Thanks to the recent opening of Gundam statute in Shizuoka, thousands of hobbyists fans were gathered in heart of the city to experience the great galore of plastic model kits and toys.   Said to be (unofficial) new home of world’s largest hobby confab in Japan.  The unveiling of the statute along with its giant production plant that makes these plastic toys gave the staff of Shizuoka Hobby Museum to praise about.  So says this source.

The Shizuoka Hobby Museum was set up as part of the hobby fair to showcase the half-century history of plastic model kit production in Japan.

Its exhibits are presented in 23 segments, covering various production periods. Each one shows the plastic models that best represent the period.

Among the rarer items are a replica of a 1958 model of the U.S. submarine Nautilus, the first injection-molded plastic kit produced in Japan, and a model of the I-series submarine, used by the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War II.

The exhibit showcases a number of other items coveted by plastic model enthusiasts, such as the Tetsujin 28-go robot, considered a trailblazer for the numerous character models that followed, and a 1:12 scale Honda Formula One racing car, which was highly praised for its detailed perfection.

Other booths are dedicated to proud originals offered by local manufacturers.

Tamiya Inc., headquartered in Shizuoka, has put on display the Gun Blaster, which is 32 times larger than its popular Mini4WD radio-controlled car kits.

Aoshima Bunka Kyozai Co., also based in Shizuoka, is featuring its Lamborghini Countach model. The Italian sports car once fueled a wave of supercar popularity.

Hasegawa Corp., based in Yaizu, Shizuoka Prefecture, brought out the big guns with its 1:350 scale model of the Japanese battleship Nagato.

Other exhibits include the Honda Super Cub and the Subaru 360, produced by die-cast model car maker MMP Co. (EBBRO), headquartered in Shizuoka, and a replica of the five-story pagoda of the Horyuji temple produced by Woody JOE Co., a wood model maker based in Shizuoka.

Here again, the most eye-catching attractions are related to Gundam.

Using a model of a Core Fighter plane, Bandai Co., the maker of Gunpla plastic models, has reproduced the scene in the final episode of the popular “Mobile Suit Gundam” anime series where Amuro Ray, the central character, makes his escape from the falling space fortress A Baoa Qu.

The Core Fighter, as well as the giant Gundam statue that stands guard in front of Higashi-Shizuoka Station, has become a must-see for Gundam fans.

The statue, which now holds a “beam saber” in its right hand, is the full 18 meters in height as written in the series. It was built to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Bandai’s Gunpla plastic model series.

Over six weeks last summer, the behemoth attracted 4.15 million visitors to its display in Tokyo’s Odaiba district, and it wasn’t even holding the beam saber.

Moving the statue to Shizuoka, where Bandai’s factory for the Gunpla series is located, was considered a “homecoming” for Gundam.

Source: Asahi.com

The Shizuaka hobby fair will run till March next year.  Admission is free, but not for the museum.  It’s 600 yen for junior high school student and 200 for elementary school student.

All images are owned and copyrighted by the individual.

With the recent opening of the Gundam statue in Shizuoka, back in July, I’m catching up on this to see how things went with this display.

Looking at the amazing video footage of its opening over the summer, it appears everything looks so awe-inspiring and enriching to watch.

You can see several people in the streets come and go, taking long and short glimpses of the statue, leaving them in complete awe.  Boy I would do anything to have this experience to see how 1/1 scale Gundam figure really stands out in large crowd of several thousands.  That would certainly make my mecha fun day! ^^

Source: CNNGO, All images are owned and copyrighted by the original owner

Though it would interesting to watch this interesting footage of mechanical robots made by some wackiest, and cleverest robot scientists that were made in mankind history!

Since we now have plenty of World Wrestling Federation matches like WWF, how bout we have robot wrestling instead like this?

Have a look at this 5-minute clip video.

Note that as you watch this, you’ll notice some familiar character faces of these robot wrestlers.. One from the our early childhood days of great robot anime shows.  A 4-foot tall red mechanical bot that has 2 red triangular horns pointing outwards.  And if you’re from my generation, you won’t find it hard to recognize that it’s none other than Getter 1 from the Getter Robo TV series!

Howw incredibly awesome is that? ^^

Source: ANN.com

A first glance, you’d think he’s just an ordinary bloke who earns a normal income just like very ordinary Japanese salarymen you see in the streets of Japan’s metropolitan cities like Tokyo.

However beneath that his youthful exterior, this man leads a life with an extraordinary life activity no one would imagine he would dare to undertake.

A man whose life’s passion is collecting walls of toys in his wardrobe.

Yes.  That’s right!  This man is a toy collector fanatic for over 35 years!!!

Simply amazing!  Here’s the small clip of the CNN interview with the greatest toy collector of his generation, Kazunori Saito.

CNNGo: This is pretty impressive. Can you give us a brief overview of what’s on display here?
Kazunori Saito: In a nutshell, it’s a collection of merchandise from live-action and animated television shows that aired in Japan during the 1960s and 1970s. They’re toys of monsters and heroes that are familiar to any Japanese in their 30s and 40s.

CNNGo: When did you start collecting all this stuff?
Saito: About two years after I graduated from school and started working. 25 years back.

CNNGo: So these aren’t the toys you played with as a kid.

Saito: No! I started as an adult. I loved the shows as a kid. Like a lot of kids raised in the “golden age” I was mesmerized by them. But I wasn’t really into the toys back then, more into building model kits. Years later, as an adult, I read an article about vintage toys in a magazine. That really piqued my interest. So I went to a specialty store in Shimokitazawa that sold them… And now here we are today. (Laughs)

CNNGo: What’s the charm? What do you think gives these toys their power?

Saito: Well, they come from a powerful era. The immediate postwar period was tough, and these toys represent Japan making it through that. It was an era of rapid growth, not only economically but for popular culture such as children’s shows as well. The expressiveness and technology of anime and live-action shows was growing in leaps and bounds. The toys were born of that. I think they’re powerful because they came from a powerful time.

CNNGo: What’s your single favorite piece on display?

「サイクロン号」
Saito: That would be this little motorcycle toy, the “Cyclone.” It’s the bike Kamen Rider rode in the very first series. This was the first toy I bought when I started collecting. I paid four or five thousand yen for it and decided, “I’m just going to buy all the different bikes and then I’ll be done.” But…

CNNGo: Looks like things didn’t exactly play out that way. How many toys are on display here altogether?
Saito: About 2,000 of them. This is about 99 percent of my collection of Showa era (pre-1989) toys. But I have another collection of Heisei (post-1989) toys at my house.

CNNGo: What exactly is it that you do? Are you involved in the toy industry or the anime industry?
Saito: No, nothing like that! I’m the senior executive director of an advertising agency. I plan commercial campaigns, make commercials, things like that. Collecting toys is an escape from all of that for me. A sort of extreme one. (Laughs)

CNNGo: So you have 2,000 toys here. Are you done? Is this it, finished, complete?
Saito: No. Not yet. The problem is, the things I need to complete it are incredibly difficult to find. The rarest of the rare.

CNNGo: Even as a commercial director, it’s incredible to imagine how you afforded all of this…
Saito: Even I can’t afford this stuff anymore! I purchased the vast majority back in the late 1980s and early 1990s when it was cheaper, much more so than today. I was lucky to get the bug so early on. I couldn’t have done it if I’d started today.

CNNGo: So where do you keep all of this stuff when it isn’t in a museum?
Saito: In my house. I display what I can, but my house is small and a lot of it has to be stored away.

CNNGo: This is kind of a personal question, but what does your family think about your collection?

Saito: Oh, they’re used to it. (Laughs)

CNNGo: You never take any flack for it? None at all?

Saito: No, not really. But then again, keeping the collection was the only condition I insisted upon when I got married. Actually, when she agreed to it, I knew for sure I’d found “the one.” (Laughs)

Source:  CNNGo.com

All of his toys onto display at the Showa Hero and Monster Toy Exhibition in one of Japan’s renowned doll-action-figure museums.

Source: CNNGo.com, Yokohama Doll Museum Website, All images are owned and copyrighted by CNN

Hang on a sec.  Had they not already done this  in Odaiba back in September last year?

It sure wasn’t that long ago when it was constructed as part of the Namco Bandai’s 30th commemoration of the Gundam franchise.  And they had to take it off after a couple months of display.

And now they’re doing it again for the second time?  Well.  I’ve no problem with that if you ask me being a mecha fan…

But I just wish they should make things transparent with these.  I mean I don’t see how taking it apart and then putting on it again would make any sense when comes to making a strong attraction for overseas tourists to see what Japan’s pop culture lifestyle is got to offer.  Especially when it’s already that good to appeal with IN THE FIRST PLACE!

I mean it just doesn’tt seem to add up! >.<  And now we have one here constructed in the Shizuoka city, home of 710,000 Japanese citizens, 5th largest city in Japan.

Here’s the conceptual art of the proposed statue design over in Shizuoka city.

Proposed Conceptual Art Design of RX 78 Gundam Statue

As compared to this one at the Namco Bandai’s actual model at their headquarters, with the up-close shot of the light-saber burning through the blue brick.

RX Gundam 78 statue model in Namco Bandai's headquarters on display

I supposed no human casualty is part of the plan too?

Image sourced from Ngee Khiong

Since the project’s completed few weeks back at beginning of this month.  Said to have more lighting and special effects during its opening.  So this is all part of the hopes of translating more visitors coming into the city, both local and abroad (last year 4 million people came to visit before it got dismantled back in October 2009).  And the only the key thing missing from the statue is the completion of the light saber upgrade.

Thanks for Ngee Khiong’s sources, it said to be opened to the public from 24th July 2010 till 10th January 2011, located at East Shizuoka Square.

Source: Ngee Kiong, Escapist.com, Geek.com, Bionicbong.com, Endgadget.com,  All images are copyrighted and belong to the rightful sources.

A couple of university students from a local Chinese university went all this trouble to make their own life-sized Transformers as part of the graduation project, as far as what I heard.  It’s a very interesting project for them to get into.  And it’s a 4500  USD project too.  That’s a great prize tag they put aside for this project’s funding.

Boy! They sure come out bigger than life, after looking at these amazing photos of 9-m tall monstrosity!

Such amazing detail of the character design based on one of the Chinese famous legends of “Romance of the Three Kingdom”.  For those who are not familiar with the Chinese folklore legend, there’s this famous general from a Shu Army whose name is Guan Yu during Chinese ancient times.  He’s one of the most powerful generals serving in the Shu army and many legendary tales have been fortold amongst the Chinese for many, many generations.  Chinese have profound religious beliefs tied with him and you can find a lot of statues of him around China and other Chinese communities around the world.  That’s probably why the Chinese students picked him as the favourite character.

If you ever played one of Koei’s infamous action game series Dynasty Warriors and you used this character. (see below)

This is him and that’s why the transformer’s color resembles a lot as the picture above, along with the halberd weapon.

And here’s the footage of the CGI animation of its transformation as well.

Pretty neat huh? ^^

Source: Kotaku, Gadgetsin, ClonedChina, All images and copyrighted by the source owner

Japan's samurai mascot for 30 years

How’s this for an amazing fact?  Bandai released their total figures of Gundam plastic toy models in its 30-year franchise business.

Around 400,000,000 Gundams were sold!  That’s like…. A LOT ZEROS to count!!!

Talk about insane numbers that give local Japanese accountants to stay up all nights and days to reach this final figure!^^

Most of the sales come from 1/144 scale model range, and the first one (in 1980) sold was for US $3.20  or 300¥.

Now.  That same model selling in today’s price is US $28.20.

Nine times the original price.

If Bandai were to sell that many toys at today’s price, they would be about $12 billion richer worth of its merchandise!! Guess there was a lot of public reason why Bandai really took the trouble to make their Gundam statue over in Odaiba last year! Just to commemorate this major special occassion.

When I was browsing the links of the news source, I found a couple of great Gundam plastic model (1/44) pictures on display, such as these ones.

It’s the exact model of the giant statue in the Odaiba park before they dismantled it.  . ^^

It was interesting to gather understanding how everything works behind the scenes of making these robots in the mass production lines.  They said how Gundam sales was ballooning so well towards mid 80s and suddenly it nearly died off completely thanks to the increasing but vast competition of electronic goods and video games swamping the youth market of Japan, from early 90s till now.  It was thanks to new and innovative business ideas by Bandai Namco’s business leaders and renew faith by Gundam fans from elder generation that gets their children to get active in accepting Gundam (and other mecha) toys as part of the mainstream entertainment.  Just as much as latest video gaming console from XBox, Nintendo, PS3, Wii etc.  They’re equally as popular as the rest of today’s youth enterntainment, fun and games.

Good on them for persevering to the very end^^.  And wish them for another great success for another 30 years!!

Source: ANN.com, Asahi.com, GameWatch, Images provided are owned and copyrighted by Gamewatch.

If you ever feel like grabbing a quick bite in town, be sure to give this place a stop if you are around in Tokyo.

A fast food chain company called Lotteria are selling a combo meal box using all of your favourite Neon Evangelion characters as the main theme.  As depicted on this billboard ad above

This new lunchbox set Lotteria has in store is called ‘Eva Burger and Chicken Box’, which you will have french fries, a burger, fried chicken and a soft drink of your choice. Price is around 980 ¥.

Hmm… Yum. Yum. ^^

Would love to give this one a nice try.  But bear in mind, this offer is not going to be around for long as the offer ends on 31st May 2010.  So you have 30 or so days to give this a go for your usual lunch breaks.

I want to say my big thanks to Ngee Khiong, our Gundam blogger extraordinaire for this wonderful post.

Source:  NgeeKhiong

A while ago, Gainax, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann’s creator, have been busy for the past few days in preparing (and finally releasing) their new range of cool gadgets stuff, featuring Gurren Lagann’s main characters as the main themes.

Gurren Lagann Iphone - featuring Yoko on the cover!!

New Iphone applications have been produced.  In fact, they’re actually game.  It’s the new touch adddres book theme, featuring Yoko.  Dubbed as Tatchigemuapuri Touch.

Now since as I don’t own an Iphone myself personally, so bear in mind when I do my best to describe what the software does, in one’s best interpretation.  (Spoilers alert!)

The game works within the touch app settings on the device which allows the user to get better interaction with the user.  And every action the user makes on the device, Yoko expressed different types of facial moods, depending on what sort of finger stroke actions the user’s intending to do with the Iphone.

Here’s the screenshots to demonstrate.

We have Yoko on the main picture

Yoko expresses grimaced look on her face, when changing setup.

Yoko expresses being happy after you’re completing the settings changes on the iphone.

You can set other Gurren Lagann’s  hero other than Yoko as your Iphone page cover.

Pretty neat.  As much as I’m dying to get this app, I couldn’t cause I have an android phone and I’m disappointed they didn’t make an Android version for this game. :-(

Oh well… At least there’s somebody out there who would love to give this a crack. See how you go!

You can download the app directly from App Store here.

Source:  Gainax, All images loaded are owned and copyrighted by Gainax.

Since my last post on my own Voltron toy that I “constructed” out of the Toyanmi box and it was another sheer piece of classic toy many mecha enthusiasts would love to have, I bumped into another mecha enthusiast who happens to like building Voltron toys too.

But… this time! He makes them using Lego parts!

Literally!!!

Check out the video and his impressive Lego-building skills after he won this award at a brick building competition.

One thing you’ll notice is around 0:50, you will see all the 5 main hero characters from the show, built as Lego men (or woman for the Blue lion^^). The detail of the character design was incredibly accurate! You’ll also notice towards at the end of the video, there are other mecha builders putting their mecha toys on display.

I praised this guy for doing such marvellous type of work. His passion, his desire to make one of the best classic mecha in the series as a stand-still robot toy for all mecha fans to enjoy!

A super job well done! ^^