The GAT-03?

[Charismatic Enigma]

Okay, The GAT-01 was the Stirke Dagger, the GAT-02 was the Dagger L, and the GAT-04 was the Windam.

What about GAT-03?

[L]

Were there even a GAT-03? There were some variants of GAT-01 but I don't recall anything about GAT-03...

[Charismatic Enigma]

Well, that's what I'm sayin'. It seemed odd that the EA jumped from 02 right on to 04.

[Phantomexe87]

We run across that a lot in Gundam like the weird absence of the RX-76 between the Guntank and Guncannon. My guess is, it is either a mech they have yet to use, or for an in story reason, it was developed, and never seen, or was just a prototype that got shelved.

[Wedge14]

Rx-76 is the ball prototype!! It says so in the mobile pod profile here on MAHQ.

EDIT: Link to the SP-W03 Mobile pod[/url]

[Phantomexe87]

Huh... well, weird how a mobile suit ends up being a space ball... Wouldn't happen to know what happened to the Zeon's MS-20 perchance?

[Toxicity]

Zeon got to 20? I was under the impression they got to 19 (the Galbaldy) and stopped there when they lost the war.

[Phantomexe87]

Zeon got to 20? I was under the impression they got to 19 (the Galbaldy) and stopped there when they lost the war.

Nah, the MS-17 is the Galbaldy, the MS-19 is the Dolmel or the Katarl (both are shakey semi-obscure canon at best). The MS-21 is the Dra-C, produced by Zeon, Axis and the Delaz Fleet.

[Wedge14]

Well my baby the Dra-C is MS-21...

Heres a pretty good list ListOrama

But uhh lets end this convo here..we don't wanna threadjack this anymore then we allready have.[/url]

[Phantomexe87]

Right, my point was simply that it happens a lot, not just in CE.

[Wingnut]

Note that the MS-21 was made after the OYW had ended so it is easily possible that Zeon never got passed 19 in actual production of any units and 20 could have never gotten off a drawing board.

[Red XIV]

The MS-21C Dra-C shows that they didn't stop when the war ended.

Anyway, as far as a GAT-03, maybe it was a competing design that was rejected in favor of the Windam. Such things happen in real life (the YF-16, which became the F-16 Falcon, was selected by the US Air Force over the YF-17, and later the YF-22 (now F-22 Raptor) was chosen instead of the YF-23), and have happened in other Gundam series as well (like the MS-05 Zaku I being selected by Zeon instead of the EMS-04 Zudah).

[razgriz]

maybe they purposely or inadvertantly leave gaps in the designation sequence to fill with future merchandise er mechs for mangas, ovas and what not.

[Dendrobium Stamen]

The lack of a GAT-03 does leave the possibility that it was a failed competitor to replace the Dagger series, a competition we know was won by the GAT-04 Windam. It's also possible that the GAT-03 was a Windam Early Type or something similar, a Proto-Windam of sorts. It may even have been another Dagger model that was rejected in favour of the new-fangled Windam. Until someone/something official gives a genuine explanation, the possibilities are limitless!

Either way, the development gap does give fanfic writers a convenient excuse to come up with their own explanations...

[razgriz]

hmm proto windam i wonder what that would look like. maybe a windam's head on a daggers body or a daggers body on windam legs. ew

[Dendrobium Stamen]

Given the massive, sweeping design changes made between the DOM Trooper Original Spec and the trio of Lacus-loyalist DOM Troopers we see in the series, it's possible the Proto-Windam is a Windam, painted gray.

[razgriz]

hmm as is the proto saviour vs saviour. gee they sure knew how to make prototypes umm boring. well i guess it relates to real life military, i mean if u look at the yf-22 vs the f-22 the differences are cosmetic and for some strange reason the f-22 is a darker gray than its prototype :

[L]

Maybe the proto-windam actually had head designs similar to standard Daggers. Because they didn't think it was good-looking, they then changed it to a better looking head unit. Could there be any possibility that the GAT-03 design was somewhat flawed or deemed not good enough for mass-production? That seemed most sensible to me.

[razgriz]

anyone else besides me think predator when you see the windams face?

[blaze101]

Well, I guess one could presume the GAT-03 was a Dagger design that lost out to the Windam. I kind of likened the Windam to the Nemo, or better yet, the Jegan. In comparison to the Dagger series, the Windam is sleeker and more insect like in its frame, specifically its legs (I'm curious what purpose that actually serves, aside from giving it unique aesthetics).