Kobe building a giant Gigantor statue

You maybe read about the giant Gundam statue I wrote about earlier. Well, it seems that in Kobe they are now building a full size “Tetsujin 28″ aka Gigantor statue. Is this becoming some kind of tred?

Tetsujin 28-gō is a 1956 manga written and illustrated by Mitsuteru Yokoyama. It was the first manga to feature a giant robot. It was later adapted into several anime TV series, the first in 1963 and in 1966 it was released in America as Gigantor.

The statue will serve as a double memorial, marking both the birthplace of creator Mitsuteru Yokoyama, who passed away in 2004 in an apartment fire, as well as celebrate the city’s reconstruction following the 1995 earthquake.

When completed, in October, the Gigantor statue will be on display in Kobe’s Wakamatsu Park. It will be as tall as the Gundam statue, 18 meters or 59 foot, but it will weigh an amazing 50 tons, 15 tons more than the Gundam. It’s estimated that the project will cost 135 million yen (1,4 million USD).

You can visit the official site at Kobe Tetsujin Project.

Here are some recent pics of the Gigantor:

In the video below you can see them working on the statue.

And in the next video the completed head is unveiled for the first time.