Mobile Suit Gundam is a series that forever marked an entire generation of Japanese people. Their passion for giant robots and the development of franchises inspired by that 1979 series turned the country into the world capital of mecha. The only thing they were missing was building a real Gundam… and the truth is they have already started. With 18 meters in height, 25 tons and 24 degrees of freedom, the RX-78-2 is expected to walk through Yokohama starting in October.
In the film adaptation of Ready Player One, the main antagonist chooses the form of Mechagodzilla to fight the united players of Oasis, and the chosen opponent was none other than the RX-78-2 Gundam. The robotic version of the king of Kaiju, against the king of Mecha in Japan. That gives us a pretty accurate idea of the permanence of the Gundam franchise among the general public, but if we travel to Japanese territory, their fascination with the White Devil is on another level.
A Walking Gundam
A year ago, we talked about the giant replica of the RX-78-2 Gundam in Tokyo, and its successor, the RX-0 Unicorn. Is there anything that can surpass such a project? The answer is… building a real one, capable of walking. The scaffolding work has already begun at Yamashita Pier, which will serve as the home for the new Gundam starting in October. The challenge ahead for the engineers is titanic. The original specifications establish that the RX-78-2 will be 18 meters tall, although this design will be lighter, with a mass of 25 tons (in the anime it's 60).
This translates to 24 degrees of freedom of movement, a requirement that will push every actuator, joint and union in the structure to the limit. Not to go too far, the hands of the Gundam measure two meters tall, but at the same time they cannot exceed 200 kilograms, otherwise they would affect the functioning of the wrists, elbows and shoulders. The design chief, Jun Narita, admits that the weight restriction "is like a curse", but they have to work with what they have. In contrast, the overall design seems to be on the right track. Its person in charge, Masaki Kawahara, has enormous experience, and this is the fourth time he has been involved in creating a large-scale Gundam.
As expected, the creator of Mobile Suit Gundam, Yoshiyuki Tomino, was invited to see the progress of the construction… but he wasn't so impressed. What did he say? "It's boring. It's simply not interesting... it feels like they're going backwards, trying to reproduce a 40-year-old original." What were his recommendations? Making the pilot space larger, incorporating more modern elements into the current design, and...
Yes, I think Yoshiyuki Tomino-san is thinking more about Aphrodite A than Gundam...
Source: New Atlas
Source: Popular Mechanics
