju project. Believe me, there's more to explore - and WILL be explored - but those are for a later time.  

 

Dude, you just took me back 20 years. I needed that.
These kick ass.

 

So much kaiju goodness.