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Mobile Suit ClassicsThe Gundam saga has spawned literally hundreds of mobile suits, a never-ending parade of metal giants ready to square off on the high-tech battlefield. But for our money, none of them have quite the same kind of charm as the classic designs of the original Gundam series. How better to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the original series than with a series of in-depth profiles of our favorite primordial mobile suits? Illustrations by Mark Simmons The Early YearsTo kick off our retrospective of classic mobile suits, we'll begin with the very first incarnations of the ubiquitous Zaku, created before the outbreak of the apocalyptic One Year War. The initial development of the Zaku was done by the Zeonic Company, under the supervision of Kishiria Zabi. 01: MS-01 Mobile Suit Outbreak of WarDuring the savage opening weeks of the war, Zeon's Zakus made their first appearance in battle, culminating in an all-out clash between the Zeon and Earth Federation space fleets. Many of Zeon's most famous aces earned their reputations in this epic conflict, known as the Ruum Campaign. 08: MS-06S Zaku II The Earth InvasionThe destruction of the Earth Federation's space fleet, and the abolition of tactics of mass destruction by the Antarctic Treaty, forced the Duchy of Zeon to adopt a new strategy. In March of UC 0079 Zeon launched a massive Earth invasion, and new mobile suits were created for terrestrial combat. 14: MS-06J Zaku II The Ace's ZakuThe Zaku II High Mobility Type was Zeon's first attempt to replace the venerable Zaku with a higher-performance space combat model. Though the R type was ultimately deemed unsuitable for mass production, this limited-production model proved enormously popular with Zeon's top ace pilots. As these veterans were wont to put it, "It's harder to get your hands on an R type than to sink a Federation battleship." 21: MS-06RP Zaku II The Terrestrial FrontAfter Zeon's invasion of Earth, fighting continued on every front, particularly in Europe and North Africa. While Zeon's mobile suit developers prepared the MS-07 Gouf for mass production, the Earth Attack Force created new Zaku variants to meet pressing military needs and environmental requirements. Based on the J type Zaku, these later versions also incorporated some technology from the as-yet-incomplete Gouf. 28: MS-06G Zaku II Operation VAs word of Zeon's mobile suit development efforts began to leak out in the years leading up to the One Year War, the Earth Federation began a number of research projects to counter Zeon's rumored new weapon. When the war began, the Federation dramatically accelerated its own development program. In April of UC 0079, all ongoing mobile suit projects were consolidated into a single crash program called "Operation V." 34: RX-75-4 Guntank The Jet SetBy the time the engineers of the Zeonic Company had completed the Gouf, new technologies had emerged that made it effectively obsolete - ironically, technologies derived from the Gouf's own development process. It was the upstart Zimmad Company that devised the next generation of land combat mobile suit, a jet-propelled design that could hover swiftly across any terrain. 40: MS-07B Gouf The Space RaceThe appearance of the Earth Federation's mobile suits, and the beam weapons they carried, threw Zeon's own development plans into disarray. Work on the MS-11, intended to replace the aging Zaku II as Zeon's space combat mobile suit, was restarted from scratch to incorporate beam weapons technology. In the meantime, Zeon's engineers scrambled to find a temporary replacement... 47: MS-06R-2 Zaku II Marine MachinesWith 70% of Earth's surface covered by water, the Zeon invaders made it a high priority to develop capable amphibious mobile suits. Heavily armored and armed with powerful beam weapons, these new mobile suits were lethal both on land and at sea. 54: MSM-03 Gog |
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