Hold On To Your Pocket Protectors! We’re Going To The Bandai Museum!

Tucked away in Chiba, just east of Tokyo, is the Bandai Museum, an altar where the nerdy come to worship. Bandai is the world’s largest manufacturer of toys and also runs a visual division that’s responsible for numerous movies of the “guys in funny rubber suits” genre, as well as a lot of anime. Having heard that they had a sizeable Godzilla collection on display, Matt and I decided to investigate.

Here we see the museum’s exterior. It’s located inside of a nine-story building, just outside of Matsudo station. Apparently, the sky is always pink in Chiba. Who knew?

Here’s a Godzilla suit used in one of the later films, as well as some old movie posters. Despite what I had been told, the museum’s Godzilla collection was rather disappointingly small.

This foot was made for stomping. And that’s just what it’ll do. One of these days this foot is gonna stomp all over you.

As Bandai is a toy company, many of the exhibits were dedicated to various toys produced throughout the company’s 50 year history.

Matt faces off against…some robot guy.

Having left “Character World” feeling somewhat disappointed, I suggested that we check out the next exhibit, which was incidentally the Gundam Museum. While I was well aware that the museum was probably going to be a real dorkfest, I had heard that there was a “life-sized” Gundam on display and giant robots are admittedly pretty sweet. Also, I suspected that some of the nerdier elements in my fanbase might enjoy a walkthrough. Still, when I saw the guys ahead of us entering the museum, one of whom sported a ponytail and was videotaping everything, I couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed for all of humanity.

Here’s a Gundam’s head. I wonder how they ever managed to disembody that thing?

So here’s the strange thing about the Gundam Museum: it isn’t designed like the rest of the Bandai Museum, as an exhibition of toys and memorabilia relating to the history of the series. Rather, it’s a museum about the history of actual Gundam robots, created as if it existed within the world of Gundam. Most of the museum concerns itself with technical dissections of the history of various Gundam robots and their lineage-all of it fictional, of course (curiously enough, all of the text was in English with Japanese translations underneath). So basically, the museum is designed for people who are obsessed with Gundam as a place where they can momentarily suspend belief and immerse themselves in the world of their favorite cartoon as if it were real. Judging from the ponytail guy eagerly firing the “Gundam Gun” (just a regular bb gun painted to look futuristic), I would say that this is an important pilgrimage for many people of that particular persuasion. Above you can see Matt watching a video about how a Gundam’s foot works, or something like that. NERD!

Here’s where you can pay five bucks to put on a tight, spandex Gundam uniform and sit in a cockpit. Uh, no thanks.

Finally, pay dirt! I’ve got to say, having never seen one of these things in real life before (I’ve only been in Japan for a year, give me a break), I was pretty surprised at how huge it was.

To give you a sense of scale, here’s some dude taking a picture of the Gundam…right before it vaporized him with its laser eyes! Well, okay, not really.

What paean to consumerism would be complete without a gift shop? The minute you walk out of the Gundam Museum you’re greeted by an entire floor of Gundam model kits. I imagine that ponytail guy probably wet his pants when he saw this.

Well, that’s the Bandai Museum, in a nutshell. Please don’t tell anyone that I went there.