Following the similar threads that @Cyberbot8460 posted about Kamen Rider and Sentai, what about another one but with Gundam instead? Just like those threads, I would post a random MS design from Gundam per day and you guys would rate it on a scale from 1 to 10 (And maybe give some opinion on what you liked or dislike about the design). To get things started, let's start with the "Grand-daddy" that started it all, the RX-78-2 Gundam from Mobile Suit Gundam 0079.
Solid 7/10. I'm not the biggest Gundam fan, but I'm definitely a mecha fan, and granddaddy Gundam is a solid 7/10.
Baseline 5/10. The design that jumpstarted everything, but there's a whole lot of designs that improve on that formula, but also a whole lot worse than it as well. My affinity for the design also swings heavily depending on how it's drawn.
Gundam 6 out of 10, I'm very neutral on the OG Gundam design. I do like its external weapon load out like the Javelin, G Hammer and G-Armor.
It's hard to rate the RX-78-2. It's not in my top 3 Gundam designs. Maybe not in my top 5. But it's the visual foundation for all the Gundams that are my favorites. It's hard not to give it a 10/10. But if the next design we're supposed to rate is going to be the Zaku II, then what am I supposed to do? Give it an 11/10? Ah, fuck it. Original Gundam: 10/10
This is my issue with a lot of MS. Unlike Kamen Rider or Sentai where the suits are more or less consistent, MS can completely change look and feel depending on the media. Examples would be pretty much anything Okawara designed vs. its model kit equivalent. I hate the SEED Gundams in their line art but adore the MGs.
Yeah, I was just thinking pretty much the exact same thing. Specifically the Strike. Left me completely flat in the show itself. Or maybe less than flat. I didn't like the proportions in the cartoon and just the overall look of it. But when they came out with the Perfect Grade, that was one of the most beautiful mobile suits I've ever seen. On the other hand, there have been cases of the opposite happening, too. I thought the EW Wing Zero with the angel wings looked stupid as shit in the cartoon, but I could kind of live with it. But then, all the models (including the PG) made it look even worse.
Idk really, like others have also said, I will echo, it's not really my favorite design, it's not really my least favorite. It's somewhere in the middle. It's a design I really don't care too much about in either direction. Like I've said many times before, I'm not a huge Gundam fan, and the Gundam shows I have watched are mostly the ones that were brought over for and aired on Toonami. The thing I think about the OG Gundam is, that the heroes have the 'weakest' in terms of robot/mecha designs of the show. I think the designs themselve, what really stand out are the Zeon Mobile Suits. Those are the ones I like way more than anything from the Federation. Even if I just compare it to just the other main Gundams, it's probably the blandest of the designs. It's a very simple design, and I think that's it's overall problem. It's just a simple design. Nothing really stands out from it, other than it is the OG Gundam. So, I guess I give it an average score, like a 5 or 6 out of 10. And, that goes for the majority of the rest of the Federation stuff in the Original Gundam for me. Idk, the Zeon just have way cooler 'toys'.
Yeah, you guys do have a point with how a specific MS design can vary feel-and looks-wise from media to media, like a design that looks great on-screen may not translate well as physical figurines (or vice versa). One example of which is the TV version of the original 5 "Operation Meteor" Gundams from Gundam Wing, where I don't like how dumpy their proportions are in the anime but all of the HGAC model kit renditions of these suits further refines the proportions, making them more dynamic and sleek (But still retains their signature aesthetics) as if those designs were drawn by a much better, experienced artist. Today's Gundam MS design is the RX-79 [G] Ground Type Gundam, another OYW-era "Gundam" from the 08th MS Team (Allegedly one of the most realistic Gundam series ever)
Yeah, for the sake of fairness, we probably should rank based on the original lineart, rather than some of the takes that may have come since. I think the biggest gap for me is with the Strike Freedom. I absolutely hate that design as per Okawara's original dumpy lineart. But the sleek, aggressive redesign it got for the Metal Build (and to a lesser extent, the MG and the RG models as well) makes it look flat-out amazing, to the point where it helps me forget how much I hate the machine in-fiction as well. RX-79 Ground Gundam is closer to my preferences as far as the original Gundam aesthetic goes. Same basic anatomy, just a tiny bit more realistic and rugged. 7/10, because I feel that the traditional V-fin actually clashes when you go that rugged. Finless like the EZ-8, The more blade-like antennae of the Buster, or the extra headset antennae of the Heavyarms go just a bit further with that more military, rough-and-tumble look.
100% agree. The original definitely is more super robot than the setting would suggest given it has an entire support system based on combining modules around a Core Fighter, random-ass weapons that sometimes appear out of nowhere and then never reappear, and a bright white/tricolor scheme that looks like it could hang with Getter Robo just fine. The Ground Gundam eschews almost all of that for pure utilitarianism aside from the forehead crest (which they justify by saying it's a radio communications atennae but, yeah, Ez8's single rabbit ear proves you could have gone a bit farther). No Core Block system, asymmetry abound with a big chest vent on one side and the small-caliber weapons on the other as there's a bunch of navigational equipment like a snorkel and stuff in place of the traditional vulcans. The beam sabers are in racks concealed in the legs as the entire backpack setup is designed around interchanging packs for the heavy cannon or the parachute insertion packs, with floodlights mounted where the beam sabers normally are (as shown in the OVA itself). And of course the paint scheme is much more muted (though admittedly given their deployment, you'd think green would have been a better choice for camouflage). Even the shield can be deployed as a stand for the heavy cannon. Probably the same reason why the Jegan and Jesta of later series are equally great. There is a beauty in giant robots built purely for utility and functionality as grunts.
For today, it's the MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam, the titular protagonist suit from the anime classic Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam (As well as the "Grand-daddy" of all transforming Gundams)
Ground Type is an 9/10 for me, but the real winner is the Ez8: IMO this is quintessential real-robot Gundam. No V-fin, no primary colours (save for the chin) and just a fantastic rugged, industrialized military design. My favourite Gundam tend to be the ones that stray as far from the original RX-78-2 as possible, because I feel like the Grandaddy has always been caught in the awkward struggle between real and super root styles. Swung in either direction it really comes into its own, and the Ez8 perfectly represents that real-robot grit. 10/10.
8/10. Really represents the sweet spot where Gundam designs really come together for me, with about the bare minimum of interesting geometry, and more purposeful angles. Not having grown up in the 70s or early 80s, where the oldschool Japanese super robots had their heyday, I've never really had an affinity for the earlier "bubbly" mecha design. Zeta's about that point where the design aesthetic crosses into "modern" for me. It loses a few points for me, in that its narrow shield seems kinda dumb to me, and is rather arbitrarily so.
Indeed, as much as I'm not exactly the biggest fan of the Zeta Gundam anime itself I do respect the whole "transforming Gundam" thing it set up that further influences future transforming Gundams, with a transformation that wasn't just your typical "MS lying flat on its belly with something on its back covering its head" and some interesting shaping making for a pretty dynamic-looking Gundam. I rate it around 7 out of 10, but the fact that Zeta's transforming design doesn't translate well to physical models or figurines kinda stops it from getting a higher score for me.
Wasn't Zeta the first transforming Gundam, though? I think the simpler transformation method of the derivative Re-GZ, and then later carried on in spirit with the Wing was a direct response to how impractical Zeta's more complicated mechanisms were, especially for the sake of the Gunpla.
Kinda. As cool as the way Zeta Gundam's transformation works, that transformation, unfortunately, was so complicated and complex in a physical format that Bandai, even to this day still struggles to translate the transformation into a physical plastic model or figurine form (Maybe both Hasbro or Takara who are more experienced with the whole transforming robot thing, could possibly do a better job making the Zeta's transformation works?) The simpler transformation mechanism of later transforming MS is sort of a way to address that, and in a way it works.
I felt that the MG 2.0 largely succeeded with that. I also don't hate the RG as much as some do, and a lot of its problems can be solved with glue (can't hold its weapons worth shit, though. But that's an early RG problem, and not a transforming MS problem). It's definitely a design that would ultimately function better in pre-built action figure form, though, rather than with sandwiched styrene plastic. But then, for all of Bandai's refinements to the formula, they go and release the MG Delta Plus which was... ugh.
Zeta is my favorite series, but not my favorite MS. I much prefer the Mark II, which I thought was a huge improvement in every way over the original Gundam. Also, add my vote for liking the Ground Type, but liking the Ez8 a billion times more.
