Tetsujin 28 Statue Nearing Completion

Mitsuteru Yokoyama’s Tetsujin 28-gō 18m life size statue set to be permanently immortalised in Kobe is nearing completation, if that youtube video above to be believed. The statue, which will have it’s final base at Wakamatsu Park, was planned to be finished in August, but now pushed back to the end of September and it’s official unveling in October

Unlike Bandai’s RX-78 life size model at Odaiba, the Tetsujin 28 is created to commerate the revitalised of Kobe, after the 1995 earthquake that nearly destroyed the city. As such, the statue’s main construction site is at Nagata Ward, the hardest hit place in Kobe during the quake, but now fully recovered.

Costing at 135 million yen, it was chosen also to remember Yokoyama-sensei, one of Kobe’s most famous son. Partly funded by the city (they paid around 45M yen), the rest was garnered from sales of “Tetsujin Curry”. Unlike the Bandai’s version, this statue cannot move, but it will be a permanent structure.