Fans have been shooting photos and videos of the 19.7-meter (64.6-foot) Unicorn Gundam, and it looks incredible.

It was a sad time for anime fans last March, as Tokyo’s full-scale 18-meter (59-foot) Gundam statue was taken down. Technically, it was a sad time mixed with strains of awesomeness, as work crews made sure to dismantle the statue in a way that recreated famous scenes from the anime mid-process, but still, it was sad to see the famous mecha go after standing guard in the Odaiba district for many years.

But in a move reminiscent of the endless waltz of Gundam sequel anime, the statue of the RX-78-2 Gundam, which appeared in the original Mobile Suit Gundam TV series from 1979, is being replaced with a 1:1-scale recreation of the even bigger 19.7-meter (64.6-foot) RX-0 Unicorn Gundam, which debuted in 2010’s Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn. With construction projected to be finished this autumn, the components are already being gathered outside the Diver City entertainment complex, and some passersby have been snapping photos of the robot’s progress, starting with its intricately detailed head unit.

It looks plenty cool in still photographs, but the real awesomeness happens when you see video of it, because the antenna-like protrusions attached to the head can actually move!

In the anime, the Unicorn Gundam has a special function that allows it to shift from its standard Unicorn Mode into a high-performance Destroy Mode. The shift also causes certain changes in its appearance, such as a single protrusion on the head unit splitting into two.

The armor plating around the anime robot’s knees and ankles also reconfigures when going into Destroy Mode. It’s unclear whether or not the statue will be maintaining that level of fidelity to its source material or not, but the presence of the moving antenna suggest that the designers are planning on keeping the shifting faceplate from the anime mecha in their real-life version.

And it’s not just the head that’s coming along nicely; as of August 8, much of the basic frame of the Unicorn Gundam seems completed as well, as seen in these photos.

More photos are likely to trickle out as construction continues (there’s only so much you can do to hide a nearly 20-meter-tall robot, after all), so while the Unicorn Gundam statue won’t be officially unveiled for at least a month, it’s already a sight to see.

Source: Hachima Kiko

Follow Casey on Twitter for more reports on anime mecha proliferation in Tokyo.