The knees of GM Quels and variants.

[Recon 5]

I've always wondered why the knee armor of the GM Quel and its related Hazel Gundams (along with others I can't remember) was so bulky. I mean, no other Mobile Suit before or after those designs (at least none that I can find) had such disproportionately large knee armor. Its like it was a design feature of the Quel and its derivatives.

Was there a reason for this feature? I know that the front skirt armor on the Hazels was huge because of various integrated features (throughout the Hazel series), but was there any reason for the knees to be huge as well?

[Wingnut]

I've never heard of one. The GM Custom (RGM-79N) also has bulky knee armor like the Quel so I think it's just a matter of one design element of a suit carrying over to another and then becoming a trend on a line of machines based on the mech that inherited the design from the GM custom.

[Toxicity]

I vaguely remember hearing somewhere that the original RX-78 Gundams packed three generators - one in the torso and one in each of the legs. Maybe the GM Custom and Quel have three as well and they're all in the same place. After all, the Gm Custom is supposed to be equal to the RX-78, and if the quell is more or less a repainted custom with smaller shoulders, maybe it has three as well?

I don't remember where I heard that statement or whether or not it's true, but no one else has given any kind of hard evidence.

[flamingtroll]

It also seems to me that the AOZ art style seems to favor emphasizing size of certain parts of the machine. The AOZ Asshimar's legs are a lot bulkier than the original design form.

[Wingnut]

I vaguely remember hearing somewhere that the original RX-78 Gundams packed three generators - one in the torso and one in each of the legs. Maybe the GM Custom and Quel have three as well and they're all in the same place. After all, the Gm Custom is supposed to be equal to the RX-78, and if the quell is more or less a repainted custom with smaller shoulders, maybe it has three as well?

I don't remember where I heard that statement or whether or not it's true, but no one else has given any kind of hard evidence.

Mark's Power Crazy article should answer your questions on the Gundam.

[Toxicity]

Wow, so the RX-78 had more than three reactors.

I was still right about there being one in each leg though.

[domtropen]

Only the two in the core block and backpacks are the fusion reactor though? And others are supplementary reactors running by spinning turbines using heat/gas from main fusion reactors? Btw how many reactor does the RX-79[G] have?

[toysdream]

The devices in the Gundam's backpack merely accumulate energy to recharge the beam sabers. The Guncannon doesn't have these, and yet its power output is unchanged. Technically speaking, I don't think they really count as generators.

As for the other engines in the Gundam, there's some disagreement on this score. The original cutaway diagrams published in the Sunrise Record Collection books labeled them as follows:

* Aircraft type nuclear fusion engine: Takim NC-3 (in core block)

* Main engine: Takim NC-7 enhanced nuclear fusion reactor (in pelvis)

* Leg drive engine: Takim NC-3M (in thigh)

* For beam generation: Takim NC-5 engine (in beam saber)

The cutaway of the Guncannon has similar labels, except of course for the beam saber generators. The Guntank has the same core block engines, but no pelvis or leg engines, and its tank base contains a Takim NC-4 as its main engine.

Going by these original descriptions, it seems that only the NC-3 engines in the core block and the NC-7 in the pelvis are explicitly described as fusion reactors. The NC-3M engines in the thighs, which are used to drive the legs, are presumably co-generators that borrow energy from the core block (hence the similarity in numbering). These days I'm inclined to defer to the original Sunrise info and assume that the NC-7 is the main generator rather than just a supplemental device; this would explain why the Gundam has a far higher output than the Guntank.


As for the original question, I'd assume that the bulky knees of the GM Quel are simply a matter of aesthetics, designed to resemble the knees of the Gundam Mark II.

-- Mark

[bluemax151]

I had always assumed quite possibly incorrectly the bulky knees were due to enhanced shock absorbers akin to the ones on the powered GM test models shown in 0083.

[domtropen]

I think that by the last week of OYW more powerful reactors are developed so the knee can be the attachment point for other stuffs. This need confirmation though, so does the manual for MG Gelgoog and Alex shed some light on this? How many reactors do these powerhorse of OYW have?

Of interest is that reactors can actually be placed anywhere with enough space on the MS. Is Zeta the extreme example on this? Having main reactors on legs seem kinda risky.

[CHASER]

I looked at the GM Quel's MG manual, since it has a picture of it stripped down ("Before Armament"). The knees seem to lack the shock absorbing systems the Powered GM's attachments had, and what is there does look like some kind of generator/reactor. I can't read any Japanese though, so I'm not entirely sure.

The Alex seems to not have anything in particular in its knees at all, as far as looking at exploded diagrams tells... maybe I should pick up Japanese someday.

[bluemax151]

I tried looking at Dalong's Quel Manual scans and I didn't see anything that looked like generator/reactor in kanji or katakana but the japanese print is still really hard to read even magnified.

[domtropen]

For Alex and MS in its line [custom, cannon and quel] do they still have a pair of reactors on each side of middle torso ala core block reactors?