Japan is about to have another life-size Gundam to visit with the pending opening of the new GUNDAM FACTORY YOKOHAMA. While the massive Unicorn Gundam at Odaiba’s Diver City is really cool to watch transform, the new life-size RX-78 Mobile Suit at this new location steps things up literally, as this one is actually capable of movement.
Twitter user and avid Gundam fan yoshi115t has been chronicling the construction of this new giant robot, and just the other day uploaded a video of the giant Gundam moving to twitter which has been quickly spreading:
実物大ガンダムを動かすプロジェクト
「ガンダム GLOBAL CHALLENGE」
・2歩踏み出す
・しゃがんで立膝
・立ち上がる
・右手を突き上げ、人差し指
・しゃがんで立膝
・バックステップでドックへ戻る
・手首の回転の指の可動
以前と違い、今回は爪先の動作まで確認できる位置より(速度加工済み)#GFY pic.twitter.com/JgwGILe2d5— よっくん/手洗いうがいをしっかりと (@yoshi115t) September 21, 2020
This video comes just as Bandai announced an event to be held at Akihabara’s UDX theater on September 29th to not only show a test of the RX-78 moving, but also present more details about the soon to open GUNDAM FACTORY YOKOHAMA including specifics like an outline of the facilities, ticket prices for the observation deck, and an update on the progress of the project. This new facility and giant moving Gundam are all an extension of the 40th-anniversary celebration for the franchise, which started last year and hasn’t slowed down yet.
The information we received regarding the event definitely implied that it would be more of a press & business event, and it’s yet to be said if they’ll be doing any kind of live stream as they did for the opening of the updated Gundam Cafe last month. Either way, we’ll definitely have more details about this new location next week and hopefully, we’ll get some more information on when we can go see this giant Mobile Suit in person.