A pair of Gundam robots take up residence at Times Square
The upper half of a 7-metre Gundam model on its way to a special summer exhibit at Times Square.The shopping mall in Causeway Bay will host a Gundam exhibition from July 25 to September 1. Two towering Gundams, RX-78-2 and Char's Zaku, will stand tall at the Open Piazza outside Times Square. They are one-third the size of the originals suggested in the animated series, or about 7 metres.
The exhibition also features several human-size Zakus at the mall's covered Piazza and a space-travelling Gundam base hovering in the Atrium.
"We brought them here because Gundam culture is cross-generational," said a Times Square spokesman. "If you're an adult, you must have been a fan of the animation series at one point when you were a child. And many teens and kids still follow the latest Gundam series."
The shopping mall decided to display the exhibit in summer because more young people will have the chance to see it.
Some drivers and pedestrians were lucky to catch a glimpse of the two large robot exhibits as their upper bodies were taken by trucks from a warehouse in Yuen Long to Causeway Bay. The two giants crossed Victoria Harbour via the Cross-Harbour Tunnel in Hung Hom and circled the business centre on Hong Kong Island, including Central and Wan Chai. The truck reached Times Square at around 2pm.
RX-78-2 and Char's Zaku II are the hero and villain of Mobile Suit Gundam, the very first Gundam series broadcast in Japan from 1979 to 1980. The RX-78-2 on show in Hong Kong is the tallest Gundam outside Japan. The world's tallest is a 18-metre model of the same robot, in Shizuoka, Japan.
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