Start here: one of them no longer exists
GUNDAM FACTORY YOKOHAMA — the moving 18-metre Gundam — closed in 2024. A lot of guides still list it. If you were planning a trip around it, it is not there.
What remains are two life-size statues, both free to watch.
Odaiba: the Unicorn Gundam
19.7 metres, outside DiverCity Tokyo Plaza in Odaiba.
Several times a day it performs a transformation sequence between Unicorn mode and Destroy mode — the panels open and the horn splits. After dark there is an additional lighting and projection show.
- Free. No ticket, no queue, nothing to book.
- Outdoors, visible at any hour even outside performance times.
- Tokyo Teleport station, about five minutes on foot.
Check the performance schedule when you arrive and plan around it. The evening show, with the lighting, is the better of the two.
Fukuoka: the ν Gundam
Outside LaLaport Fukuoka, the RX-93ff ν Gundam performs scheduled lighting and movement sequences.
It is the only life-size Gundam in western Japan, it is free in the same way, and it is noticeably less crowded than Odaiba at almost any time. A bus from Hakata Station gets you there.
The shops are attached
This is what makes both worth a dedicated trip rather than a photo stop.
The Gundam Base stores sit in the same complex as each statue, and they carry the widest Gunpla selection in the world — including Base-limited kits, clear-colour variants and factory-tour exclusives that are never exported.
If you build kits, this is the reason to come. The range is deeper than anything available overseas, and prices are Japanese retail.
Budget 45 minutes for the statue and performance, and at least an hour for the store.
Which one to visit
- In Tokyo: Odaiba, obviously. Combine with the rest of the bay area.
- In Kyushu: Fukuoka, and combine it with the Pokémon Center at Hakata Station and, if you are continuing, Kumamoto for the ONE PIECE statues.
- Both: the two statues are different mobile suits with different performances, so it is not a repeat.
Where else to find Gunpla
If you are not going to either statue, the kits themselves are widely available:
- Yodobashi Akiba and Yodobashi Umeda — full current wall at standard retail
- Den Den Town in Osaka and Osu in Nagoya — new and second-hand
- Nakano Broadway — discontinued and vintage kits
The Base-limited items are the exception: those only exist at the Base stores.
A practical note
Both statues are outdoors, so weather matters for the performances, and both are in shopping complexes that close in the evening even though the statues themselves stay lit. Check the last performance time if you are arriving late.
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