King Kong FAQ

Wasn't there a giant robotic Kong?

Yes. Although the original King Kong used only stop-motion models along with life-sized props of the head, hand and foot of Kong, the producers of the 1976 remake did commission the building of giant robotic Kong. The robot was built by Carlo Rambaldi who also created the alien in ET. Unfortunately the robotic Kong didn't work very well and ended up with only a few seconds of screen time and those were pretty laughable. Most of the scenes of Kong in that film were made using a magnificent gorilla suit by Rick Baker. Rambaldi also created a giant pair of articulated Kong hands which did see a good bit of screen time as well as a giant foot that was used in three scenes.

For the scenes shot at the foot of the World Trade Center, Rambaldi made a giant non-articulated Kong built on a steel skeleton covered with Styrofoam, latex and bear hides. Many portions of the body were inflatable to make the whole piece lighter. This Kong-sized model was shipped to Carolco studios in North Carolina for use in King Kong Lives. It is used in the scenes where Kong gets a heart transplant and when Lady Kong is airlifted using helicopters. Chris Watts reports that

"the head and carcass of King Kong from the DeLaurentiis film still exist at Carolco studios in North Carolina. The head is shuffled around from stage to stage like an unwanted stepchild, while the carcass lies rotting behind the backlot. It's really eerie, and kind of sad, to see that old animal back there. It's just a bunch of old metal bones and hair, but the first time I saw it I got the creeps- I felt like I was violating a gravesite." Click here to see what's left of the Kong head (Photo submitted by Chris Watts.)

There was also a robotic King Kong in the Japanese film King Kong Escapes (1968) . Here an evil scientist captures King Kong and makes him battle his robotic doppelganger while dangling from the Tokyo Tower.

Like its predecessor, King Kong Escapes uses Japanese actors inside hand-fabricated suits to represent the giant apes instead of stop-motion animation like the 1933 original.

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