We’ve been hearing a lot about Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim, usually laced with expletives if it’s coming from his mouth (“Giant fucking monsters versus giant fucking robots!” is his signature summation of the plot), and the panel at San Diego Comic-Con International certainly got fans talking, but unless you were there, odds are that all you’ve seen of the movie are the human-sized costumes that have been on display at various conventions and trade shows.

Today, that starts to change. The official website of the Pan Pacific Defense Corps is now live, and if you poke around as much as is possible so far, you’ll come across this…

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9PFtl2tt9E?rel=0]

What’s most notable here is the mainstreaming of the word “kaiju,” the Japanese word for giant monsters like Godzilla/Gojira. Otaku and other fans of all things monstrous have long used the term generically, but it appears that’s what the monsters will literally be called in the movie. There’s also a countdown clock set to hit zero in two weeks, right around when The Hobbit is set to come out; we already know Legendary plans a Man of Steel trailer in front of that, and this makes us suspect it won’t be their only one (note: although Legendary owns Nerdist, that’s not us being coy, but genuinely a guess; we have editorial independence and do not know all their secrets).

Facing the kaiju will be the giant robots, which will be piloted by two people and be known as Jaegers – this could be a subtle tribute to Jet Jaguar, one of the more famous kaiju-fighting robos in Godzilla-dom. And they’re going to be a global army: here’s a leaked memo from the UK and one from France on the subject.

As for the good ol’ USA, ours is called the Gipsy Danger, and Wired has the blueprints – it looks a bit like a cross between Iron Man and the Iron Giant. The full, massive, hi-res version can be found over there, but here’s a downsized taste:

There’s more to come – we suggest liking Pacific Rim on Facebook, for starters…

UPDATE: Here’s some Kaiju attack footage, for a brief glimpse at one of the creatures:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS6kk1bTqJs]

UPDATE AGAIN: Here’s the blueprint for Russia’s Jaeger, Cherno Alpha (full-size, hi-res version here).

AND AGAIN: Here’s Japan’s Coyote Tango…

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(EDITOR’S NOTE: As Luke pointed out above, while Nerdist Industries is part of Legendary Pictures, we are editorially independent. And we don’t know nothin’ other than what’s in here, so don’t even try….)