Why the Hi-Zack?

[Gelgoog Jager]

From my point of view and according to the info from the" Entertainment Bible 2: Mobile Suit Gundam MS Encyclopedia Part2. Gryps War Edition", the base design of the Zaku for the Hi-Zack was probably chosen due to its simplicity and its low cost:

-It is stated that the Fedration R&D took a long time to fuse Federation and Zeon MS technologies.

-The Galbaldy Beta is mentioned as a minor upgrade along with the GM II, both result of a budget constraints.

-It seems the Federation and not anaheim were the ones that designed the Hi-Zack, since it is stated that once the Titans assumed control of R&D they hired many Zeon technicians in order to accelerate the fusion of Federation and Zeon technologies.

So in conclusion, it seems that Galbaldy Beta is just a minor upgrade from the Galbaldy Alfa meant to serve as a stepgap along with the GM II until the fusion of Federation and Zeon MS technologies was completed.

It seems they went for the design of the Zaku because it was more simple and the initial low budget also hindered their goal of making a high performance MS based on other high performance MS, instead using the low performance, but cheap good old Zaku.

Shall they had not faced these problems, they would must likely have attempted a fusion of the Gundam with a Dom or Gelgoog instead of a GM and Zaku.

Ultimately, it seems the Titans were the ones that gave the neccessary push to the project with more Zeon technicians to finally assure that the result from the project would be a Zeon looking MS instead of a GM. This reminds me of how the technicians from Anaheim that were from Zeonic, also gave the Gerbera Gundam a Zeon-like appearance as the Gerbera Tetra.

You can check a translation of the EB2 at:

http://side7.gundam.com/rgz/eb/eb2.html

[mcred23]

-It seems the Federation and not anaheim were the ones that designed the Hi-Zack, since it is stated that once the Titans assumed control of R&D they hired many Zeon technicians in order to accelerate the fusion of Federation and Zeon technologies.

That's since been retconned by Advance Of Zeta, as noted in this and other threads, to make the Hizack an Anaheim machine.

[turkishproverb]

-It seems the Federation and not anaheim were the ones that designed the Hi-Zack, since it is stated that once the Titans assumed control of R&D they hired many Zeon technicians in order to accelerate the fusion of Federation and Zeon technologies.

That's since been retconned by Advance Of Zeta, as noted in this and other threads, to make the Hizack an Anaheim machine.

Exactly. Either way, its a matter of zeon and federation technisians buildign a cheap unit.

Although everyone knows, the real reason is that if Aguy and Zaku I = Love, then Hi-Zack = True Love.

[toysdream]

-It seems the Federation and not anaheim were the ones that designed the Hi-Zack, since it is stated that once the Titans assumed control of R&D they hired many Zeon technicians in order to accelerate the fusion of Federation and Zeon technologies.

I think you're reading too much into a couple of sentences of summary here. Neither the original text nor RGZ's summary says that the Titans themselves "assumed control of R&D" or "hired many Zeon technicians." Literally, the Japanese text phrases it like this:

In U.C. 0083, the Zeon remnant-hunting "Titans" unit was formed, and this provided an opportunity/pretext for intensified MS development. Budgets were increased, and Principality engineers were also actively brought in.

As written, this refers to the overall Federation Forces mobile suit development program. The formation of the Titans is merely a pretext to throw more money and resources into the program, and once the Titans are established enough to develop their own mobile suits, the first thing they do is exclude any Zeon technology from the Gundam Mark II project. This seems compatible with Advance of Zeta's claim that the Titans resented being forced to use the Hizack.

The Entertainment Bible 2 text doesn't really explain why the Federation Forces chose the Zaku series, either. Since the formation of the Titans had resulted in increased R&D budgets, we can probably rule out a desperate funding shortage, even though the Hizack itself seems to be designed for low cost.

-- Mark