Japan's Life-Sized Gundam Returns With Active Weaponry

[notyouraveragejoe]

This sounds freaking incredible. Maybe they'll make an even bigger one and turn it into apartments. Hell, I'd so live in one of those.

 

[Jared]

hehe! if it wasnt already epic enpough!

next step! Real life working version!

 

[GundamSentinel]

Every time they move that thing they add a piece of functionality. Give it some time and it will be the real thing.

 

[mattttherman3]

If I win the lottery at some point in the near future, this is where I will go for vacation.

 

[zombie711]

what if someone tried to use it and it broke?

 

[JoJo Bizzaro 7]

Going to Japan now. BRB

 

[Koganesaga]

I am driving under the ocean right now to see this, thank you wifi. Oh shit, trench, well at least this picture will bring me comfort in eternity.

 

[knhirt]

The image seems to be broken.

Anyway, I'd like one of those in front of my house.
Well, first I'd need a house, but you get the point.
This is excellent.

 

[The Infinite]

Next....Jehuty

This would be one of the most awesome things ever. Also I do have to agree, that's really bad ass, but yes I prefer Jehuty's build compared to Gundam mecha.

 

[boxcat]

That is indeed fucking awesome!

Now we need some Zeon vs Federation battles in the streets of Tokyo

Hop to it Japan

Yes cause it's not like Japan needs more giants destroying it's cities.

 

[nick4118]

That is sheer awesome. But something tells me it wont be done by the time I go to japan this summer.

 

[Frank_Sinatra_]

Ok, that's cool.

Is this one going to be permanent? They shouldn't have pulled the last one down.

No it's going to be taken down on January 10th, 2011.

When I read that news story on Ngee Khiong I couldn't help but wig the heck out.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

The statue is a real robot with a real energy blade, they are just giving the public time to get used to it before the combat models roll off the assembly line.

 

[Skullmaster123]

This sounds freaking incredible. Maybe they'll make an even bigger one and turn it into apartments. Hell, I'd so live in one of those.

I've got dibs on the cockpit room. XD

 

[Simalacrum]

YESSSSSSS! THIS IS F*CKING AWESOME!

JOHN you naughty boy! I never thought you knew language like that! D:

Go to your room and think about what you have done young man! And no pudding for you tonight!

*ehem*

OT: this is AWESOME news, I saw the original one and it was epic XD

 

[Fox242]

This is either the most awesome thing ever to grace the earth...or this is a sign that Japan is preparing to rise again Red Alert 3 style with transforming mechs and giant laser swords. I'm not sure whether to be in a nerd heaven or be in total fear. Either way, Japan just showed how utterly badass it has become.

 

[spartan773]

Japan's Life-Sized Gundam Returns With Active Weaponry

The good news: The full-scale, life-size Gundam will be rebuilt in Japan. The better news: It's going to have a lightsaber this time around.

Last year, we here at The Escapist faithfully reported on the incredibly awesome oddity that was the 1:1 scale statue of the iconic RX-78-2 Gundam being built over in Japan to deconstruction [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/90122-Namco-Building-Life-Sized-Gundam]. Why, you ask? Because it was badass.

Even though the life-size Gundam was taken down in September after just a few short months on display, something that cool couldn't be kept down forever. We'd heard that the Gundam would be Bandai press release [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/97060-Japans-Life-Sized-Gundam-to-Make-a-Return], the iconic giant robot will be erected in front of the JR Higashi-Shizuoka railway station in Shizuoka - one of the busiest train stations in the world.

It won't be exactly the same RX-78-2 Gundam seen in Odaiba's Shiokaze Park, however: This new iteration of the statue will be holding one of the series' standard beam sabers (think giant mecha-size lightsabers). What's really cool about this is not only will the beam saber light up at night, but the new display pedestal will actually be designed in such a way that it looks like the saber is cutting through the stone.

Shizuoka has a special connection with Bandai's Gundam franchise, as it is home to the massive factory that produces all of the popular plastic model kits of the franchise's various giant fighting robots. So, in a way, those little models (16 of which are adorning my desk here at Escapist HQ) are getting a very, very big brother.

The groundbreaking 1979 anime series Mobile Suit Gundam, directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, established the "real robot" genre of mecha anime. As opposed to the "super robot" genre where the fighting robots were magical superheroes who fought monsters and aliens, the "real robot" genre treated the mecha as military hardware, with a far more serious and dramatic take on the matter. The guy's not called "'Kill 'Em All' Tomino" for nothing, you know. It would spawn one of the longest-running anime franchises in history, and has a very special place in Japanese pop culture [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_225/6705-Pilgrimage-to-Mecha].

Now, while I need to maintain a level of professional decorum as a news writer here, I hope you'll forgive me this one outburst of fanboyish joy:

YESSSSSSS! THIS IS F*CKING AWESOME!

Thank you.

(Via Ngee Khiong [http://ngeekhiong.blogspot.com/2010/03/11-scale-gundam-rx-78-2-with-beam-saber.html])

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I want to buy one when it's an actual robot.