a long time coming

By Antony Huynh

Ever wondered what happens when someone famous listens to it’s fans and supporters? Well if there’s enough support, you’ll realize that it was your love and passion that helped achieve such great feats—as demonstrated by the Gundam Franchise and fanbase, great support can build up to some of the most astounding results.

The love they’ve had for the Gundam Franchise has led up to Japan creating some of the most amazing things, but their most incredible project is The Moving Gundam. Quite literally a fully functional moving animatronic of the beloved mech that started it all.

Fans that were hearing about this across the globe were having the joy of their lives, as what they dreamed of for years to come has finally become a reality.

The Project has been in the works since 2014, and now it’s about to make its debut on December 19th, 2020. A few months ago the youtube channel, Gundaminfo, uploaded episodes of the engineers making plans for the Gundam. As more episodes were being released, the Gundam began to take more form.

Several years ago, fans have always either been serious or joking about a fully functional 1/1 scale of the robot, but now it seems it has all concluded. With the help of Yoshiyuki Tomino, the creator/writer of the gundam franchise, the crew were able to get the gundam to move from the head down. Artisanship specialists from all over Japan came together in 2018, and have agreed to take on the challenge, as many of them have always dreamed of seeing the Gundam move.

Then, as the months passed by, they began to structure out all the functions, 3d printed a model of it as an example of what the finished result would look like, and received criticism from Tomino. Now, here we are, witnessing the beloved Gundam take its first steps. Some say it was a waste of money and resources, some had expectations that couldn’t be reached, but despite that, fans are more than excited to see the gundam opening and finally see it in person.

People felt pumped and emotional seeing what they have dreamed of come to a reality. As said by Deraj from the Gundam Amino, “Honestly awesome considering how japan manage to progress so far from the first gundam RX-78-2 statue, which simply made the head look up and down and second for unicorn gundam statue transformation but no movement for head or other part of the body. So seeing a fully moving gundam all be on a moving deck is pretty exciting.” Fans are proud of seeing how far Japan has gone to please them with incredible achievements throughout their history, and now it just got even better after 6 years.

In the future, fans hope that Japan doesn’t just stop at one gundam, as there's an endless amount of designs and fan favorites that have been created for the past years. G-gundam, Exia Gundam, Zeta Gundam, Barbatos Gundam, and the list goes on. Personally, I would love to see Japan tackle more gundams to build in the future, let’s hope that they don’t make it a one time thing!