Gundam's upgrade was unveiled in Tokyo's Odaiba waterfront district on Sunday, giving hope to its corporate sponsors that the giant robot statue will become a new tourist attraction ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

The towering, full-scale 19.7-meter Unicorn Gundam replaces the previous model, which was removed in March.

"I know that many people were waiting so long for this day to arrive. I was one of them," Toshinobu Maeda, managing director of Tokyo Port Terminal Corp., which is in charge of the project, said at the media preview Saturday evening.