As a pre-Christmas treat, I decided to go down to Diver City to check out the full size Gundam and the somewhat newer Gundam Front exhibition.
Despite being back in Japan for over a year now, I’ve not had the time to make the trip (even though it’s actually quite close to where I live). So decided before the year is out, I should try and visit it. Especially as I hadn’t seen the new Gundam Front setup.
The Gundam Front area is split into two parts, free and paid, and is based on the 7th floor of Diver City. The free area has displays for all the gunpla champion builds, as well as upcoming kit releases, and a small shop. The paid area starts with you being shepherded into the Dome-G.
This is a dome based movie screen that shows all manner of short films. The one I saw was a battle between the Shamblo and the Neo-Zeong over Odaiba, where Diver City is based. Only to have the Gundam Unicorn and Banshee turn up to sort things out, with the former breaking off to give a literal nod to the full size Gundam.
Once that was over, we could go into the exhibition proper. This had a fullsize Core Fighter from the original Mobile Suit Gundam and a similarly huge torso of the Strike Freedom Gundam from Gundam Seed Destiny. The latter allowed you to go up into the cockpit area as well, which was pretty great (though I am not much of a Gundam Seed and Seed Destiny fan to be fair).
Following that they had a scale model of Zeon’s asteroid base A Baoa Qu, which was lit up internally as well. This was a major battleground at the end of the original Gundam and was where the fate of the One Year War was eventually decided. Having it recreated like this was rather fascinating really.
After that I wandered around the museum section. This was more of a history exhibit really and had human sized recreations of various important mobile suits, with the original Gundam, Guncannon and Guntank being notable.
It also showed the history of the various gunpla and how they tied into each series. This all then fed into a small display area for the latest Gundam series, G no Reconguista. Where there was also another human sized recreation of the G-Self.
As an aside, I am really enjoying G no Reconguista. So expect some write-ups next year, as the story is getting really interesting.
With the paid area almost done, I entered into a special gunpla shop at the end. This sells various model kits that are only available at Gundam Front and was pretty busy as a consequence.
The next port of call was the full size Gundam outside.
Now I’ve already seen the full size Gundam up close, when it was in Shizuoka, but since coming back to Japan last year I hadn’t seen it in its new location in Tokyo.
Unlike the display in Shizuoka, both the Gundam’s beam sabers are sheathed on its backpack. What’s more you can no longer get up close to it, as the area around the base is all cordoned off.
All that aside, it is still a wonderful thing to behold.
It takes a while to process that it actually exists, as it is at the same scale as you see it in the original anime (towering at a height of 18 meters).
Considering that I have built various kits of the design and owned numerous toys over the years, it’s still a strange feeling to see it at full scale like this.
While there are plans to make it walk, that won’t be happening until the 50th Anniversary of Gundam in 2019. So currently it’s pretty much static.
Previously the head used to move and steam would appear from the two yellow chest vents. It seems that when I visited it was much more subdued, with just the various lights across the Gundam blinking on and off.
After soaking in the winter air a bit I decided it was time to go home. My Gundam pilgrimage had ended for the year and I was in dire need of some ramen based sustenance.
As Gundam is one of the major pop-cultural entities in Asia, if you ever visit Tokyo then you should definitely make a visit to Diver City. It really displays the wonder of Gundam literally writ large.
Tickets for Gundam Front start at 1,200 yen for an adult. Viewing the full size Gundam is free. There is also a Gundam Café near the Gundam outside, in case you need refreshment but don’t expect gourmet food. The nearest station is Tokyo Teleport on the Rinkai Line.
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