Japan’s Yodobashi Camera store celebrates New Year 2020 by rolling out a huge cardboard Gundam

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J Katy Kelly

Start 2020 out right, by picking up your Gundam Gunpla sets from a gigantic RX-75 Guntank.

The Japanese New Year period is filled with hustling and bustling as everyone gets their affairs in order, cooks up lots of delicious seasonal food, and scrambles to get their hands on end-of-year bargains in the form of fukubukuro lucky bags.

But lucky bags aren’t the only things retailers are hoping to sell. Electronics goods store Yodobashi Camera has been grabbing the spotlight early this year, due to their Yokohama store’s creative shelving. Their lines of Gunpla, plastic model kits you can assemble for yourself to recreate your favorite mecha characters, are housed in a giant cardboard mecha of their own: the RX-75 Guntank, one of the first mobile suits developed in Mobile Suit Gundam.

▼ “I really love this aspect of Yodobashi Camera.”

ヨドバシのこういうとこ好き https://t.co/MkxT9emnCD

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アロンアルファ☭🦈 (@allonalpha) January 01, 2020

The sign above the shelf announces “2020 Guntank” and its shelves are guarded on either side by cardboard arms, while its twin cannons extend outwards into the aisle. How could any Gundam fan resist this tantalizing Gunpla, framed by such a shelf?

The answer is… they couldn’t! Another user replied to the original image:

▼ “This is how it looked when I visited yesterday… lololol”

@allonalpha @kkhebia1313 昨日行ったらこんな感じでしたwww https://t.co/IGH7uNwBEu

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ガンプラように (@wc6PNMqvcEojy0T) January 03, 2020

The Yodobashi Camera fun doesn’t end in Yokohama, either. The Utsunomiya branch in Tochigi prefecture honored Gundam series Unicorn with papercraft models of an Awakened RX-0 Unicorn Gundam (white) and an MSN-06S Sinanju (red).

@allonalpha @punipuniman100 宇都宮店ではユニコーンとシナンジュがお出迎え。 https://t.co/cDGxt06HoS

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リコリス (@Likorisuu) January 01, 2020

The original poster hastened to remind everyone that this isn’t the first time the electronics store put on a spot of Gundam fun for the benefit of their fans, and they don’t even need New Year festivities as an excuse. Here’s a flashback to June, 2015.

▼ “They recreated the ending of [Gundam Reconquista in G] with Mobile Suits at the toy corner in Yodobashi Akiba. Felt like I was going a bit mad….”

ヨドバシアキバのおもちゃコーナーがGレコのエンディングをMSで再現していて、静かな狂気を感じた http://t.co/j6Bb1qt1ri

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アロンアルファ☭🦈 (@allonalpha) June 10, 2015

▼ Here is the ending of G-Reco, so you can compare.

Back here in 2020 we’re stoked for a whole new year of Gundam antics, not least the moving Gundam statue tipped to debut in Yokohama. There’s even a plan to send Gundam Gunpla models into orbit ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games… though sadly, neither of the two chosen are a RX-75 Guntank.

Source: Twitter/@allonalpha via Hachima Kiko
Featured image: Twitter/@allonalpha
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