With the life-size Unicorn Gundam in Odaiba , Tokyo, set to be taken down at the end of this month, it received a lovely going-away ceremony.

It’s been nearly ten years since the life-size Unicorn Gundam replaced the original life-sized RX-78-2 Gundam . In the time since, we’ve had a walking Gundam , the Nu Gundam built in Fukuoka , and the Freedom Gundam erected in Shanghai .

From the outset of the original life-size Gundam project , this has turned into something far greater than was initially imagined.

The Unicorn Gundam wasn’t chosen by accident either; like the Nu Gundam, the Unicorn Gundam is one of the most popular designs in terms of model kit and toy sales. So it would make sense that any new life-size Gundam would have some kind of popularity backing.

The tricky thing with the Unicorn Gundam is that it effectively transforms between two modes: Unicorn mode and Destroy mode, with the latter looking like the iconic Gundam.

Doing all of these transformations at full scale was an obvious challenge, and so this version of the Unicorn Gundam somewhat simplified the transformation in favor of the Destroy mode.

The result was something truly spectacular to see up close, and when I visited it back in 2017 , it was indeed very impressive .

So it would make sense that something this popular would have a proper send-off, and on August 29 at 7:30 pm, the life-size Unicorn Gundam had a nice closing ceremony.

The full livestream is available below, but the ceremony also included music from Hiroyuki Sawano, who composed the score for the Gundam Unicorn anime, and vocals from SennaRin.

Personally, I would have liked to have seen the Unicorn Gundam given more time in Odaiba, but I am also very curious to see which new Gundam they will choose to replace it.

For now at least, Tokyo is minus one life-size Gundam, and that makes me a little sad.

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