Just learned a new Japanese phrase over the past week.

Jitsubutsudai gandamu.

Or life-sized gundam in English.  That’s one phrase I’ll definitely want to remember if I ever travel to Japan in the future.

At least it’s a start.  Along with 59 other cool phrases to go, if you read this interesting post by a Japanese online publisher, who annually conducts a survey of best Japanese phrases used in Japan’s mass media.  There will be some judging panel that will nominate the 10 best phrases used in 2009.  Hopefully, they’re in turn will become as catchphrases for masses.

I’m pinning high hopes that jitsubutsudai gandamu will be amongst the nominations! It’s paramount for the people wanting to appreciate the true life of an otaku, should they ever learn a lot of things in Japan.  Otherwise, how would they know such a real-life 18 metre Gundam actually exists (before Gundam Projects Team decided to remove them from premises) so they set foot in Japan to travel or live?

Source: PinkTentacle.com

That’s right. You heard me. To get a job nowadays in Japan for recent graduates, employers must insist that you must have good Gundam modelling skills before they can offer you the job on the paper.

It’s crazy! I couldn’t understand how on earth could they even fanthom a new recruit can only be qualified to fulfill a role if that person has good Gundam-esque modelling skills as part of the psychometric testing?

Is this doable? Can they seriously be rolling out this new approach of candidate screening for any roles’ suitability across any industries of the country? If that’s the case, then we might as well encouraged every student in the whole country to take up part-time Gundam modelling to guarantee their careers as part of the working communities of Japan. This can be anything from

Cosplays

Mum, I want to be advanced weaponry specialist.

Dad, I want to be Gundam undercover agent

to this type of modelling of the odd kind…

Right…. Pink. Definitely a good foundation for aspiring manicurist/dress makers. I wonder where far will they go with this?

Source: CartoonLeap.com

While I was browsing around the forum on GearsOnline.net, there’s a link that intrigues me a lot….

It says here that a few years ago, there’s a group of Chinese students in China who’s expended their incredible amount of time and energy dedicated in designing a 1/500 scale Macross SDF-1 battleship.  See below.

NB: The images are owned by AcToys.net and there’s no way these belong to me in any shape or form. The images are copyrighted by the rightful owner.

I admire their focus and energy in putting all their efforts in making this. Really enthusiastic bunch!

Thanks to the user Rubel Colus for sharing us this link at GearsOnline.net!

Source: Actoys.net, GearsOnline.net

CollectionDX and several online mecha blogs raving about the new Voltron scale model that comes with die-cast material and plastics. Moreover, it’s a true Chogokin type model hence it’s sounded to be much higher grade of material quality for it to be priced very high (retailing around USD $150).

And it’s a commerative package for 25 years since it went on air in 1984 so it’s gonna be ultra special obviously! And because it’s a limited edition, according to Toynami, the production is only expected to continue until the end of December this year. They will not be produced any more in the near future. So you’d better get your hands quick on these ones while they’s still in hot pursuit!

They are two main online web places you can get it for a great cheap price.

1. Amazon.com – Currently retailing at USD $60.00. There’s a shipping charge of USD $10.00, if you’re not a US resident.

2. Entertainment Earth – Currently retailing at USD $70. The shipping fee stands at a whopping price of USD $50.95!! That’s pretty steep! :-/.

Guess I know which of the two should I pick. I think I’m going to get one while NZ’s exchange rate is very high against greenbag. ^^

And here’s the Youtube link (provided by RetroJunk) just to commemorate that. It’s  for everyone to enjoy what was once one of the greatest cartoons ever appeared on 14-inch TV sets!

Source: Doobybrain.com, CollectionDX.com

Been browsing on this chap’s link for quite some time now.

It’s a pretty good link on everything people want to discover the amazing world on super robot wars franchise, everything from music, models, games and picture covers.

I noticed that some of the pictures uploaded there are the sources of Hobby Japan Magazine, just like this 40th Anniversary cover I got (which I’m still in the process of finding the time to upload photos from the book!)

Hobby Japan Mag - 40th Anniversary Edition

And I’ve been meaning to make a humble request to have his blog as part of my blogroll. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have an email or other possible contacts to get in touch with. And I just added him to my blogroll anyway.

Eek! I hope he’s okay with this arrangement….

Anyway, enjoy his blog posts.

http://superrobotwar.wordpress.com/

Source: SRW Hot News

Recently read a couple links from my favourite blogrolls that the 18 metre giant robot is being taken down – for real within the last 24 hours.

Yes.  That’s right.

The time has arrived as the Green G Project team did mention that it will be dismantled by the end of August.  Guess all good things must come  to an end…?!?  Well maybe.  I’d really think they should have kept it there longer.  Such a waste of effort of putting it up there and not be able to claim Tokyo’s very own ‘Statue of Liberty’.   Cause now, all you’re getting from this place is that people running souvenier shops that tell you that Gundam was here, with postcards showing Gundam in background (or was showing in the background).  Not a very good selling point for Japan’s tourism industry, you’d think.

Regardless, they’re bringing it down to close… However judging by these images from Dannychoo.com…

Looks like they could be having some serious issues with it. Hopefully nothing’s seriously hurt for the bystanders…

And it’s great to know that many newlywed couples have gone to tie the knot under the giant so says this link source from Escapistmagazine.com

We here at The Escapist have been dutifully bringing you all the news about the life-size Gundam statue standing 18 meters tall above Odaiba, Japan since construction started back in March, partly because we feel that we have a duty to inform the world about Japan’s secret military projects hidden in plain sight, and partly because it’s awesome.

To celebrate the final days of the Gundam statue before it gets torn down and moved to a military base where it will be made fully functional, one lucky couple was chosen from over 500 applicants to tie the knot beneath the behemoth giant robot. In a ceremony held yesterday, in front of thousands of onlookers, tie the knot they did.

Fittingly enough, the groom was dressed as Amuro Ray, the protagonist of the first Mobile Suit Gundam, though his bride-to-be was wearing a boring plain wedding dress instead of getting dolled up to match. Perhaps that’s for the best, though, given the notoriously low survivability rate for pilot love interests throughout the Gundam metaseries. This isn’t to say that the lucky lady didn’t share her new husband’s enthusiasm, though – they named their baby daughter Seira, after Sayla Mass.

Apparently, merely getting the opportunity to say one’s vows beneath a giant robot wasn’t good enough on its own, as a surprise visitor came to wish the newlyweds well – Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino, bearing framed and signed artwork of the good ol’ RX-78-2 as a gift.

While this may seem a bit strange at first, consider that Gundam is as iconic and influential in Japanese pop culture as, say, the Star Wars trilogy is in the West – with Char Aznable as immediately recognizable over there as Darth Vader would be over here. Now imagine a couple here in the States (or in Canada or the UK, wherever you please) having a Star Wars-themed wedding. Still a bit nerdy, but not unthinkable, right?

We here at The Escapist wish the couple well, and wish them the best of luck in freeing their souls weighed down by Earth’s gravity in order to become Newtypes, the next evolution of humanity (in space).

See a full gallery of pictures from the ceremony here.

Source: EscapistMagazine.com, Shibuya246

Nice….. :)

Source : Images provided by Dannychoo.com, and they are not owned by me.  Coutersy of DannyChoo.com and CartoonLeap.com

While I was away in the process of recuperating myself within the 48 hour timeframe over the weekend, on that dark Sunday morning (this is like hours before the crack of dawn!!), I couldn’t get back into sleep as the jetlags experienced on the flight heading home had a tremendous impact on my sleeping pattern that it put me out of sequence, different from everybody else in my family.

Since those jetlags have been unforgiving lately, I decided to have fun with this instead…

Then I unpacked the goods…

Reading the manuals…..

Having done halfway….

Almost there….

And finally, we have our end product.

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Not bad for 4 hours of effort into this.  Helped me to kill my time during the early morning hours and understand a lot better on how mecha models are constructed and ‘glued’ together to get some-what real-life size.

I bought this at the Anime Exhibit in Auckland back in early July this year.  The price was paid for NZD $86 (USD $59).  It’s considerably not a bad price for a 1/144 scale model of the actual gundam.  Overall it was really fun.

I can also get it from my local store as well.  The gentleman who sold this to me showed his business card, and the shop is just around the corner  of my neighbourhood.  I’ll look forward to see that store (and the gentleman) once again and see what else they have in the store that’s really cool and awesome to have.

Seriously. I never thought this would be possible. Having Bandai Visual boasting about having to compress all 400 mobile suit gundam models into 6 DVDs. It sounds incredibly unbelievable when I first heard about it from this link from Animenewsnetwork.com

The official Japanese Gundam website has announced on Thursday that the Gundam MS Movie Files (Gundam MS Dōga Zukan) video profiles will get DVD and UMD releases. The website has been posting approximately 30 to 80 seconds of video (viewable from Japanese Internet addresses only) about each of the various robotic mecha in Gundam — about 400 mobile suits in all. The videos, which are narrated by Nobuyuki Hiyama (Gundam: The 08th MS Team’s Shiro Amada, Gundam Seed’s Muruta Azrael), are compiled from footage in the various television series, video projects, and theatrical films in the franchise.

Bandai Visual will start shipping the seven monthly DVD/UMD releases on October 27; the distributor aims to produce 200,000 copies overall. The discs will feature the files and mecha database information, divided by timelines and eras, in an interactive menu.

The Mobile Suit Gundam robot anime franchise celebrates its 30th anniversary this year.

Source: Walker Plus

It’s crazy. But nevertheless, it’s worth to find out wouldn’t it? I’m hoping there’s plenty of copies left for me to pick before the deadline approaches. I really want to grab hold of it so I can compile all the great mecha ever produced in the real robot series as much as with super robot series as an my own online encyclopedia. Or in this case, ‘mechapedia’. :)