In 2009, the very first 18-meters tall full-scale RX-78-2 Gundam statue was built! Its silky white frame with blue and red shade stood tall in the brilliant green of Odaiba Park. Many Japanese folks and fans from all over the globe (like a number of you readers and myself) have been touched by its magnificence. After a couple of iterations, the Gundam statue now stands in its permanent residence outside Diver City.
At the recent Gundam 35th Anniversary event, plans on the next Real-G project were officially made known and today it was properly unveiled at a live event that was streamed online.
Looking towards Gundam’s 40th Anniversary, the team that made the 18m Gundam statue came up with their latest project, Gundam Global Challenge and its slogan: “Challenge the dream: GUNDAM moves and it moves the world”
For this new project the staff plans to collect knowledge from all over the world and aims to make the 18m Gundam statue move. The team, based in Japan, plans to advertise this project globally, selecting distinguished ideas, views from multiple people and advancements in technology to formulate a plan. This plan would be developed further through designs and simulation test, which they hope to complete by 2019, the 40th Anniversary of Gundam.
A timeline had been created to plot the progress from creation to final product, which you can see below:
The creator of Gundam, Yoshiyuki Tomino and Sugizo (X-Japan, Luna Sea) are roped into the promotion of this project too. Tomino said “Finally, what I imagined will become reality” and Sugizo added that “The dream I adored as a child is at last approaching reality.”
First we get a true to scale Gundam statue and now they’re planning on making it move? I might simply cry if this truly comes to life in 2019! I’m sure many of you will love to see it move too! I hope to be able to see the Gundam move its limbs in person come 2019, that will surely be a historic moment for sure!
