The huge 18m statue will be once again erected in the city of Shizuoka this July – specifically, the east exit of Japan Rail Higashi-Shizuoka Station. The beam sabre even lights up at night.
The city of Shizuoka guestimates that the statue is able to draw 900,000 visitors and 40 billion yen over the course of 300 days. The statue will also create 9600 jobs for things like security, maintenance and the like.
Originally, the statue went up in Tokyo’s Odaiba last July for the 35th Anniversary of Gundam and was taken done in September. The statue was visited by over four million.
WTHfor
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 9:59 AMWhoa! Well it should be inactive as long as they don’t let any 14-year-old angst-filled loners board it.
James Mac
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 10:06 AMBeam Sabre?
“I think George Lucas is gonna sue somebody!”
kKagari
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 3:06 PMgundam came before star wars. truth. georgie lucas should get sued if anything. this is the 35th anniversary for gundam remember.
CyK
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 3:40 PMI’m pretty sure he was joking. You were joking right?
Kaze Okami
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 5:50 PMIt’s the 30th anniversary (last year), not the 35th.
El Phantasmogoro
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 12:15 PMThis was awesome at Odaiba. I wish it were coming back to somewhere not so far away D:
Kyall
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 2:15 PMIs it just a statue? Or is it Japen’s mightiest military deterrent, hiding in plain site….
Oooooh….
Jerry Ku
Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 4:05 AMVery cool, but it seems BS that the Gundam would create 9600 jobs! There must be a typo or misreading going on somewhere. 9.6 jobs sounds reasonable though.
Jerry Ku
Wednesday, March 24, 2010 at 4:10 AMAnd the 0.6 job would be a part-time one. :)