An afternoon at Gundam Factory Yokohama

Last month, I mentioned about Gundam Factory Yokohama extending its period to March 2024 next year. Well, on Tuesday, as kind of a birthday present, I went to Gundam Factory Yokohama with my girlfriend. As Tuesday was a public holiday, this was a good opportunity to go.

From what I understood from checking out the official website (both the English and Japanese versions), it implied that to be able to get in, you would have to purchase the entry tickets online with a credit card. Even after I called up Gundam Factory on the day while making our way there, the staff confirmed that you could only get in by purchasing a ticket online with a credit card. As I don't have a credit, my girlfriend made the purchase online while we were taking the train to Yokahama. However, upon arriving there, we noticed there was a ticket window where you could buy the tickets by others means, aka cash. So that 店員さん who told me I could only purchase a ticket online with a credit card:

Anyway, after getting in, we actually made it just in time to see the RX-78F00 Gundam begin moving. There are several opportunities during your time there to see the Gundam move and pull off various poses and moments, just to showcase the many years of research and work put in to presenting the world's largest moving robot (as confirmed by Guinness World Records)

Also to note, while you get a perfectly good view from the general assembly area where I was, if you are early enough, you can purchase a ticket online to get admission for spot on the loading frame to get a close up view of the moving Gundam. Since it was completely booked out for that, I was rather content with the regular view. 

While the moving Gundam is the main draw of Gundam Factory, there are couple of other things to see and do. Aside from the Gundam Cafe, there is also the Gundam Factory store where you can buy exclusive or limited edition Gunpla, include the RG clear coloured version of the Zeong, the HG clear coloured version of Heine Westenfluss'/TM Revolution's Destiny Gundam among other things. However, the catch here, is that once you have paid for your purchases, you cannot enter the store again for the rest of the day, something that the staff explain to you when you make your purchase, giving you a chance to go and purchase some additional items if you wish to do so. For me, I puchased the Cross Silhouette SD RX-78F00 Gundam. I have several High Grade of the classic RX-78-2 Gundam (including the Revive, Beyond Global, The Origin, and the recently ordered Full Armor Gundam) as well as the Master Grade versions of the Origin version and 3.0, but never have I owned an SD version of the Gundam, and the Cross-Silhouette version looked interesting to try.

 Besides the shop, there is also a museum that actually shows a lot of information surrounding the construction of the RX-78F00, including the technologies used, the research involved, along with the various companies that played a part in the development of the Gundam, including the creator of the Gundam series, Yoshiyuki Tomino himself. 
While I didn't get a chance to take pictures of the various technologies that were on display, I was able to take photos of the evolution of the 1/100 scale RX-78-2 Gundam, starting from right to left. I also was able to take a picture of the diorama of RX-78F00, showing how it scales next to a person.

There was also a room that was showing videos surrounding the development of the RX-78F00, though this can also be found on the official Gundam Channel on youtube. 

Lastly, before we left, I took the opportunity to write a message that the facility encourages visitors to do, whether it be feedback, your thoughts on the moving Gundam, or even what moving Gundam you would like to see next. While not a fan of Mobile Fighter G Gundam, I figured that it would be a great opportunity to showcase even more movement, given that it is a martial arts fighting Gundam. 

[It was a lot of fun! The moving Gundam's amazing!! Next, do the God Gundam!]

After that, we spent some time in Yokohama's China town before heading home. Though checking out China town again after so many years was fun, the moving Gundam at Gundam Factory was the highlight of the day for me.