December 23, 2010

Gundam Topples Rival Lookalike

A 60 ft. tall statue was reportedly being built at the Floraland amusement park in China that resembled Gundam a tad too much. Sotsu Co., the company that owns the copyright to the Gundam in Odaiba district in Tokyo, is looking into the matter. Those who saw it noted that the Chinese version had the same EFSF and WB logos on its shoulders. Although the park's operator claims that the design was original, it is nonetheless missing for now, leading us to believe that the Gundam has some powerful friends.

This ia not a select incident. In 2007, the Shijingshan Amusement Park near Beijing tried to create mascots and figures that resembled Disney and Japanese Anime characters. Even if you cannot understand Japanese, it is obvious from the video that those characters are/were a direct rip-off. Most of the videos released at the time were taken off YouTube and a quick check at the park's site claims that it is "under construction." As far as we can tell, the Disneyesque characters and a banner stating "Disney is too far, so please come to Shijingshan" has been removed.

Via Japan Times