Not to be outdone by the 59-foot Gundam statue in Tokyo, Kobe's Wakamatsu Park will have its own 59-foot robot for "Tetsujin 28" (or "Gigantor" in the U.S.). The manga turned anime TV series was created in 1956 by Mitsuteru Yokoyama, who also made "Giant Robo" and "Sally the Witch," among others.

Meant to celebrate Kobe native Yokoyama's work as well as the city's reconstruction following the 1995 earthquake, the "life-size" robot clocks in at 50 tons, versus the Gundam's paltry 35-ton weight. But unlike the Gundam statue, this one doesn't move and will be a permanent fixture. The Kobe Tetsujin Project is scheduled to be completed by the end of September with a ceremony on October 4th. Too bad the Gundam statue will be taken down by then; I guess we'll just have to watch "Transformers 2" to see giant robots punching each other. See a video of the robot construction after the jump. [Via Anime News Network]