Forget about the life-size Gundam that walks and kneels because we just discovered another anime machine in real life that is equally cool if not even more cool. Folks, this is the self-transforming Robotech VF-1S Valkyrie by Chinese artist Shiqian Sun.
Sun is a guest lecturer at Bejing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts and a mecha and robot art creator who was behind the giant monkey robot we saw several years ago. The self-transforming work-of-art was an official commission by ReedPop, the producer of pop culture events, and Harmony Gold, the license holder of Robotech in North America.
It is a 1:9 scale model that weighs about 3 tons (6,614 lbs). There was an interesting story behind this self-transforming 1:9 scale VF-1S. The original plan was for Sun to craft a sculpture of the VF-1S in its Battroid mode aka robot mode but being a super fan of Macross/Robotech, the Sun approached Harmony Gold with the idea of creating a self-transforming version.
Harmony Gold was naturally skeptical that it was even possible but Sun was adamant and said that he would finance the project himself. Anyhoo, long story short, he made history.
The self-transforming VF-1S was displayed at the Beijing Comic Con in 2016. Granted that this self-transforming VF-1S Valkyrie can only transform between the variable fighter mode and the Battroid mode and vice versa, and not the Gerwalk mode, it is an achievement to behold.
Recently the Robotech group on Facebook shared a video from 2016 and once again made fans go ga-ga. The video on Facebook has garnered 1.3 million views and 3.5K reactions.
Images: Shiqian Sun [CH]/Facebook (Robotech).
