Gundam RX-78-2 Bust

On April the 7th, 1979, the animated series 'Mobile Suit Gundam' first appeared on Japanese TV screens and the world of giant robot mechs was born, and became a staple of TV, Film and videogames ever since.

My first exposure to these giant mechs, was the awesome Dai-X, in the English Language adaptation of 'X-Bomber,' a very advanced Japanese puppet series from the early 80s. Some of my earliest Lego memories were trying to recreate Dai-X with Lego that, given that the sets I had were pretty basic back then so was wildly unsuited to the task! :D

Still, it was fun to try and recreate these epic machines!

I've seen some amazing Gundam MOCs over the years as the Lego parts library has expanded to make realising the forms, shapes and articulation much more possible.

Rather than trying to build a full Gundam model (there's already so many amazing plastic kits for this) I wanted to build a large-scale Gundam bust as a display piece. This build is based on the RX-78-2, arguably the most recognisable Mech from the show. I decided to stylise the torso into a stand for the head, as my main aim was to recreate the head as accurately as possible.

The recent release of Bumblebee, following on from Optimus Prime, along with all the various Ninjago Mechs released over the years, indicates that they remain popular. A large scale display piece could prove very popular with a wide age-range, tapping into nostalgia, and that ongoing popularity.

This model is approximately 1,390 pieces, and would stand around 8 minifigures tall - I'm not sure of the pilot-to-mech scale of a 'real' Gundam RX-78-2, but I suspect this might be close... when compared to a minifig!

This might be a great candidate for a couple of light bricks behind the eyes, and I'd hope if it did go into production, some clever builders could add a rotation to the head, maybe with a motion tracker so it follows you around the room!

Thanks for taking the time to view and hopefully vote for this project.