Life-Sized Anniversary Gundam Statue Officially Unveiled
In case you’d missed the news, today was the official unveiling of Tokyo’s 1:1 scale Gundam model. Â Which is to say an 18 meter (59 foot) tall statue of an old-school Model RX-78-2Â covered with lights and mist generators. Â In addition to marking the 30th anniversary of the Gundam franchise, it will also serve to plug Tokyo’s bid for the 2016 Olympic Summer Games and an effort to increase greenery in the Tokyo area. Â Though the steel-framed fiberglass-and-plastic statue isn’t going to be doing much combat, its head does move and it’s pretty much the most awesome tribute to the original giant robot series possible. Â Well, short of starting a war in space, anyway.
Street Level has collected a bunch of pictures and a few videos of the statue, and there’s also a flickr set with some nice closeups and a short HD video of the light show in action.
For the next couple months the statue will be on display in Shiokaze Park in the Odaiba area of Tokyo, a popular recreational destination known for, among other things, the iconic Fuji TV building (often seen in anime), the Rainbow Bridge (Odaiba is an island), and one of the world’s largest ferris wheels. Â After that, it will be going to an as-yet undecided location elsewhere. Â It will no doubt become a pilgrimage destination for the truly devoted fan.