A life-sized Gundam model underwent movement testing in Fukuoka, Japan.

The 24-metre-tall RX-93 Nu Gundam robot was seen slowly turning its head and lifting its right arm on January 24. It was unveiled at Lalaport Fukuoka on December 22 and will be debuting in spring this year, at the same time as the opening of the Lalaport shopping centre.

The statue joins two other large-scale Gundam models in Japan – the RX-o Unicron Gundam in Tokyo, and the RX-78-2 Gundam in Yokohama City. A ‘Gundam Park’ at Lalaport is also in the works for fans to experience the world of Gundam. The park is reportedly divided into three sections: a shopping zone for buying Gundam products, a venue for holding activities, and a Namco area which will house an arcade.

Gundam is part of an anime franchise created by Yoshiyuki Tomino. The genre-defining Gundam franchise is an influential sci-fi war drama that popularised the use of giant mecha robots in Japanese animations.

According to data from Business Wire, the Gundam franchise had amassed more than five billion dollars in global sales by the year 2000.

By 2018, Gundam had become of one of the top 15 highest-grossing media franchises of all time with more than 20 billion dollars in total revenue.

The creation is now owned by Bandai Namco Holdings.