all photos courtesy Post Hobby
Shizuoka City, home to toy model makers like Bandai and Tamiya, prides itself as being the plastic model capital of the world. Indeed, the Japanese city just West of Tokyo is responsible for 80% of the plastic model market. Inspired by these plastic models, or puramo, the city recently launched an initiative to install puramonuments around the city that range from signage to functional post boxes.
These plastic models gained huge popularity in the 80s and 90s among enthusiasts. They’re often associated with Gundam robots but the models were made in almost every genre imaginable. The design for the new monuments was inspired specifically by the assembly kits that came in grids of interconnecting plastic rods that had to be clipped to free the individual pieces.
So far the city has installed three puramonuments: a post box in front of city hall, and two signages, one in front of Shizuoka Station and the other outside the Twin Messe event venue where the Shizuoka Hobby Show is held each year in May.
