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Gundam Café Offers Beam Saber Chopsticks

The Gundam-themed café in front of the Akihabara station in Tokyo launched a new product on September 18: chopsticks designed to mimic the beam sabers wielded by Amuro Ray's RX-78-2 Gundam unit in the first Mobile Suit Gundam anime. Only a limited quantity of the chopsticks are available for sale. The chopsticks were first displayed over the summer at Gundam Super Expo Tokyo 2010 and are being produced domestically at the Bandai Hobby Center — the same place where Gundam plastic models are made. They sell for 1,050 yen (about US$12.50) a pair.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Gundam plastic models or "Gunpla." Among the festivities to celebrate the event are a new Gunpla-themed anime series titled Mokei Senshi Gunpla Builders Beginning G, an album from American rock band Linkin Park which will bundle a Gundam model, a jumbo jet painted with a "life-size" Gundam on its side, and the release of a mobile phone with a Gundam model. At the recent Tokyo Game Show event, Gundam-themed iPhone and iPod Touch apps were shown, and Linkin Park provided the opening theme song for the upcoming Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme Vs. arcade game.

Source: Akiba Keizai Shimbun

Images © Sotsu, Sunrise