Since I’m already in the rabbit hole of posting photos of life-sized Gundam statues whenever I visit Japan, I might as well do the same for the OG. To be clear, I’ve probably posted this already, but it was included in the 2018 site-wide purge. My first trip to Japan was back in 2015 and as a Gundam fan, it was mandatory to include the RG 1/1 RX-78-2 Gundam (Ver.GFT) and GUNDAM FRONT TOKYO in the itinerary. To those unfamiliar, these were the attractions currently replaced by the life-sized Unicorn Gundam statue and THE GUNDAM BASE Tokyo.
Model Number / RX-78-2
Model Name / Gundam (Ver.GFT)
Scale & Class / 1/1 Scale Life-Sized Statue
Site Location / Tokyo Waterfront City, Odaiba, Japan
Opening Date / 2012
Just like my photos of the life-sized Unicorn Gundam, these aren’t the best as I’m even more inexperienced taking nighttime photos around this time.
While this iteration of the attraction opened in 2012, this life-sized statue of the Gundam was first erected in 2009 at Shiokaze Park as part of Gundam’s 30th anniversary. They then moved it to Higashishizuoka Square, Shizuoka in 2010, made it hold a life-sized beam saber and called it the RG 1/1 RX-78-2 Gundam to coincide with the start of the Real Grade line.
In 2012, the statue was moved for the last time to DiverCity Tokyo Plaza in Odaiba where it stayed for five years until it was permanently taken down in 2017. They also opened GUNDAM FRONT TOKYO around the same time.
I clearly remember this visit to the statue in 2015 as we were also supposed to go to GUNDAM FRONT TOKYO. But after a long train ride from Lake Kawaguchiko to see Mt. Fuji, we came a little too late as GUNDAM FRONT TOKYO was already closed and it wasn’t until 2017 when I was finally able to go to the indoor attraction, just a week before it closed for good.
Regardless of the circumstance, 2015 me standing at the foot of a life-sized Gundam was truly awestruck. Having collected numerous model kits at this point still didn’t prepare me for the magnitude of how an actual Gundam, or any mobile suit for that matter, would easily dwarf any person. This also makes the prospect of having such machines used in combat and warfare a really terrible idea.
And there you go, I won’t delve deeper into this whole visit as you’ve probably seen a lot of accounts from other visitors, but at least I was finally able to document my visit on this blog. If you want to check out my photos from the other 1/1 scale Gundam statues, just use the Life-Sized Gundam tag linked here.
