It almost does not need to be said that Gundam and the entire Gunpla range are a cultural phenomenon loved throughout the world, but even if you are a devoted fan of the Universal Century, it can still sometimes be shocking to see just how much of an institution and landmark it is.
Much will obviously be said about the likes of Dragon Ball, Captain Tsubasa and Tiger Mask, but none of them had multiple 60-foot tall statues of their eponymous mecha serving as a white, blue, yellow and red landmark celebrating one of Japan’s greatest cultural institutions.
One of these, a 17-metre tall model of the RX-78F00, is set to make the journey from its previous home on Yamashita Pier in Yokohama, all the way to Osaka, Kansai, to serve as the focal point for the Gundam Next Future Pavilion at Expo 2025, the city’s world’s fair.
However, a new beginning comes just after a final goodbye to one of Yokohama’s most beloved recent landmarks, but what made it special was not just the fact it moved in a way that the Osaka version will not, but also that it lingered for as long as it did.
Beyond The Time
Typical Gunpla models feature rather smaller scale designs, ranging from the 1:144 for High Grade kits up to 1:60 for Perfect Grade ones, the latter generally standing at a sizable but still rather miniature one foot tall.
Bandai has always had some larger models in 1:12 or even 1:6 scale at trade shows, with these five-foot statues often looking incredibly imposing. Some of them were even sold as Gunpla kits, although their price tags in the thousands showed that they were mostly meant as gigantic store displays.
However, in 2009, to celebrate 30 years of Gundam, Bandai revealed the Real-G project, where they planned to build an RX-78-2 at a scale of 1:1. This was 18 metres tall, or just shy of 60 feet, and looked so striking that it managed to get international attention.
This one would be dismantled from a Tokyo park, later moved to Shizuoka City and finally Odiaba, until it was finally replaced by a life-sized model of a Unicorn Gundam in 2017.
Similarly, an even taller nearly 25-metre tall RX-93 Nu Gundam from Char’s Counterattack took pride of place in Fukuoka in 2022, notable for its vivid markings and colour arrangements approved by the Father of Gundam himself, Yoshiyuki “Kill ‘Em All” Tomino.
However, possibly the most remarkable, amazing and somewhat miraculous of all the 1:1 Gundam statues in existence was the Moving Gundam, a 60-foot tall RX-78F00 housed at Yamashita Pier in Yokohama.
It was originally built and launched in December 2020 as a somewhat belated celebration of 40 years of Mobile Suit Gundam, but one that utterly wowed onlookers due to the fact that it could perform a remarkable range of scheduled movements within its hangar frame.
It could turn its head, move its arms, step forwards, backwards and even kneel. It was spellbinding to see and whilst the animatronics were not necessarily groundbreaking by themselves, seeing it at that scale, with Yokohama in the background was visually arresting.
What made it even more amazing was that it was not meant to last. The Gundam Factory Yokohama, and by extension the Moving Gundam, were only meant to last just over a year, making it to 2022 before it was scheduled to be taken down.
However, the sheer aura of the Moving Gundam managed to keep attendances and ticket sales high for the Gundam Factory, and they continued to extend its lifespan up until April 2024, when it was finally shut down for good.
Part of the reason it lasted longer was due to attendance issues caused by social distancing restrictions, but even once they had been lifted and the backlog of interest had been factored in, the exhibition kept going from strength to strength.
There was probably a real chance that the Gundam Factory could have become a permanent facility, much like other speciality Gundam shops in Japan, but ultimately the decision was made to close it.
However, its stated mission is a showcase of not only what is possible with cutting-edge robotics but also a vision of a future that has been shaped culturally and technologically by Gundam continues with the new location of the RX-78F00.
Whilst it will no longer move whilst in Osaka, instead being permanently placed in a kneeling position with one arm lifted towards the stars, the sentiment of creating a vision of the future today fits the tradition of the world’s fair that traces back to 1851.
Much like how The Great Exhibition was based in what was a futuristic palace of crystal glass in London’s Hyde Park, the Gundam Next Future Pavillion is shaped both internally and externally to look like a spaceport, in keeping with the theme of life spreading into the future.
In keeping with the vision of a future where people spending their whole lives in space is not only possible but commonplace, the Pavilion demonstrates through a range of immersive experiences what could be possible if that inspiration is turned into reality.
It is all inspiring stuff in keeping with the goals of a world’s fair and will hopefully lead a new generation of young people into thinking about what life will hold for them on the precipice of the future as we know it.
It also explores the different phases of this possible future, from the present as it stands today up to “phase 7”, which would be a world of interplanetary life for humanity.
However, whilst the whole pavilion is likely to be special when it finally opens on 20th July 2025, the most striking landmark will remain the 1:1 scale RX78F00. This original Gundam design pointing to the stars it was designed to help protect is evocative of why we love this hobby and science fiction as a whole.
It lets us imagine a better world is possible, even if we may not see it ourselves.
