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Gundam Mini Theme Park to Open in April in Tokyo

The Japanese conglomerate Bandai announced on Sunday that it will open a miniature theme park called Gundam Front Tokyo at Diver City Tokyo — next to the 1/1-scale Gundam statue that is being rebuilt there. Starting on April 19, the general public can visit both the Gundam Front Tokyo "entertainment space" and the statue on Tokyo's artificial island of Odaiba.

Gundam Front Tokyo will be on the seventh floor of Diver City Tokyo Plaza, and the 2,050-square-meter (about 22,000-square-foot) space will charge admission (1,000 yen or US$13 for adults), although some areas will be free. The paid-admission zones will feature a 16-meter-wide (52-foot-wide) hemispherical dome theater for immersive videos, a project display zone with rare production materials, an archive counter that will offer visitors information on various Gundam projects, and "photospots" for taking pictures within the world of Gundam (with characters). The free zones will include a display of the plastic models throughout the franchise's history and a Gundam Apparel Shop.

The plaza will also have an official shop for character goods and the second Gundam Café on the second floor. (The first café opened in Tokyo's Akihabara district in 2010.)

Bandai, the anime studio Sunrise, and Gundam rights holder Sotsu established a Gundam Front Tokyo Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) on January 24 to run the project.

Images © Sotsu, Sunrise © Sotsu, Sunrise, MBS