First we had a 3 meter tall, 20 million yen bronze Gundam statue erected in front of Kamiigusa Station in Japan. Now, Takayuki Furuta, Director of the Future Robotics Technology Center in Chiba, Japan, in a bid to boost interest in robotics, has created blueprints to build a a real-life 60-foot-tall Gundam! . The total cost of it? $742 million.
Furuta ran computer models on every aspects of the robot to determine what parts would be require to power and control the robot. He then surfed electronics and industry-equipment catalogs to find the required components. By proving that the anime fixture can actually be built, he hopes to get schoolkids fired up and interested in robotics.
A 60-foot-tall robot may not be financially feasible as Furuta himself says. Hence, he’s going to attempt and make do with a smaller version which could be as tall as 13 feet. He hopes to have it completed by 2011, when by then, hopefully, someone will have created something for it to fight.
I personally feel it would be interesting if this feat works out to be a success, not to mention that gundam otakus worldwide would rejoice at the successful attempt of a real-life Gundam being built. Imagine a dream being finally realised in reality!
What do you think of his attempt? Will it work out successfully or turn out to be a failure?
appreciated!!
This post is tagged Gunpla & Plamo
10 Comments
Jan 3rd, 2009
that plane rocks
Dec 30th, 2008
maaaaan i really hope this works cuz then they can build a fully functinual 18 METER TALL GUNDAM mwu ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha if i had one of those he he he he he no survivors none at all you all be screwed he he he he gundam will be built
Nov 17th, 2008
i was wondering could that guy ever figure out how much money would it cost to build one from the anime” Macross Zero” that might be more possible than building a gundam nowaday
Nov 17th, 2008
@codename:v,
after reading through your comment, I agree with the concerns & questions raised on this project. We might see a working one but a fully-functional, combat-ready & deployable one will take another few decades. A good-start but whenever they have the capital and enthusiasm to sustain and support the project in the long-run remains to be seen.
@Jayden,
I do not totally agree with you, unless it can single-handedly take out enemies’ entire army, it’ll be a laughing stock as a ‘white-elephant’. To able to have the effect/influence on what you mentioned in your last few sentence, it has to be a fully functionally and combat-ready one.
@fazares,
it would be really heartening to hear, if it was true. But no one can never be too sure
@Thijs Rutten,
I’m sure many like-minded fans would love to get their hands on and pilot it personally.
Nov 12th, 2008
I VOLENTEER TO PILOT THE TEST!!!!!!
i’ve been watching the gundam series from 1995(it’s quite hard to get them in holland)
after some hasseling i finally maneged to import some of the series, i know i can download them but i like it original on dvd, and i thought it would be cool to fly/work with one of those machines.
i’m sure i ain’t the only one XD
Sep 9th, 2008
after years of research a gundam as fast and agile as average humans could run circles around tanks…
Jun 8th, 2008
i don’t think that’s the issue
its not really made for combat but weather can it be done?
after that miniaturization well work its magic
and cmon if you had a 60 ft gundam in your back yard, weather it moved or not, who would start a fight with you…..ever
J.W.
Apr 18th, 2008
First of all, how efficient will this ‘Gundam’ in combat situations? Will it revolutionises modern warfares as we know today? How stable is this ‘Gundam’? How fast can it go? How agile can it be? There are a lot of questions unanswered ahead with this ‘White Elephant project’ and military isn’t childplays, therefore the project MUST produces tangible results or it’s a major FLOP and waste of moneys.
Unlike the BigDogs from DARPA, a real-life mobile suit is going to take decades to fully achieve functionality and mass-production for major warfares. So it needs more testings, researches and lots of INVESTMENTS into it. Is JapanDefenceMinistry willing to pour in billions of yens and years into this?
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