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1/1 Gundam RX-79-2 to be built in Tokyo

Anime News Network is reporting the construction of a 1/1 scale Gundam in a park near Odaiba to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Gundam Franchise:

"The official website for the 30th anniversary of Sunrise's Gundam robot anime franchise has announced on Wednesday that an 18-meter-tall (59-foot-tall), "life-size" statue of the title robot will be built at Tokyo's artificial Odaiba island this July. The website proclaims that as part of the "Mobile Suit Gundam 30th Anniversary Project," "Gundam will rise from the ground." The "Real na Gundam" statue of the RX-78-2 Gundam model from the first anime series (1979) will be built at Odaiba's Shiokaze Park at the beginning of July.

The statue will be free for viewing, but it will only stay up for two months. It will be built with fiberglass-reinforced plastic over a steel frame so it can be disassembled later. The head unit will move and the body will have 50 points that will emit light. Mist can shoot forth from 14 locations on the body. The park is just four trains stops from Tokyo Big Sight, the home of the Comic Market d?jinshi convention and the Gundam Big Expo convention that will be held from August 21 to August 23. Bandai Namco Group is still determining what to do with the statue after its allotted two months in the park are over.

Until now, the largest official Gundam replica in Japan was a 2/3-scale LM312V04 Victory Gundam built at 10 meters (33 feet) tall during the 1990s. A fan made a 1/3-scale MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam statue in Japan that stands seven meters (23 feet) tall.

Bandai Entertainment displayed a life-size head of the Gundam F91 robot from the 1991 film of the same name at Comic-Con International and later in San Francisco's Metreon entertainment center. Bandai Entertainment eventually auctioned that head on the eBay website in 2005. A different 1/1-scale RX-78-2 Gundam bust (from the chest up) now rests in the Bandai Museum.

The only other official life-size replica of a full RX-78-2 Gundam robot was built at the Fuji-Q Highland amusement park at the foot of Mt. Fuji in 2007. However, it was built lying on the floor of a building for an interactive attraction, not standing up like the planned Odaiba statue. A life-size Tetsujin 28-g? (Gigantor) statue is still being planned at the Kobe birthplace of its creator, Mitsuteru Yokoyama, although it has been delayed from its previous 2008 opening.

The theme of the overall Mobile Suit Gundam 30th Anniversary Project is "Always Beginning." The life-size Gundam represents the "Real G" phase of the project, while the Gundam Big Expo convention represents the "Feel G" phase. "Soul G" will be a planned collaborative music event based on the Gundam franchise.

Image © Sotsu, Sunrise via Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web"

Of course, lets not forget the 1/1 scale Zaku head and 1/1 scale RX-78 from the Bandai Museum:

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Posted 12 March, 2009 - 08:12 by JoshB

Comments

5 comments posted
That picture of the Gundam

That picture of the Gundam holding a nude boy will surely make the rounds on the web.

duke togo's picture
Posted by duke togo on 12 March, 2009 - 12:36
Thanks, Duke. I didn't even

Thanks, Duke. I didn't even see that as I scrolled by. Reminds me of this:

Back on topic, I think it would be neat to see this in person. Really, though, only two months? Why bother then? There should be a giant theme park with this, and a bunch of other life-sized robot and kaiju statues.

"This must be settled the way nature intended....with a vicious, bloody fight!"
Onyx Blackman
Principal, Flatpoint High

NekroDave's picture
Posted by NekroDave on 13 March, 2009 - 19:51
10,000 GM-01s Stat!

They are going to need a lot of Gundam markers to fill in those panel lines.
Dibs on filling in around the eyes!

Seriously. Barbie celebrates 50 with trampstamp tatoos and redux of the original, Transformers celebrate 25 with reissues, remakes and a movie, and Gundam celebrates 30 with the one that started it all too!
-------------------------
Rob
The Gundam Model Guy

Gunpla Rob's picture
Posted by Gunpla Rob on 14 March, 2009 - 09:31
oh man this is so

oh man this is so cool.

While I'm not much of a Gundam fan (i do enjoy me some 79 gundam, but all others, blah!) this is really cool.

I missed out on visiting the life-size Mazinger in Spain this past winter, but I plan on paying tribute this fall to the big guy.

The Big R's picture
Posted by The Big R on 14 March, 2009 - 10:06
Rob, I'll always defer to

Rob, I'll always defer to you as the resident Gundam guy, but I must take exception to this statement: "and Gundam celebrates 30 with the one that started it all too!"

While I guess this statue isn't technically the Katoki version, it's pretty much the same damn thing. And obviously, it sure as hell's NOT the original RX-78 from 1979's Mobile Suit Gundam.

No disrespect meant to the plamo fans into these modern Katoki-esque designs, but let's not get it twisted. This is like Hasbro building a statue of the Masterpiece Prime as a tribute to the original G1 toy line.

Sometimes retcon sucks.

--
Sanjeev

Sanjeev's picture
Posted by Sanjeev on 16 March, 2009 - 08:33