As much as The Life-Sized Unicorn Gundam Statue is a sight to behold when you visit any time of the day, the mobile suit replica really shines when the illuminations turn on during the evening. This is all thanks to the Psycho-Frame embedded within the internal structure of the mobile suit. But since what we have here isn’t a functional war machine, this is represented by illuminating panels throughout the statue body.
I’m not certain when this started or whether this is because I visited around the holidays, but the Psycho-Frame of the Unicorn Gundam is illuminated in green as it appeared towards the end of Mobile Suit Gundam UC, and is representative of its fully awakened state. In contrast, my previous photos of the Unicorn Gundam statue have red illuminated Psycho-Frame sections, thus differentiating these photos from those I took in 2019.
Model Number / RX-0
Model Name / Unicorn Gundam (Ver.TWC)
Scale & Class / 1/1 Scale Life-Sized Statue
Site Location / Tokyo Waterfront City, Odaiba, Japan
Opening Date / 2017
I mentioned in an earlier post that while the Unicorn Gundam statue undergoes transformation cycles every hour in the morning, it is best viewed in the evening where besides fully illuminated transformation sequences, a video is being played on the wall of DiverCity Tokyo Plaza and the colors of the statue changes to match what’s being played.
In-universe, the Unicorn Gundam first appears as a purely white mobile suit and doesn’t have the distinctive design nuances often seen in Gundams, most notable being the lack of a dual blade antenna. However, this is just part of a mechanism to hide its true form when the NT-D, or Newtype Destroyer, System is activated. Following its activation the external armor panels split in specific seams where the underlying Psycho-Frame is revealed with a red glow, similar to how veins of blood run thoughout the human body.
The Psycho-Frame is an evolution of the Psycommu System seen in earlier U.C. mobile suits where the smaller brainwave receiver chips are embedded into the actual internal mechanism of the mobile suit to allow direct thought control, especially by a Newtype pilot. It was first used in the MSN-04 Sazabi, then leaked to the development team of the RX-93 Nu Gundam. Following the Laplace Incident and the Phoenix Hunt event during the late U.C. 0090s, the technology has been designated as a taboo and wasn’t seen in future mobile suits.
Going back to the real world, seeing the statue illuminated at night really provides a different experience when compared to checking it out during daytimg. When all the lights are turned off in the morning, the statue allows you to appreciate the sheer scale of mobile suits and the spectacle of such a machine existing in real life. In the evening, once all the Psycho-Frame panels light up, the mobile suit becomes alive and the viewing experience becomes totally different.
Viewing the statue at night also highlights some details that would otherwise be hidden during the day. Besides the Psycho-Frame panels, also notable is the backpack unit where the thruster bells are also lit up with the same glow as the rest of the Psycho-Frame.
In fact, I probably took too more shots of this backpack than I should, since this is the first time I saw it in such detail.
As I mentioned in the Unicorn Mode set, this is probably the last time I’ll take detailed photos of this statue unless a significant change is made to it in my next visit. I believe these photos are a definite step up when compared to the shots I took in 2019 and I’m satisfied with them.
If given the chance, I would also like to take evening photos of the RX-93ff Nu Gundam statue in Fukuoka. Though other than external lighting, the actual statue is technically the same, unlike the transformation The Life-Sized Unicorn Gundam Statue has.
