Giant Robot Store and GR2 News

There was a Big Man Japan, and His Name was Gulliver. “Until its decaying remains were demolished in 2007, the park and its 147-foot-long Lemuel Gulliver statue were prime destinations for urban explorers.” Okay, even for Japan this is odd. The idea was to make a theme park based upon a village in the Country of Lilliput from Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels”, complete with a gigantic statue of Gulliver himself for scale. And they did it, about 2 ½ hours outside Tokyo near Mount Fuji. Problem is, the Gulliver’s Kingdom theme park didn’t do very well, and lost money for most of the four years it was open between 1997 and 2001. Some Japanese folks blame the park’s demise on its location, as it was near the Sea of Trees forest, Japan’s most “popular” suicide spot. Whatever the reasons, the park closed and big old Gulliver laid in state with his eyes perpetually staring to the skies until he and the entire park were flattened back in 2007. When you look at the pictures at the links, you’ll probably agree that Gulliver’s Kingdom was a great idea that had a kind of creepy execution, no pun intended. (io9 – Bygone Gulliver Theme Park) AcidCow hosts a pretty fantastic gallery of Gulliver’s Kingdom images — AcidCow
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