RB-79 Ball
Encyclopedia
The RB-79 Ball is a fictional weapon from the anime
series Mobile Suit Gundam
. Its design was partially inspired by the EVA Pod from 2001: A Space Odyssey
. As a ubiquitous mobile weapon
, it has been a popular subject for modeling enthusiasts, largely due to its unique and unusual design among the other vehicles within the Gundam universe.
The RB-79 Ball, introduced in the original Mobile Suit Gundam
TV series, have also gained its appearance in Gundam Sentinel 0079, MS Igloo, Gundam Evolve, All of SD Gundam G-Generation series, Super Robot Wars series and Gundam Century. Originally designed by Kunio Okawara
, it is also redesigned by Katoki Hajime for almost all of the other series.
It is one of the clear designs in the Gundam meta-series that is technically feasible, and is suggested as an item that should be pursued by an aeronautics expert involved in the Gundam Academy.
. Designed by Kunio Okawara
, the Ball was the only Mobile Pod seen in Gundam for over 26 years (1979~2006). In one episode of the new 3D animation productions, Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO: Apocalypse 0079, Zeon deployed their own mobile attack pod, the MP-02A "Oggo", in desperation. The Ball appears in various Gundam stories, including its first appearance in Mobile Suit Gundam
, Gundam Sentinel 0079, Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team
, Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO
, Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory
, Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam
and Gundam Evolve
. It also appeared in many of the Gundam video games, including the Gihren's Ambition series, the SD Gundam Generation games, the Versus series, and even in the Super Robot Wars
series on more than one occasion.
of Crossbone Gundam also based the designs of the RB-133 Ball and the side story unit B Gundam on the RB-79. In the story Magical Ensign Blaster Mari, several MC coating-equipped Balls have also appeared.
The first redesign of RB-79 Ball in the Model Graphix magazine for Gundam Sentinel 0079 by Katoki Hajime was inspired by the space pod in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey
and Katoki said in the interview in Sentinel 0079 that he wanted to designed it to look like a one-man space pod NASA
would build. He depicted it to have a similar impression of the working pod appearing in the new film The Abyss
at that time directed by James Cameron
The design made it (or the SP-W03 space worker pot) a clearly feasible technologically icon and an aeronautics expert involved in the Gundam Academy said that it is one of the items that should be pursued in reality.
game, the RB-79 and RB-79C both got a secondary weapon named Call Ball and a SP attack summoning dozens of RB-79 and swarm the field with their 180mm cannons. However, the designer Katoki Hajime viewed the unit differently. In his design notes, he granted the RB-79 a much higher position as a war weapon, making it an attempt of the Earth Federation Forces to create a small size mobile armour, since the specs of the unit could be compared against the MS-09R Dom.
between the Earth Federation
and the Principality of Zeon, the Federation lacked any sort of the mass-produced humanoid mecha
, known as mobile suits. The Zeon forces laid waste to the Federation fleet with their mobile suits, the Zaku I
and the later Zaku II
. To counteract this, the Federation scrambled to make some sort of mobile weapon that could counter the Zeon attack. However, their new prototype mobile suit, the Gundam, was too costly to mass-produce, and their first mass-production mobile suit, the GM
, just wasn't being fielded fast enough.
The RB-79 Ball mobile pod was created with the cancelled number of the Project V
RX-76 Prototype Ball. The Federation refitted about 1200 of the civilian-model space construction pods, known as SP-W03 mobile pods, and installed heavier armor platings and a 180mm recoilless cannon on top. The Ball mobile pod also had vernier thrusters mounted all along the body, which used solid-fuel explosives rather than more conventional liquid propellants. As an improvised conversion, the Ball was initially seen as ill-suited for combat, earning the nickname "Mobile Coffin" among EFSF pilots. It was, however, smaller, more maneuverable, and more stealthy than a mobile suit, and its real strategic advantages were its low cost and large numbers. Harassment from hit-and-run attacks by Federation's fast Salamis cruisers and their attached Ball squads proved to be a constant headache for Zeon supply fleets, who often had to deploy additional forces to escort their vulnerable Papuas and Pazocks.
custom and became 3 times more powerful than an ordinary unit. This gag has at least appeared in two manga, one Super robot wars doujin manga was actually published by a branch of Bandai showing a Ball unit painted red, with a horn and stripped with ammo. Char Aznable seems to actually like it but was shot down in less than 3 panels — totally not helpful to the battle at all.
An official manga published on Gundam Ace
, where titled as Why Char assassinated Kycilia showing in place of where in the original story should be MSN-02 Zeong
, Kycilia Zabi
actually provided Char with a red Ball, with two conical horns, labelled Horns next to them; an enlarged bottom thruster, labelled 3 times next to it; the cannon was replaced by a hand of Zeong, labelled Psycommu next to it, referencing the traits of Char's custom units. This unit is in fact designed by Katoki Hajime and he designed the box art for it to look like the MG model box as well in the back, along with other custom Ball units for other Zeon pilots.
Another appearance is in the SD Musha Gundam
series, the Ball was called and is the primary foot soldiers siding with the Gundam Warriors and Generals.
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
series Mobile Suit Gundam
Mobile Suit Gundam
is a televised anime series, created by Sunrise. Created and directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, it premiered in Japan on Nagoya Broadcasting Network on April 7, 1979, and lasted until January 26, 1980, spanning 43 episodes...
. Its design was partially inspired by the EVA Pod from 2001: A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, partially inspired by Clarke's short story The Sentinel...
. As a ubiquitous mobile weapon
Mobile weapons
In the Gundam terminology, the terms normal suit and astrosuit are used to refer to normal astronaut spacesuits, so as to avoid confusion with mobile suits....
, it has been a popular subject for modeling enthusiasts, largely due to its unique and unusual design among the other vehicles within the Gundam universe.
The RB-79 Ball, introduced in the original Mobile Suit Gundam
Mobile Suit Gundam
is a televised anime series, created by Sunrise. Created and directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, it premiered in Japan on Nagoya Broadcasting Network on April 7, 1979, and lasted until January 26, 1980, spanning 43 episodes...
TV series, have also gained its appearance in Gundam Sentinel 0079, MS Igloo, Gundam Evolve, All of SD Gundam G-Generation series, Super Robot Wars series and Gundam Century. Originally designed by Kunio Okawara
Kunio Okawara
is a mechanical designer in the Japanese anime industry. A mechanical designer is similar to a character designer, but the design is for robots, ships, and other mechanical items found in a particular show. Okawara was the first in the industry to be specifically credited as a mechanical designer...
, it is also redesigned by Katoki Hajime for almost all of the other series.
It is one of the clear designs in the Gundam meta-series that is technically feasible, and is suggested as an item that should be pursued by an aeronautics expert involved in the Gundam Academy.
Appearances
The RB-79 Ball is probably one of the most popular mobile weapons in the Universal Century timeline, second only to Gundam and ZakuMS-06 Zaku II
The MS-06 Zaku II is a mobile suit from the Mobile Suit Gundam metaverse. It is redesigned by Kunio Okawara based upon the earlier draft by the series director Yoshiyuki Tomino, in which only the name was kept. The Zaku II has seen various redesigns and variants for hundreds of pieces of...
. Designed by Kunio Okawara
Kunio Okawara
is a mechanical designer in the Japanese anime industry. A mechanical designer is similar to a character designer, but the design is for robots, ships, and other mechanical items found in a particular show. Okawara was the first in the industry to be specifically credited as a mechanical designer...
, the Ball was the only Mobile Pod seen in Gundam for over 26 years (1979~2006). In one episode of the new 3D animation productions, Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO: Apocalypse 0079, Zeon deployed their own mobile attack pod, the MP-02A "Oggo", in desperation. The Ball appears in various Gundam stories, including its first appearance in Mobile Suit Gundam
Mobile Suit Gundam
is a televised anime series, created by Sunrise. Created and directed by Yoshiyuki Tomino, it premiered in Japan on Nagoya Broadcasting Network on April 7, 1979, and lasted until January 26, 1980, spanning 43 episodes...
, Gundam Sentinel 0079, Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team
Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team
is an original video animation anime series in the Gundam franchise. Released from January 25, 1996, to April 25, 1999, the 11-episode series details the adventures of an Earth Federation Space Force ground unit during the One Year War - specifically before the original 1979 Gundam series and into...
, Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO
Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO
is a series of CGI feature short films of the popular Gundam meta-series. The series' storyline takes place during the One Year War of the Universal Century. The first under the main title is , which was exclusively shown at Bandai Museum in Matsudo, Japan but has seen a limited release on DVD,...
, Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory
Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory
is a 13-episode anime OVA series set in the Gundam universe. The first volume containing two 30-minute episodes was released in Japan on May 23, 1991. Subsequent volumes, containing one 30-minute episode each, followed every one or two months; the final volume went on sale on September 24, 1992...
, Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam
Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam
is a six volume manga written by Yoshiyuki Tomino and illustrated by Yuichi Hasegawa.-Overview:Crossbone takes place ten years after Mobile Suit Gundam F91, and multiple characters from that movie return as main characters within the manga. The manga has never been officially distributed outside of...
and Gundam Evolve
Gundam Evolve
, also known as Mobile Suit Gundam Evolve, is a series of short films set in the different timelines of the Gundam series. Originally there were only five Evolve episodes, produced from 2001 to 2003, Bandai started to create new Evolve episodes in 2004...
. It also appeared in many of the Gundam video games, including the Gihren's Ambition series, the SD Gundam Generation games, the Versus series, and even in the Super Robot Wars
Super Robot Wars
is a series of tactical role-playing video games produced by Banpresto, which is now a Japanese division of Namco Bandai. The main feature of the franchise is having a story that crosses over several popular mecha anime, manga and video games, allowing characters and mecha from different titles to...
series on more than one occasion.
Redesigns
The unit has received redesigns several times, including a redesign in Sentinel 0079 by Katoki Hajime, the later variation K type in 08th MS team (also seen in the SD Gundam games and MS Igloo), and the C type variation in Gundam 0083. The manga artistMangaka
is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside of Japan, manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese...
of Crossbone Gundam also based the designs of the RB-133 Ball and the side story unit B Gundam on the RB-79. In the story Magical Ensign Blaster Mari, several MC coating-equipped Balls have also appeared.
The first redesign of RB-79 Ball in the Model Graphix magazine for Gundam Sentinel 0079 by Katoki Hajime was inspired by the space pod in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey
2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, partially inspired by Clarke's short story The Sentinel...
and Katoki said in the interview in Sentinel 0079 that he wanted to designed it to look like a one-man space pod NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
would build. He depicted it to have a similar impression of the working pod appearing in the new film The Abyss
The Abyss
The Abyss is a 1989 science fiction film written and directed by James Cameron. It stars Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Michael Biehn. The original musical score was composed by Alan Silvestri...
at that time directed by James Cameron
James Cameron
James Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...
The design made it (or the SP-W03 space worker pot) a clearly feasible technologically icon and an aeronautics expert involved in the Gundam Academy said that it is one of the items that should be pursued in reality.
In modeling
The RB-79 has been a popular subject for modeling enthusiasts. The popularity of the unit have granted it 3 different versions 1/100 Master Grade models. In February 2005, Hobby Japan made a special topic called Cannon Ball, featuring the MG RB-79 Ver. Ka, calling it the Last and Greatest featured product of 2004 The second version, the RB-79K was used as a base for the champion model Cross-section in the 2006 Japan Dengeki Gunpla competition by the Hong Kong modeller Tomoon Lee, and still won first place against the newest and very popular unit, Strike Freedom Gundam.Role in plot
The RB-79 is mainly a grunt unit in stories, it is normally seen as the unit easiest to produce in the story, with a few exception parody units Saku and Samu. The strength of the RB-79 comes from numbers, in the Gundam Battle (series)Gundam Battle (series)
Gundam Battle is a series of games exclusively made for the Sony PlayStation Portable game console, all based on a same game engine. Currently there are 5 games in the series.-Gundam Battle Tactics:...
game, the RB-79 and RB-79C both got a secondary weapon named Call Ball and a SP attack summoning dozens of RB-79 and swarm the field with their 180mm cannons. However, the designer Katoki Hajime viewed the unit differently. In his design notes, he granted the RB-79 a much higher position as a war weapon, making it an attempt of the Earth Federation Forces to create a small size mobile armour, since the specs of the unit could be compared against the MS-09R Dom.
Backstory
In the background story of Mobile Suit Gundam told in official books, the fictional One Year WarOne Year War
The is a fictional conflict from the Universal Century timeline of the anime Mobile Suit Gundam metaseries. The One Year War is very similar to World War II, the major difference being that The One Year War is in a science fiction setting and some major battles occurred in space...
between the Earth Federation
Earth Federation
The is a fictional organization in the Universal Century timeline of the Gundam anime series. The name also made a reappearance outside of the Gundam series in following media.* Godzilla vs...
and the Principality of Zeon, the Federation lacked any sort of the mass-produced humanoid mecha
Mecha
A mech , is a science fiction term for a large walking bipedal tank or robot, including ones on treads and animal shapes.-Characteristics:...
, known as mobile suits. The Zeon forces laid waste to the Federation fleet with their mobile suits, the Zaku I
MS-05 Zaku I
In the Mobile Suit Gundam universe, the MS-05 Zaku I was the first successful mobile suit design to be developed by the Zeonic Company in the Principality of Zeon's quest to develop a combat-capable mobile suit that used the AMBAC System and the Minovsky ultracompact fusion reactor. The Zaku I was...
and the later Zaku II
MS-06 Zaku II
The MS-06 Zaku II is a mobile suit from the Mobile Suit Gundam metaverse. It is redesigned by Kunio Okawara based upon the earlier draft by the series director Yoshiyuki Tomino, in which only the name was kept. The Zaku II has seen various redesigns and variants for hundreds of pieces of...
. To counteract this, the Federation scrambled to make some sort of mobile weapon that could counter the Zeon attack. However, their new prototype mobile suit, the Gundam, was too costly to mass-produce, and their first mass-production mobile suit, the GM
RGM-79 GM
The , supposedly an acronym of Gundam Mass-production type, is the mass-produced version of the RX-78 Gundam. Though many variants were produced over the years, the RGM-79 GM was the Federation's first true mass-produced mobile suit...
, just wasn't being fielded fast enough.
The RB-79 Ball mobile pod was created with the cancelled number of the Project V
Project V
The Project V was a fictional weapon development program in the mecha anime Mobile Suit Gundam-Background History:...
RX-76 Prototype Ball. The Federation refitted about 1200 of the civilian-model space construction pods, known as SP-W03 mobile pods, and installed heavier armor platings and a 180mm recoilless cannon on top. The Ball mobile pod also had vernier thrusters mounted all along the body, which used solid-fuel explosives rather than more conventional liquid propellants. As an improvised conversion, the Ball was initially seen as ill-suited for combat, earning the nickname "Mobile Coffin" among EFSF pilots. It was, however, smaller, more maneuverable, and more stealthy than a mobile suit, and its real strategic advantages were its low cost and large numbers. Harassment from hit-and-run attacks by Federation's fast Salamis cruisers and their attached Ball squads proved to be a constant headache for Zeon supply fleets, who often had to deploy additional forces to escort their vulnerable Papuas and Pazocks.
Parodies
A joke about the Ball unit is that if it is painted red and a horn is attached to it, it will become one of Char AznableChar Aznable
, born is a fictional character from the Gundam franchise. He is originally one of the main antagonists in Mobile Suit Gundam and later becomes one of the protagonists of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. In his final appearance in Char's Counterattack, he assumes leadership of the Neo Zeon movement,...
custom and became 3 times more powerful than an ordinary unit. This gag has at least appeared in two manga, one Super robot wars doujin manga was actually published by a branch of Bandai showing a Ball unit painted red, with a horn and stripped with ammo. Char Aznable seems to actually like it but was shot down in less than 3 panels — totally not helpful to the battle at all.
An official manga published on Gundam Ace
Gundam Ace
is a monthly Japanese shōnen manga magazine published by Kadokawa Shoten, it largely focus on the Gundam franchise. There is a Chinese version published by Kadokawa Media Co., Ltd.-Overview:...
, where titled as Why Char assassinated Kycilia showing in place of where in the original story should be MSN-02 Zeong
MSN-02 Zeong
The MSN-02 Zeong is a fictional mobile suit designed by Kunio Okawara for the anime Mobile Suit Gundam. It has also appeared in many video games and other media, including, but not limited to, the PlayStation 2 titles Federation vs...
, Kycilia Zabi
Kycilia Zabi
In the fictional Mobile Suit Gundam series, is the only daughter of Degwin Sodo Zabi. While Yoshiyuki Tomino's novel version of MSG indicates her as the fourth of his five children and youngest except for Garma, the ongoing Gundam: The Origin manga by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko identifies her as his...
actually provided Char with a red Ball, with two conical horns, labelled Horns next to them; an enlarged bottom thruster, labelled 3 times next to it; the cannon was replaced by a hand of Zeong, labelled Psycommu next to it, referencing the traits of Char's custom units. This unit is in fact designed by Katoki Hajime and he designed the box art for it to look like the MG model box as well in the back, along with other custom Ball units for other Zeon pilots.
Another appearance is in the SD Musha Gundam
Musha Gundam
are Gundam units modelled after samurai, ninja, or other forms of feudal Japanese warriors. Inheriting the base SD Gundam design, typical design element include changing beam sabre into katana, sheath that act as a gun, removable armour suits...
series, the Ball was called and is the primary foot soldiers siding with the Gundam Warriors and Generals.