For my recent Japan trip, the itinerary was split into two regions. First is Fukuoka, a place I never visited before and is the home of the life-sized RX-93ff Nu Gundam statue. And being the first time that I’ve come back to Japan in four years, the latter half will of course be spent in Tokyo and it’s there that we will be looking at the third of the three life-sized Gundam statues in Japan, the RX-78F00 Gundam in GUNDAM FACTORY YOKOHAMA.
Model Number / RX-93F00
Model Name / Gundam
Scale & Class / 1/1 Scale Life-Sized Statue
Site Location / Yamashita Pier, Yokohama, Japan
Opening Date / 2020
To those unfamiliar, the “Moving Gundam,” as it’s being referred to, was part of the Gundam Global Challenge that began in 2014 as a massive project to realize a moving Gundam as part of the franchise’s 40th anniversary in 2019. Planning for this massive endeavor, both literally and figuratively, took significant effort and involved multiple parties. They even opened submissions to the public to gather ideas on how to implement such a technological undertaking.
The initial plans were to build a life-sized moving humanoid robot inspired by Gundam’s design. But technological and feasibility challenges led the team to reconsider their approach and instead construct two components for this attraction. First is the RX-78F00 Gundam which is a design derivative of the original RX-78-2 Gundam and physically streamlined to better handle all the nuances of movement. The second component comprises both the Gundam Dock (G-Dock) & Gundam Carrier to support maintenance and operation of the 18-meter-tall structure.
Much like the RX-93ff Nu Gundam, the RX-78F00 Gundam also has an in-universe back story:
In U.C. 0079, the RX-78-2 Gundam was activated at the space colony Side 7. It went through a number of battles during the One Year War, under the control of the Earth Federation Forces pilot Amuro Ray. Ultimately, the machine is said to have been lost in the fierce fighting at A Baoa Qu.
Afterwards, a great quantity of parts appearing to belong to the “RX-78” type was discovered near the “GUNDAM FACTORY YOKOHAMA,” an Earth Federation-related facility in the Far East Asia region. Yokohama, which had been a terminal port for large cargo ships since the days of the A.D. era, may have been one of Earth’s most suitable locations to clandestinely store and transport massive mobile suit parts.
However, no records whatsoever remain regarding the various RX-78 type parts that have now been discovered. Thus, engineers from a variety of fields secretly gathered at the GUNDAM FACTORY YOKOHAMA in order to gain more technical information. They decided to study, analyze, and reconstruct the many parts which had been stored separately, even if it would take a long time.
The process was almost like developing a new model of GUNDAM from scratch. Some parts had yet to be discovered, as well as materials related to the Minovsky Craft system. Now, after roughly two years of research and development, activation trials of this reconstructed mobile suit will finally commence at the GUNDAM FACTORY YOKOHAMA. The staff involved in this development effort decided to call this machine the “RX-78F00 Gundam.”
Gundam Factory Yokohama was initially supposed to close by March 2023, but given that Japan has just opened its doors following the recent pandemic, they decided to extend the attraction by one year more to March 2024, giving more opportunities for foreign fans, like me, to get immersed into the world of Gundam through these colossal structures and marvels of technology.
We were able to catch the default ‘performance’ of the Gundam during our visit but as of the time of posting, they are also holding special illumination performances to promote the upcoming theatrical release of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED FREEDOM. This would include a different set of movements, projected lights and background music more relevant to the Gundam SEED franchise.
Most tourists and guests would just get tickets to enter the complex and check out the moving Gundam at ground level. But if you want closer views of the statue, you can get separate tickets to get inside the multiple levels of walkways within the right side of the Gundam Dock. There’s also the Academy and Conference Room areas housed on the building in front of the moving Gundam where you can learn more about the Gundam and the technology that allowed it to move.
Finally, there’s The Gundam Base Yokohama Satellite where you can buy all exclusive kits and merch. Fortunately for me, I already purchased all the exclusive kits previously, so I just got some merch.
And with that, I was finally able to visit all three life-sized Gundam statues in Japan, including the Unicorn Gundam in Odaiba back in 2019. There is one more life-sized Gundam in Shanghai, China — the Freedom Gundam — though I don’t see myself visiting China anytime soon so just these three are enough. I’ve mentioned this previously, but the wonderful thing about these attractions is that even if you’re not a Gundam fan, you’re still able to appreciate the scale and magnitude of these 18-meter-tall machines.
So, what’s next? Accoding to the GUNDAM FACTORY YOKOHAMA official book, they were hoping to build a life-sized transforming Zeta Gundam, but they are much aware of the technological constraints of such a project, so we’ll just have to see what they have on their sleeves next.
