Japanese Company Reveals Life-Sized Gundam Anime Robot — Standing 59 Feet Tall!
Catsuka/Twitter Life-size "Gundam" robot
The Japanese company, Bandai Namco Group, is thrilling anime fans around the world after creating a life-sized Gundum robot that stands at a whopping 59-feet tall.
The enormous robot was unveiled Monday in a Twitter video by the animation website Catsuka, and showed the machine moving its head, arms, legs and torso — and at one point, even kneeling down!
"Life-sized Gundam in Yokohama is now in testing mode," the animation site wrote beside the clip.
The robot is based on a creation from the Japanese military science fiction television show Mobile Suit Gundam, which features the Gundam robots, according to Newsweek. In the series, Gundams assisted the Earth Federation in war.
Positioned outside the Gundam Factory in Yokohama, Gundam measures 18 meters (59 feet) tall and weighs 25 metric tons (approximately 55,000 pounds), Sora News 24 reported.
Life-sized Gundam in Yokohama is now in testing mode.pic.twitter.com/51HVoraPb7
— Catsuka (@catsuka) September 21, 2020
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Engineers initially tested the movement of the robot, which was built on a mechanical skeleton, on July 5, according to CNet.com.
It wasn't until July 29 that construction was officially complete, putting an end to a lengthy planning and development process that had been in the works since 2014.
Before the robot's head was officially secured to its shoulders with a building crane, Shinto priests blessed the head in a traditional construction ceremony called a jotoshiki, the outlet reported.
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The new robot installment marks the first of its kind in Japan, as it becomes the country's first full-scale RX-78 that has the ability to move, according to Sora News 24.
Their first life-size RX-78 was a Gundam statue located in Tokyo's Odaiba district and it was later replaced by the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam, but both were stationary, the news outlet said.
The Gundam Factory in Yokohama, which is located southwest of Tokyo, was originally planning to open this summer, but the coronavirus pandemic caused the opening date to be pushed back to October, according to CNet.com
