The Official Gundam Thunderbolt Mecha Thread Mk I

[BrentD15]

Because it's cool and awesome.

I'm just stymied that the Earth Federation didn't learn about a Zeon mobile suit carrier being built in the Earth's ocean.

[domino]

gee that last fight was something to behold. Makes we wonder how far the Full armor Gundam would hold its own against later mobile suits. It sure seemed totally overpowerd in the animation. like 10 of those could have won the war on their own or so. I know that side storys add little story fragments, that weren't there when the original show aired, but i wonder what Amuro could have done if his Gundam was modified like this?

When you think about it, Amuro's piloting skills were so much that while his kill-count may have doubled or tripled, he really didn't need a better or upgraded Gundam after the magnetic coating was applied. However, it's likely that he would've killed Char before he had the chance to escape from the Zeong.....or Char would've still survived since he tends to be a lucky guy

[Gelgoog Jager]

Finally watched ep. 4, so I wanted to point out a few things:

-Following the trend of using the redesigns of MS Igloo as the basis for Zeon warships, we observe how the Chibes in this episode have the additional thrusters on top and below the central thruster on the rear. The fact that MS are also seen deploying in a laying down position rather than standing makes me think that it's following the example set by the MS Igloo Musai which implemented the same change. However, some as far as weapons goes, they take a middle approach between the original and Kai model, with AA placed across 3 lines on both sides of the ship: one on top and two on the side of the ship.

-While I'm glad that the Gelgoog follows the Thunderbolt trend of showing a huge number of units of a new variant, I guess I feel disappointed that we don't see them in action. In particular I'm left wondering if those new beam rifles might have any advantages over the standard Gelgoog beam rifle, such as more powerful beam shots or perhaps rapid firing capabilities. In the manga I spotted both this type of beam rifles, so it certainly isn't a reimagine of it.

-On a different note, I wonder if these Gelgoogs might be meant to be individually better than a Gundam or at least as maneuverable as the Psycho Zaku, obviously minus the pilot/interface to make use of that mobility. After all, the MS-06R-2 was referred to as a Gelgoog with the skin of a Zaku, and the standard Gelgoog was supposed to be better than the RX-78-2 (at least before the magnetic coating upgrade). As I pointed out before, Zeon had the technology to mass produce such machines, but unfortunately didn't have many pilots that could bring out the full potential of such machines.

-I'm a bit curious of whether or not the Dried Fish is supposed to be externally different from other Papuas: as far as I could tell it didn't seem particularly special, and at most I imagine it could be bigger in order to accommodate the facilities for testing and constructing the Psycho Zaku, though I wouldn't rule out simply having the ship internally remodeled for such purpose from the beginning.

-However, my main concern is how the EF forces pinpoint it as the Zeon flagship. I suppose it could simply be because it was at the center of their formation, but likewise they could just assume the Musais were simply trying to protect a cargo ship with low battle capabilities. My best guess is that the data from the Rick Dom might have helped them identify it as such.

[BrentD15]

-I'm a bit curious of whether or not the Dried Fish is supposed to be externally different from other Papuas: as far as I could tell it didn't seem particularly special, and at most I imagine it could be bigger in order to accommodate the facilities for testing and constructing the Psycho Zaku, though I wouldn't rule out simply having the ship internally remodeled for such purpose from the beginning.

Speaking of the Dried Fish, does anyone else think that it somewhat resembles an upside-down Musai-class?

[balofo]

Since the MGs are Ver. Kas the manuals will be have no interesting info...

[balofo]

Official site finally updated with the remaining MS: http://gundam-tb.net/mechanical/index.html

GM Cannons confirmed to have Core Block System which also double as Emergency Pods, 20 were deployed to the Moore division.

Gelgoog has a beam generator on the backpack

[Erisie]

Some random observations on the latest manga volume (thanks, Deacon!):

We see that the Dolos is able to berth a Jukon-class sub with room to spare. Although we don't have any numbers on any of the Jukons, the Dolos has an overall width of 351 meters.

For a rough estimation, a modern ballistic missile submarine is about 170 meters long. Since we see the Jukon departing from one of the smaller sub-berths, I'm inclined to believe that this is, in fact, a The Origin-sized Dolos.


According to the official website posted by Balofo, the Psyco Zaku proper and the prototype test chassis for the Reuse P Device are classified as different units. What the Buddhists recovered (or rebuilt) was the latter. I was kinda expecting some bizarre abomination made out of parts of both the FA Gundam (remember that it got retrieved by Zeon after A Baoa Qu, and we haven't seen it since) and the Psyco Zaku.


Another thing: Chao Mihn calls Claudia "Bhiksuni", an ordained female Buddhist monk. In my humble opinion, it was a bit of a shame that Ohtagaki decided against shaving her bald.

[Deacon Blues]

Another thing: Chao Mihn calls Claudia "Bhiksuni", an ordained female Buddhist monk. In my humble opinion, it was a bit of a shame that Ohtagaki decided against shaving her bald.

None of the women in the South Seas Alliance have shaved heads, so I guess it's pointless... probably couldn't tell them apart then.

[Gelgoog Jager]

Speaking of the Dried Fish, does anyone else think that it somewhat resembles an upside-down Musai-class?

It does, but the same could be said about the Jicco or the Gagaul. Chronologically speaking, the Papua was supposedly designed before the Musai, so it's quite possible that the later is based on the former. Also, the Papua's supply belt hatches are meant to dock with the Musai's hangar hatches, further indicating a relationship between both ships.

As for trying to figure out the length of the Jukon, the best I can think of is trying to sue this image to figure out the length of the Mad Angler and use that as reference for the size of the Jukon, which seems to be smaller:

http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/gun ... 1126143539

I do agree that the Dolos in question has to be gigantic to fit it in, and upon further inspection it even has more berth/catapults than the standard seven other Dolos class ships have.

I'm more intrigued by the larger "catapults" though: as you mentioned the Jukon comes out from one of them, and it seems to have plenty of room left to move inside, which makes me think that a Mad angler would be able to fit inside as well. In such case, why would it needed any larger ones?

Leaving aside the cost of such massive ship, due to its size and the fact that we know that Zeon didn't actually build any submarines, just modified stolen EF ones (the Dabude is supposedly another similar case), I'm inclined to think that the ship in question was brought down from space. We know Zeon previously tried to bring a Gwazine to Earth, without much success, but perhaps they later figured out ways to bring down even something as huge as this giant Dolos.

Since we know that Zeon did end up copying some of the technologies from the White Base and their MS (e-cap beam weapons, the MS-07W's core fighter system, etc.) I'm inclined to think that after White Base descended to Earth and began flying around under gravity, Zeon figured that they could use the Minovsky Craft system (which they had already been working and employing on prototype MAs) to bring down the atmosphere larger objects.

Besides, if we were to assume that this is a nod to the existence of a space-based giant Dolos, might as well assume that it's the same ship rather than assuming that two such vessels could be built.

[balofo]

Hmmm, the captured Gundam still hasn't become a factor in the manga yet. Will Darryl's upgrade be the Zeon Gundam?

[Gelgoog Jager]

That would be pretty cool, and could work as an explanation of why the Zeon Gundam is always depicted with a Zulu shield which wasn't available until that late during the war.

On the other hand, I wouldn't mind if they went an extra mile and turned it into something along the lines of Vincent Gleissner's captured Pale Rider, which mounted weapons from several Zeon MS such as the MS-14JG's forearm beam spot guns, the Efreet Kai's let missile launchers, 2 hip-mounted beam naginatas and which could use Zeon handheld weapons such as the Gelgoog beam machine gun and or the Rick Dom II's giant bazooka kai.

[balofo]

Just read a recent interview(5/12) with Ohtagaki about the future of the manga and he said he would redesign MS/MA from the 0079 anime, but only Gyan, Big Zam, Braw-Bro, Elmeth and Adzam haven't appeared in the manga yet. I guess this should include MSV/08th/0083 stuff too.

He also said the story will move to space.

[Gelgoog Jager]

In the cases of the Adzam, Byg Zam and Braw-Bro, I hope he will take inspiration of the existing redesigns of those units, namely from Lost War Chronicles, Sentinel and Evolve. That being said, if the story is moving to space, I would imagine that the Luna Tank that finally got an official depiction in MSV-R would be a more likely candidate than the Earth use Adzam.

Since he already included units from MSV (MS-06R, MSN-01, FA-78 and RGC-80) and 08th MS Team (RX-79[G]), as well having a Gouf (using the Gouf Custom's color scheme) with a hover unit that sounds like a nod to the MS-07H series, I think those two series are the most likely candidates for more MS.

Unfortunately 08th MS team doesn't have many new Zeon MS. MSV on the other hand has some options such as the MS-06E series, the MS-06K (some space use units appear in Zeta), the rest of the MS-06R series, the MS-14B & the MS-14C.

Personally I would much prefer to see more of the last Zeon MS produced at the end of the war, including the Gyan series (maybe even throw a nod to the Zudah series), but also more rare units such as the Galbaldy, Kampfer and Dolmel. Other interesting additions would be the remaining MS-X series (MS-10, MS-11, MS-12 & MS-13), or maybe even a MS-20 (an early Xeku Ein for instance).

[balofo]

Epilogue has the Zeongs and the Psycommu Test Zaku from the manga

[J-Lead]

Epilogue has the Zeongs and the Psycommu Test Zaku from the manga

An interesting thing to note is the numbers on their bodies, although it seems they only had the time to put the markings on Unit 02. Considering Char piloted unit 001, I guess this does mean the Principality indeed intended to mass produce the Zeong.

[Erisie]

Except we see Io escape his GM's destruction in the same cockpit block

Io's cockpit block in the anime looks similar to the one that all RGM-79s have always had (while that's the first Master Grade GM, the independent Cockpit Block was also featured in the 2.0 MG kit). And, since the GM Cannon shares most of its parts with the standard GM, it's safe to assume that they have the same cockpit arrangement.

Only the Project-V MS had full-fledged Core Fighters (a cockpit block that transforms into an armed aerospace fighter). GMs replaced it for a simpler Cockpit Block that doesn't transform into a fighter or carries any weapons. This has been a known fact for decades now.

A recent Gundam Ace issue includes a file on Hajime Katoki's take on the Full Armor Gundam Thunderbolt. The highlighted section reads: In the anime version, the GM and GM Cannon's emergency pod is a Core Block, not the modification (manga had all EF mobile suits using the "variant" Core Fighter, which was only kept for the Full Armor Gundam in the anime).

[Gelgoog Jager]

Epilogue has the Zeongs and the Psycommu Test Zaku from the manga

An interesting thing to note is the numbers on their bodies, although it seems they only had the time to put the markings on Unit 02. Considering Char piloted unit 001, I guess this does mean the Principality indeed intended to mass produce the Zeong.

Well, in Gihren's Greed Zeon's newtype Corps had 5 members: Char, Lalah, Challia Bull, Cuzco Al and Marion Welsh (the new Blue Destiny manga has her as the pilot of the YMS-06Z).

In the novels, the newtype Corps had had at least 14 newtype pilots, which at different times included 2 Elmeths, 1 Braw Bro, 6 Rick Doms and 5 Zakus. In particular one Rick Dom pilot and the 5 Zaku pilots were supposedly picked from an earlier mentioned pool of about 20 newtype candidates, which were available when the corps had already lost Lalah and had just been assigned Cuzco's Elmeth and 6 Rick Doms, including Char's and Challia Bull's (who would later switch to the Braw Bro).

Mangas and videogames gave us a few more pilots, such as Yahagi Franziback (MS-06Z pilot), Annerose Rosenheim (MS-06Z pilot) and Serein Experi (Elmeth pilot). Finally, there's a few unnamed pilots, such as those of:

-The MS-06Z that was destroyed by an EF patrol at the Corregidor Zone.
-The MSN-01 from Thunderbolt.
-The MAN-00X-2
-The planned MAN-05 Gromlin.
-The MAM-07X-3
-The pilot from the first Elmeth unit, which is said to have lost control and destroyed itself with its own bits.

Lastly, the MSV-R manga suggests that Zeon had managed to create cyber-newtypes during the OYW, namely Uma Lightning and Ingrid Zero. Gihren's Greed seems to give a further nod to this, with 4 available cyber newtype pilots created by the Flanagan Institute, simply referred to as NT-001, NT-002, NT-003 and NT-004. Only NT-001 is actually given a face and name, Leila Raymond, and supposedly piloted an Elmeth.

In other words, different sources point towards Zeon having quite a few newtype pilots around and even already producing cyber newtypes during the OYW. Therefore, mass producing the Zeong might have not been such a far fetched idea.

[Deacon Blues]

-The MSN-01 from Thunderbolt.

Billy Hickam is the pilot.

[Dark Duel]

-The pilot from the first Elmeth unit, which is said to have lost control and destroyed itself with its own bits.

LOL what? Never heard that one before. The only Elmeth I'd known about prior to reading the novels(which I just finished a couple of nights ago) was the one Lalah piloted.

[Gelgoog Jager]

It was mentioned in Gundam Century:

While the combination of the Elmeth and its bits was extremely powerful, it required the pilot to have a high degree of Newtype ability. Large numbers of bits went missing during practical tests, and it is recorded that the first prototype unit exploded after its own bits went out of control and attacked it.

The second prototype unit was introduced into combat under the control of Ensign Lalah Sune, the top Newtype of the Zeon forces. As it destroyed one Federation warship after another in Solomon airspace, this so-called "Ghost of Solomon" struck terror into the Federation soldiers.

http://www.ultimatemark.com/gundam/arch ... ntury.html