The life-sized Gundam that Bandai had been constructing for the past few months was finally completed this week, and it’s mighty impressive. The RX78 Gundam was built to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Gundam series and stands 18 metres tall. It is currently on display in Odaiba, Japan.
Although there have been some claims of life-sized gundams being built in the past, as far as I know they’ve all just been hoaxes like the one below:
This makes the Odaiba Gundam the first life-sized Gundam in the world. For those of you wondering if it can move, I’m sorry to disappoint but it doesn’t look like it can walk or fly, although the head can move from side to side as seen in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykamCJsKFBI
For all the hardcore Gundam fans out there, I suggest you go visit Odaiba before the Gundam is taken away :)
Odaiba Gundam image courtesy of punynari
I believe the image you’re calling a ‘hoax’ is not a hoax nor was it ever intended to lead people to think of it as a real gundam. It was cover art for a magazine or a special box edition of the Nu Gundam model, which was the largest Gundam dimension-wise to be conceived in the Gundam Story-line. The image was intended to show the ‘scale’ of the Gundam relative to the workers and the facility it was built in, which was the Anaheim facility on the Moon.
@Kaz & @ispano:
Thanks for pointing that out, looks like I was mistaken.
I’d hate to call you out on something, but there has actually been precedent for a life size Gundam. At the Fuji-Q Highland amusement park, there is a lifesize Gundam that lies flat on its back as part of the Gundam Crisis attraction. If visitors fulfill certain requirements, they can sit in the Gundam’s cockpit I believe.
Here’s the official site.
http://www.fujiq.jp/gundam/index.html