Nine-year-old passionate about his 102 model robots

OF course the first ‘Gundamish’ hero is Ultraman but the young generation seems to be aware only of Gundam, the anime cartoon series that begun in 1979, more than a decade after Ultraman first crossed his arms to produce the blinding death rays.

Most children aged 5 to 15 who are knee deep into Gundam know the names of the characters, their strength and weaknesses, plots, sub-plots and spin-offs. Gundam today encompasses not only the obligatory computer games but have spawned a series of franchises worth 50 billion yen as of January 2008.