The Gundam in Tokyo
(AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
If you thought giant robots and monsters appearing in Tokyo were only real in movies, then you would now be wrong. A life-sized statue of a Gundam, a giant robotic warrior suit, has been built in a parkin Tokyo.
The Gundam statue is based on an extremely popular Japanese anime (cartoon) called Mobile Suit Gundam. The show, featuring large robotic warrior suits, first aired in April of 1979 and has since spawned numerous spin-offs and a franchise reportedly worth billions of Japanese yen.
A group called the Green Tokyo Gundam Project built the statue in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the franchise and in promotion of Tokyo’s bid for the 2016 Olympics
The statue itself stands about 59 feet (18 meters) tall, and is said to be a 1:1 replicate of the Gundam from the show. The statue is built with strong, weather resistant materials. Attention has been paid both to detailed accuracy of the statue, as well as its durability.
Outdoor construction of the statue started around March and is finishing up details this month (June). The official public dates of the Green Tokyo Gundam Project are from July 11th to August 31st, 2009.
The statue is located at Shiokaze Park in Daiba (also known as Odaiba) in southeast central Tokyo, near the headquarters of Fuji TV. The park can be accessed by both monorail train and bus.
Night Light-up
Life-sized Tokyo Gundam is alive (update)
Building the life-sized Gundam in Tokyo (documentary)
More pictures of the building of the Gundam statue (Japanese)
The official website of the statue (Japanese)
Check out more articles about Tokyo and the surrounding area by the Japan Travel Examiner
Comments
will it light up at night? i guess thats only if they decide to permanently have it in that location.
mgspencer98@yahoo.com
Yes, it looks like it light up at night. I've added another youtube video that shows it at night. It looks awesome with the partially lit up buildings in the background
excellent - i'm in tokyo in a few weeks, and will make a bee line to see this!!
Have fun John,
remember, it's the "yurikamome line", not the "B line" ;) yurikamome.co.jp/english/index.php
This is so amazing
Should have know they would build one. Were all doomed we have nothing to fight a gundam lol. Wonder how much that thing cost..would have been cool if they made Char's Zaku next to it fighting or something but im sure the Gundam Rx is expensive alone
only a matter of time before they make ones that actually move around and fly XD
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