The Gundam Series (ガンダムシリーズ) is a metaseries of anime created by Sunrise studios that features giant robots (or “mecha”) called Mobile Suits (MS); usually the protagonist’s MS will carry the name Gundam. The metaseries started on April 7, 1979 as a serial TV show called Mobile Suit Gundam. That first TV series has since spawned a franchise that has come to include works released in numerous media. The story from the original 1979 series has been considerably extended with sequels, prequels, side stories and alternate timelines. As a result, the title Gundam has become a collective term for the seven distinct but related timelines that can be pieced together from the stories that appear in the Gundam franchise. Generally speaking, the timelines do not intersect, but they do contain a few common elements such as the titular war machines called Gundam. As of January 21, 2008, the Gundam franchise is a 50 billion yen trademark. A year 2000 press release stated that retail sales of Gundam items had totaled $5 billion. In the 2008 ranking of average sales figures for anime copies sold in Japan (1970-2008 total sales figures averaged by episode), Gundam series were in four of the top five places. Academic fields in Japan have also viewed the series as a good inspiration in research fields, with the Gundam academy (or officially International Gundam Society) being the first academic institution based on an animated TV series [ref]. In Summer 2009, a real-size (1:1 scale) Gundam RX78 was built in Odaiba and offered an impressive sight. Below the pictures I took of that Gundam.