M1-GO Jet Jaguar
Toy Transformation

M1-GO is a well-known and highly respected creator of Japanese vinyl toys. They produce figures for numerous franchises, but none are as popular as the Godzilla figures they produce under the Toho Studios license.

The figures are expertly sculpted and produced using some of the highest quality toy vinyl in the world.

The goal of this project was to explore additional possibilities with both the traditionally sculpted toys and the brand itself. I focused on a single character from the franchise—in this case the lesser-known Jet Jaguar from Godzilla vs Megalon—and recreated it digitally in ZBrush.

The digital model is not only virtually indistinguishable from its physical counterpart, but it’s also manufacture-ready. I wanted to demonstrate how the single dataset could be leveraged in different transmedia pipelines (film, games, manuafacturing, marketing, etc).

For the creative spec, I took cues from the sculpting style of the figure. Jet Jaguar is a robot, and the toy design exhibits surprising complexity coupled with very clean, engineered lines. The form has echoes of automotive surfacing, a trait that served as an inspiration for the short.

I structured the narrative like a car commercial, with the set design and camera work following suit. The lighting is an animated character, but always utilized in a way that either increases drama in the scene or highlights the figure’s form.

Once the ‘normalcy’ of the scene is established, the fun begins as bolts of energy travel along the vinyl, shattering and disintegrating it to reveal a much more movie accurate and alive character beneath.

Project Details