In 1962, Toho decided to pit the two greatest kaiju of all time against one another, and so “King Kong vs. Godzilla” was born. Being performed only as a stop-motion kaiju in his 1933 original (aside from his hand that held actress Fay Wray), this was the first time Kong was performed by an actor in a suit, actor Shoichi Hirose. His appearance changed quite a bit from his original film as well. Kong seemed to lose some of his more ape-like qualities when Toho put their spin on the classic monster. No longer did Kong lean forward and use his hands to walk, basically just walking on his hind legs all the time. Arm extensions were built to try and make it seem like he was, but they never really worked. The feet and hands of the suit looked very good and ape-like though. However, the face of the suit looked a bit "scrunched" and the eyes always had a blank stare to them. Also, the mouth of the suit never really opened when he roared (except when the puppet was used in close-ups), it basically remained in a stationary position the whole time. Despite these problems, the film was still highly successful, the most successful out of the Godzilla series.
