Today I feel a bit foolish, but am glad of the chance to rectify my earlier omission. In my previous post on the Tsunami of Chinese-made Godzilla bootlegs for the Western market, I catalogued a bootleg of the Dor Mei Godzilla (my *Bootleg of Dor Mei model 1, the ‘lunar-crater skin Godzilla’ in my earlier blog on these Chinese Godzillas). There I cited an internet user calling themselves Splitt in 2013 (and later Rebecca Loves-Monsters and Splittyhead on Flickr), and with much admiration for their earlier work, I reused some of their pictures of Dor Mei Godzillas and the ‘lunar-crater skin’ bootleg, and went on to discuss a surviving example of packaging from its marketing in Argentina after the release of Jurassic Park.

However, what I failed to see is that one of the ‘lunar-crater skin’ bootlegs discussed by Splitt and the bootleg attached to the Argentinian packaging was extra-articulated – with rotatable wrists and ankles, and in Splitt’s case a tail jointed in two places, not just one: at its base as well as halfway along its length. This is my failure to see what was infront of me, not Splitt’s, as they make this very clear, even annotating a photograph to note the joints and adding an “oops” to note the fact that the tail of this model does not fit very well with the body.

(This image produced by ‘Spiltt’, and not mine; if this is your image please get contact – I am desperate beyond belief to compare notes; also if you object to its reuse here I will of course remove it)

(Further problems with ill-fitting joints in this model)

The Argentinian packaging even went so far as to promote this feature, noting the toy was “Totalmente articulado”.

(This image drawn from Alejandro Kiryluk’s Facebook post to the ‘Warriors of the Universe’ group on 22 December 2025; reused here with his permission)

I now have one of these, and its differences from the main ‘lunar-crater skin’ bootleg are clear.

(Left: the traditional ‘lunar-crater skin’ bootleg; right: the new super-articulated model, with rotatable wrists and ankles)

It may well be worthwhile to document this fully here:

They are approximately the same height and identical in design and scale pattern, meaning that they come from the same molds. The colour schemes are similar, except that the new extra-articulated model is usually in dark green with lighter green shading (and so without the white patches found on the other), and the articulation of the ankles makes the feet of that model meet the floor unequally. All examples known to me use a single head sculpt (the so-called ‘fin ridge’ model), and have a tail that does not fit well with the body, but strangely, while Splitt’s and Alejandro Kiryluk’s ones have double articulated tails, mine does not – suggesting that the limb extra-articulation came first, and then the extra articulation point to the tail was perhaps added later in a two-stage adaptation process.

The greatest difference is in the feet and the marks on the soles The feet of the extra-articulated models attach in a newly added simple twist-on/off ball and socket joint (see picture). While in the more common models without extra-articulation these had been marked with a subtle “MADE IN / CHINA” in tooled lettering under the left foot of the model, the newly discovered model has an enormous hand-cut “MADE IN CHINA” under both feet and filling the entire sole there. In addition, tiny traces of “…r Mei” survive above the middle of these inscriptions, which show that these new soles must have been cast from Dor Mei examples, and then the identifying marks of that company removed, and new ones added. However, the upper sides of those new feet agree perfectly with the scale pattern of the feet of the ‘lunar-crater skin’ bootlegs, and the solution to this apparent logical problem only presents itself when we look at the feet side-by-side. Those of the main ‘lunar-crater skin’ bootlegs are much thicker than its extra-articulated sibling (about 20mm. and 15mm., respectively), and we must conclude that the new feet were ‘re-soled’ with recastings from Dor Mei models, perhaps in an attempt to solve the irregular angles at which the new feet met the floor.

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This serious redesign would appear to be a late feature, made sometime after the initial release of this bootleg, and most probably after 1993, in order to be repackaged and marketed in Argentina at least, as a Jurassic Park dinosaur. Extra articulated wrists and ankles such as these are a quite alien feature on vintage Godzilla bootleg toys and related lines such as Kongs, but had been available for the wrists at least since 1977 of the Shogun Warriors Godzilla, and the 1980s with the Kenner produced Rancor Monster for their Star Wars line. That said, I cannot think what the influence here was that lead to this costly redesign and overhaul of this toy – and if any reader has a bright idea, please get in contact.