Gundam Front Odaiba

[Tochiro]

I visited the rebuild 1:1 Gundam at Odaiba on the weekend and thought I'd post a few pics. Some are from Gundam Front - a display on the 7th floor that includes a 360 degree dome theatre that plays (among other scenes) some pretty awesome new CG versions of battles from Chars Counterattack and Gundam Unicorn.

[mass driver]

That is awesome. So glad they didn't scrap the 1:1 gundam. Maybe someday when the dollar yen ratio is better I'll make a trip over there to see it.

[F-ZeroOne]

I got to visit the place a couple of weeks ago; this is my take on it (this was originally written for friends in e-mail so is a little more "Rage on!" than I would normally post here... ).

GUNDAM FRONT SPECIAL REPORT!

Not often one gets to be right at the beginning, or at least the day after the beginning.

The giant Gundam statue - quite possibly the physical manifestation of Japans *third* religion - now resides in Odaiba, a bayside development which is perhaps the best place it could possibly be, because Odaiba *already* looks like a Star Trek set made real.

Its now "part" of a shopping complex called "Divers City". Theres six floors of shopping, a couple of amusement arcades, the Gundam FRONT exhibition hall, and - for some inexplicable reason - a Maid Cafe (burn it with FIRE!).

After taking several shots of what is as close to a religious experience as I am ever likely to get, I went to have a nose round.

Theres a free display of Gundam model kits, and when I say "kits", I mean I think they have pretty much every damn Gundam model kit ever made, and then some. They even had the Flat from Turn-A Gundam and kits from Gundam X, and *no-one* remembers Gundam X.

There was one exception - don't recall seeing any G-Saviour kits (Bandais ill-advised attempt to make a live-action Gundam movie), probably because Bandai is trying steadily to erase G-Saviour from existence.

There is also a high fashion Gundam clothing shop. Yes, you heard that correctly and no, no-one appears to recognise the contradiction in terms.

The rest of the attraction you have to pay for. Did I pony up my 1200 yen?

No, I went to the Maid Cafe instead and let a maid write my name in tomato sauce across my food.

LIKE HELL I DID.

It starts with a movie in a panaromic dome. If you're not a Gundam fan, this will make no sense at all, consisting mostly of clips from the various series, plus some CGI recreations of famous Gundam battles. Theres an impressive sense of movement but one can't help but feel they could make more of the opportunity - a specially created short, for example.

The exhibition hall itself, like most specialist Japanese exhibitions is fairly small. Theres a life size model of the cockpit section of some Gundam from Gundam SEED (it doesn't count), a wrecked Core Fighter, a model of space fortress A Baoa Qu, and the chance to get your photo taken with the Gundam character of your choice.

I probably *should* have picked Loran Cehack from Turn-A, just to remind Bandai that it exists (I WANT MY DVDS, you... you... company!), but, you know...

CHAR! CHAR! CHAR!

More interesting are various articles from Gundam production, including opening storyboards for Turn-A Gundam (given all I've said about this, yes, well done but rather a bizarre choice - perhaps no-one will miss them?), Chars Counterattack (in which Amuro has such a different hairstyle compared to the final movie that I didn't actually recognise him at first), and most interesting of all, production sketches of the original designs for the iconic White Base, Zaku II and Gundam (before Tomino changed the design at a late stage and single-handedly nearly destroyed the Japanese toy industry - and not for the last time, either... ).

There was also a frame signed by various Gundam staff, including a certain Kill 'em all Himself.

And thats about your lot.

The local UniQlo seems to have a nice line in Gundam exclusive t-shirts there (update: not that exclusive, I've now seen them at other UniQlo branches).

Oh, theres a branch of the Gundam cafe there as well, but they only sell pre-packaged goods like cookies and some very nice-looking beam sabre umbrellas. Charmingly, their logo states Established 2010 until Universal Century 0079, which rather suggests a) they have a far-seeing business plan and b) perhaps they have some advance knowledge about the Republic of Zeon and its habit of dropping space colonies on people.

Is it worth going out of your way to visit? Maybe not. The overall impression I got - especially considering that Bandai Sunrise must be sitting on a mother lode somewhere - is that a bit more could have been expected.

The Gundam statue (prototype?) is definitely worth seeing though and if you haven't been to Odaiba before easily done as part of a trip (and at the nearby Decks shopping plaza, hidden on the fourth floor, is a gloriously 80s mini-Japanese retro arcade). The rest of it... well, I guess it depends if you find yourself NewType...

F-ZeroOne. HASSHIN!

Edited May 8, 2012 by F-ZeroOne

[Tochiro]

I got to visit the place a couple of weeks ago; this is my take on it (this was originally written for friends in e-mail so is a little more "Rage on!" than I would normally post here... ).

GUNDAM FRONT SPECIAL REPORT! ...................

Nice writeup!

You know, I think the impact of the Gundam is pretty drastically reduced due to it being enclosed on two sides by buildings that are taller than it. I thought it LOOKED a lot bigger the way it was set up previously with its back to the bay. It also used to be slightly more elevated AND was set up so that people could walk in between its legs. The new set up is, in comparison, a bit meh.

Gundam Front was a lot of fun imo, if a bit restricted space-wise. Maybe I've been spolit by the 2-day 'Feel G' exhibition that had a few years back, but after having an entire HALL filled with Gundam memorabillia and displays, G Front seemed a little lacking. The dome theatre was DAMN cool though! I was really impressed by the all-new voice work and sense of scale they achieved with the new CG. It's always nice when Bandai does little things like that. There was also the Ring of G short at the Feel G exhibit and the footage done for Gundam The Ride in which you were in a life pod being escorted out of the battle of A baoa Qu by a pair of GMs (who, typically, didnt last all that long ^^.

Also, it might be worth mentioning that several model cases had a big COMING SOON label on them. Similarly, the event booklet was labelled as issue 0, with issue 1 due later in summer, so I wouldnt be surprised if they add to the exhibition periodically to attract repeat visitations.

[F-ZeroOne]

Ta! The thing I found most amusing about the Gundam - this might depend on which train stop you get off at though - is that its sort of tucked round the back, almost like someone is ashamed to have it displayed in "full view"...

I missed the event booklet...!

One thing I forgot to mention is that before you enter the "Dome", you're given safety information using clips from the original series or SEED. Things like "No smoking or another Zaku will explode!"... I wasn't the only person smiling at this, though I was probably the only non-Asian in the queue...

I was lucky enough to have a go on "Gundam: The Ride" when it was operating. That was great fun!

Edited May 9, 2012 by F-ZeroOne

[mikeszekely]

I have a photo of that Gundam from the old location as my wallpaper on my Mac.

[charger69]

So Odaiba is the permenant residency of 1:1 Gundam?

[D.D. Ivanov]

So Odaiba is the permenant residency of 1:1 Gundam?

Only until its reactivation is required to save the Earth.

[Jefuemon]

Hopefully it'll still be there in the first week of August, as that's the next time I'm getting down to Tokyo. Not much of a Gundam fan, but gotta see the 1:1 RX-78.

[antibiotictab]

April 28.