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Life-size Gundam head going on display in Osaka, hopefully will find permanent home

Casey Baseel a few minute ago
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Gundam head arrives in Osaka ahead of Gundam Base.

Osaka has been making a big push recently to obtain official status as Japan’s backup capital should a major disaster knock out government facilities in Tokyo. Its case rests largely on compliance with criteria related to population, economic importance, and geography, but soon Osaka will be able to boast yet another fine feature: the full-size head of Gundam on display within the city.

The head unit of the iconic anime mecha was first seen in Yokohama, where it sat on the shoulders of the life-size RX-78F00 Gundam at the Gundam Factory Yokohama. The 18-meter (59-foot) tall statue was removed in the spring of 2024 and relocated to Osaka for the Expo 2025 world’s fair, serving as the centerpiece of the Gundam Next Future Pavilion. With the Expo finished, the RX-78F00/E (as the updated Osaka version of the statue was called) has been dismantled, but the head will be going on display at the new Lucua South entertainment complex in Osaka’s Umeda neighborhood next month.

▼ The head, which will be displayed on the building’s 10th floor, stands 2.2 meters tall and weighs approximately 370 kilograms (815.7 pounds), so there’s little chance of anyone running off with it.

The head is just one part of a planned proliferation of Gundam fun coming to Lucua South. Scheduled to open in February of next year is a brand-new Gundam Base Osaka specialty shop, filled with Gunpla plastic model kits and other merch. As a touch of local flavor, Gundam’s spherical mascot robot Haro will get a makeover to make him look like a takoyaki octopus dumpling, Osaka’s representative street food snack.

▼ The takoyaki Haro will talk too, but there’s no word yet on whether or not he’ll speak in the distinctive Osaka dialect of Japanese.

Anime fan shoppers won’t have to wait all the way until February, though, as high-end figure brand Tamashii Nations will also be opening a new branch in Lucua South on December 2, with statues of the original Gundam and Dragon Ball’s Goku greeting visitors.

▼ A figure of the RX-78F00/E, in the pose it struck during the Expo, will be on offer.

Two days later, on December 4, an official Gundam Card Game store will also open inside the building…

…and fashionable fans of anime mecha can get their fix the soonest of all, with a Strict-G store, stocked with items from the Gundam apparel/accessory line of the same name, opening in Lucua South on November 24.

▼ Two new Osaka Gundam Yokosuka jackets will be available, one with an image of Osaka Castle, the other with the city’s name written in kanji characters.

Getting back to the Gundam head, though the display starts on December 4, there’s currently no announced end date. Common sense would suggest that it’ll be on display at least until the Gundam Base Osaka opens in February, and it’s hard to imagine a better place for it to remain after that than in the store itself, but still, checking it out sooner rather than later is probably the smart move.

Related: Lucua South official website, Gundam Base official website
Source: PR Times
Top image: Bandai Namco
Insert images: PR Times
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