#gundam f90

[gremoria411]

Mobile Suit Generations in the Universal Century

Alright, another lineage post, kinda (I will finish that 00 one eventually).

Now in my post about how the Zaku series changed over time, I mentioned briefly that I don’t really see the Universal Century Gundam series as being much of a lineage, primarily because it’s an absolute mess. However, I do want to do a post talking about the Gundam “line” in some more detail at some point. So I thought I’d make this post beforehand as a sort of preliminary excercise. Because it’s rather difficult to talk about Gundams in universal century without talking about Mobile Suit Generations themselves.

So, What are Mobile Suit Generations?

In brief; as mobile suit technology in Universal Century developed, there were a number of concepts that would revolutionise the entire field, and lead to mobile suit design being completely different as time went on. New technologies, new theories, new design ethos, that sort of thing. And because Gundam units were so often cutting-edge, these new ideas would typically be applied to them. A new generation represents a massive leap forward for the technology, meaning that development occurred very quickly. I’ve thrown around the terms before, typically when talking about fourth-generation mobile suits, but I figured I’d do a post outlining the different mobile suit generations, what their characteristics are, give some examples and talk about any noteworthy oddities.

Disclaimer: as it ever is with UC, there’s a lot that doesn’t divide cleanly here. Some mobile suits are easier to categorise than others, and there can be a lot of overlap between the generations, so I’ll be looking more at broad trends than categorising everything. I’m also gonna skip over a lot of detail here in the name of this post actually being of reasonable length.

First Generation Mobile Suits

Named retroactively and also the easiest to categorise. First-Generation mobile suits encompasses every mobile suit built prior to the Gryps War - Zaku’s, GM’s, RX-78’s, Pale Riders, the Gundam Development Project - all First-Gen mobile suits. First-Gen’s a broad category because it’s every suit on both sides of the OYW, and because mobile suits were still a very new technology there was an absolute range on design ethos and styles. First-Generation mobile suits really only share a timeframe of manufacture, there isn’t really much else to tie them together.

Second Generation Mobile Suits

The only (technically) Mobile Suit Generation to straight-up replace its predecessor and also one of only two generations to incorporate actual definitions (at least as far as I can tell). While the later generations tended to focus on one aspect of mobile suits, Second-Generation mobile suits were an all-around improvement over the second generation. They were characterised by three main features:

The movable frame - rather than just providing structure as was the case previous, the movable frame incorporates all the critical components required to actually move the unit, with the weapons armour and propellant tanks being externalised. This allows for easier maintenance, greater mobility and improved energy efficiency.

360-degree panoramic cockpit and linear seat - technically two improvements, but a “better cockpit” in a nutshell. The 360-degree panoramic cockpit allowed for a much greater field of view for the pilot, especially when compared to the old, cramped cockpits of the OYW, while the linear seat helped reduce the effect of g-forces on the pilot (and also made it easier to eject in the case of being shot down).

Gundarium y alloy - one of several refined versions of the original Gundarium used in the RX-78 series, Gundarium y was lightweight and durable, making it the armour of choice for second-generation mobile suits, allowing them to shrug off blows that would be lethal to earlier models, while remaining manoeuvrable enough that they could dodge such blows.

The most famous Second-Generation mobile suits would be the Gundam Mk-II and the Rick Dias, despite the fact that they each lacked one feature from the above list (the Mk-II had the older titanium alloy ceramic composite armour, whereas the Rick Dias lacked a movable frame). As previously mentioned, Second-generation mobile suits became the benchmark going forwards, and this wasn’t changed until the advent of miniaturised mobile suits in the U.C. 110’s. The Jegan, which would be the mainline mobile suit for the federation for over sixty years, was a Second-Generation mobile suit, typically likened to a mass-produced Gundam Mk-II.

Which brings us to our first oddity I want to talk about - the Dowas Custom. The original Dowas was the final production unit of the Zeon’s Dom line during the One Year War. The precise shakedown of their use and deployment is unclear - the Dowas is derived from the Rick Dom II, which was part of the latewar United Maintenance Plan, but there are reports of Dowas Desert types conducting operations in the wake of the Battle of Odessa - they could be early prototypes, or the Desert units came first and were later refined into the regular Dowas, or the Pezun Dowadge doesn’t count because it wasn’t a production unit…….

Anyway, at least one Dowas unit was brought to Axis by Zeon remnants fleeing A Baoa Qu, where it would be refined and upgraded with Axis’ latest technologies, and then supplied to the nascaent AEUG. That unit was the MS-09SS Dowas Custom, seen in Anaheim Laboratory Log. I won’t spoil the precise details of the hand-off, but you can probably guess from the colour scheme that it involves a certain individual who’s never heard of this Char Aznable fella, dear me no.

But the reason I’m talking about the Dowas Custom here is that it would be reverse-engineered in order to create the Rick Dias, one of the first Second-Generation Mobile suits. But where does that leave the Dowas Custom? Is it First-Gen, or Second-Gen? Well, it’s got Gundarium Alloy Armour (presumably y, since it’s the best one), however we know it doesn’t have a movable frame - neither the original Dom, nor its successor the Rick Dias incorporate one, so it’s very unlikely it has one. So then we come to the cockpit, and I’ve genuinely no idea what kind it employs. So I tend to consider it as an in-between, generation wise.

Third-Generation Mobile Suits

Transformable mobile suits, in a nutshell. Transformable mobile suits were considered an huge advantage during the gryps war, as they allowed for faster deployment, increased scouting range and, in many cases, were able to be transferred from Earth to space more easily than standard mobile suits. The latter half of the Gryps War and early stages of the First Neo Zeon War (Zeta Gundam to ZZ Gundam), are typically considered the golden age of Transformable mobile suits, with such luminaries such as the Zeta Gundam, Bawoo, Messala and Gabthley. Due to the aforementioned advantages, Third-Gen suits continued to develop after this period, giving rise to the Rezel and Delta Plus seen during Unicorn.

Interestingly, what is technically the first Third-Generation mobile suit, the Delta Gundam, was laid down during the early stages of the Gryps War but never built, simply because Anaheim couldn’t figure out how to make the frame work until Kamille Bidan managed to fix the problems with the Zeta, at which point Anaheim was so busy with other projects (like the Zeta Project) that they didn’t have time to review the Delta Gundam until after the war.

However, it is nice to have at least one generation with the relatively simple description of “if it transforms, it’s probably a third-generation suit”

Right?

If it wasn’t for this fucking thing.

Cards on the table, I really like the Gundam Mk-V. It’s nice. But, maddeningly, it’s also one of the only suits that we have an actual, in-universe definition for which mobile suit generation it falls into - “A third-generation mobile suit with the firepower of a fourth”. So it’s a third-generation mobile suit that doesn’t transform. What. Also, It’s the only thing that’s like this - The Gaza-C is a third-gen, because it can transform - The Jegan is a second-gen, because it doesn’t fit into third or fourth-gen categories. Why is a non-transforming suit a third-gen? Very annoying. Based on this, I’m led to conclude that what qualifies a suit as a member of the Third-Generation *has* to be something to do with frame structure, not necessarily transformation, given that the Mark-V doesn’t transform (Or it’s an error on the part of whoever wrote the description).

Fourth Generation Mobile Suits

Speaking of, I should really define fourth generation mobile suits, shouldn’t I? In one word: firepower. Fourth-Generation mobile suits were a product of greatly improved generator output, plus several noteworthy developments in Newtype tech. Any Newtype-specialist mobile suit after the gryps war is most likely part of the Fourth-Generation. The best-known fourth-generation mobile suits would be the ZZ Gundam, S Gundam and Döven Wolf. Axis was a major leader in Fourth-Gen tech, with such units as the Hamma-Hamma and, of course, the Qubeley. Several of these mobile suits were also combiners, such as the aforementioned Gundam’s, though this was later dropped as it led to compatibility and maintenance issues. Fourth-Generation mobile suits were also comparatively rare compared to those of earlier generations - likely due to the rarity of the newtypes that were typically their favoured pilots. The Döven Wolf has the distinction of being one of the few mass-produced Fourth-Generation mobile suits, likely because Axis had the resources to devote to it. Fourth-Generation mobile suits are also unique in that we (arguably) see an upper limit to the technology - the Gundam Unicorn, which is pretty goddamn scary.

Fifth-Generation Mobile Suits

A very easy one here, a) there’s only two mobile suits classed as fifth-generation at present - the Xi Gundam and the Penelope; and b) it’s got a nice, simple definition - fifth-generation mobile suits are equipped with a Minovsky craft system, allowing for unrestricted flight within the atmosphere.

The Minovsky Craft system is essentially how Gundam deals with all those horribly un-aerodynamic flying mobile armours - they incorporate minovsky craft systems, allowing for flight within the atmosphere (like the Psycho Gundam and the Adzam). The Xi Gundam and Penelope however, are actually light and aerodynamic, meaning that they can function more as mobile interceptors as opposed to flying city blocks. Honestly, I don’t have much more to say on this one.

Miniaturised Mobile Suits

Not really a generation per se, but I figured I’d cover my bases here. Miniaturised mobile suits were pioneered by SNRI, the Earth Federation’s in-house weapon development team, in around the UC 90’s to UC 100’s (such as the Loto and Heavygun). It eventually became standard practice after SNRI development data was stolen in UC 116, allowing other manufacturers to develop miniaturised mobile suits.

The main distinctions between miniaturised mobile suits and their forebears is, well, they were smaller. The Gundam F90 stood at only 14.8 meters tall compared to the original RX-78’s 18 meter height. This was due to a miniaturisation of the thermonuclear reactor used in mobile suits, and the development on new armour materials that allowed the armour and mobile frame to be made lighter without compromising its structural strength. Miniaturised mobile suits also used less resources than traditional ones to construct, allowing militaries to get more bang-for-their-buck, as it were (though given the prevalence of large mobile armours in late UC, being able to spend those resources elsewhere may also have something to do with it).

[alfazagato2]

P-Bandai MG 1/100 F90N Gundam F90N. With guest appearance by Mission Pack N-Type.

[scope-dogg]

Source

[cloudedbykatana]

Wooooo Finished the *Little Guy* MG F90. Absolutely fantastic kit, I don't have much specifically to say, but the color separation is incredible and overall the details are fantastic! He's just so beautiful and was so fun to build. Like, I didn't even find myself getting hit by the mid kit burnout I often do when building MGs

[gremoria411]

Okay, I have been wanting to ramble on about the Jupiter Energy Fleet and Mars Zeon for ages.

Right, so the “World” of Gundam Universal Century can be divided into roughly three sections:

The Earth Sphere, where pretty much all of the shows and main events of “Early UC”happen, including The One Year War, The Gryps Conflict, both Neo Zeon Wars etc. This is essentially the Earth Federation’s backyard, that they don’t take care of at all (hence all the wars).

The Jupiter Sphere, appearing mostly in Crossbone Gundam. They’re present and active in pretty much every series, just typically offscreen. They only really get themselves together militarily around the time of F91, in Universal Century 0123.

The Mars Sphere, who are also there. They’re essentially just a fairly quiet (though massive) colony, until they receive several fleeing Zeon loyalists in the wake of the One Year War and Operation Stardust. They’re the big villain of Gundam F90, the prequel manga to F91.

Earth Sphere

Which means I get to use this rad graphic again.

The Earth Sphere encompasses Earth (obviously) and the 7-8 Space Colony “Sides” in various places in the Earth Sphere. The Sides are essentially clusters of multiple colonies (which are largely self-sufficient). It’s not listed how many were at each side, but we know Side 3 , Munzo aka Zeon, had a lot (at least 40, and that’s just my conservative estimate), whereas Side 7, Noa (later known as Green Oasis) only had one at the outbreak of war. Side 8 was added postwar, and a good deal of the colonies present in each side were shuffled around in the Colony Reclamation Project in UC 0084 (below, also several new colonies were built postwar, both to replenish near-destroyed sides and ease overcrowding).

The Earth sphere typically plays host to various wars of independence (i.e. Zeon), simply because they’re in close enough proximity to the Earth Federation Government for them to realistically claim ownership of the colonies. It’s that sweet spot where they’re close enough that independence is an actual affront to the Earth Federation, but it’s also economically attractive for the secessionists (since there’s actual other entities about).

The above graphic depicts the sides in roughly the arrangement they were at the outbreak of the One Year War in UC 0079 (though obviously their position relative to the Earth would change). The precise organisation changed later, and we have another, absolutely gorgeous in-universe graphic from UC 99 indicates how things were changed:

Side 7 (Noa), 1 (Zahn) and 2 (Hatte) have stayed roughly the same. Whereas the remaining sides have all moved, with the exception of Side 4, Moore, which was devastated in the One Year War. Moore does still exist by the time of UC 0099 (it should be around the L1, or Lagrange Point 1 on the map), but it would be reconstructed into the Frontier Side by/around UC 120. Its omission is likely due to there just not being much there at the time. - Industrial 7, home of Unicorn Protagonist Banagher Links, was located at Side 4 however it’s status as an independent colony under the control of Anaheim Electronics, and it’s under construction status in UC 0096 seems to suggest that reconstruction efforts in the Side are underway, and thus there isn’t much business there. It’s also possible that AirUNA just doesn’t stop there, with Anaheim directly managing the shuttles to and fro.

(Looking at all this though, I do wonder if the “air fare” was cheaper to certain colonies depending on the time of year, since it’d take less time and fuel to get there).

I should mention that the Colony Reclamation Project in UC 0084 is only the largest restructuring we know of. It’s quite likely that there were several smaller changes over time, and we know that several colonies were relocated from Side 2 (Hatte) to Side 5 (Loum) either during or just prior to the Zanscare War in UC 0149. There are also Two independent colonies that exist outside of the Sides - Moon Moon (as seen in ZZ) and Magallanica, a colony builder structure owned by the Vist Foundation (though it would be moved to Side 3 Munzo/The Republic of Zeon) by UC 0097).

It’s also worth noting that the reason for the mass dominance of megacorporations like Anaheim Electronics, Luio&co and the Colony Public Corporation is due to the fact that they build the Space Colonies. The Earth Federation is dependent on them to construct the various sides and prevent an overpopulation crisis since they’re the only ones that can leverage the skills and material to do so. While the space colonisation plan was certainly spearheaded by the Earth Federation government (and seems to have gone impressively well, all things considered), it seems that at least a good chunk of colony construction was privatised, as evidenced with the massive power these corporations wield and how not all sides were created equal (IE, Side 3).

Lastly, I should mention that in UC 0169, the overall structure of the Earth Sphere is completely upended due to the Earth Federation weakening enough that it’s completely unable to impose any sort of order on the Earth Sphere, leading to the “Warring States of Space Period”, which I know very little about.

Jupiter Sphere

The Jupiter Sphere is typically depicted as the immediate area around Jupiter, with it stopping at the asteroid belt. Jupiter is best known for for the Jupiter Energy Fleet. See, in Universal Century, (mostly) safe and effective power is available through thermonuclear reactors, such as the Minovsky Reactor. The catch? These reactors run on a rare isotope of Helium-3, which has to be “mined” from Jupiter, and transported back to the Earth Sphere in massive helium-3 supertankers, like the Jupitris (below).

Because of this, the Jupiter Energy Fleet wields considerable political power, and attacking their ships in wartime is considered forbidden by treaty (Zeon remnant groups break this treaty postwar). The consequences of attacking Helium-3 supertankers are depicted in Gundam Narrative (though technically that’s an extreme case). They essentially provide the fuel that the rest of the setting runs on. It’s also noted that the Jupiter Fleet has a higher-than-average number of “psychic’s” among their ranks (it’s unclear how much the Jupiter Sphere buys into the Newtype theory, so they’re often just called psychics, despite being especially strong newtypes for all intents and purposes). Indeed, both Challia Bull and Paptimus Scirocco are Jupiter Sphere natives.

The Jupiter Sphere eventually gives birth to the Jupiter Empire in U.C. 0120, lead by Crux Dogatie, who really hates the Earth Federation for basically leaving the Jupiter Colonies to fend for themselves, then trying to win him over with a political marriage. The Jupiter Empire Functions as the Big Villains of the Manga, Gundam Crossbone, but they are also backing Cosmo Babylonia, the Big Villains of Gundam F91.

Slight sidebar on Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam: read it. It’s really good. You don’t have to read every sequel series or anything, just read the original all the way through. It’s essentially a Gundam series as a manga, but the mobile suits didn’t have to have really toyetic designs, so they can be a bit weirder with it. They have a bunch of really good designs, like the Pez Batalla, Zondo Gei and the Divinidad. It’s really, really good.

The Jupiter Empire is opposed by the Crossbone Vanguard Space Pirates, remnants of the old Cosmo Babylonia forces united under Berah Ronah (as well as elements from the Earth Federation and some independent forces) operating from their mothership, the Mother Vanguard. They operate under the banner of space pirates, both as camouflage amongst other space pirate groups and in order to allow assets to be funnelled to them with some sense of deniability “Oh, those dastardly space pirates, they stole four three of our newest prototypes!”. Also they just look really cool.

The Jupiter Sphere really doesn’t have much of an economy compared to the Earth Sphere, which eventually causes enough resentment to lead to war (and the Jupiter Empire’s impending bankruptcy). It’s also notable that the Jupiter Energy Fleet took in several remnants from both Zeon and the AEUG post OYW and Neo Zeon War, respectively. The Jupiter Empire as an entity is technically still a thing up until the most recent date in UC (0169), so other than the Jupiter Sphere being the little-mentioned backbone of UC and its eventual resentment leading to the Jupiter Empire (and in turn the Crossbone Vanguard), there’s not much more to say.

Mars Sphere

Okay, I both only know the absolute basics on the Mars Sphere, and have an incredible personal bias against it, so this is going to be a lot more opinion than fact.

The Mars sphere really only shows up twice in Universal Century however, both times quite different. First, in Mobile Suit Gundam F90 (which takes place around UC 0111) the prologue to F91, in which Mars Zeon, Zeon remnants that fled to Mars, are the big villain. Second, in Advance of Zeta Re-Boot: Black Rabbit had a Dream, which takes place around UC 0091.

Slight sidebar again; F90’s pretty good. It’s not amazing or anything, but it’s a fairly solid self-contained story that reads like one of the Side Manga to an AU. The fight scenes are pretty good as well, if memory serves. The only real issue is that it kinda doesn’t make the most of Mars as a setting, reducing it to “just” a Zeon remnant holdout.

Which kinda just leads to my main criticism of the Mars Sphere in Gundam - it’s essentially just another Zeon Remnants base. Both series do interesting things with it, but it’s just not that different from the usual Zeon Remnant modus operandi.

The Mars Sphere was colonised early in the universal century, with the various settlements eventually uniting into Side A (Arcadia). A spaceport was constructed on Phobos, Mars’ moon, and became the primary point of entry into Mars. Mars is essentially remnant groups a-go-go. There was the usual wave of Zeon Remnants in the wake of the One Year War, who would form Zeon Mars. More Zeon remnant groups migrated to Mars after Operation Stardust in U.C. 0083, and formed the organisation ReZeon, who proceeded to wage a civil war on Mars against Mars Zeon in U.C. 0088. Zeon Mars was specifically made up of Gihren Faction Remnants, whereas ReZeon was comprised of Kycilia Faction Remnants, hence the two groups animosity. Mars also played host to Titans remnants after the conclusion of the Gryps Conflict. Members of Zeon Mars (The Chester Fleet) were dispatched to aid Neo Zeon during the Neo Zeon War, with ReZeon taking advantage of the enemy force’s absence.

I don’t actually know how the civil war shaped out, but by UC 0120, Zeon Mars (which could’ve been original Zeon Mars, Supplanted by ReZeon or something else) constructed the Olympus Mons Cannon (sometimes called the Olympus Cannon) which Zeon Mars planned to use to commence long range bombardment of the Earth. They also stole the prototype Gundam F90 unit 2, and planned to use it as the flagship mobile suit of their fleet. The Earth Federation dispatched the 13th Autonomous mobile fleet and F90 unit 1 to Mars in response in order to recover the stolen unit and destroy the Olympus Mons Cannon. This iteration of Zeon Mars was also known as “The Oldsmobile Army”, due to their mobile suits appearing similar to Zeon mobile suits from the One Year War (though internally they were actually derived from the notably excellent Geara Doga).

Notably, elements of Mars Zeon were the absolute last group of Zeon Remnants to be active, acting as a diversionary force for the Crossbone Vanguard in U.C. 0122, drawing Earth Federation forces away from the Frontier side by once again attempting to bombard Earth using a mass driver on the moon, before being wiped out by the Earth Federation forces. Led by Charles Rochester, they were cut down to the last, with the dream of Zeon dying with them. Mars basically settles down afterwards.

And that’s basically all the “Spheres” in Universal Century. I miiight do a follow up about the various Zeon remnant groups later.

Gundam's Universal Century be like

[gundamfight]

[thrashz]

Some kitbash mobile suit drawings! These two are called the Baphomet and the Galgallin!

List of the used mobile suits in the cut!

Baphomet

Head: Grimgerde (ibo)

Neck + feet : Michaelis (gwitch)

Shoulders: Schwarzette (g witch)

Arms + lower horns: Schwalbe Graze (ibo)

Hands: Barbatos Lupex Rex (ibo)

Chest sides: Aerial Rebuild (gwitch)

Chest middle + abdomen: Infinite Justice Gundam (SEED Destiny)

Waist + legs: Calibarn (gwitch)

Tail: Ghiraga Custom (AGE)

Galgallin

Head: Thielva (AGE)

Halo: Schwarzette (gwitch)

Neck + chest: Calibarn (gwitch)

Shoulders: Lfrith Pre-Production Model (gwitch)

Arms + hands: Gundam F90 (Gundam F90 manga)

Lower abdomen + upper legs: Gundam 00 Shia Quan[T] (Gundam Build Fighters Try: Island Wars)

Waist: Jesta (Unicorn)

Lower legs + feet: Ninpulse Gundam (Gundam Build Fighters: GM’s Counterattack)

[kachikirby]

SD Gundam Gaiden Knights of the Round Table - Chapter 12

<- Previous Chapter

(CW: Blood)

To avoid the hellish world that will result from Giga Salamand, the final battle begins. The difficulty of this shows when he shows his claws can rip through space-time.

One is also used to take down the temple guardian and another hits the Holy Sword. The sword lands in the statue, causing it to bleed. Giga Salamand tries to take a drop into the Holy Grail, but is stopped.

The culprit was Dark Knight l, who had broken free from the curse. He returns the Grail to King II and the rest of the Round Table arrive.

With the Knights of the Round Table complete, Zabylonia can now be defeated.

During the fight, the F90 Jr brothers are thrown into one of the rifts, but are rescued by the Shooting Star Knights. This to emphasize how screwed Giga Salamand is. Then the Knights surround him.

For a formation attack. Giga Salamand opens his wings to try to fly away.

King II and Guntank teleport to where the Sword is. King II combines the power of all the Knights into his sword and finishes Giga Salamand off.

During the attack, the statue was cut. Giga Salamand tries to drink the blood, but begins to melt. This is because the blood wasn't in the Holy Grail, as King II explains. Giga Salamand goes berserk, causing the temple to start collapsing.

With the Zabylonia Empire defeated, the group returns to Britis. Peace returns to the Saddrac World.

For now.

End of Chapter 12.

Knights of the Round Table Complete.

-

Table of Contents

[bella-bella-bee]

Though it looks a lot more like f90, like them ankle guards and the chest and shoulders match. The suit might be from g fighter but it looks definitely modeled after the f90

It's not zeta era, it's Gfighter modeled after the God gundam

SICK

[actionarcadeunleashd]

MG 1100 MISSION PACK W TYPE for GUNDAM F90 #shortsfeed #bandai #shorts #...

[gremoria411]

Gundam Design Lineages - Universal Century

Because I’m probably going to do a few of these.

This is a follow-up to an ask by @wordsandrobots , with the original post here:

But honestly this one works pretty well just on its own.

Gundam as a series tends to have mobile suits share several features, and it plays around with the concept of lineages and development in that field. Seeing how I haven’t made much progress on finishing my thoughts on 00’s design lines yet, I thought I’d be nice to take a nice sidebar and talk about the Universal Century.

The Universal Century is the original series and the one with the most instalments. As such, it is absolutely thick with design lineages to trip over and discuss.

However, I really don’t see a lineage between the actual Gundam’s themselves. With the sole exception of the original Gundam and the Gundam Mk-II, they all feel rather unconnected - at least directly. The Original RX-78 line was constructed basically out of whole cloth during the one year war - the general concept of mobile suits was considered but there was little influence from pre-existing designs because there weren’t any. The post-war Gundam development project was a group of units with very different design goals, grouped together under the name “Gundam” because that’s what Federation high-performance suits were called, really. Yes, they would be used against Zeon remnant groups but the Gp02 and Gp03 especially were fully divorced from prior Gundam iterations (I guess there’s the focus on close quarters combat and quick strikes that connects the other three, but again that feels more regarding mobile suits in general than Gundams specifically to me). The Gundam Mk-II was a direct upgrade to the original built at the beginning of the Gryps Conflict using modern technology, and thus shares direct lineage, but from there it all goes a bit sideways. The “next” iteration, the Zeta Gundam, was developed by Anaheim Electronics under their Project Zeta line. Project Zeta could probably be its own post, but it was essentially brand-new in terms of mobile suit design, incorporating cutting-edge technologies and some data from Axis. Yes, the Gundam Mk-II was one of the suits that were used in the Zeta Gundam development, but so was the Rick Dias and Methuss, so I don’t tend to look at it as a Gundam development line all that much. The Gundam Mk-III also clearly incorporated design features from the Zeta Project (specifically both the Zeta and Delta Gundam’s) in addition to the Mk-II, so there’s no direct link there. The Gundam Mk-IV is stated to be based off the Mk-III, and I’d be inclined to consider it took influence from other Project Zeta units as well, considering both lines would have been incorporating remote weaponry around this time (such as the S Gundam, seen in Gundam Sentinel). The ZZ Gundam appears to have been developed in response to other Fourth-Generation Mobile Suits, and is also part of the Project Zeta line. The Nu Gundam is, surprise-surprise, also part of the Project Zeta line, but I tend to look at it more as an expression of Amuro’s development rather than the Gundam itself. Project Zeta is essentially a bunch of Gundam plans all running at once, so while they cross-pollinate each other, I don’t view them as a lineage as such. The Unicorns, F91 and Alex I generally look at as their own things - The Unicorns are this odd development of the Nu and the Sazabi through the Sinanju, but their status as the absolute zenith of Newtype-use mobile suits again separates them from Gundam’s specifically. The F91 is a development of the F90, which is essentially just, a Gundam. Like, a new one. Lastly the Alex, while absolutely lovely, falls into the trap of being built in the One Year War, and thus I’m inclined to lump it in with all the other OYW-era Gundams and Gundam-a-likes. Variants, not successors.

So, now that we’ve established I don’t really see the various Gundam’s as a design lineage, what do I think of when I think design lineages in Universal Century? Why, nothing less than the other side of the coin, from Federation elites to Zeon grunts, ladies, gentlemen and beyond, let’s talk about Zaku’s:

The Zaku I - The Zaku I was the first mobile suit assigned for use in combat, and was developed in UC 0095, four years before the outbreak of the One Year War. It’s production would eventually be replaced by the Zaku II in UC 0077-0078 (depending on if you class the Zaku II A Type or C Type it’s replacement), as the Zaku II had overall better performance, and was easier to work with due to a improved internal design. The Zaku I’s lower performance would see it mostly relegated to second-line duties during the bulk of the One Year War, but it was infamously used during the One Week Battle and Operation British, where it would be armed with Atomic Bazooka’s and G3 Gas Grenades. The Zaku I did see some frontline use however - Ramba Ral, Erik Blanke and Norris Packard would all make Ace status in these suits, and it wasn’t unknown for commanders to request it instead of Zaku II’s, since it was more likely to be available. It also was able to use pretty much any weapon that the Zaku II could, leading to a comparatively low loss in performance. Interestingly, two variants of this unit - the British Invasion “Green Devil” and First Refined Type 185th Airborne Paratrooper use, both used during Operation British and the Earth Drop Operation, respectively; would incorporate Zaku II parts, implying that the Zaku I could be upgraded to a level close to the Zaku II with little difficulty, similar to how the Earth Federation would later upgrade its aging GM’s into GM II’s.

Design-wise, I think the Zaku I’s just lovely. A little soldier guy. I like how simple and clean the body is, and the head’s just so well-defined and characterful - it just looks surprised. The darker tones and thinner design sell that this is the precursor to the Zaku II - I especially like the “bridge” in the centre of the visor - putting multiple at the side to give a clearer front view is the obvious choice, so having the Zaku I not have that is just very nice. Its weaponry is pretty great - its machine gun and bazooka are obvious precursors to ones used by the Zaku II, and it incorporating an actual shield to compensate for it not being integrated is also lovely.

The Zaku II - what even is there to say about this one? It’s justifiably iconic and for good reason. The Zaku II C Type entered service sometime in U.C. 0078, and was used in the early stages of the One Year War. After the signing of the Antarctic Treaty, it would be quickly replaced with the visually-identical F Type, which lacked the heavy radiation shielding around the cockpit and was consequently much more agile. However, the F Type would itself be largely replaced with the also externally identical J Type for Earth operations (often known as the Zaku Ground Type), which had internals better suited to combat under gravity. In case it’s not obvious, I really like the many, many Zaku variants. It’s just lovely to see so many spins on such a classic design. I like the simplicity of it, I like the weapon variety, I like how expressive it is, I like how it’s in basically everything because it’s just so “Zeon”.

The Hi-Zack. I know there’s a bunch of units between the Zaku II and Hi-Zack, but they’re all either Zaku II variants (and therefore good) or from Advance of Zeta (which I don’t really care about). So I’m just gonna talk about the basic Hi-Zack. It’s probably my least favourite of the suits I’m gonna talk about here, but that’s more to do with the rest of the line being really good. The Hi-Zack was used by the Earth federation and Titans during the gryps conflict, and was one of the three “main” mobile suits for both organisations during the war. It was noted for being vastly superior to the old Zaku, however due to a weak generator, it could only mount one beam weapon at a time (so beam saber or beam rifle, not both). This would eventually be remedied in the later Hi-Zack custom, but by then the titans were seeking a new main mobile suit, so it was only produced in limited numbers. Design-wise, the Hi-Zack’s an odd duck for me. I’m not particularly fond of the design itself, but I like a lot of the details surrounding it. It’s quite a nice microcosm of early Gryps War-era design - the chest in particular is this blend of federation and Zeon elements and I like how chunky the feet are. There’s just so much good detail here, but it doesn’t feel overdone and it looks great in animation. I’m just not really much of a fan of the design itself - it just looks too much like a Zaku +1 to me. Or the Zaku pushed through a Zeta-style design filter, with its wing binders and two-colour forearms. I also think it’s just lacking in the weapon department - the fact it can only mount a beam rifle or beam saber just does it no favours, and there’s nothing to really differentiate it from the pack, as it were. Pretty much all of its weaponry is used by other mobile suits, so there’s nothing that feels like it’s unique to the Hi-Zack. Well, one exception- I do quite like its machine gun, but I think that’s just because it’s essentially a Zaku machine gun with a fancy sight. I would also like to call out that I like how it’s got two colour schemes - one for the Titans and one for the Federation, and it looks absolutely gorgeous in the Zeta Gundam: A New Translation movies (seriously, it’s just so pretty).

The Zaku III - The Zaku III is Axis Zeon’s proper upgrade rollout for the Zaku Line, designed to be versatile and easily equipped for different missions. To this end, it had a variety of optional parts produced, leading to the Zaku III Custom, which was really just the Zaku III with various options parts added to boost performance. It was in competition to become Axis next mainline mobile suit - a competition it lost to the vastly more powerful Döven Wolf. As such, it would only be produced in limited numbers.

The regular Zaku III is a pretty big break away from the Zaku design lineage - which honestly is pretty nice. It’s built to essentially be full of beam weapons, and it has some good handheld ones (like three different kinds of beam rifles, one of which has a bayonet). I like the head and the gray colour scheme really makes it stand out. It’s got some nice bulk, so it feels like it’s derived from the Rick Dom a little as well. It’s just very nice overall, it hearkens back to the principality in form while being full of the firepower that is Axis Zeon’s functional hallmark.

A little bit of a cheat now - I really want to talk about the Zaku III Late Type. The Zaku III late type appears in the Manga Under the Gundam: Double Fake (and also Gundam F90: Fastest Formula) Honestly, there’s a lot of great designs in there, but I want to talk about this one because until the introduction of the Zaku IV (shown below), this was the link between the Zaku III and Geara Doga, so I figured it’d be nice to talk about. It retains the skirt-integrated beam cannons of the original Zaku III, as well as its beam sabers. It was also able to mount an optional bazooka. It also mounts a ballistic machinegun in contrast to the original’s beam rifle - it’s stated to be an improved version of the original Zaku III, and one typical way of improving a mobile suit is thinning out integrated beam weapons to ease the load on the reactor, so it having less beam weapons would make sense. It’s also possible that its operators anticipated fighting in colonies, where beam weapons would be overall detrimental, leading to a reduction in their use. The point I’m unclear on is if it retains the “mouth” beam cannon of the original - it’s never shown with it, but some iterations of the design are specifically noted as having removed it, implying it’s still present on this model.

Design-wise, honestly gorgeous. I love the blue colouration and the slant to the armour, while the body and form sell it as an improvement over the original Zaku III due to its more angular nature and the addition of smaller details to break up the armour. I like how the shoulders are slightly slimmed-down since it makes it feel sleeker, and there’s so many details here that are just prototypical of what we’ll see on the Geara Doga. 10/10, only note is I wish I knew how it’s armaments played out.

Note: Apparently the units seen in the Fastest Formula manga are the CR types, as opposed to the Under the Gundam: Double Take units C type designation, but honestly this could just be a stylistic thing, so I bundled the units together (there’s some nice art from Fastest Formula that’s a lot closer to how Zaku III’s are depicted in Unicorn).

The Zaku IV - Boy, it sure is lovely when Gbo2 decides to play ball and actually spits out two of the units I want to talk about. The Zaku IV is an odd one. Because, yes, precursor to the Geara Doga and part of the Zaku Lineage and all that, but also it’s designer is Ippei Gyoubu, who designed the Man Rodi, the Zaku-analogue from Mobile Suit Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans. So it’s got just as much influence from the Man Rodi as it does the Zaku, which is just lovely. The Zaku IV was predominantly used by Zeon Remnant forces in the period between the first Neo Zeon War and Char’s Counterattack. It was armed with a long-barrelled sniper beam rifle, two rapid-fire beam cannons mounted on the head (allowing for a greater angle of fire than the original Zaku III), a pair of small beam machineguns holstered on the backpack and a pair of beam knuckle dusters stored on the waist when not in use. It does also have a large heat hawk as optional equipment.

I really like how heavily armed it is - it feels like a genuine advance on the Zaku III. It strips out a lot of the internal weaponry and hews a lot closer to the design of the Zaku II, but I like how advanced it feels. There’s echoes of 4th-Gen design hallmarks here - the Zaku IV even has an optional add-on, the Princess Booster, containing funnels. I really love how chunky the legs are - they’re an obvious follow-on to the Zaku III, but they remind me of the Dom as well - or more specifically the Rick Dom, so it’s blending together Zeon suits as opposed to just being about the Zaku. Weapon-wise…. The beam knuckle dusters are just adorable honestly, they don’t replace the heat hawk, but they’re just so neat. Them being beam weapons is pretty great too, since it’s a technical upgrade, but visually they still look so very Zeonic. I love the inclusion of the larger beam rifle and beam guns - it really sells the idea of this being a ranged specialist Zaku, and it also make it feel like the heavy weapon specialist of the design tree. The beam machineguns - I don’t hate them, but they just don’t have the design charm of the original MMP Machine Gun for me. I like the colour scheme too - a two-tone of green, with red and light gray for details, breaking up this blocky aesthetic with sharp touches that are framed by the rest of the design. I also love all the design features that feel like evolutions of the Man Rodi - the arms, the hands. Even the odd leg proportions feel like they’re referencing that design, since it basically just had thrusters instead of feet. It’s just this wonderful blend of the Man Rodi and the old Zaku II. I also love how greebled it is (though that essentially counts for all of Ippei Gyoubu’s designs).

The Geara Doga - okay, so the Geara Doga is (probably) my favourite grunt suit design, and is most definitely in the running for one of my favourite mobile suit designs period, so I will obviously be completely biased here. There’s just so much character to it in my opinion - obviously it’s still got that ever-expressive monoeye, but a small detail I like is how the yellows draws your eye to the thruster bells - it emphasised the mobility because it’s got them in so many places. The commander types (the ones with antennas) even resemble mini-sazabi’s, so there’s this lovely of throughline of design with the rest of Char’s forces. Armament-wise, it can be armed with one of two types of Beam Machine Gun (one of which has a built-in grenade launcher), has a beam sword/axe for melee, incorporates a shock-anchor and has a shield on which up to four sturm faust’s may be mounted. It’s a very tight loadout, focused on versatility and any other roles can be taken by one of the Geara Doga’s variant units (various environmental specialists, plus Newtype test units, melee specialists, and even a good old fashioned Kai unit. Honestly I could probably do an entire post just on them alone) . I also love how angled the helmet is and I think the leg detailing’s just lovely. It’s got bulk, but it doesn’t feel sluggish, which is a lovely midpoint.

In-universe, the Geara Doga’s were manufactured by Anaheim Electronics for use by Newborn Neo Zeon (headed by Char Aznable). Emphasis was placed on reliability and ease of production and repair - it’s not particularly cutting-edge, but it’s so well-balanced it doesn’t really need to be. This also allows Anaheim to use it as a basis when constructing their next commissioned mobile suit, the Messer.

And, Lastly, the Geara Zulu. I’ve got conflicting opinions on this one, which I can divide into three main points:

I do love the design - I’ll admit a preference for the Guards Type, since that takes more influence from the Geara Doga, but the standard Geara Zulu is still very nice. It feels like a modern interpretation of the Zaku II - the form’s very much the same, with its slim physique and resembling a human soldier. I think it’s got good weapon variety and I do love the modern stylings on the legs. It’s detailed, but not so much that it doesn’t look good when there’s multiple of it, which is a quality you want in a grunt suit. It retains a lot of the Zaku’s strengths as well - it’s instantly recognisable and the monoeye means that it’s very expressive. The sleeves filigree is present, but it’s not excessive, so it’s clearly signified as a foot soldier as opposed to anything more complex. It has a handful of variants - the aforementioned guards type, the Aquatic Zee Zulu and Angelo’s various units, which are all pretty nice.

It is facist as all heck. Which yeah, obviously it’s a Zeon suit, but it just takes it so much further than any real previous design. It’s a look I’m not really comfortable with for obvious reasons, but I’m just rather lost as to why it looks like this. Original Zeon was this blend of WWI and WWII Germany through a sort of late-70’s Japanese sci-fi/tokusatsu lens, where the fact that there’s real, fairly human people piloting these things is the big difference (or at least that’s how I’ve always looked at it). The Geara Zulu might work if The Sleeves were presented as this sinister remnant of evils past, a cautionary tale of the spectres of old conflicts hiding in our society, but they’re just kinda not. Honestly I find the Neo Zeon presented in Unicorn to be one of the softest takes on Zeon in the franchise - they’re all largely humanised, they’re completely outmatched by the Earth Federation whenever they meet in open combat and even their attack on Torrington (which has numerous civilian casualties) is still presented as this rather desperate thing, where the tide turns on them when the Federation is able to bring actual modern ms to bear. I suppose it could be to mislead the viewer? So we expect Neo Zeon to be this sinister force and when they turn out to have rational goals it’s a surprise? But Gundam’s has the whole gray-on-gray morality going for a while so I can’t imagine that’d be it. It could be that the Mecha Designers and Story Writers didn’t communicate much, but again that feels unlikely. Also, (and this is less of a problem with the Geara Zulu and more with Unicorn’s Design ethos as a whole) I’m not really a fan of its beam rifle being based off the real-life StG-44 Assault rifle used by Germany in WWII. Like, yeah gundam’s had real-world influences before, and I can understand leaning towards the military aficionado demographic (both in messaging and finance), but it just feels so odd. “Watch this show about the horrors of war, with realistic designs from the military-industrial complex!”. Again, the Geara Zulu isn’t the only unit in Unicorn that does this (and I don’t even think it’s the worst offender), but it is a criticism I have of the design. But because of these issues, the Geara Zulu can’t really escape feeling like mixed messaging at best.

So, that’s the my opinions on the Geara Zulu in a nutshell: I really like the design - I’m just not too fond of some of the implications. I would still recommend Unicorn however - I think it says and does a lot of good things, even if I have several aesthetic criticisms.

In-universe, the Geara Zulu was a commission design by Anaheim Electronics on behalf of the Sleeves, who lacked the capacity for mobile suit manufacture of their own. It’s seen as a solid, sensible and reliable upgrade to the Geara Doga, hence it being the organisation’s mainline unit.

Closing

And that’s all of what I would consider the main units in the Zaku lineage (plus a few extra’s for my own satisfaction). It’s nice seeing how the different designs are iterated on, and how they reflect the technological developments and practical needs of the organisations utilising them (and I suppose out-of-universe design philosophies). I particularly like how the Zaku III and IV encapsulate fourth-generation design ethos, and how the Geara Doga and Geara Zulu represent the need practical capabilities coming off that high of Newtype tech during the Neo Zeon War. (I did consider doing the RF Zaku at the end, but honestly I don’t have an awful lot to say on it).

Feel free to mention any of your favourites!

[alfazagato2]

P-Bandai MG 1/100 F90Q Gundam F90 Quick-Type

[the-backspin-alchemist]

Picked this one up again:

Waist!

Leg!

Time to begin a new build! (I’ll try and document the sections of this one, it’ll be fun)

I shall be building:

MG 1/100 GUNDAM F90 UNIT 2

This one starts with the torso:

[adamblue]

Why do they keep pushing F90??? #gundam #gunpla http://dlvr.it/T3WMsT

[gonagaiworld]

Il manga Gundam F90 FF terminerà il 26 marzo Il manga è stato lanciato a giugno 2019. Info:--> https://www.gonagaiworld.com/il-manga-di-gundam-f90-ff-terminera-il-26-marzo/?feed_id=435556&_unique_id=65dfaf1e9e5ea #Manga #MobileSuitGundamF90FF #MobileSuitGundamF91

[gundamfight]