Gundam Unicorn MS in Hobby Japan 6

Got this torrent of Hobby Japan 6 scans from SRWHotnews. Really interesting stuff inside. What I’d like to focus on here would be the mods/scratchbuilds of this UC series’s MS’s.

The magazine showed a hefty amount of model kit mods and they look quite gorgeous. One thing’s for sure: it made me wish Bandai would invest in producing these model kits exactly as they look like in these images.

MSN-06S Sinanju

First up is the MSN-06S Sinanju which is the custom mobile suit piloted by Full Frontal or who is known as the “Second Coming of Char”. He dresses, acts and sounds exactly like Char. Now whether he would still retain the classic rivalry that Amuro and Char had in the previous UC series from OYW (One Year War 0079) all the way to CCA (Char’s Counterattack) with the protagonist of this series is yet to be seen.

I am definitely loving the military uniform trim that is classic to Zeon shown in the designs of the MS’s themselves and the Sinanju is no exception. What you would normally see as uniform trim on Char or Full Frontal’s top coat is also seen in his mobile suit. This is also done in all Neo-Zeon units in this series which is really awesome. I know that there are a lot of Zeon MS fans out there and this one would add to their love for Zeon mechs.

NZ-666 Kshatriya

The Green Demon. This mobile suit appears to have been based on the design of the Quin Mantha. I can’t remember who pilots this but this was one of the first units that appeared in the official website. I’m definitely its design as well. Like I mentioned above for the Sinanju, the military trim makes it look a lot like a very serious mobile suit. In fact, the Neo-Zeon units here look even more serious that the Feddie mechs. The Kshatriya’s main armament appears to be fin funnels housed underneath those large shield-like protrusions on its shoulders, quite similar to those of the Quin Mantha.

I remember in SEED and SEED Destiny, there were Djinns that had additional ranking trim and paint for ceremonial purposes. These ones have rank designations based on the emblems on their chests which also mirror the emblem/trim on the chest of the uniforms of those assigned to pilot them.

AMS-129 Geara Zulu (Guard Custom and Angelo Sauper Custom)

Incidentally, I forgot about the existence of the AMS-119 Geara Doga, which was a mobile suit produced by Anaheim Electronics for Neo-Zeon for the Neo-Zeon war. If you were to look at it, the design is a lot closer to Geara Zulu’s design than people might think (me included). So whatever references on Feddie units that were derived from this MS design gets booted out the window.

I remember having written about Angelo Sauper’s Geara Zulu. It’s the first purple mech that I actually liked. I’m surprised it was a Zeon unit and not an actual Gundam. The Geara Zulu’s design looks really nice although I’m not exactly too fond of the 0079-ish GM-looking feet. Would have been nicer if Hajime Katoki had just recycled the feet from the Kshatriya.

The Guard Custom is a Geara Zulu with additional stuff added to the armor and armaments. The head reminds me of a Nazi helmet, actually. It looks scary and can deal death quite easily. Obvious cosmetic differences between the guard custom and the regular Geara Zulu would be the shoulders which have the spikes that the Zakus were known for but it has it on both sides, with military trim that makes it look really awesome-scary. It also has a high mobility backpack as well as spare magazines mounted on the front skirt. It doesn’t carry a bazooka like the regular Geara Zulu so I guess the guard custom is more for honor guard, ceremonial purposes rather than actual military combat.

Angelo’s custom mobile suit, aside from being painted purple, looks almost exactly like the guard custom. The emblem on the chest shows a higher rank than both the guard custom and the regular Geara Zulu. It sports a shield that reminds me of the shield that the ZZ Gundam had as well as additional thrusters at the back that remind me of the thruster found at the back of the GP01 Fb. (EDIT: The shield is actually closer to the one used by a Geara Doga) And instead of the Gear Zulu’s usual firearm, it carries around a sniper rifle. It also has that command array/rank antenna on top of its head similar to how Zakus were distinguished by rank back then.

The regular Geara Zulu’s main difference is its bazooka, beam axe and the shoulder shield that was seen in the Zakus while the guard custom has no shield whatsoever but I guess it would be safe to assume that this one has higher mobility and serves as strike units rather than cannon fodder.

MSN-001A1 Delta P Plus

I wrote about this transforming MS sometime way back then. For those who don’t know yet, the Delta Gundam had been under development as far back as during the Gryps conflict. In fact, it was supposed to be a mass-production MS for that particular war. But then they could not seem to perfect the transformation ability so what happened instead was that AEUG just locked it in mobile suit mode, discarded its waverider capabilities and named it Hyaku Shiki, Quattro Bajina aka Char Aznable aka Casval Rem Deikun’s golden mobile suit in Z Gundam.

In this UC series, they’ve finally perfected the mobile suit, probably much thanks to Camille Bidan developing the Zeta Gundam (Zeta, Delta, Greek characters, you get the drift) which is capable of transforming into waverider mode. Sadly, to maximize the Zeta Gundam’s full potential, a newtype, particularly the one who developed it, Camille, would have to be the one to pilot it. Delta Gundam also needs a newtype to pilot it, thus the N designation in its unit code. As for who the pilot is, I do not know.