Well, not quite. To celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the seminal mecha series MS Gundam, an 18-meter/59 feet-tall statue of the iconic RX-78-2 Gundam is being raised at Tokyo’s Odaiba island, specifically in Shiokaze Park. You can see more pictures of the Gundam on this post by The Mainichi Daily Post and some taken at night at this post by Pink Tentacle.

The 35-ton Gundam is fully lit for dramatic effect, as can be seen in the nighttime pictures, and can swivel its head and project mist or light from 50 different points in its body.

The official unveiling is on July 11, 2009 and it will be displayed free of charge through August 31, 2009. The statue, as you can see, however, is already up and assembled (maybe they’ll be adding some extras, like a weapon?). Frankly I’m not gonna be surprised if come its official unveiling, it is revealed to be a fully-functional mecha heralding the new era of the Japanese Army.

You know, because Japan wasn’t cool enough as it is, they had to go and create a national monument based on an anime series! I would love to go see the Gundam in person (heck, I get excited when I see the Lego mecha at Downtown Disney, I can’t imagine how I’d react to this!). Since a trip to Japan in the next two months is just not in my schedule, perhaps this giant pile of awesome could go on a traveling tour of the world? It doesn’t guarantee I’d get to see it, but many more Gundam fans around the world would.

I mean, am I the only one thinking “giant-sized BattleTech” right about now? If any of my readers gets to see this bad boy up close and personal, please let me know and post many many pictures.

Below is a Google Map of the location of the Gundam sculpture (it’s the little person-shaped icon) in Odaiba’s Shiokaze Park, Tokyo.

View Spoon's Central Tokyo Map in a larger map.