Several pictures of what appears to be a full-size prop of a Patlabor robotic mecha are circulating online on Saturday. According to two of the posters, the replica was in the Nanbu-Shijō area of Yokohama City, just south of Tokyo.

The production company Tohokushinsha Film Corporation announced at France's Japan Expo last month that Mamoru Oshii is involved in next year's live-action project of HEADGEAR's Mobile Police Patlabor anime.

The series' original concept of police officers piloting robotic mecha was developed by HEADGEAR, a group consisting of director Oshii ( Ghost in the Shell, Sky Crawlers ), script writer Kazunori Ito ( .hack, Dirty Pair ), mecha designer Yutaka Izubuchi ( Eureka Seven, Mobile Suit Gundam franchise), character designer Akemi Takada ( Kimagure Orange Road, Urusei Yatsura, Fancy Lala ), and manga creator Masami Yuuki ( Birdy the Mighty ). The franchise spawned two original video anime, a television anime series, and three anime films. The last film, Patlabor WXIII , was released in theaters in Japan in 2002.

Omnibus Japan, an audio and computer graphics studio tied to Tohokushinsha, is co-producing the new project. It worked on the graphics in Ghost in the Shell and the Evangelion films.

Central Park Media released the OAVs and television series in English before filing for bankruptcy in 2009. The three films were released stateside by Manga Entertainment, Bandai Visual USA, and Geneon but are since out of print. The North American licensing company Maiden Japan announced in March that it acquired the Mobile Police Patlabor television anime series. The same company announced the rights for the video anime series in January.

[Photos: Nobu-G Kakutani, MASA-SHI, Hiroshi.O via Vito Plahuta, Brian Ruh]

Update: "Yū-sama" also posted a picture:

Update #2: "Cybergundam" also posted two new pictures, one which shows a small paramilitary vehicle: