6/26/2007

Gigantor erection in Kobe Japan

Update 16nov2207: A Gigantor yokoso/welcome to our friends from MegaChat!

Life-sized Gigantor memorial to be erected
BlogNewsarama Monday June 25, 2007, 8:33 am
Kobe, Japan will be the home of a life-sized Gigantor statue. The 18 meter high, 70 ton Ironman-28 will carry the price tag of 135 million yen. The project is expected to be completed in the spring of 2008….more…

So Kobe Japan is going to gets own real GIANT ROBOT via a scheme of 350 stores of the local shopping center to help the depressed area that suffered the main brunt of the Hanshin Earthquake of 1995.
Gigantor (aka Tetsujin 28-go, [鉄人28号] literally “Iron Man #28″) was the first “giant robot” of Japan. The original manga by Mitsuteru Yokoyama was published in 1958 which was later made into several anime cartoon series, the first in 1963.

Listen to Gigantor’s English theme vs the Japanese version of the Tetsujin 28-go’ music here in iPod-ready, MP3 format (4.5MB) or here at the bottom of this webpage of mine.

But hey, why bother with the boring stationary statue? You can buy your own remote-controlled toy robot Gigantor from Vstone Toys Japan.

You get all of the Gigantor cartoons that were made on DVDs via Amazon in two boxed sets: Gigantor – Boxed Set 1 (Episodes 1-26)) and Gigantor – Boxed Set 2 (Episodes 27-52).

Posted by Taro in Arts/Culture, General, Pop Culture | 9 Comments »

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1. AutomagV Says:
   June 27th, 2007 at 6:34 pm

   Effing cool! What I would give to be a child again when this thing is unveiled.

2. Taro Says:
   June 27th, 2007 at 11:19 pm

   AutomagV wrote:
   Effing cool! What I would give to be a child again when this thing is unveiled.

   I plan to take a 1.5-hour detour off the Tomei Expressway just to see this Gigantor next Spring since I’m a kid at heart. :-D

3. AutomagV Says:
   June 28th, 2007 at 2:42 am

   You are so so lucky! I hope you keep all of us updated with pics of that looming giant :)

4. Taro Says:
   June 28th, 2007 at 9:08 am

   hope you keep all of us updated with pics of that looming giant

   Most likely I will get photos of the beginning of the construction process in Jan. and again in May when it’s completed.

5. Dimwitted but not crazy Says:
   June 28th, 2007 at 10:43 am

   Never saw Gigantor on Canadian TV but it sounds like I didn’t miss much:

   It was playing at 7:00 p.m. on New York’s in January of 1966 when Variety gave it a particularly scathing review, calling it a “loud, violent, tasteless and cheerless cartoon”, which was “strictly in the retarded babysitter class”.

   I’m sure most of the Kobe residents (especially the gaijin) will be happy to see how their recently increased city taxes will be spent.

6. Taro Says:
   June 28th, 2007 at 10:49 am

   happy to see how their recently increased city taxes will be spent.

   For all you folks not paying Japanese taxes, city or ward taxes here have increased wildly this year and most people have found “surprise” tax bills in the mail of 300,000 to 600,000 yen ($2,500 to $5,000 USD).

7. Shane Says:
   November 17th, 2007 at 5:27 am

   Thank you for the welcome/yokoso! The “bunnies” of MetaChat say ‘Hello.’

   This is a cool page an an instant bookmark for me! Very cool story too. Gawd, I hope I can see the giant erection (LOL) someday. The statue, that is.
   ;-)
   I’m looking forward to your photos.

   I’ll post a link to my own Gigantor action figure and the Gigantor t-shirt I’m making soon too.

8. anthony Says:
   March 11th, 2008 at 8:56 am

   i would like to know how i get some viedo of the cartoon gigantor and if so how much

9. Taro Says:
   March 11th, 2008 at 9:59 am

   anthony asked:
   how i can get some video of the cartoon gigantor?

   You get all of the Gigantor cartoons that were made on DVDs via Amazon in two boxed sets: Gigantor – Boxed Set 1 (Episodes 1-26)) and Gigantor – Boxed Set 2 (Episodes 27-52).

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