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Cultural impact of Gundam


The giant robot anime franchise Gundam is a popular culture icon in Japan. Its owner Bandai Namco has earned up to 54.5 billion yen per year from products based on the Gundam characters. Gundam has appeared on postage stamps, the Gundam name was used as a codename for a Japanese Self Defense Force project to develop an advance personal combat system and Gundam has been used to promote technical developments in fire fighting. A tram station has a Gundam statue and plays the theme tune of the first Gundam film as its departure melody. Mitsubishi created a simulator for concept cars themed on a Gundam mech cockpit, held recruitment seminars titled "How to make a Gundam" to demonstrate their development process and based their Lancer Evolution design on Gundam. Isuzu used a Gundam to model the VX2.

The Gundam franchise covers nine universes that comprise a dozen TV series, over twenty animated movies, and dozens of novels and manga. Bandai is the fourth largest toy manufacturer in the world and Gundam merchandise makes up 20% of its sales. In 2004, Gundam sales resulted in profits of 42.8 billion yen, growing to 54.5 billion yen by 2007.

By 2000, the popularity of Gundam had resulted in the creation of hundreds of different model kits with more than 350 million sold. In 2011, the Los Angeles Times reported that some estimations state that "10 Gundam models [have been] sold for every man, woman and child in Japan."

Gundam Front Tokyo is a dedicated museum to Gundam. Among its major attractions is the Gundam Statue of the RG 1/1 RX-78-2 Gundam Ver. GFT. It features a display collection of over 1000 Gunpla models and the biggest exhibition of Gunpla in the world. In 2012, Robots Gone Bad covered the museum and stated that it houses 90% of the kits ever made. In 2012, a large topiary Gundam made of ten thousand begonias, zinnias, and star daisies was on display to promote the green movement.

The Gundam statue or "Odaiba Gundam" has been a major icon of the museum since its unveiling. Weighing in at 35 tonnes and standing 18 meters tall, the statue is a popular attraction for visitors. First completed in June 2009, it stood for a month before being dissembled, but had attracted over 4.5 million visitors during that time. In 2010, it was erected in Shizuoka, and it was shown in pieces in 2011 in order to raise money for the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami relief effort.


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