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Fans Build 10-Foot Gundam with Leftover Model Bits

During the Chara Hobby figure and model event, held on August 28 and 29 at the Makuhari Messe International Exhibition Hall near Tokyo, ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Hobby Magazine displayed a fan-made Gundam statue at its booth. The art project took over 250 hours across 95 days to build, and was made almost entirely out of the left-over plastic bits (runners or sprues) used to hold the pieces for smaller models.

The statue is of the RX-78-2 Gundam, which the main protagonist Amuro Ray pilots in the first Mobile Suit Gundam series. Standing with its gun pointed in the air, the statue is three meters tall (about 10 feet); with the base it's 3.35 meters tall (11 feet). Its official name is "RG (Recycle Grade) 1/9.9 Runner Gundam." Because of its height, its builders could not finish the model at home and had to move it to a location with higher ceilings before completion.

Two "life-size" Gundam art projects have launched in recent years: the life-size Gundam statue erected first at Tokyo's Odaiba island and now displayed at Shizuoka to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Gundam franchise, and a life-size Gundam painted onto an ANA jumbo jet to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the first "Gunpla" (Gundam plastic model kit). An anime focusing specifically on young Gunpla builders has been announced as another celebration of the model kits.

Source: Gundam Art Production Notes via Tomopop