A question I've been half-pondering since you posted some of your thoughts of G-Witch -- are there any series that you think do particularly neat things with design lineages (either aesthetically or otherwise)?
Obviously in G-Witch, you've got this lovely variety in mobile suit design, with each corporation having a different, easily-identifiable style. But there's also things like how both styles of 'suit in Gundam Wing (Gundams and Leos et al) trace back to Tallgeese, so you have a 'progenitor' mecha running around.
Oooh, that is a fun one. Off the top of my head I can think of around two series that do really interesting things with Mobile Suit Design Lineages, Mobile Suit Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans and Mobile Suit Gundam 00, but Gundam Wing, Witch From Mercury, SEED and the Universal Century in General all have examples worth discussing.
Note: I hit the character limit here, so this post’ll just be part one, and contains my thoughts on 3/4 of the main units in 00. I’ll talk about the fourth and other series in a subsequent post.
Admittedly, most of these are the titular Gundam’s design lineage, but there’s enough grunts that are worth discussing too.
First of all, Gundam 00
I’ll fully admit the above graphic is overkill for what I’m going to actually be discussing, but I think the design lineages of the four main Gundam’s is very very good, because each unit is clearly delineated into a speciality. (I’m gonna define them by their Third Generation Entry, since that’s the ones in the first season of the show).
Exia - Blue, with a focus on close quarters combat (I.E. Swords, to the point its original developmental code was “Seven Swords”).
Dynames - Green, with a focus on long range and sniping.
Kyrios - Orange, a transforming mobile suit that has high mobility.
Virtue - Black and White (sometimes with purple), Initially seems to be the Heavy Weapon Gundam, then later you realise it’s just full of absolute bullshit. It’s great I love it.
The second season, movie and side manga all add to this development line, so you can see how each concept develops over time. It also provides alternate equipment options for the main units, variants on a theme if you will. (I’m going to ramble a lot here, so I’ll identify which unit I’m talking about in bold).
Exia, for example, is the melee Gundam, one of two Gundam’s designed to primarily deal with any traitors to Celestial Being (I should do an analysis post on 00 sometime……, anyway). It accomplishes this by incorporating weaponry specifically designed to get around GN defences which, at the time of its inception, is unique to celestial being (this is why it’s got solid swords in addition to beam weapons). Its immediate predecessor, the Astraea, is probably the most stable of the original second-generation gundams - it’s designed for melee combat and doesn’t incorporate much experimental systems into the mobile suit itself. Because of this stability, it’s typically used for testing weaponry slated for other Gundam’s, such as the proto GN Launcher. This is further evidenced when it’s modified into the Astraea F by the Celestial Being support organisation Fereshte, since it’s the mobile suit of choice for that organisation when circumstances don’t demand a different unit, again because of that versatility. The Exia’s successor is the 00 Gundam (which I habitually just roll into the 00 Raiser, since it’s only around for about three episodes). The 00 Gundam is fitted with two GN Drives instead of the standard one, which should give in a far greater output. In practice, it needs to be fitted with the 0 Raiser, a little stabilisation plane thing, in order to run stably. This becomes the standard loadout for the Gundam, and it becomes the 00 Raiser. The 00 Raiser has slightly less swords than its predecessor the Exia, but makes up for this by incorporating the Raiser Sword, which essentially turns the entire Gundam into a sword hilt. The 00 Gundam’s Variants, the 00 Seven Swords and XN Raiser are essentially the 00 Gundam with even more swords and bladed weapons bolted to the frame (I’d like to specifically call out the Seven Swords for having GN Katars, which is just neat, honestly). As Setsuna’s penultimate suit, we have the 00 Quanta, which dares to ask the question “laser-shooting psychic swords?”, and can also freely teleport, just in case you thought distance was going to make this easier. The 00 Quanta Full Saber is probably what you’d expect by this point - the 00 Quanta with a bunch of extra swords strapped to it. (The ELS Quanta’s not, strictly speaking, a combat Gundam, so I tend to look at it as its own thing). The Exia line starts off basic, but eventually takes the concept of “sword” to greater and more ridiculous levels.
Dynames, is a sniper, but it develops very differently to the other Gundams. The original Dynames and its successor Cherudim were developed for Neil Dylandy, an excellent sniper. However, the Cherudim and its successors were piloted by Neil’s brother Lyle instead. Lyle was not as good a sniper as his brother, and so his Gundam’s were subsequently reconfigured in order to be more effective in large-scale combat - rapid fire rifles and submachine guns as opposed to “true sniping”. So, though the line shares several visual elements and retains a focus on ranged combat, it changes with its pilot.The Dynames was armed rather simply - a sniper rifle and two pistols, with supplemental armour being added. This is likely a direct response to its predecessor, the Sadalsuud. The Sadalsuud is notable for two reasons - it was configured more as an information-gathering unit than a combat machine, and it was notably lacking in armour. The Sadalsuud F incorporated a pinpoint GN Field in order to get around this issue, but the Dynames simply incorporated more armour as a result (likely due to practicality). The Gundam Cherudim, Dynames successor, incorporated missile pods and GN shield bits in addition to its pistols and sniper rifle, with its GWHW/R pack adding GN Rifle bits to the mix, giving the Cherudim far more guns to use. Another equipment pack, the Cherudim SAGA, even went so far as to be a “Seven Guns” counterpart to the Exia’s “Seven Swords” philosophy. Lastly, there is the Gundam Zabanya, which incorporated GN Rifle Bits and GN Holster bits, casting off its original sniping specialisation for a mass battle focus. “You don’t need to be a better shot, you need to shoot more bullets”, indeed. The Dynames line shows the progression from scout, to sniper, to more sniper, to Gundam with a billion guns. This is directly due to the influence of its pilot and the difference between the brothers - Neil’s a Sniper, Lyle’s a Gunslinger and so the line is adjusted accordingly.
The Kyrios is probably the simplest to talk about, since it was piloted by Allelujah/Hallelujah Haptism and was designed to maximise its aerial profile. The Kyrios itself was armed with beam sabers, a beam submachine gun and claw shield, with various optional missile packs, typically used in quick strikes. Its immediate predecessor, the Aubulhool, was barely a mobile suit at all, being essentially a proof-of-concept for the transformation mechanism. Nonetheless, it would also be used as a quick strike craft by celestial being when required. The Arios is essentially the Kyrios but more so - it has a new rifle, and the original beam submachine guns and claw shield have now been integrated into the mobile suit itself. The GWHW/M pack gives it a missile pod and swaps the rifle out for a GN Cannon. The Arios is also unique in that it incorporates a support mech - the GN Archer, which is essentially a smaller, simpler Arios for all intents and purposes (it’s not on the chart, but it was adapted from the Gundam Artemie, the bee-looking Gundam at the top-right). The Arios Ascalon is essentially the Arios fitted with various pieces of equipment originally slated for other units - a GN sword from the Exia, missiles from the Dynames and a GN Launcher from the Virtue. This makes it far more versatile, while still retaining its excellent mobility. It’s another one I’m quite fond of, simply because I find the versatility appealing. That and I think the Arios looks good in red. The last unit in the line is the Gundam Harute - designed from the ground-up as a two-man space superiority fighter. It’s also designed to leverage the abilities of its two/three super-soldier pilots, incorporating the Marute Mode which allows its pilots to fight in-sync (it’s…. Not quite clear how it does this, but 00 runs with the “quantum innovators understanding” stuff quite a bit, so I’m not too concerned). The Harute also incorporates GN Sword Rifles, which are scissor gun-swords (fun), as well as GN Scissor bits and a nice lovely missile container on the rear. Kyrios and its derivatives are largely concerned with doing the same thing - a fast attack plane that’s also a Gundam. It’s a very good, very achievable concept, so it’s neat seeing how the line develops over time. I’d like to note that the Harute is basically a culmination of everything that came before it, but considering I’m quite fond of it, perhaps I’m a little biased there.
I’ll talk about Virtue and other series in a follow up to this post, since I managed to hit the character limit for the first time.
But in essence, I think 00 does interesting things with its Gundam Design Lineages because each unit has a specific role, so it’s interesting seeing how they develop within that role, and seeing how their pilots influence them. The vast amount of other units added in supplemental material further sheds light on the in-universe development patterns and general “goals” of each unit. Exia retains the sword focus, but takes it in more esoteric directions as Setsuna himself moves toward his awakening as an innovator, Dynames undergoes a shift from sniping to gunslinging when its original pilot dies and celestial being replaced him with his brother (which is a very weird process, now that I think about it). Kyrios basically hits the nail on the head first time with its mobility and fast attack focus, with Arios basically just adding armaments, however his eventual understanding with Marie enables the addition of the GN Archer and eventual development of the Zabanya, which raises its mobility to even greater heights. On the other side of the coin, the units seen during 00P and 00F provide context for their successors - what worked and what didn’t, and how they developed.
More dragons! I’m glad the Avalanche Rex Buster came out between the two Valkylanders, because the build was very much the same (and this is coming from the guy with ten Cores). It’s cool having the separate Valkylander’s robot and dragon modes, and then the more angelic Ex next to them. Having them look more distinct than each other (especially in a display where there are already multiple very similar MS) helps a lot.
The Good: All the non-pearlescent white parts are new, which allowed for some minor fixes between the releases, with the main one being the hair. The Valkylander’s hair polycaps into the back of the head, which has just enough tension behind it, but makes the hair a little difficult to position at times because it’s on a moving peg. The Ex Valkylander’s hair has the head polycap into the hair, which adds a bit more tension to it, but allows for just a bit more wiggle room when it comes to positioning it naturally. All the distinct elements that made the original dragon mode distinct (head, arms, tail, wings, feet) have been replaced, creating a more distinct form in regard to the Ex. And while the robot modes are more similar, there’s a definite sense of improvement, with the horns and chest being more armored to invoke that.
The Bad: A lot of the issues that plagued the Valkylander are still present here. The hip polycaps still like to slide off, it has difficulty supporting the GN Mega Flare Device. The GN-MFD can’t be separated into separate guns now. Also, it would have been nice if the whites matched.
The Details: There is metallic green panel lining on the Ex, but there’s not a lot of it due to the prolific use of other colors. All the gold was repainted, with additional gold detailing done to the cheek spikes, shoulder details, wrists, lower legs, feet, wings, GN Mega Flare Device, and the tips of its hair. The hair has an attempted black wash to it. The translucent red components had their insides filled in silver, the center of the hips is solid red...
And then there’s the metallic red. Almost every part (that wasn’t entirely repainted) has at least some metallic red on it. All those spherical details were done up in red. I did consider repainting the translucent parts and doing it all in metallic green instead to keep with my themes, but the red looks fine.
Oh, and the eyes are stickers. I could have painted the dragon’s eyes, but decided not to since I couldn’t on the robot’s eyes.
Overall, this is a decent upgrade, with a lot of carried over features, some new ones, and a couple lost to its previous incarnation. It might not be worth it if you don’t have the upgraded Valkylander to make them distinct from each other, but I guess it depends on how much you like dragons, too, as they look concisely different. It’s definitely a feel it out situation, but if you like the first one, you’ll probably be fine with this one, too.
So I stopped half-way through my photo shoot to read all of Gundam 00F since I pulled it off the shelf. I didn’t even mean to; I was just thumbing through looking for good poses for the Plutone, and I ended up reading it all. I forgot how much I like Fon Spaak. A seemingly insane criminal who also happens to be possibly the smartest person on Earth? That’s a fun character idea.
The Good: This is definitely an odd beast. The general parts-layout and polycap use feels like it’s trying to emulate the older 00 kits, but then there’s a bunch of modern parts layering and color separation. Considering how long it’s been since a new HG00 kit was released, and despite the attempts to copy the older kits, this definitely looks newer. And that makes sense, as technology has improved. That does mean it looks a little strange next to the older kits because it has a ton more surface detail.
It has good posability. Those attempts to make this more like the older style impacts the ankles a bit, and the shoulders are a little blocky, but everything else is good. The shield can rotate 180°, all the rubber parts are fairly thick and stay in place, and it has a detachable Core Fighter that utilizes its chest cockpit and GN Drive.
The Bad: It does have those minor posability issues, and the slight discrepancy between kits, but if you pick up a few spare decals it should look great next to an RG. All my longer Beam Saber blades were crazy bent out of the box, but that’s probably just a personal issue.
Honestly, the biggest issue with this kit is it’s P-Bandai. While the kit wasn’t that much more expensive than a normal kit, going through import shipping and middle men brought it up to around $70, which is not something a lot of people are going to pay.
The Details: While most of the panel lining was typical black, those areas near the GN Drive and GN Field ports are done in metallic green. I did a ton of black fill on this kit, from all over the legs, inside the shoulders, in the chest, and the separation between the collar and the shoulder spikes. Any black you see was hand painted. There are a few tiny drops of yellow and red here and there, the most prominent of which being the red on the horns and shield.
Overall, this is a good kit. I’m a big fan of the Plutone’s design, and am very happy with the final product. However, it is P-Bandai and might cost a bit extra because of it, so only go for it if you have an attachment to 00′s side stories.
