Life-Size Gundam... Complete!

Yesterday an alert U.S. Navy officer stationed in Japan posted updated pictures of the life-size Gundam that we’ve reported on before.  The cover story is that it’s being constructed as part of the 30th anniversary of “Mobile Suit Gundam” and Japan is just a nation of indulgent anime otaku.  Riiiight.

Personally I’m torn between two opinions.  See, on the one hand, if Japan was really to build a legion of working, fighting mech, I think they’d go with a different design in the end.  Don’t get me wrong, the Gundam mechs are cool and all, I just think they’d go with something less boxy, perhaps less primary-colorsy, and I doubt they’d stop at a measly 18m in height.  On the other hand, if they know that the world just presumes Japan is being geeky old Japan again, it’s fairly clever to use a cartoon model as their prototype.

Conspiracy theories aside, there’s small whimsical side of me which would like to believe that this is being built because…well, because they can.  I enjoy the notion of living in a world where a cartoon is so popular that money is put into recreating a portion of it in the real world.  Not for profit or promotion but just to celebrate said cartoon and generally be enjoyed by one and all.  Then I remember that Bandai has announced there’s a new Gundam series in the works and my heart goes right back to that shriveled, cynical piece of coal that grudgingly keeps me alive.  Sorry, my issues, not yours.

Anyroad, enjoy these pictures of the mech, including a couple of a kite testing the Gundam’s urge to crush, kill and/or destroy. (Yes, I know that the Gundamn mechs require human pilots, but let me have my fun, damnit.)  It will be officially unveiled on July 11, and shown until August 31st.  More information is available at the official site.