Karl Ng

The Mobile Suit Gundam Taneshi website reports that the Fuji-Q HighLand amusement park will open a new Gundam attraction featuring a life-size, 1/1-scale Gundam model. The Gundam Crisis walkthrough attraction is scheduled to open in July of 2007 for 800 yen (about US$7, or free with an all-day free pass).

40 attendees at a time can clear the different mission stages of

the attraction, which depicts a hanger on the Earth Federation-occupied Solomon space fortress of the first Mobile Suit Gundam series. The attendees play the role of a specially formed team that must gather data on the Gundam to upgrade it, while mysterious enemy mecha pursue them.

The Fuji-Q HighLand park is located at the foot of Mt. Fuji. A tie-in store will sell various Gundam goods including limited original goods exclusive to the park. Fuji-Q Highland had hosted Gundam the Ride, a multi-axis simulator ride similar to Disneyland’s Star Tours, on the same site until December of 2006.

At 18 meters (59 feet) tall, a life-size RX-78-2 Gundam can comfortably look into a five-story window, although the attraction’s description implies that its model will not be standing. Even though the attraction will advertise the exhibit as the “world’s first life-size, full-body 1/1 Gundam,” the city of Jiayi, Taiwan made a life-size RX-78-2 Gundam lantern for its Lantern Festival this year.

Other examples of large Gundams include a 2/3-scale LM312V04 Victory Gundam built at 10 meters (33 feet) tall during the 1990s, the 1/1-scale RX-78-2 Gundam bust in the Bandai Museum, a fan-made 1/3-scale MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam statue that stands seven meters (23 feet) tall, and the 1/1-scale Gundam F91 head that eventually made its way to San Diego Comic-Con International and San Francisco’s Metreon entertainment center before being sold to a private collector.

(info from http://www.animenewsnetwork.com)