Strongest Mass Produced MS?

[Mafty]

So what does everyone think would count amongst the strongest Mass Produced units in Gundam?

From UC
Probably the best EF/Resistance example is the Victory Gundam. It was made is massive numbers throughout the war(nearly every major character has some variant by the end). It’s adaptable to pretty much any environment on earth or in space; its also capable of transforming and being modified to different unit packs.
A similar example is the Gundam Ground type being a close example of just mass producing the RX 78. In the hands of an capable pilot this is a very powerful machine. I don’t count it higher because there are fewer of them than the Victory and no replacement parts.
In the late 90s UC we have the ReZEL with Londo Bell finally mass producing the Zeta Gundam. It has a high amount of armaments and is full capable of using the Waverider mode like the Zeta.
Zeon- anything mass produced and Newtype based (Quebeley) or with powerful armor, weapons or transformation capabilities (Zaku III, Doven Wolf, Bawoo).
Zanscare_ Most likely the Gedlav with its unique Einrad attachment that provides protection in battle and greater fire power.

AU’s
Gundam Wing- The Virgo Mobile Doll largely since its drone technology gives it more defense against the Gundams than other units like the Leo have.
Endless Waltz- The Serpent, A hulking Mobile Suit with thick armor and a massive Gatling gun, its probably one of the more powerful mass produce MS until…
Gundam X The Three Mass Produced Gundams with the Satellite Cannon equipped Gundam X; flanked by the Heavyarms clone artillery unit Gundam Leopard, and the aerial combat based Gundam Airmaster(did anyone else think the Airmaster was the weakest of the three units?)
Turn A Gundam – The Wodom definitely, its three stories tall and can obliterate half a town with just its beam cannon.
SEED/ Destiny – The Astray from ORB filling in the mass produced powerful Gundam mode.
The Earth Alliance most likely the Windham which is very well armed and powerfully built from a Federation mass produced suit.

What are everyone else's thoughts…

[Seto Kaiba]

Define "mass produced"... because Gundam itself is VERY inconsistent on what constitutes mass production.

[Mafty]

Mass Produced in that the units themselves are powerful yet still largely in widespread use. Like how the Victory Gundam is utilized by Uso, Oliver, Marbet and half the Shrike Team. Or how the ReZEL was used in mass numbers, and there were teams of Bawoos, Zaku III's and Gedlav's. In that case though I'm not sure if the Gundam Ground Type counts

[Seto Kaiba]

Mass Produced in that the units themselves are powerful yet still largely in widespread use.

Again, that's too vague a definition.

You listed the RX-79[G] Gundam Ground Type as an example of "mass production"... but they only made 20, and that unit wasn't so much produced deliberately as cobbled together out of spare parts. That's limited production at best, or even less than that since it was a literal spare parts unit. Also, just because several characters in a series pilot a particular model doesn't necessarily mean it's a mass production type as Gundam offers entirely too many examples of a extremely limited production units being handed off to one particular special forces unit or what have you.

(For instance, we have absolutely no idea how many LM312V04 Victory Gundams were actually made... and in some sources, it's implied even the League Militaire's leadership isn't sure because of how decentralized the factories making its parts are. They're used by two or so Mobile Suit forces, while everyone else uses the Javelin or Gun-EZ.)

When you get right down to it, isn't the question functionally equivalent to "what is the newest mass production MS from a given timeline"? The ones that would have the best claim to it in the UC's timeline would probably be either one of the G-IT series machines, the Gaitrash, or the Elmoran.

[Kuruni]

...we need to see those Turn A GM in action.

[domtropen]

and Sumo

[SonicSP]

If 72 is enough, than the Gundam Series from IBO might count, certainly in its own universe. But like mentioned, we need to the threshold of mass production first.

For 00, definitely the GN-XIII would be something that can reasonably count as mass production since there were confirmed 1000 units produced by Season 2's period. Probably can hold its own not too badly in other universes as well. The Ahead only had 100 units made and I recall most GN-XIIIs were not upgraded to IVs by the movie's time, so those fall under the "depends on definition" category.

[yazi88]

GN X IVs were quite strong too. Especially having different equipment and being able to go Trans AM. There were quite a number of them too so it had a good production run despite a lot of GN XIIIs not being converted to them in time.

[SonicSP]

GN-XIVs are definite stronger, they integrated some GNZ Series tech and was said to be akin to a Gundam in strength (probably Single Drive 4th Gens.....cos they got nothing on the 5th Gens for sure).

However they were only 48 of them total used on the ELS Decisive Battle near Earth according to the ESF fleet composition data from 00 Final Mechanics book. Some were lost in ELS encounters before then but not too much. We have to remember that the ESF Army downsized a lot due to the A-LAWS scandal, so if 48-50s would count in the definition then sure I guess.

I still think GN-XIII is only candidate for 00 that safely fit most mass production definitions for mobile weapons and is the strongest among them.

[yazi88]

48-50 is a pretty good number although not a very high mass production rate compared to the standard grunt, but much higher than the usual limited production model which is usually less than 20.

Plus according to 00V more GN-XIVs were made after the ELS war and added the core fighter aspect which isn't too big of a change but it helped survival for pilots.

[yazi88]

Although for IBO Gundams... while the frame themselves were mass produced... pretty much all the Gundams so far were all unique in the way they were used/customized and don't seem to have any exact same specs between them compared between frames.

But I guess its the frames themselves that count for the mass production aspect so that does hold true for this thread.

And funny enough, none of the Valkyria frames seemed to be the exact same either as there were very little of those, although the Valkyrie frame was the basis for the mass production Geiral and Graze line centuries later.

[Seto Kaiba]

Although for IBO Gundams... while the frame themselves were mass produced... pretty much all the Gundams so far were all unique in the way they were used/customized and don't seem to have any exact same specs between them compared between frames.

But I guess its the frames themselves that count for the mass production aspect so that does hold true for this thread.

While the forerunners of modern Gjallarhorn who created the Gundam Frames created 72 of them, each of them was issued its own separate model number and name to mark them as a class of 72 one-of-a-kind Mobile Suits.

On those grounds, I'd say that they aren't mass produced. Barring special-purpose derivative variants, you'd expect a mass production design to all be designated the same.

[yazi88]

Yep, that sounds about right. Thank you.

I think the Vaklyria Frames had a lot more common with each other. We've seen 3 so far, although the heavy one is a modified version of the 1st one, so only 2 really. But 2 of them (Grimgarde and Oltlinde) share very common parts with each other although they have different weapons so I don't know if they had a standard style between them or if all the Valkyria units were customized like the Gundams were. Both of them were high mobility types so I'm assuming it was the case for all of them.

[SonicSP]

I think the Vaklyria Frames had a lot more common with each other. We've seen 3 so far, although the heavy one is a modified version of the 1st one, so only 2 really. But 2 of them (Grimgarde and Oltlinde) share very common parts with each other although they have different weapons so I don't know if they had a standard style between them or if all the Valkyria units were customized like the Gundams were. Both of them were high mobility types so I'm assuming it was the case for all of them.

While the Helmwige Reincar was a retrofitted Grimgerde, it was noted in its HG manual that "the original characteristics of the heavy armor and equipment for the Helmwige was recreated". This is inclusive of the large heavy sword as well, which was designed to fight against mobile armors and at the time, what McGillis and co needed. The manual also notes its pretty much the opposite of Grimgerde which focuses on lightweight and mobility.

While there might possibly be changes here and there, the general gist seems to be that the Reincar was very much in the spirit of the original Helmwige and that would disprove the theory that all Vakyrja Frames models were high mobility types. 

They were only nine Vakyrja Frames made though, so hard to tell what the plans were. Three seperate distinct designs out of nine total frames produced does seem to imply to me that they were still at the single high cost unit stage, rather than the streamlined, economies of scale, cheap GM stage.

[yazi88]

Ah got it, thank you

[SonicSP]

Doing a quick look at main profile of the HG Grimgerde, there's a line there in the middle that says Vakyrja was meant to boasts the numerical value as a main force unit or something to that effect. So it does sound like they were some plans for mass production. Too lazy to analyze the specific sentence structure to know what it really means in English at the moment.

But I agree that Helmwige is weird in the sense that the original profiles of Valkyrja Frames does emphasize its lightweight and efficiency as its strengths. Something like the Helmwige would fit the Gundams design philosophy more which is complex high tech, high fussiness but high power.

I guess its one of those "in case we need raw firepower" situations.

[Mafty]

Ok so the Victory Gundam is more of a limited custom unit, as are the Gundams from Gundam X.

It still seems as though the Serpent from Endless Waltz was mass produced (according to some sources 500 units were produced, not a lot I guess but when your the only units in the Earth Sphere...).

As for CE what does everyone think of the Windam and the ZAKU Warrior? The Windam is noted for supplanting the Dagger series, And the ZAKU Warrior is the frontline mass produced units to the ZAKU Phantom commander unit(it can be hard to tell in CE because every character of importance winds up with their own customized unit sooner or later), Athrun's probably the only one to pilot an unmodified unit at the start of the series.

[Kuruni]

On screen, Windam finally give Leo a serious contender :p .

[MythSearcher]

I'd say this question would make more sense if we compare what role they should be taking and how well they are doing that in their own period.
For example, how powerful is it if compared to its rival mass produced unit? or the super prototype?
Granted, in some universe you simply do not have a rival unit(like Leo from W.)