The AMX-017 Gigantic Was A Planned Nuclear-capable Mobile Suit Designed By Axis Zeon For Use In Their

The AMX-017 Gigantic was a planned nuclear-capable mobile suit designed by Axis Zeon for use in their Invasion of Earth, being one of multiple competing plans designed to tip the balance in Axis’ favour. The Gigantic was based on data recovered from the stolen Gundam Gp02 “Physalis” during Operation Stardust memory by the Axis Technical Fleet, and was designed for much the same purpose: the deployment of Tactical Nuclear Weapons. To this end it was armed with an Atomic Bazooka, for deployment of the nuke itself, and a beam saber, for the suit’s own protection. Presumably, it was intended to be deployed with an escort to cover for its lack of armaments (either that or the Axis engineers took the Gp02’s limited armament to be a feature, not a bug). The Gigantic was ultimately passed over in favour of the Dublin Colony Drop, which was ultimately successful for the Axis Forces, inflicting heavy casualties on Karaba and the AEUG, while resulting in the Earth Federation Government ceding Side 3 to Axis, returning the Republic of Zeon to their forces. Though the Delaz Fleets’ attack at Konpei Island (/Confeito/Solomon) demonstrated the power of nuclear weapons, the Axis forces lacked any nukes which could be utilised by the Gigantic. Following their failure to seize the federation asteroid base Luna II and the nuclear arsenal held there, the Gigantic was then mothballed, as it was unable to carry out its assigned task.

I do like the Gigantic’s design, you see the GP02 Influence, and yet there’s an obvious Zeon flair to the design. I like the white and purple colour scheme, it converts the same sense of danger as Haman’s Qubeley, and the art’s lovely of course. The large thrusters on the design also imply a speed, again analogous to those on the Gp02. The cockpit’s reinforced, suitable to survive a nuclear blast, and I love how beefy the head is. Sleek, yet armoured, designed to funnel blast waves around the body. The feet remind me of the Don, another Zeonic influence. It’s just rather nice. That said, I’m just now noticing that the elbows can’t bend, which is a choice.

Interestingly, in SD Gundam G Generation FIF, there’s a non-canon scenario where the Gigantic is Piloted by Karius, a surviving wingmate of Anavel Gato, the pilot of the Gp02, which is neat.

So hey, after that big Full Armour Gundam post a while back, I wanted to try a few smaller posts, so I figured it’d be fun to talk about one of my favourite weird and obscure design series:

All the weird little mobile suits that the SD Gundam G Generation series added in. I’m not going to be talking about the units unique to each game (like the Phoenix Gundam, Halphas Gundam or GGV-000 Barbatos), mainly because I don’t really care for them design wise, since the sd series is honestly just doing its own thing there. But anyway onto the actual new stuff to each universe. Some of them are fun, some of them are weird, so let’s just get right on into it.

Starting with the very first suit from the series that I became aware of, the MS-50A Zaku 50, from the Universal Century. Built by Anaheim Electronics in U.C. 0130, it was basically the ailing Anaheim Electronics’ last gasp in the field of mobile suit development at the time (though it does appear they had a reversal of fortunes some 20ish years after). It was supposed to have a nostalgic feel, being patterned after the old Principality of Zeon Zaku from the One Year War, but the realities of mobile suit combat at the time stymied it considerably. For reference, this is around the time of Crossbone Gundam, when the Jupiter Empire attempts to invade the Earth. The Zaku 50 is hopelessly outdated in an age of beam shields and shot lancers, being armed with two beam sabers (one in each leg), a large mega particle cannon in the chest, and an I-field, which while effective, wouldn’t be enough when projectile weapons were coming back into vogue. It’s also incredibly large, closer to a mobile armour, when miniaturised mobile suits were the standard. EDIT: it’s possible this also led to high material costs, which was one of the main selling points of miniaturised mobile suits.

The art of it is gorgeous though, but it’s such a delightfully odd design to me, being legless, armless and yet having so many zakuesque features.

Still alive, and will try more stuff soon. Randomly remembered this dude exists

Some big boys for Interpoint Station's upcoming Lancer module.

『∀ガンダム』（ターンエーガンダム、Turn A Gundam）1999

I usually think of the Seven Stars system and heraldry as being a immediate post-war thing for three main reasons:

It makes sense as a post war institution - lots of disparate peoples to unite, infrastructure to rebuild and it’s a clear pecking order. It allows a clear delineation of who is responsible for what and stops the multiple families stepping on each other’s toes.

We only ever see crests or markings of the style of the Seven Stars on their own Gundam Frames, we don’t see them on any of the other machines we know fought in the Calamity War - the Marchosias, the Gremory or the Dantalion (the Astaroth Origin, Calamity War Flauros and the Asmoday itself all also lack them, but I feel you could argue mitigating factors for each). This would imply they were added to the gundam’s post-calamity war, in order to sell them as “the machines that ended the calamity war”. The relative obscurity of the Valkyrja frame could also be counted as a point towards this, since we know at least one saw combat (the Oltlinde), but they’re not presented in the same way. It makes sense that the Seven Stars would put their Crests on the surviving Gundam Frames, since they are essentially the beginnings of their authority and they want to reinforce that (à La the divine right of kings).

If the Seven Stars were a pre-existing institution then it rankles me slightly that the top seven members of Gjallarhorn were all part of this pre-war nobility, when their position was decided meritocratically. You’d expect at least one member to be a nobody who reached their position through feat of arms.

Expanding on that third point, I feel it makes more sense thematically for the Seven Stars to have been founded on a meritocratic basis, each member coming from nothing, because it ties in to Tekkadan’s rise to fame. The Current Seven stars are at least the third generation from the original founders of Gjallarhorn, with barely a hint of merit to any of them - Gaelio’s very sheltered and all too easygoing in his duties, Iok’s actively incompetent and a danger to those around him. Carta, while not ineffective, is in a largely ceremonial position and her successes are due more to brute strength than any strategic nous. Mcgillis’ is adopted into the Fareed Family, unrelated to the original founder. Rustal’s the only one that seems to buck the trend. But nonetheless, each family came to be where they are now through the actions of their predecessor in their Gundam Frames

How does Tekkadan, a family of Child Soldiers and Human Debris come to their power? Through the actions of their pilots through their Gundam Frames. The enemies they fight reinforce this - Ein, a monster made using forbidden technology from the Calamity War, and then Hashmal, a bona-fide relic of the Calamity War. They follow the same path to glory as each of the Seven Stars Founders would have, climbing ever higher, until it eclipses them.

Just a little on the Gundam Asmoday/Asmodeus today (it apparently could’ve been called the Ashmodai, which is neat).

Okay, so the ASW-G-32 Gundam Asmoday is found by Wistario the Erda II crew (specifically Sinister) inside an Aridne Cocoon in the Debris zone. It’s specifically noted to be essentially brand new, with no records of it fighting in the calamity war, and a full complement of weapons ready to go. Based on this, and the fact that it seems to have its reactor hooked up to the cocoon, we can gauge one of two things. Either;

The Gundam wasn’t completed until either very late in the Calamity War, or just after, and thus didn’t have an opportunity to fight against the mobile armours.

This Cocoon relay station was apparently important enough to dedicate a Gundam frame just to keep it operational.

Based on the assumption that a bunch of regular ahab reactors would probably have done the job just fine, I think it’s more likely to be a case of it being completed late.

What makes this interesting is that we only know of one other Gundam frame that was completed late in the calamity war:

The ASW-G-71 Gundam Dantalion.

Now, because this is both at the end of the series (71/72) and because it’s stated that the Dantalion had been completed late, I had previously assumed that the Gundam Frames were completed sequentially. So, the ever-elusive ASW-G-70 Gundam Seere would have been completed just prior to the Dantalion, and the 72nd Gundam would have been completed after, possibly even being completed postwar (At a guess, either the Gundam Andromalius or Gundam Pruflas/Bufas - I’d be very interested in know what happened to it, since it’s be the most likely source as to any clue to the end of the calamity war and it’s immediate aftermath). But the Asmodeus implies something quite different. Unless its deployment was delayed for whatever reason, then it’s evidence that the Gundam frames may not have been built sequentially. (I’m not sure which it would be - it doesn’t seem to have any equipment that’d be too difficult to work with, being structured as a fairly direct combatant - gigant javelin as a sort of whip-sword to attack from a distance, smoke grenades and then grand tonfa’s up close, but then there’s plenty of other reasons for it to not have seen combat).

We do, however, know that Bael was the first. Add to that the seeming increase in complexity as the numbers climb (Dantalion appears simple but it has a bunch of add-on equipment not shown above, a lot of the 50’s and 60’s-series Gundams have fancy designs or systems, especially compared to the relative simplicity of the 00’s and 10’s), and we can guess that they were at least designed sequentially, with Asmoday’s presumed delay being an exception.

However, what I also think is interesting is where it was found. Inside an Ariadne Network Cocoon, big enough to be used as a harbour, administrative and let’s face it defensive point, in the network. Administered by the Falk Family (presumably headed by either Kalf Falk or his immediate successor), who already possess a Gundam Frame to their name - the Gundam Gamigin (shown above).

So what was the Asmodeus, for all intents and purposes a “phantom machine”, which exists on paper but was never actually deployed, doing there? Each Seven Stars Family or similar organisation within Gjallarhorn has precisely one Gundam Frame to their name, with no evidence of one family using multiple frames. I find it particularly interesting that it’s the Falk’s of all people that seem to have this frame - they’re one of the two families we know the absolute least about, the other being the Baklazan’s. Even then, most of the information we do know is what can be inferred from their Urdr Hunt point and their Gundam Frame. The only real supposition we can make is that they’re probably the oldest out of the Seven Stars - assuming no family got multiple Gundam Frames during the calamity war (which feels a fair assumption to make, given that we know absolutely nothing about any frames that were destroyed, implying no-ones really around to keep those records), then the ASW-G-04 Gamigin Gundam was likely deployed the earliest out of all the Seven Stars Gundam Frames, shortly after Bael (again, assuming sequential deployment). So it’s possible that the Falks were the longest surviving active participants in the Calamity war, besides Agnika Kaeru himself, of course. But it’s unclear why they would end up with another Gundam frame, and then not use it. A few possibilities:

The Intended Pilot for the Asmoday was killed before it could reach them, and the Falk’s didn’t have another pilot on hand to use it.

There was a Cocoon was involved in transporting the Gundams to their pilots, and it was kept at the cocoon until it’s recipient could be sorted out.

The Falks wanted extra “insurance” of their position once the Calamity War was over, and arranged for a second Gundam frame to be assigned to them somehow.

The Asmoday had nothing to do with the Falks, and it was left at the Cocoon by N as prize for Urdr Hunt participants.

It was salvaged from its transport during the war, and restored by the Falks.

In short, I don’t know why it was there and we’re probably not going to find out anytime soon, but it’s fun to think about. I would also like to point out that the Asmoday was also just…. Left there, which feels like it must have been purposeful in some way, but also means that the Falk’s didn’t recover it in the intervening 300 years.