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1/1 Starship Troopers-Inspired Suit Seeks New Home
posted on by Egan Loo
The Japanese fan Shūhei Torii is offering a life-size iron replica of the anime powered suit design inspired by the science-fiction classic Starship Troopers — to someone who will give it a good home.
Inspired as a high school student by the life-size replica of Armored Trooper Votoms' Scopedog robot, Torii decided to make iron robot statues in art school. In September of 2009, he began building a statue of the powered suit from the famed design outfit Studio Nue (Macross, Dirty Pair, Space Battleship Yamato, Legend of the Galactic Heroes) for his graduation project.
Nue co-founder Naoyuki Katō had initially created the design for his illustrations in the 1977 Japanese reprint of Robert A. Heinlein's seminal Starship Troopers novel. The book and the design would influence many anime and manga such as Mobile Suit Gundam and Macross. In fact, fellow Nue co-founder Kazutaka Miyatake (Macross, Orguss, Gunbuster) would adapt the design for Sunrise's 1988 Starship Troopers original video anime (pictured at left) that predated Paul Verhoeven's live-action film by nine years.
The design has also spawned several models and toys, although these products have not been marketed under the Starship Troopers name in recent years. Similarly, Torii does not describe his replica as a Starship Troopers powered suit, although he directly credits Kato.
Torii completed his replica in January of 2010, and he then brought it to Tokon 10, last year's 49th Japanese National Science Fiction Convention. There, Kato (far right in photograph) himself had a chance to see it and pose with it. The statue also went on display at Torii's Tama Art University in Tokyo.
Torii displayed the statue at this past weekend's Wonder Festival 2011 Winter event with a handwritten sign:
"Looking for a place to store or display the powered suit!! Please respond -> toryyokohama4321[at sign]yahoo.co.jp."
Source: Gigazine
