How long does it take for a manga MS design to appear in other materials?

[MythSearcher]

The One Year War was definitely the worst offender overall, but IMO Unicorn was more frustrating by far in light of the OVA being about as enjoyable as unanesthetized oral surgery and having absolutely no justification to have the Sleeves - a force that can clearly afford state of the art weapons like the Sinanju, Kshatriya, and so on - sortie in a collection of hideous MSV museum pieces.

The novel version is a bit better other than going to the other extreme to demonize the Federation. (I mean, they raped a whole colony in the novel)

The World War II angle works for Zeon, not so much for the Federation, since Zeon had a lot more history behind their Mobile Suit program and the ink was barely dry on the Federation's initial 1st Generation Mobile Suit design. Zeon was throwing anything and everything at the wall to see what'd stick after Odessa, so running out loads and loads of garbage prototypes for the Federation to convert into abstract sculpture with machine gun, cannon, and beam rifle fire made a modicum of sense. Having sixty variants of the basic Zaku II that was their mainstay well before sh*t went south makes NO sense.

At least they were manufacturing MMS and JMS, so they are not really totally inexperienced. Kinda like the US was already manufacturing light tanks before WWII, so switching to medium and heavy tanks are not completely new to them.

Most of the variants seemed like just regular units with a different weapon and superficial change of armour of an existing unit.

Also, the one off models can be seen as field testing what works for the mass production units.

It seems like other than the 79[G], which is the EFGF going too quick to adopt the MS and thus had poor compatibility to the later models, the other models' compatibility can somehow be classified by appearance, kinda.

The US also had 18 variants for the M3 Lee and 10 variants for the M4 Sherman?
Of course the advancement in engineering should eliminate these inefficient practices, but I mean, OYW is pretty much WWII "in space!" anyway...(At least with a Nazi having a mentality and intelligence of WWII imperial Japan and a thinly disguised modern bureaucratic Japan as the Federation) and also, the advancement in Engineering and technology seemed to have just increased the number of variants they can pump out to some extent.

Well, there's Thunderbolt and its South Seas Alliance too... but that story is such a complete and utter mess of tryhard ZOINKS and pretentious garbage that I refuse to acknowledge it as a Gundam series.

Similar, I at least refuse to acknowledge it as UC. (Which the officials had a similar view that it is alternative UC)
Going as far as saying for the Gundam metaseries, well, I am not as bold to do so. But it IS a pretty bad one.

Politicians only being interested in their own wellbeing and agendas is a universal truism entirely independent of any party, nation, or system of government. Even Star Trek's incredibly optimistic future doesn't pretend it isn't the norm even in a well-functioning government.

Now, realistically speaking, if a factory contracted with manufacturing a specific design of vehicle started making changes to its design on their own initiative they'd get crucified for it from all sides. All it takes is one change big enough to break compatibility between two previously standardized parts and you've entered logistical hell. That introduces so much potential for a change to have unintended knock-on consequences for other standard systems. That'd be an unacceptable state of affairs for a military, where human lives and potentially victory itself depend upon reliable equipment and keeping the supply chain as streamlined as possible. If a politician instigated some situation along those lines, they'd get crucified right alongside the factory staff who made the change the minute something went wrong.

You do sometimes see this kind of difference in build-under-license arrangements between allied nations for one another's hardware... but the whole point there is keeping your most advanced and capable technology out of the hands of an ally who might one day not be an ally. The Earth Federation is a federal government, not an alliance, so they don't have that problem because the entire Federation is technically one nation.

Didn't the USA do that pretty much in WWII?
I've heard that the different state manufactured tanks didn't even have compatible parts, and they solved the problem by shipping only parts manufactured by that state to the same battlefield where the shipped the tanks.

Of course, considering there are only 6 main manufacturing areas for the EFF during the OYW, it'd still be stupid to have 50 variants...

[Seto Kaiba]

The novel version is a bit better other than going to the other extreme to demonize the Federation. (I mean, they raped a whole colony in the novel)

... I have no words for how incredibly stupid you just made the light novel sound.

I am now intensely glad that I have not read it and have no plans to do so.

At least they were manufacturing MMS and JMS, so they are not really totally inexperienced. Kinda like the US was already manufacturing light tanks before WWII, so switching to medium and heavy tanks are not completely new to them.

The MMS and JMS are more like forklifts than tanks, when you think about it. They control similarly, but how they get used and their basic operating requirements are completely different.

Most of the variants seemed like just regular units with a different weapon and superficial change of armour of an existing unit.

I dunno about that, from Master Archive there seems to be a lot of reconfiguration of the joints and head design.

Also, the one off models can be seen as field testing what works for the mass production units.

If only Gundam actually used them that way... mostly one-offs in Gundam are super-prototypes too impractical to actually build, which defeats the purpose.

The US also had 18 variants for the M3 Lee and 10 variants for the M4 Sherman?
Of course the advancement in engineering should eliminate these inefficient practices, but I mean, [...]

Thematically, the point is valid... but we're talking about literal centuries later in time with exponentially more advanced military hardware.

Also, WRT the M3 Lee/Grant and M4 Sherman... the vast majority of the M3 Lee/Grant variants were uses of the M3's chassis converted to other purposes like tank recovery vehicles, artillery tractors, howitzer motor carriages, command vehicles, and minesweepers. There are only as many of those as there are because they redesignated every time the same conversion started with a different base chassis (which only really differed in terms of their fabrication process: riveted plate vs. cast single hull vs. welded plate). Most of the M4 Sherman's variants were postwar developments created over the three decades following the Sherman's introduction and for export sale.

Didn't the USA do that pretty much in WWII?
I've heard that the different state manufactured tanks didn't even have compatible parts, and they solved the problem by shipping only parts manufactured by that state to the same battlefield where the shipped the tanks.

I've heard this, but in connection with France rather than the US... their manufacturing tolerances were so loose during World War II that you frequently couldn't swap parts between two of the same model of rifle made in two different factories. Sometimes it got so bad that you couldn't swap parts between two of the same model of gun made in the same factory. The Fusil Mitrailleur Modele 1915 CSRG (FM Chauchat) was famous for being so poorly manufactured, unreliable, and impossible to repair that US troops issued them (for fear of more advanced American machine guns ending up in Nazi hands) would lose or break them at first opportunity and use machine guns pinched from the Germans instead.

(I have it on excellent authority that the FM Chauchat's one real virtue is that the barrels were long enough that they made excellent condenser coils for stills once bent into the appropriate shape with a pipe-bending jig.)

[MythSearcher]

... I have no words for how incredibly stupid you just made the light novel sound.

I am now intensely glad that I have not read it and have no plans to do so.

I wasn't so lucky.
I started reading it before the anime is even announced, because they made it sounded like the novel is going to be official/canon.
It wasn't really as stupid sounding until the end (the part about them raping a whole colony was way towards the end)
But it is still good that they decided to adapt it to an anime and use that as the canon version.

The MMS and JMS are more like forklifts than tanks, when you think about it. They control similarly, but how they get used and their basic operating requirements are completely different.

True, but at the same time the technology is just so advanced that the manufacturing of robotic manipulators are really easy and thus the EFF are just working on well matured mechanical parts and piecing them together.
The computer hardware and software are also much more advanced.

I'd say that they should be in an era where if you have the money and resources, home build MS isn't too hard for even a student. And Kamille is an example of this, they have student competition of JMS building, and from Anaheim Journal the sport seems to be not just about speed racing but also a certain level of combat.(Or at least punching your opponents' JMS isn't considered breaking the rule.)

I dunno about that, from Master Archive there seems to be a lot of reconfiguration of the joints and head design.

Master Archive is at the tier 2 or 3 settings because it is not really initiated by Bandai/Sunrise.
At least the tier 1 settings like Gundam Officials and ver.1.5 don't use those art and wordings.

Just talking about the GM and GM canon case.
A non-canon classification I used is basically the designs by Kunio(MSG, MSV, etc.), Izubuchi(0080) and Katoki(filling in the gaps, usually for games and models, but also the 79[E] and 79C) which official sources usually used. An easy way is to just say that the Jaburo models are Kunio designed and Lunar 2 models are Izubuchi designed and Katoki ones are basically the more standardized towards end of war. I know this classification is especially flawed for the MSV units specifically said to be developed on Lunar 2, but most of them works this way.
Each have similar appearance as long as they are drawn by the same artist, joints and heads are all similar. Thus I just boldly assumed they are all just superficially different but uses the same parts.

Thematically, the point is valid... but we're talking about literal centuries later in time with exponentially more advanced military hardware.

Considering EF is so huge, it would not be really that remote to have their own factories to build their own variants.
Like I said this shouldn't really happen as they are so advanced into the future, but they also have the ability to design and manufacture whole new MS on the field with just a modified Zanzibar class, so they might have enough of a technology to just ignore parts compatibility caused logistics issues because they can manufacture it on site anyway.
(and since both sides are both being as stupidly inefficient as possible, I guess the EFF has the advantage of being more resourceful to do so)
The number of GMs aren't really that many to a point where they need to be really mass-producing in the actual EF manufacturing capabilities to begin with. With the current manufactured numbers, even if we take the Gundam Officials rejected numbers of about 5000, it is still a very small number compared to WWII tanks and planes.

Also, WRT the M3 Lee/Grant and M4 Sherman... the vast majority of the M3 Lee/Grant variants were uses of the M3's chassis converted to other purposes like tank recovery vehicles, artillery tractors, howitzer motor carriages, command vehicles, and minesweepers. There are only as many of those as there are because they redesignated every time the same conversion started with a different base chassis (which only really differed in terms of their fabrication process: riveted plate vs. cast single hull vs. welded plate). Most of the M4 Sherman's variants were postwar developments created over the three decades following the Sherman's introduction and for export sale.

Fair, I guess I should use the Zero fighter, it has like 52 mods.
Granted, the Zero is like the worst example. Most of the later models are manufactured in Girls' middle and high schools, with malfunction parts and I highly suspect the parts to be incompatible to each other anyway.

I've heard this, but in connection with France rather than the US... their manufacturing tolerances were so loose during World War II that you frequently couldn't swap parts between two of the same model of rifle made in two different factories. Sometimes it got so bad that you couldn't swap parts between two of the same model of gun made in the same factory. The Fusil Mitrailleur Modele 1915 CSRG (FM Chauchat) was famous for being so poorly manufactured, unreliable, and impossible to repair that US troops issued them (for fear of more advanced American machine guns ending up in Nazi hands) would lose or break them at first opportunity and use machine guns pinched from the Germans instead.

(I have it on excellent authority that the FM Chauchat's one real virtue is that the barrels were long enough that they made excellent condenser coils for stills once bent into the appropriate shape with a pipe-bending jig.)

Anyway, the EF seems to be so much of a mess that we can kinda take the liberty to say that they just had the worst logistic nightmare because of communication problems between each manufacturing site?