Ceremonial Zaku?

[Mafty]

So in Gundam Thunderbolt Bandit Flower, there is a scene toward the beginning where the Federation is fighting Zeon inside the asteroid base. During this time we see some Zaku's that seem to have ceremonial decorations on them. Is their any information on what these units are called?

[Seto Kaiba]

It's only ever referred to as "Bodyguard unit".

[tHeWasTeDYouTh]

funny thing I think back in the day there was a MSV of Dozle's Zaku II and it is the same color as the "bodyguard" Zakus in Gundam Thunderbolt.

[Seto Kaiba]

funny thing I think back in the day there was a MSV of Dozle's Zaku II and it is the same color as the "bodyguard" Zakus in Gundam Thunderbolt.

It's noted to be a reuse of that MSV design, actually.

[Mafty]

Makes sense, Gundam often sneaks in cameos of rather obscure or older mecha. This is particularly the case in UC works , Since a lot of the UC fans are more likely to recognize the shout outs. Plus it is a cool design so it's neat to see it make it's way into canon(Like the Forbidden Vortex in Seed Destiny).

Also given how Thunderbolt plays fast and lose with technological continuity it's one of the more logical additions , given how it's a variant from an early 80's model line.

Also Seto, where is there information on this unit? I've tried looking up Thunderbolt Body Guard unit and can't find anything.

[D_I]

Also Seto, where is there information on this unit? I've tried looking up Thunderbolt Body Guard unit and can't find anything.

i know this post is like 4 months old but heres what id say the decoration is for.
id say that the decoration is simply a status thing. though it would be cool if the MS gets decorated more for every battle its been in.

[MythSearcher]

i know this post is like 4 months old but heres what id say the decoration is for.
id say that the decoration is simply a status thing. though it would be cool if the MS gets decorated more for every battle its been in.

Cool but impractical.
making decorations takes more resources and time, while you have ace painting their own logo onto units, doing that as a general procedure for mass-production units that are prone to be shot down on every battle is a waste of time.
During One Year War pilots(not limited to aces) are allowed to paint the unit to anything they want, to boost morale, but doing so also means you get more attention from the enemy...

[Seto Kaiba]

i know this post is like 4 months old but heres what id say the decoration is for.
id say that the decoration is simply a status thing. though it would be cool if the MS gets decorated more for every battle its been in.

It'd look cool on parade, but it'd be a terrible idea in wartime.

Nothing worse for your life expectancy than "Shoot here, I'm an officer!".

[MythSearcher]

It'd look cool on parade, but it'd be a terrible idea in wartime.

Nothing worse for your life expectancy than "Shoot here, I'm an officer!".

famous last words: "should have painted my machine like the old rusty trash from the junk yard."

[Mafty]

I've heard in a few places that the Gundam was originally to be all black or all white, but Clover wanted brighter colors for merchandise. So apparently the bright colors are "Parade Colors" that they never ended up changing, as for the rest of the Mobile Suits who knows? Painting Military equipment bright colors doesn't really make any sense(For one example Zanscare painting the Gedlav in Browns and Yellows for Desert combat in the Southwestern United States makes sense, Painting the Zollidia in Grey and Red, not so much), but it's something you just go with, and FWIW it does make the mech look cooler than just sticking to army colors(Honestly the Zollidia has been one of my favorite designs)

The Ceremonial units are a bit more unusual, in that as everyone has said. They deck out a regular unit in ornate Add-ons that don't actually do anything. It's like how the GINN Long Range Reconnaissance type has an ornate yellow head crest which would be a bacon in outer space, never mind the fact it's so lightly armed.

There are probably actually two reasons for this. The out of Universe reason is that it's a cool quick cameo of an MSV suit or something. In Universe , they probably threw every suit they could find at the end of the battle.

[Seto Kaiba]

I've heard in a few places that the Gundam was originally to be all black or all white, but Clover wanted brighter colors for merchandise. So apparently the bright colors are "Parade Colors" that they never ended up changing, as for the rest of the Mobile Suits who knows?

Yeah, both Yoshiyuki Tomino and Kunio Okawara have commented many times that the original plan for the (original) Gundam was for it to be either white or (duralumin) silver. Clover apparently used silver as the base color for their line of Gundam merch as well. It was decided that that lacked impact relative to other robot toys on the market, so they adopted the now-familiar tricolor paint scheme that Yoshikazu Yasuhiko threw together with an eye towards still emphasizing the white sections of the design. That intent lingers on in the story's insistent references to the original Gundam as "shiroi yatsu"... localized variously as (White Devil) and such.

There have been a few different attempts to explain why the different RX-78s had different paintjobs. The particulars vary, but almost all of them agree that the end goal was to enable the first three Gundam units to be distinguished from each other by sight alone. Master Archive Mobile Suit: RX-78 Gundam and a few others roll with the idea that the RX-78-2's bright blue, red, and yellow trim was because it was intended to be a high visibility display paintjob for some kind of demonstration or ceremony (e.g. demonstrating its performance in simulated combat for a military review board) that was cancelled due to the Zeon attack on Side 7 and the Gundam being hastily evacuated aboard the White Base.

Painting Military equipment bright colors doesn't really make any sense(For one example Zanscare painting the Gedlav in Browns and Yellows for Desert combat in the Southwestern United States makes sense, Painting the Zollidia in Grey and Red, not so much), but it's something you just go with, and FWIW it does make the mech look cooler than just sticking to army colors(Honestly the Zollidia has been one of my favorite designs) [...]

There are specific cases where it does make sense.

The big one is, of course, demonstration units. Technology demonstrators are often (but not always) painted in bright colors to make it easier for the engineers overseeing the testing to keep track of them visually during test sequences. Air Display Teams use the same principle, to make it easier for the audience at the airshow to track and identify them. Since most Gundams in the UC are "prototypes" it makes a certain amount of sense for them to have bright colored trim because they're either meant to be high-vis for testing purposes or just because it looks impressive when demonstrating your latest overpriced toy to the military brass.

There are other applications, like dazzle camouflage... though that's not used in the animation because it'd be a massive pain in the arse to actually draw.

Of course, spacecraft nowhere near so brightly or uniformly lit as it is in sci-fi so in most cases you could paint a Mobile Suit any damn color you liked and practically nobody would be able to tell what color it was unless it was hanging out in the immediate vicinity of a reflected light source like being in Earth orbit or just above the lunar surface.

The Ceremonial units are a bit more unusual, in that as everyone has said. They deck out a regular unit in ornate Add-ons that don't actually do anything. It's like how the GINN Long Range Reconnaissance type has an ornate yellow head crest which would be a bacon in outer space, never mind the fact it's so lightly armed.

The GINN's head crest isn't an example of functionless bling... it's indicated to be a compound sensor array containing various things like radars and low-light cameras that were critical to the GINN pilot's situational awareness. They were removed from the design when the ZAKU Warrior was introduced because it was decided that visual acuity was more important under the influence of neutron jammers.

An excess of bling or trim that makes it obvious at a glance that a particular unit's pilot is a commander or otherwise a figure or authority is a terrible idea on the battlefield though. There are few things worse for one's life expectancy than waltzing around a battlefield in bling that makes it clear you're an officer and that shooting you has greater-than-average tactical value.

There are probably actually two reasons for this. The out of Universe reason is that it's a cool quick cameo of an MSV suit or something. In Universe , they probably threw every suit they could find at the end of the battle.

Those are the same reason... it's a cameo by an MSV design because the producers, like Zeon, are throwing whatever random crap is at hand into the fray.

[MythSearcher]

Gundam as "shiroi yatsu"... localized variously as (White Devil) and such.

"Shiroi yatsu" is "white guy/dude/thing"
"Shiroi Akuma" is "white devil"
both used in the story but iirc white devil is only used after Solomon.