Zaku 50 - Tumblr Posts

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 The Zaku 50 is hopelessly outdated in an age of beam shields and shot lancers, being armed with two beam sabers (one in each leg), a large mega particle cannon in the chest, and an I-field,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.