Mobile Suit Gundam

"By directing combat and war pieces, I could experience catharsis and successfully avoid committing a murder in real life. In this sense, I'm really grateful for that because I was conscious that I had such homicidal traits, to be honest."

– Yoshiyuki Tomino, creator of Gundam

It is the year 1978 AD. Three years have passed since Space Battleship Yamato redefined what could be done in science fiction anime. Enter Yoshiyuki Tomino, director for Sunrise and absolute madman, charged by studio execs with creating a more serious follow-up to their previous super robot anime. Blending still-fresh cultural memories of World War II with ideas from Starship Troopers, the Jules Verne novel "Two Years' Vacation" and the now-classic O'Neill cylinder design, Tomino and the planning team at Sunrise created a world where "giant robots" weren't skyscraper-sized superheroes but treated more like humanoid tanks. They would be weapons, coming off a factory line like any other, wielded by ordinary people who would be scarred by the battles they fought rather than storybook heroes. Thus the world was introduced to Mobile Suit Gundam in April of 1979.

It didn't sell toys and was shitcanned at 43 episodes, but for older viewers it became a cultural lightning rod and eventually made piles of money for Sunrise and Bandai through the scale-model market. From here it followed essentially the same cultural path as Star Trek (complete with an increasingly deranged creator, studio drama, an obsessive fanbase, and a bloated canon) and paved the way for the dozens of "real robot" mecha series to follow, though the franchise itself would drift deeper and deeper into super-robot territory over time. Everything from Mekton to Battletech to the Tau has stolen from Gundam in some way, and that's not counting the actual licensed material that's /tg/ relevant.

The Anime

Because Gundam is fucking old and also prints money in Japan, the themes of the original series have been respun many times and (largely thanks to Tomino's refusal to treat his life's work as yet another toy commercial) branched off into multiple continuities. Since this can be a pain in the ass to keep track of, your friends at 2d4chan have prepared a helpful guide. Note that for the sake of sanity this doesn't include manga such as Crossbone or spinoffs such as War in the Pocket.

Universal Century

"It is the year 0079 of the Universal Century. The furthest space city from the Earth, Side 3, proclaimed itself the Principality of Zeon. It launched a war for independence with the Earth Federation. In roughly one month of fighting, the Principality of Zeon and the Federation Forces caused the deaths of half of their respective populations. People began to live in fear of their own actions."

– Mobile Suit Gundam, opening sequence

The Gundam franchise is renowned for its artistic integrity

The OG timeline. Half of Japan's mecha fanbase still creams their jeans over this, which is why every time someone has an idea for a new Gundam series Bandai will crowbar it into the UC continuity instead of letting it stands on its own. The two strongest themes introduced here are "war is hell" and "both sides in a war will have sympathetic soldiers as well as complete dickbags": the Earth Federation was using space as a dumping ground for poor people so they could continue shitting up the planet and disrespected the lives of its soldiers, and Zeon would have some good points if they could stop playing Atrocity Bingo for five minutes. The UC also made itself stand out at the time by actually explaining why giant robots (called Mobile Suits here) are a viable fighting vehicle; they can perform EVA maneuvers to conserve fuel when fighting in space and the magic "Minovsky particles" used to make things like fusion power and beam guns practical totally bollocks the kind of guided missile spam that would obviously dominate future combat even in the 1970s.

• Mobile Suit Gundam: Referred to as "Gundam 0079" or "First Gundam" for disambiguation. As the quote above implies, it's the year 0079 UC and everything is grimdark: the distant space colony Side 3 has gotten sick of being pushed around by a corrupt planetary government, reformed itself as Space Nazi Germany and declared its independence by, among other things, dropping a different space colony on Australia. With their new Mobile Suit technology, the Principality of Zeon has pushed the Federation back at every turn, as space battleships are insufficiently awesome to defend against them. In response the Federation launches a secret program to build their own, superior Mobile Suits, but Zeon discovers the R&D facility and the prototypes end up in the hands of a bunch of cadets, children and civilians. This crew of misfits proceeds to dumpster some of Zeon's best soldiers, marking them as potential "Newtypes" and the next phase of human evolution, though they still suffer terribly in the process.
• Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: It is now the year 0087; the Federation won the war in 0080, but continues to oppress the space colonies through the Titans special forces and generally act like dicks. Opposing them is the Anti-Earth Union Group, notably featuring Zeon ace Char Aznable under the most transparent alias imaginable, while the remnants of Zeon look on from distant Axis and wait to pick off the survivors. Notable for incredible animation for its time (thanks to Bandai's piles of Gunpla money) and an ending so depressing even Tomino felt the need to change it in the compilation movies. Also dramatically expanded what Newtypes could do, including what's arguably the series' first super robot, the gigantic Psyco Gundam.
• Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ (Gundam Double Zeta): Direct sequel to Zeta; having been completely decimated in the final battle, the AEUG's flagship Argama is reduced to recruiting punk kids as mobile suit pilots to stay alive against the forces of Axis Zeon. Fortunately arms dealer Anaheim Electronics comes to the rescue with the ZZ Gundam to level the playing field. Starts out incredibly goofy (protagonist Judau is one of the few newtypes to not be an instant ace pilot) but becomes more serious in the second half. Also notable for being the first Gundam series where the protagonists' suits are all Gundam variants.
• Char's Counterattack: The big finale of the Federation vs. Zeon story. In this feature film, Char counterattacks, namely by trying to dropping enough asteroids onto the Earth to make it uninhabitable and force everyone to become Newtypes in outer space. The Federation is not a fan of this idea, largely because all their money's on Earth, and sends a task force of veterans from 0079 to stop him and his Neo Zeon rebellion. After some flirtations with it in Zeta and ZZ, this is what pushes the franchise firmly into super robot territory: everyone who matters is a Newtype of some kind, the suits are bigger and more overpowered than ever and everything ends in a cloud of magical sparkles.
• Mobile Suit Gundam F91: Timeskips to UC 0123, where the Federation is once again under attack by the new space empire of Cosmo Babylonia. The film follows students Seabook Arno and Cecily Fairchild as they get dragged into the fighting by the asshole leadership of both factions. Intended to be another TV series, ended up crammed into another movie by studio meddling.
• Mobile Suit Victory Gundam': The big fuckup. When this series was being produced, Bandai had just bought Sunrise wholesale and was leaning harder and harder on Tomino and his team to boost model sales, mandating the youngest protagonist yet and incredibly stupid suit designs like the infamous wheelie bike. This just motivated Tomino to troll them by making the series super grimdark, with one of the highest kill counts in the franchise. To this day, Tomino still tells people that they shouldn't watch it in interviews. Ended up "killing" the franchise for a bit, as Sunrise would take it out of Tomino's hands for almost a decade and move to producing alternate continuities using the brand name.

Everything else

• Mobile Fighter G Gundam: Kung Fu Gundam. In the Future Century, the Earth Sphere is ruled by space colonies based on Earth nations and settle their disputes through a stereotypical shonen tournament arc called the Gundam Fight. The fighters use Gundams (all of them, and naturally they're all bullshit super robots) and pilot them using skintight latex suits that allows the robot to copy the pilot's martial arts movements. The year is FC 60, and this Gundam Fight is different: Neo-Japan's fighter, Domon Kasshu, has been blackmailed into hunting down his brother Kyoji for the Neo-Japanese government. Kyoji has stolen/built the Devil Gundam, a nanomachine-powered monstrosity that corrupts everything in its path. Unapologetically gonzo, G Gundam is a fan favorite for its hot-blooded protagonists, truly ludicrous Gundam designs and the awesomeness that is Master Asia.
• Mobile Report Gundam Wing: In the year After Colony 195, the United Earth Sphere Alliance rules both Earth and the colonies with an iron first. Five colonies pool their resources to send one child soldier each to Earth in a custom-design Gundam, waging a guerilla campaign against the UESA military. This was most people's first exposure to Gundam in the west thanks to Toonami, but time has been less than kind to it as it becomes an interminable soap opera about halfway through that cares more about parading around its pretty-boy characters than giant robot fights.
• After War Gundam X: Basically an alternate Universal Century where Zeon didn't give up on the whole colony drop thing, and it wouldn't be hard to include in the UC as an alternate outcome of Char's Counterattack if a GM was so inclined. It's the year After War 0015, Earth is a wasteland and 99% of humanity has been wiped out after an apocalyptic war between the Earth Federation and its space colonies. The series follows a group of scavengers as they stumble across the superpowered Gundam X and become caught up in a conspiracy to restart the fighting. Despite this it's actually one of the most upbeat and idealistic Gundams, assuming you can get past the main character's screechy voice.
• ∀ Gundam (Turn A Gundam): In which Tomino gets invited back to take a nice, long piss on all of the above series. It's the "Correct Century", and humanity has regressed to the early 20th century after a cataclysm they have forgotten. A colony on the moon survived the cataclysm, and this "Moonrace" wants to reclaim the Earth from its current tenants. Since the Moonrace kept their Mobile Suits and other cool stuff, the Earthnoids are kind of fucked until Loran Cehack, secretly an advance scout for the Moonrace who went native, discovers a mysterious mobile suit buried in the earth: the ∀ Gundam. Never got a dub, so these days it's mostly remembered for three things: a delicious brown trap protagonist, having a Gundam with a mustache (thanks to famous American designer Syd Mead) and the Black History. The Black History is what happened before that mysterious cataclysm; namely, every other Gundam series, whose timelines all converge into Turn A in the distant future as humanity destroys itself. This is because Tomino gets really butthurt when it looks like other Gundam series might be more popular than his. Also notable for starting the trend of Gundam protagonists who refuse to kill anybody during a major war.
• Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: Sunrise remakes the Universal Century for a new generation, but because this was the early 2000s it just looks like a generic hentai OVA. Colonies are now called PLANTs, Newtypes are artificial and called Coordinators, Zeon is called ZAFT and the Earth Federation is now the Earth Alliance. Our story begins at Side 7 Heliopolis, a PLANT sponsored by Japan the peace-loving neutral nation of the Orb Union which is developing Operation V new superweapons to protect its neutrality. When ZAFT attacks, the survivors are forced to flee aboard White Base the Archangel and Amuro Ray Kira Yamato is conscripted to pilot the Gundam Gundam on the long journey back to Earth. It's absolute trash but it has its fans, especially in Japan where it was an entire generation's first exposure to Gundam. Had a sequel, SEED Destiny, which was heavily censored on both sides of the Pacific and is a strong contender for worst Gundam of all time.
• Mobile Suit Gundam 00: It's the year 2307 AD; yes, that means Anno Domini. War has become a game as the three major superpowers fight endlessly for control of the space elevators and solar collection stations they built to solve Earth's energy crisis. Enter Celestial Being, a batshit crazy terrorist group with a cunning plan: attack all sides indiscriminately with Gundams to unite the Earth's militaries against them, then crush them all in a single stroke to quash humanity's appetite for war. The first season is actually pretty interesting for being a direct commentary on the War on Terror, but this was far too intelligent for Sunrise at that point and the second season was forced into being a copy of Zeta Gundam.
• Mobile Suit Gundam AGE: Dynastic Gundam. Follows three generations of the Asuno family during a century-long war with the mysterious Unknown Enemy, which later turns out to not be so unknown after all. Had some interesting ideas (exploring the nature of generational prejudice, the main Gundam being passed down like a family heirloom) but the anime's pacing is messed up because the plot was written for a video game first and then adapted.
• Gundam: Reconguista in G: Tomino takes his turn at the super robot Gundam wheel, but makes it a sequel to both the UC and Turn A because it's okay when he does it. It's Regild Century 1014, and space elevator guard Bellri Zenam gets dragged into yet another war with space pirates, the emerging Capital Army and an invasion from the Moon when he discovers he can pilot the G-Self, a hyper-advanced mobile suit compatible with only a select few. Good luck figuring out what the hell is going on, by the way. Has some of the most insane, over-the-top designs since G Gundam, drawing heavily from Eureka Seven and Tomino's own Metal Overman King Gainer.
• Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans: It's the year 323 Post Disaster, more than three centuries after the Calamity War that devastated the solar system and produced the original Gundams. This time the colonies are on Mars, getting ready to revolt after decades of economic exploitation under Gjallarhorn, a Titans-like organization that has a state monopoly on arms production. A Martian PMC has been hired to escort the leader of the independence movement to Earth to broker a deal before war breaks out. Naturally, it's a trap, and the mission is pawned off to the CGS' Third Group, a regiment of destitute children and orphans who won't be missed when Gjallarhorn ganks them. Not taking this shit lying down, ace pilot Mikazuki Augus pulls the ancient Gundam Barbatos out of mothballs and begins carving a path to safety for the Third Group, while their leader Orga begins making power plays to secure their own independence from the adults who take them for granted. Strong contender for worst Gundam, with multiple plot holes and a second season where the director and head writer were openly fighting with each other, culminating in a truly baffling "villains win" ending.

Due to a quirk in the (Permet) bonding process used in G-Witch, the device retains an imprint of each of its former pilots' personalities clones

• Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury (G-Witch): A cyberpunk Gundam setting is wasted on high school slice of life, the head writer's most notable prior credit is Revolutionary Girl Utena and the protagonist gets gay married to another woman in the first episode. That's all you need to know, really. A lot of potential utterly wasted with generic slice-of-life and yuri hijinks, shit pacing and what little plot exists being stapled together with josei drama and Shakespeare references. The third contender for worst Gundam.
• Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX: For the record, it's pronounced "G-Quacks". Gundam's first foray into alternate history, taking place in a UC where Char successfully captured the Gundam and severed the thread of prophecy that led Amuro to win the war for the Federation. Among other things this means Challia Bull gets some spotlight time instead of becoming XP for Amuro after a handful of episodes. So far it seems to draw inspiration from Reconguista in G for its mobile suit designs and Zeta for elements of its story; time will tell if it can buck the trend set by IBO and G-Witch.
• Gundam Build Fighters: Bandai skips the foreplay and just makes a 25-minute Gunpla commercial. It's a generic tournament-based battle shonen for kids, but the characters fight with Gunpla models and it doesn't completely suck somehow. Unlike other companies Bandai actually understands the appeal of Your Dudes and so much of the cast's Gunpla are kitbashes and custom work. Often nicknamed "Gundam Valhalla" after the fanon theory that everyone who got dicked over or died nastily (so, everyone) in other Gundam series gets reincarnated here, based on "Mr. Ral" (a hobby shop owner who is just Ramba Ral) among many, many other cameos.

Notable Characters

• Amuro Ray: Pilot of the original Gundam and sperglord maximus. Son of Federation engineer Tem Ray, he gets in the Gundam on an impulse instead of evacuating and becomes its pilot full-time when everyone else who knows how to work the damn thing gets killed. Being forced to fight for his life constantly drives him to the brink of madness, but eventually he finds his backbone and his emerging Newtype powers make him the most terrifying thing in the One Year War. After the war ends the Federation keeps him in a gilded cage for fear of him going Rambo: First Blood on their asses, that's how scary he is. Even so various good-guy factions wheel him out as their ace in the hole, and he always obliges because part of him never really left that Gundam. So grimdark. His custom-made robot pet Haro also deserves a mention for being almost as iconic as the Gundam itself.
• Char Aznable: The Red Comet. Amuro's main rival, Zeon ace and Japan's answer to Darth Vader. After he discovers the Federation's secret Mobile Suit program only to let them slip through his fingers, he spends the rest of the series trying to reclaim his status by defeating the Gundam. Secretly Casval Rem Deikun, the true heir to Zeon's ideals forced to live in hiding from the Zabi family. He's also a complete douchenozzle: when Char teams up with Garma (the only Zabi who wasn't some combination of corrupt, bloodthirsty and genocidal) it's just to SSSINNNDRIII him into the White Base's teeth as the first step of his revenge. He tries to get over himself and live by his father's ideals for a while after the war, but humanity's continued dickbaggery gets to him in the end.
  • Char's impact on Japanese culture beggars belief; his outfit, half his lines, his penchant for red ace customs and ability to make things "three times faster" just by painting them red are memes even the densest salaryman will recognize. To give you an idea of how far this goes: you can apply for a Char custom credit card in Japan, and it will earn reward points three times faster than a normal card.
  • One consequence of Char's massive popularity is the "Char clone"/"X is a CHAR" phenomenon: every Gundam series will have at least one character who wears a mask or sunglasses, pilots red mobile suits, acts as a rival to the main character, and/or has a secret identity. Some series play this straighter than others, and Unicorn even got meta with it by having Full Frontal be a literal clone of the original article. 40k has its own Char clone in the form of Commander Farsight.
• Ramba Ral: The "guerilla" expert, though in this case that really means commando raids and ambush tactics. Cool old guy, Zeon's answer to Rommel and the first pilot to really threaten Amuro despite the OPness of the Gundam. He would have geeked the lot of them too, but M'Quve was a dick and refused to issue the mobile suits he needed for a direct assault. Being far too badass to let a little thing like being outgunned by a factor of about a million stop him he leads a deep strike into the White Base and almost captures it, but Ramba forgot to fight in the middle of a fight and chooses to an hero rather than be captured. A fan favorite, his infamous "This is no Zaku" line is one of the most quoted in the franchise and the Gihren's Greed vidya gives him a lot of love. Appears in Gundam Build Fighters as "Mr. Ral", and it's heavily implied that he's the actual Ramba Ral reincarnated.
• Dozle Zabi: One third of the Zabi triumvirate in charge of Zeon's military and an absolute chad. A father to his men and dedicated family man, he was Char's superior for the mission that found Operation V. Probably the least dickish Zabi after Garma. When the Federation rolls up to destroy his base of operations on the asteroid Solomon, Dozle goes out on a suicide run to buy time for the evacuation; after his Big Zam is destroyed by Amuro, his righteous fury is so powerful it actually manifests before Amuro's eyes as he tries to take the Gundam down with a space AK-47. Needless to say, "The Big Zam should have been mass-produced" is a common sentiment among the fanbase. Even after his death, his daughter Mineva leaves a lasting impact on the Earth Sphere in the decades to come.
• Haman Karn: She's beauty, she's grace, she's miss step on my face. Leader of Axis Zeon in Zeta and ZZ, claiming authority as the regent for a 9-year-old Mineva. Talks a big game about human reformation, but as the series progresses she admits that she mostly cares about power for its own sake. Had a crush on Char once but loves world domination too much to let it go.
• Elpeo Ple: Named after lolicon fetish magazine Lemon People, no matter what Tomino says. Naturally she's practially a fetish object when we first meet her in ZZ, then turns out to be yet another Newtype child soldier who dies horribly, in what can only be an epic troll on Tomino's part. According to production notes she's actually a test-tube baby based on Space Hitler Gihren Zabi's DNA, explaining why she looks like an older version of Mineva. Treacherous Neo Zeon commander Glemy Toto would clone her en masse for his personal army, marking him as a man with excellent taste; "Ple Twelve" makes a suprise appearance in Unicorn as Marida Cruz.
• Master Asia: Hong Meiling's master The Undefeated of the East and the only man badass enough to blow up mobile suits with just a scarf. Trained G Gundam hero Domon Kasshu in his special brand of Weeaboo Fightan Magic and fights both alongside him and against him before suffering one of the most tragic and manly deaths in the franchise. G Gundam's version of Ramba Ral and almost as well-loved by the fanbase, having a mix of arrogant, wacky and badass rarely seen outside of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Say it with me now: "Look! The East is burning red!"

Notable Mobile Suits

There is a fucking fuckload of different mobile suits across the different timelines, so we are not going to be crazy enough to list every single Mobile Suit and Mobile Armor. That would be ridiculous. Go look at a fucking Gundam wiki for that info. Instead, we will simply cite some of the cooler, or at least memeier, suits here that've caught out attention.

Universal Century

• RX-78-2: The OG Gundam, the mascot and namesake of this series. While future mobile suits have way better stats and way cooler looks, few can ever be as iconic as the Grand-daddy of them all, least of all to the point where Japan built a literal walking statue in Yokohama that's size-accurate. Being used by the protagonist Amuro Ray, it's got a lot of OP crap when compared to stuff like Zakus with stuff like armor that's immune to conventional MS firearms, beam swords that are super portable, and plasma firearms when the standard up until this point was conventional SP guns and superheated melee weapons.
• GM: It's pronounced "Jim", if anyone asks. The closest thing to a mass-production Mobile Suit for the Federation during the original show, making it about on par with the Zaku, but better by equipping some of the Gundam's beam weaponry. Also like the Zaku, there are many, many variations of it.
• Zaku: The OG Mobile Suit, the Zaku hails from the Universal Century and is the first Mobile Suit we are ever introduced to in Gundam as a meta-series. The initial base model Mobile Suit used by Zeon's forces, the Zaku is the most basic-bitch Mobile Suit you can imagine, with its famous cyclopean design simultaneously making it memorable and also showcasing how primitive it is, though examples like main antagonist Char Aznable's Zaku being being three times faster simply because it's painted red can prove how dangerous it can be. Also noteworthy as the foundation of one of Gundam's earliest memes, starting from when Amuro Ray fights his first "higher ranked" Mobile Suited opponent, who gets a close up shot as he triumphantly screams about how "This is no Zaku, boy! NO ZAKU!" whilst he temporarily has the upper hand over the rookie. Every series past the first one tends to have an expy of sorts of this suit, sometimes even referencing its model number (MS-06), with the exception being SEED/Destiny (instead, they straight up copied tons of UC designs into the verse, turning their names into acronyms).
• RX-178 Gundam Mk-II: An improved model of the RX-78, the Mk II has a reputation in-universe as a loser, already obsolete at the start of Zeta and swiftly outclassed by newer and better models of Gundam. Late-war had to be docked with a support system brought by the G-Defenser, which added mobility and a larger beam cannon, but it was STILL outclassed by opposing suits.
• MSZ-006 Z-Gundam (aka ZETA): The AEUG's high-performance front-line MS, was capable of transforming into a jet-like Waverider mode. Though it was designed by a Newtype, it did NOT feature anything that took advantage of this, which increasingly became an issue late into the war once it started to face Newtype and Pseudo-Newtype piloted suits. Was finally installed a "bio-computer", an experimental tech that no one really knew WHAT did, but eventually showed that it could turn psychic emanations into motive force. It came back for ZZ Gundam, with the added "bonus" of it gaining semi-sentience due to its previous pilot being such a powerful psychic.
• MSN-10 ZZ-Gundam (aka Double Zeta): Heavy front-line suit and successor to the Zeta, the ZZ features a lot of things that only make sense in a "hey wouldn't this look cool on a model kit" kind of way. It was armed with a fsk-huge particle cannon on its head, a twin-linked beam cannon on one arm, and could transform into a single jet-like form OR split apart into 3 pieces that could be piloted or controlled remotely. Also comes with the Biosensor from Zeta, which allows it to do some of the psychic BS despite (again) not being a Newtype=specific suit.
• RX-93 ν Gundam (aka Nu Gundam): Amuro Ray's Gundam in the kickass movie Char's Counterattack, this slick Gundam is big, fast, and hits hard from multiple directions thanks to its unique Fin Funnel beam weapon array.
  • RX-93-2 Hi-ν Gundam: The print version of the abovementioned machine, appearing in the CCA novelization Beltochika's Children, and usually appears as an upgrade from the regular Nu in video games. Has two versions: the original, chunkier purple-gradient painted version, and a more streamlined blue and white redesign done to rationalize model-making.
• MSN-04 Sazabi: Piloted by Char Aznable and built from the ground up to try and be the best suit the Neo-Zeon dictator could dream of, where the ν Gundam was fairly slim looking the Sazabi was thicc and had its own suite of semi-hidden weapons like a beam cannon in it's belly (near where a cockpit typically would be found).
  • MSN-04 Nightingale: Char's ride in the CCA novel Beltochika's Children, it's essentially an upgraded Sazabi that is much chunkier due to it being more like a Mobile Armor than a conventional suit.
• RX-0 Unicorn Gundam: Another iconic Gundam with plenty of marketability if you look at how much damn merch is available of it. Its basic look is pretty standard, looking like a plain white Gundam with a horn on the head, but once it transforms into its "Destroy Mode", it becomes way more mobile and way deadlier via direct interfacing with certain pilots with a unique mental signature.

After Colony

• Wing Gundam: The mascot of Gundam Wing and one of the few actual Gundams in this series, making it quite powerful. Its most iconic ability is being able to transform into a bird-like jet, allowing for long-range movement. Was replaced by the...
  • Wing Gundam Zero: Has most of the Wing Gundam's abilities as well as an operating system that improves its' combat effectiveness to guarantee "absolute victory" at the expense of the pilot's physical and psychological well-being (projecting a predictive algorithm that calculates your victories and defeats directly into your brain will do that to you). Equipped with two beam rifles which can combine into a single more powerful one. The variation used in the Endless Waltz story is also pretty iconic for being more angelic than bird-like with wings that look like feathers (and complete with actual feathers as SFX).
• Gundam Deathscythe: A Gundam that reeks of edgelordery. I mean, its paint scheme is primarily black, its primary weapon is a literal beam scythe, and it even has jamming systems that fuck with cameras and sensors so you can add Ninja (or just regular stealthy assassins) to the list of edgy. Ironically, it's piloted by a rather chipper dude voiced by none other than Scott McNeil in the dub.
  • Gundam Deathscythe Hell: Now with an even edgier name and giant bat wings that double as a shield. Oh, and now it has a fucking DOULE SCYTHE as a weapon. Yes, a scythe with TWO blades mounted one on top of the other.
• Gundam Heavyarms: What happens when you try to find the answer to the question "Is there ever such a thing as enough Dakka?" and make it a Gundam. Seriously, it's got gatling guns in the chest, missile launchers in the extremities, and even a gatling gun mounted on an arm, with the only melee weapon being a tiny little arm-mounted knife. The Endless Waltz version takes this shit even further with even MORE guns and missiles everywhere and now capable of toting a double-gatling gun on each hand. Why yes, this can delete entire armies.
• Gundam Epyon: Built by the absolute chad that is Treize Khushrenada and designed on the chivalric ideal of being a Gundam all about one on one dueling. As such it has only one range weapon (some shitty vulcan cannon guns which basically just annoy other mecha when used) but sports a segmented heat whip weapon and a huge beam saber. Also it makes you see the enemy pilot die in real time, because of another of Treize's strange and grimdark obsessions.
• Gundam Sandrock: Much like Epyon (but preceding it), the Sandrock has almost no real range weaponry, instead sporting two fucking massive sickle swords that slice, dice and CRUSH (when combined with it's shield to form a giant claw). Even it's updated version for space (and then for the Endless Waltz OVA/movie) keeps to this, gaining a small machine gun which is basically never used. Then again, it doesn't really need ranged weapons when its pilot literally commands his own small army with enough firepower to take out a small nation.
• Tallgeese: Imagine if the Wright Brothers plane went supersonic (and killed Wilbur with the G-forces). The very first mobile suit in the After Colony timeline and the prototype model for Wing's Gundams (but not a Gundam itself) the Tallgeese is gotta-go-fast tier. But since they didn't know how to build mobile suits yet its handling characteristics are punishing for even the most skilled pilot, usually resulting in broken bones and internal bleeding.

Future Century

• Shining Gundam: Main protagonist Gundam for G Gundam. Mostly memorable for the overly hammy performance of pilot Domon and its memetic Shining Finger, a move so powerful that its burning grip tells all to quote the line. For those who haven't seen it, the Shining Finger technique basically has the Shining Gundam's hands shift armor plating to reveal powerful short-ranged energy emitters, allowing the Shining Gundam to basically melt off an enemy Gundam's head with a touch - which is useful, since that instantly disqualifies the opponent that Domon hits with it. According to the novelization, the Shining Finger is a mechanical emulation of a non-lethal take-down technique invented by Buddhist martial artists, where the user channels ki through their palm and into three fingers and then uses it to temporarily short out a foe's motor functions by touching their head. As a result, all of the Gundams built for use by Domon and his martial arts sensei, Neo-Hong Kong's Master Asia, are capable of doing it.
  • God Gundam: Called "Burning Gundam" overseas in places where calling it "God" might trigger censors. Replaces the Shining Gundam halfway through the series due to the show operating on Tokusatsu logic. This logic also means that this Gundam is considerably more powerful, complete with more super modes than there are Saiyans.
• Devil Gundam: Aka "Dark Gundam" in the West. Created by Domon Kasshu's father as a means to repair the ecological devastation caused by using Earth as a stomping ground for the Gundam Fights, the Devil Gundam (originally dubbed the "Ultimate Gundam" in-universe) was outfitted for this role with an internal nanotech production plant, so it could create infinite swarms of microscopic robots to rebuild broken shit, clean up toxic byproducts, etcetera. Why this meant it needed to look like a giant disembodied Gundam head with a smaller (but still stupidly big) Gundam's upper body growing from the forehead on a metallic tendril is anybody's guess. Programmed to be capable of "self-recovery, self-replication, and self-evolution", it unfortunately went nuts and in classic super AI fashion decided that humanity was the problem and exterminating it the only solution.

Correct Century

• ∀ Gundam: Found buried in a mountainside, the ∀ Gundam or Turn-A Gundam for those who can't write the ∀ is THE most powerful Gundam in all the Gundam entries with the most bitching moustache that inspires envy from even Lord General Castor. Its ultimate weapon is called the Moonlight Butterfly, which is a Nanobot storm which has the power to destroy all technology and basically bring about the end of all civilization. Also the cockpit concept is taken quite seriously in that it is located where the Gundam's dick would be (if it had one of course). Funnily enough, it is used for a plethora of mundane tasks by its pilot in the main series, up to washing/drying clothes and carrying cows inside its missile silos.

Cosmic Century

• GAT-X105 Strike Gundam: The Cosmic Era's take on the RX-78-2, it shared the same design philosophy and idea, but changing up some of its traits: rather than being built of a near-indestructible fictional alloy, it had "Phase Shift armor" that made physical weaponry useless (which was also used to justify the colors of the mech), instead of a nuclear reactor it was battery powered (since ZAFT had technology that let them completely stop nuclear fission), and rather than having a single set of weapons, it instead used a number of weapon packs that could be unplugged and replaced whenever needed, with the Aile pack giving it the look most similar to the OG Gundam, bar the huge winged backpack (the base machine doesn't even have the regular beam sabers, just a bunch of knives). Was later busted up, but not destroyed, allowing it to come back a few more times under another pilot before being completely blasted. It's main pilot, meanwhile, would switch to...
  • ZGMF-X10A Freedom Gundam: Kira Yamato's upgrade suit, this one IS nuclear thanks to having tech that negates the tech that negates nuclear fission, which means it has plenty of power to spare for its insane amounts of ranged weapons. Still ends up reduced to only a torso and an arm in the fight against the crazy psycho asshole villain at the end of SEED, is rebuilt for SEED/Destiny before being blown up by the protagonist of THAT series, and finally replaced with the "Strike Freedom", which has EVEN MORE guns, and basically acts as a huge cheat button for Kira.
• GFAS-X1 Gundam Destroy: Hailing from the Cosmic Era, the Gundam Destroy is one of the biggest Mobile Suits in the Gundam Metaverse, to the point it can literally step on regular Mobile Suits like they were bugs. Built to almost literally burn swathes of destruction across continents, the Gundam Destroy is capable of shifting between a "walking fortress" Mobile Armor mode that looks like a flying saucer on legs, and a conventional Mobile Suit form, which it achieves by rotating its lower half 180 degrees, lowering the arms and flipping the saucer-shaped "backpack" to the back. The saucer/backpack part is outfitted with two twin barrel high-energy beam cannons, 20 thermal plasma composite cannons mounted around the backpack's circumference, and four 6-tube multipurpose missile launchers. The "body" of the Gundam Destroy makes do with a head-mounted 200mm energy cannon and four 75mm CIWS, three chest-mounted 1580mm multi-phase energy cannons, and two detachable arms each equipped with a beam cannon and 5-barrel hand beam gun. The detachable arms function like DRAGOON pods, allowing the suit to attack its target at any range, regardless of obstacles standing in the way. Aside from its vast array of offensive weaponry, the Destroy also carries defensive equipment in the form of three positron reflector shields, one in the backpack and usable only in MA mode, and two on the detachable arms.

Anno Domini

• GN-001 Gundam Exia: The Gundam-wannabe's Gundam. Has a big focus on melee combat, to the point of having seven fucking swords to use in fights, and even its main gun is also a huge sword. It's pilot, Setsuna F. Seiei (birth name, Soran Ibrahim) was an actual Jihad child soldier that almost died in the battlefield, only to be saved by Celestial Being's first Gundam, which instilled into lil' Soran a borderline fanatic desire to "become Gundam" once he was recruited by Celestial Being.

Post Disaster

• ASW-G-08 Gundam Barbatos: the 8th Gundam Frame in its timeline and mount of Murderhobo Mikazuki. Notable for being one of the very few mainline Gundams to never equip any beam weaponry whatsoever, to the point of eschewing the customary rifle-and-shield loadout and replacing it instead with an XBAWKS-HUEG mace with a pile-bunker on the tip. Its base form is continuously altered throughout the run, either due to cannibalizing equipment from enemy suits, or modifications done by the heroes after they finally get some money and stop being poor orphans (at least in the monetary sense). Rather fittingly for a machine named after a demon, Mikazuki repeatedly seems to offer up parts of himself to the Gundam in return for more power: every time he unlocks the limiter on Barbatos' systems, the kid loses motor functions on a part of his body, down to losing control over the entire right half of his body, thus dooming him to a life of only being a tool for violence. It also grows progressively more demonic in appearance as the show goes on, with its final form, the Barbatos Lupus Rex, being almost dinosaur-like in appearance, and wielding an even BIGGER mace.
• ASW-G-01 Gundam Bael: The Excalibur of Gundams, and the very first Gundam Frame built in the Post Disaster Era, it was piloted by the founder of Gjallarhorn, a crazy hotblooded motherfucker who chose to fight an army of giant machines of genocidal death with nothing but two really sharp swords. Is said to be haunted by the soul of said founder, and ownership of it (aka, being able to pilot the thing) is said to grant you automatic leadership of Gjallarhorn. Unfortunately when Gjallarhorn pilot McGillicus attempted to try this for himself and take control of the Bael, he found out the hard way that myths don't always play out in the real world, as the fellow leaders of Gjallarhorn told him to eat shit and the Bael was destroyed by a newer and more powerful Mobile Suit. 'Muh Bael' has become a meme as a result of Macky's stupidity.

Ad Stella

• Gundam Aerial: A Girl Gundam for the first girl Gundam Protagonist (who treats the machine like its family, calling it her sister), Aerial works using the GUND system, a mental link that connects the pilot to the machine. Said link can have dangerous consequences if the Permet Score is raised too high, though Aerial seems unusually resilient to the negative effects of this. Aerial's use of Gunbits (Or funnels as they're called in other Gundam entries) makes it one of the most powerful Gundam initially, more akin to the Gundam Unicorn than the RX-78.
  • Permet is an exotic material that allows for distant, unconnected matter to interact with each other (think quantum entanglement). Modified humans, be they clones or "witches", can have permet integrated into them which allows them to interface with machines. Gundams are so complex, though, that the sensory overload will eventually kill the pilot. But Suletta and Aerial are, for some reason, the exception to this.
  • Considering that Suletta, the Aerial's pilot, considers the Gundam to be family, and when combined with her mother's inscrutable, almost manipulative, nature, there was speculation that the Aerial isn't wholly mechanical, which has now been confirmed: Aerial houses the consciousness of Ericht Samaya, who died due to Neuralink her consciousness being uploaded into the cloud "data storm". A data storm is basically a Permet-enabled cloud that allows her to override and control other Permet enabled tech around her, an ability that allows her sister(clone?) to beat the shit out of other Gundams and enhanced humans by just shutting down their machines. Not just that, any machine that uses Permet(every machine), can be taken over, not just Gundams.
  • This is further taken advantage of by Quiet Zero, a gargantuan Mobile Armor/Mobile Fortress/Ship (Gundam terminology is BS) shaped like a coffin, with glowing skulls running down the central segments on each side, and likely at least a kilometer in length that has Aerial at its core, and with the Bit-type MS known as Gundnodes can create a massive Data Storm, which was used by Prospera to slaughter an entire fleet within the span of a few minutes.

Gunpla

What made Gundam a success was in large part through the sales of model kits of the various Gundam and Mobile Suits. Gundam Plamo, shortened to Gunpla, are model kits of the many Mecha that have appeared in Gundam shows down the years. Over time the quality of these kits has risen to the point where Mythbuster's Adam Savage has praised the engineering that has gone into certain Gunpla Kits. Gunpla Kits are modular and use an internal skeleton that allows kits to be combined and kitbashed together to create multiple combinations and allows for a lot of creativity on the part of skilled modellers. Gunpla is often a gateway drug to both military modelling and wargaming in general, as the skills required to build Gunpla are the same skills used to make a Games Workshop kit.

Influence on TTRPGs

Gundam, being as old as it is and with a lot of lore to boot, has had a good bit of influence on tabletop RPGs over the years. For one, there is an actual Gundam RPG built on the framework of Mekton but, sadly, has yet to be translated into English despite years of fans in the West pleading for it and promises from R. Talsorian.

Even without the official RPG, it's influences can still be felt in other games, such as Battle Century G (though it does admittedly pull more from "Super Robot" rather than "Real Robot" anime), Jovian Chronicles, and the mecha you can play with in BESM. There are also numerous fan hacks for other systems such as Genesys RPG and FATE.