In Japan they’ve got both a full sized Gundam and a full sized Tetsujin 28-go, plus coming soon a full sized EVA, or the head at least (more on that soon). Meanwhile China, one can find a full sized Optimus Prime.

The sculpture looks far closer to the Michael Bay version it’s modeled after than the Taiwan counterpart from earlier this year, though it’s still made of the same basic elements: spare car parts and other bits of junk. Coming in at 40 feet in height and 6 tons in weight, the Autobot’s commander in chief is the centerpiece of the newly opened Green Dream Park, located northwest of the “Bird’s Nest” National Stadium, which hosted the Olympics in Beijing two years ago. The park features a wide variety of environmentally conscious objects, all utilizing recycled materials, to help encourage the nation to act and think green in a similar fashion.

Folks who actually dig the live action movie design will surely be impressed, while the rest of us will shrug out shoulders and state “eh, it’s alright… I guess?” And for those wondering why no one had yet to tackle the G1 version, it’s been done already, in China as well, but it didn’t turn out so hot…

The upcoming arcade game Gundam Extreme Versus has finally had its official site updated, along with a Twitter feed to go along with it. Thankfully, they’ve opted for a more traditional site (over a flash based monstrosity) so we can link to pages directly, such as the game’s current MS List. This is slightly curious though, as we saw a V2 Assault Buster Gundam in the location test videos a few months back but the MS is noticeably absent from the list (as is the Unicorn Gundam, despite adorning the site’s main page art). In any case, we’ll be keeping an eye on this game over the coming months especially considering that a PS3 port is very likely at some point.

4Gamer has some new coverage for the upcoming 360 port of Virtual On Force. Despite showing the four-player splitscreen mode, the above screenshot was of more interest really. For those that may not know, that’s a picture of TWO Jaguarandi’s against a MBV-04-10/80adv “10/80 ADV”. The best description for the above picture is probably along the lines of “incongruously terrifying”. This somewhat insane screenshot actually shows a special mission in progress, which is interesting as it’s something Virtual On Marz attempted as well, in terms of its level structure at least. Having a 10/80adv pitted against the Force era Jaguarandi’s does seem brutally unfair though.

SiliconEra has an interview with Shinji Hashimoto, producer of Front Mission Evolved, teasing some sort of cross-promotion with Hideo Kojima and his PlayStation Portable game Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.

This cross-promotion seems to be in addition to an already announced cross-promotion between the two games, where items unlocked in Peace Walker will be available in Front Mission Evolved, and/or vice versa. Considering the very different nature of the two games’ mecha, I’m wondering how this will actually work; if it’s robot-to-robot part swapping it could look awkward, albeit possibly interesting. The mecha in Peace Walker are heavy tank-like walkers and reworked versions of Metal Gear Solid 3’s Shagohod, while Front Mission Evolved’s mecha conform more to the Real Robot standard of quick-moving humanoid weapons, equipped with thrusters and ground rollers.

I wouldn’t mind the big secret being a face-off against the venerable Metal Gear REX from the original Metal Gear Solid. I’ve been waiting years to go mano-a-mano (well, mecha-to-mecha) against that monster without support from an insane cyborg ninja. Getting help from an insane cyborg ninja always felt like cheating.

A somewhat disgruntled Satoshi Kubo recently mentioned that a new Super Robot Wars anime is on the way and that he’s not working on the project due to the involvement of one Masami Obari (pictured above with the Max Gohkin Dragonar 1). Despite Kubo’s somewhat petulant demeanour, the news of an Obari helmed super robot show is most welcome. As Obari has pretty much encapsulated the “hero spirit” in much of his mecha designs. Admittedly, he’s faltered somewhat in recent years as Dancouga Nova was pretty underwhelming, especially compared to the brilliant original. In any case, a new Super Robot Wars anime normally heralds a big game release and a proper 2D PS3 or 360 game is long overdue (XO doesn’t count, as that was effectively a GameCube port). That said, we just want Obari to go back and pitch Dai Mazinger again.

Update: It appears that a new SRW game on the PS3 may surface at this year’s Tokyo Game Show, which ties in with the release of this new anime quite nicely.

The wonderful full size Real Grade Gundam is nearing the final stages of completion in its new home of Shizuoka. Over at Gundam.info, they’ve also got a new set of night time photos showing off the new beam saber in action. What’s curious is that the light source inside appears to be a form of arcing plasma (similar to those in a plasma lamp). If the frequency of the arcs are fast enough you could get quite a nice dramatic effect. The Gundam will be open to the public again from July 24th 2010 till January 10th 2011.

Game Watch has a nice breakdown on the upcoming Front Mission Evolved that shows, amongst many things, the backpacks that the wanzers can equip. From anti-missile hardware to, the more interesting, hover/flight backpack. Interesting in the sense that wanzers have historically been ground specific mecha, much like the AT’s in VOTOMS in fact as they too have “rollers” in their feet. Admittedly, some of the Front Mission games have allowed the wanzers to jump and hover but this was relatively rare in the series as a whole. There’s no reason why it can’t work though and the backpack element means it’s by no means a permanent fixture either. The update also shows some of the antagonist characters, with emphasis on bewbs no less. The Dylan mercenaries sport wanzers with skulls for heads, just so that gamers get that they are the “baddies” (way to go on the narrative subtlety there). In any case there are lots of nice screenshots to look at and, for all our worries about the game, it is looking nice.

After HORI finally received all its pre-orders for the release of the TwinStick EX peripheral, it now seems that that sticks are going into production again. In addition, the sticks have been emblazoned with the Virtual On Force logo to tie in with the port’s 360 release at the end of the year. You can also order the sticks again here and thankfully the sticks will also still work with the Oratan 5.66 port that was released on XBLA last year.

French site Nintendo-Master has apparently seen Tail Concerto‘s spiritual successor, Solarobo, translated into French. There doesn’t seem to be any official announcement, but seeing a game currently unreleased in Japan already in another language means someone at Bandai-Namco is planning a localization. Whether the French translation means a European or a North American release is hard to say at this point.

As noted above, the game is a spiritual successor to Tail Concerto, a PS1 platforming game starring a dog-cop in a mecha, who captured criminal cat pirates in bubbles. Cute game about talking animals or crypto-allegory about the political and literal machinery of racism? (probably the former) Anyway, the PS1 original was refreshing in its time for its colorful look and relaxing feel back when most video games were exploring darker themes and, with the upgraded graphics capabilities of the Nintendo DS, Solarobo is not only continuing in that tradition but is extending it. By creating a colorful, almost waterpainted game in a time where video games consist entirely of palettes of browns.

The same YouTube user who uploaded a few videos of the game last time we talked about Solarobo has again graciously shared with the Internet a few more vids, illustrating the game in action. As we noted last time, Solarobo’s camera perspective changes depending on what kind of stage the character is currently in, taking a behind-the-back view during the larger 3D stages, and a wide angle shot for smaller rooms that depend more on sidescrolling and platforming. A lot of games try to keep the game’s perspective constant even when the game’s needs could better be served by a different angle, which either makes certain stretches of a game awkward or limits the possibilities of the game’s creators. Solarobo definitely seems to be playing with possibilities; here’s the game’s (apparently VTOL) mecha taking flight between floating islands with some of the best mecha booster-flares ever, here it is in one of the more exciting mine cart scenes that are apparently mandated by international law, and then there’s, uh, this “fishing for a battleship” scene. It’s good to see that when mecha games finally get their own fishing minigames, the fish are scaled up to the capabilities of the mecha.

Website DSHyper also has their own impressions, which includes a good summary of what we know of the story and part of an interview with someone from CyberConnect2, the team that is developing the game.

Over at Gpara they’ve covered the news that an old Temjin statue will go on tour around three Japanese art museums in the coming months. Specifically the Aomori Museum of Art, Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art and the Iwami Art Museum. This is also part of a robot art festival but it nicely ties into the upcoming release for the Virtual On Force port coming later this year. This specific Temjin statue, the MZV-747-J, was actually used at the 2002 Tokyo Game Show to announce Virtual On Marz’s release. The problem is that the 747 series of Temjins in Force sport a different and more subdued colour scheme, so this statue is a bit out of date with that really. This Temjin from Marz also featured in Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 on the PS2 and the recent Super Robot Wars K on the DS.