Godzilla – an enormous, destructive, prehistoric sea monster awakened and empowered by nuclear radiation. With the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki still fresh in the Japanese consciousness, Godzilla was conceived as a metaphor for nuclear weapons. That’s pretty cool, right?  Also if you saw him on Halloween, Wesley Hopf, a Junior here at Sahuaro High School, stomped into Sahuaro like the real Godzilla did over Tokyo. This is a character that he has wanted to be for the past two years. Wesley was going to buy a whole Godzilla costume at a store, but it was inflatable and unrealistic – this inspired him to make his own.

The outfit was less expensive than buying the costume and he thought it would be fun to build a costume from scratch. The materials that he used to make the head piece were a bicycle helmet and rubber cement. For the majority of the costume, he used foam that he got at a small fabric store called SAS Fabrics. The total amount of money spent on making this costume was anywhere from $100-$200 and he says that it was totally worth it because it’s his dream job to be a movie actor and dress up in costumes, so it’s great practice.

Wesley started this project back in October of 2016, and every day since he started it, he has been thinking about what he can do to make it better. Wesley says he was very excited and couldn’t wait until next Halloween so he could wear it to school and show it to all of his friends and teachers. When Wesley was finally done with his project, he and his parents got the idea to enroll him into Tucson’s Comic Con. 

Wesley’s jaw-dropping costume has left us in amazement and curiosity as to what his upcoming plans are to his new creation.