The port of Yokohama will play host to a colossal, walking Gundam robot for a year starting this October. With 24 degrees of motion, it'll be the most advanced full-sized Gundam ever built, and the engineering challenge of making it work is enormous. First going to air in 1979, Yoshiyuki Tomino's Gundam series has left an indelible mark on Japanese culture and the world of animation. Its giant, samurai-influenced, sword-fighting mecha robots have launched nearly 50 official TV series and movies, and inspired countless others. Transformers, Pacific Rim, Real Steel, Voltron, MegaBots, anything with a big robot in it owes some debt to Gundam, indeed, even the Master Chief's armor in the Halo series of video games.

It's half the size of the Statue of Liberty, has flashing eyes and steam rising from its body as it towers over puny humans by Tokyo Bay. This 18-meter statue has attracted millions of fans since it was built in 2009 to honor the famous machine from anime, which looks like a futuristic suit of samurai armor. But a consortium of Gundam devotees and companies says it isn't satisfied with a mere statue. It wants to build another six-story Gundam--a robot version that can actually move. The backers haven't decided whether locomotion for the giant would be possible, though it seems unlikely.