A cosplaying snowboarder, “Nama Gundam” (生ガンダム, lit. “Live Gundam”), kicked up some snow on Japanese social media last week when a video of their RX-78-2 cosplay went viral. Nama Gundam has been the talk of snowboarders in Japan for a few weeks now as they and their Gundam performance group, GP Team, have been making appearances at several ski resorts in the region. The video, taken by outdoor enthusiast RYO, shows Nama Gundam in action coming down the slope, spinning a recreation of the Gundam Hammer.
https://twitter.com/okiyama69/status/1484710551695818752
The cosplay was created from scratch, with safety at the heart of it all. After some on Twitter expressed concern about the potential hazards of the visor, Nama Gundam went into detail about the materials of the suit, as well as the helmet, which actually has a slightly wider field of vision than most ski goggles. The suit and weapons are all made from soft, cushioned material. Even that Gundam Hammer above is just a beach ball! The ingenuity of cosplayers never ceases to amaze me.
https://twitter.com/nama_gundam/status/1485929415976521728
Here’s the thing.
The eyes are dustproof glasses with yellow lenses.
The black part of the eyes is car smoke tint.
There is no “rim” like snowboard goggles, so the field of vision is wider than snowboard goggles!
Nama Gundam and Team GP always make sure to get permission from the resorts before making an appearance in costume. When on the slopes, the team is very open to photo ops and recreating iconic scenes for fans and the riders cosplay a wide range of mobile suits. Team GP is a real crowd pleaser and seems to have a lot of fun doing this. Of course, you can’t have the RX-78-2 without Char’s Zaku II and other villain mobile suits.
スキー場でガンダムコスプレボーダー #生ガンダム さんとGP隊を発見。
撮影させて頂きありがとうございました。 pic.twitter.com/5IT4ip23Xw— Fujimon_GPᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠ (@jaky00830079) January 24, 2022
https://twitter.com/nama_gundam/status/1486921730450804738
My favorite things to come out of these visits are the videos that fans make with VFX to match the show, like the one shown above and this one from some of Team GP’s 2020 and 2021 outings. Combining multiple hobbies and passions can have some wild results, like when Olympic skaters get to cosplay as their favorite characters while performing, so it’s not that strange to see Team GP make snowboarding, cosplay, and Gundam work really well together.
If you want to see more of Nama Gundam and Team GP, give them a follow on Twitter! If you happen to be lucky enough to be in Japan right now and want to catch Team GP on the slopes, Namae Gundam has listed several of their planned visits on Twitter. I’m definitely a fan now, and I can’t wait to see what Team GP has in store for the future.
