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.

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.

After receiving Bandai’s Twitter updates last night, Bandai just released a new poll on what items do the online people normally get from the Bandai website.  Looking at the vote results of 504 people voted so far, they show

• 54.1% voted for  Imported Japanese Bandai toys
• 31.2% voted for Previous Bandai toys not available in stores
• 9.7% voted for Exclusive and collectible Bandai toys
• 5.0% voted for North American Bandai toys

It’s not difficult to see why Japanese Bandai toys are the obvious favourites as compared to the Northern American counterparts.  Japanese reserved more exclusive rights of their product range to their own local consumers more and they get more  special requirements than the USA citizens do!  Not to mention some of the really unusual toys that only Japanese consumers are better off catered with it like ettchi dolls and classic robot anime figurines etc etc.

For more info about the poll, check out at the Bandai Website.

Source: Bandai.com