Mobile Armor Bigness

[toysdream]

Time for another nerdy digression...

In Gundam 0083, we see a handful of mobile armors and mobile armor-like weapons in the form of the Wal Walo, Neue Ziel, and Gundam GP03 Dendrobium. The specs for these guys are all fairly consistent - they're all about 70 meters long, weigh about 400 tons full loaded, and so forth.

The earlier mobile armors that appeared in the original Gundam series, however, have never really had consistent specs. Various numbers were batted around over the years, until finally the authors of Entertainment Bible 1 resolved the issue by essentially pulling a bunch of numbers out of a hat. Some of these were plausible enough, others - like the Elmeth being 85 meters long - a lot less so. The Bigro's listed length of 45.5 meters always seemed reasonable enough to me, until...

Recently, out of sheer curiosity, I pulled out an MS Igloo book and looked at the diagrams and 3D turnarounds for the mobile armor Big Rang. Since the dimensions of the Big Rang itself are a known quantity, it was pretty simple to figure out the size of the Bigro attached to it. It turns out that, as per MS Igloo, the Bigro is actually about 65 meters long. This is exactly the size indicated by the old 1/550 scale model kit (117mm x 550 = roughly 64.5 meters), and somewhere in between the more recent MS in Action toy (about 60-65 meters depending on the precise scale) and the 1/600 scale B-CLUB garage kit (120mm x 600 = roughly 72 meters). In other words, pretty much every Sunrise and Bandai product for the last quarter-century has indicated that the Bigro is about 65 meters long, and they've stuck with this regardless of whatever the current reference books claim.

I note, however, that when I was measuring out all those diagrams it became pretty clear that the Big Rang's overall length doesn't include the Bigro's arms, which after all are movable parts. In this case, perhaps we can say that the Bigro's official length of 45.5 meters includes only its main body, which is indeed about 45 meters long according to the Big Rang digrams and 1/550 scale model kit.

If the old kits are an accurate reflection of how big Sunrise thinks these things are, it leads us to some interesting conclusions. According to Tomino's original sketches and the animation in TV episode 40, the Elmeth seems to be about three times as long as a mobile suit is tall; the 1/550 scale model kit is 88mm long, which corresponds to about 48.5 meters. The Braw Bro would be about 60 meters long, and the Big Zam about 60 meters tall, both of which match the current official specs. And so forth...

-- Mark

[Albireo_818]

That's...interesting.

Cant say i would have thought of it myself, but, suprisingly, i do similar things with other games/shows.

Kudos, Kudos, my friend.

[toysdream]

That's...interesting.

Or "unspeakably nerdy," but I appreciate the diplomatic phrasing.

-- Mark

[Brave Fencer Kirby]

I find it rather interesting that all three of the mobile armors from 0083 are roughly the same size and mass, given the vastly different shapes of the designs and the differing purposes they were built for. I wonder if that's intensional on the part of the designers -- that after the One Year War the technology has settled on what a "good" size for a mobile armor is -- or just laziness on their part? The GP-03 and the Neue Ziel having such similarities one might expect, given that they're thematically mirror images of each other -- but the Val Varo being included as well makes me wonder.

[krullnar]

That's...interesting.

Or "unspeakably nerdy," but I appreciate the diplomatic phrasing.

-- Mark

LOL

Yah I have to agree with Kirby on this it is odd that Val Varo is the same dimensions as the other two when the only thing they have in common is that all three are MA's.

Just paused typing to look at all three stats over at mahq and I gotta say that it's mostly laziness. Also as I was looking at the stats I remember watching it and I don't remember the Val Varo being that small yah I know that's far from small but I always thought that it was bigger then the other two.

[toysdream]

I don't think the similarity in sizes bothers me that much. Mobile suits pretty much all come in the same standard size, and there's no particular reason for that either. Keeping them all within the same size and weight range makes more sense to me than having some of them be twice as long or ten times heavier than the others (especially when the lightest ones are the biggest, as per the official specs for the Elmeth!).

Given that the Gundam 0083 mobile armors are all about 400 tons, the official weights for the Bigro and Elmeth - roughly 230 and 290 tons, respectively - seem fairly reasonable, especially if the Bigro is bigger and the Elmeth smaller than the official specs claim. There's no excuse for the Big Zam and Braw Bro, though.

-- Mark

[Aegis]

Thought I was the only one bothered by those MA specs, especially with MAs like the Elmeth and its length to the Big Zam and everything about its measurements. The Big Zam always felt like it was too small and too heavy at the same time when compared to certain MAs in the series. Even an empty weight of around 1000 tonnes didn't seem right despite being a walking fortress, and 2000 tonnes was off the charts for something that is only ten metres taller than the likes of the Elmeth.