RB-79 Ball

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The RB-79 Ball is a fictional weapon from the anime series Mobile Suit Gundam.

1 Real Life
2 Design history in story
3 Official views on RB-79 Ball
4 Variations
5 More Impact on other authors
6 References

[edit] Real Life

Designed by Kunio Okawara, the ball unit was the only Mobile Pod for over 26 years(1979~2006). Impacting one of the new animation production, the MS Igloo to model another Mobile Pod for Zeon Forces just to balance things out. It had appearance in various Gundam story, including first appearance in Mobile Suit Gundam, Sentinel 0079, Mobile Suit Gundam:08th MS Team, Mobile Suit Gundam:0083 Stardust Memory and Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam. It also appeared in Super Robot Wars series more than once. The unit have recieved redesigns several times, including the first redesign in Sentinel 0079 by Katoki Hajime, later variation K type in 08th MS team, and the C type variation in 0083. The mangaka of Crossbone Gundam also based on the RB-79 for the designs of the RB-133, Type 133 Ball and the side story unit B Gundam. In the story Magical Ensign Baster Mary, several MC coating Ball have also appeared.

[edit] Design history in story

During the outbreak of the One Year War between the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon, the Federation lacked any sort of a mass-produced humanoid mecha, known as mobile suits. The Zeonic forces laid waste to the Federation with their mobile suits, the MS-05B Zaku I and the MS-06F 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 RX-78-2 Gundam was too costly to mass produce and their first mass-production mobile suit, the RGM-79 GM, just wasn't being fielded fast enough.

Thus, the RB-79 Ball mobile pod was born. The Federation refitted about 1200 of the civilian-model worker space pods, known as SP-W03 Mobile Pods. The Federation put heavier armor and a 180 mm recoilless cannon on top. The Ball mobile pod also had vernier thrusters mounted all along the body.

Manufacturer: Earth Federation
Unit type: Mid-Range support Mobile Pod
Head height: 12.8 meters
empty weight: 17.2 tons
Max weight: 25 tons
Construction: Titanium composite Tri-Frame Semi-Monocoque
Generator Output: 400 kW(Fuel Cell)
Thrust: 24000 kg
180 degrees turn: 2.2 seconds
Thrust to mass ratio: 0.96G
Fixed armament:
120/180 mm recoilless cannon with 21 rounds stored in double lined magazine

The RB-79 Ball prototype, numbered RX-76 is one of the Project V series, designed and manufactured at the same time as RX-75 Guntank, RX-77 Guncannon and RX-78 Gundam. The RX-76 prototype Ball uses a SP-W03 body, fitting on sufficient armour, a single barrel of the 120 mm recoilless cannon (same type as the RX-75 Guntank fix armament) and multiple thrusters. However, this version of the Ball was deemed too expensive to produce and thus different armaments were tested onto the unit and EFSF gradually lost interest in the unit and turned to Mobile Suit units. Not until later in the One Year War when the GM production line was greatly delayed and the EFSF was in great need of Combat units was the Ball project resurrected and produced in great number.

One variation was built from that basic design. The RB-79K Early mass-production type Ball(先行量産型ボール) mounted a pair of 180 mm cannons and also had larger manipulator arms. In the hands of Federation pilot Shiro Amada, it recorded possibly its greatest achievement by reaching a stalemate with an experimental Zaku in satellite orbit.

A standard EFSF combat team would consist of 3 RGM-79's and 2 RB-79's to clear out the 3 MS combination of Zeon group tactics.

The directional thrusters mounted on all Ball units were directed solid fuel explosives, the detonation giving an impulse through the thrusters to change the direction of the Ball. This configuration gave the Ball unit good reaction speed and reasonable maneuverability on each thrust but very limited use of the system compared to the liquid fueled directional thrusters on Mobile Suits.

The Ball units had an advantage on refuelling onboard the Columbus class support vessel due to the lack of beam weapons and low number of liquid fuel thrusters, making the cooling time extremely short compared to any Mobile Suit with Thermo-nuclear power.

[edit] Official views on RB-79 Ball

At first, the Ball was depicted to be ill-suited for combat. It had limited ammo, comparably thin armor, lacked the AMBAC system, and any sort of melee or defensive weapon. The Ball was smaller than the average mobile suit though, giving it a slight advantage. Its smaller size also made it lighter and had a higher acceleration than most OYW mobile suits. The Ball had its real advantage from numbers and cost. The Ball cost about 1/4 of a RGM-79 which is basically next to nothing to the EFSF and was heavily mass produced, becoming a ship support unit and the RGM-79 GM's support unit during the One Year War. It is sometimes joked that the only time a Ball ever hit anything was when we see one kicked into a GM by a Zaku II.

The most famous battle involving Balls was Operation Star-One. Zeon was moving away from Earth after the Federation took the upper hand following Odessa. In order to further suppress the Zeon and make them retreat quickly, the EFSF launched this operation. Since the GM was not yet ready, over 1000 Balls were used, along with Salamis class and Magellan class ships. This was one of the most brutal battles for the Federation. Their numbers overwhelmed the Zeon fleets and drove them away. Countless RB-79s were destroyed during this operation. Soon after, the Ball earned the nickname "Mobile Coffin" among EFSF pilots.

However, the specification of the unit counters this view of the Ball unit being weak. Actually, the Ball unit still had a specification superior to most Zeon mobile units. All the supposedly very powerful Mobile Armours except the Newtype units had less mass-thrust ratio(i.e. acceleration) against the Ball unit. All the earlier model Mobile Suits, specifically the MS-05's, MS-06's and MS-09R's had worse acceleration and less sensor range. This gave the Ball unit a very good advantage in hit-and-run tactics even when not teamed up with GMs. One of the mechanical designers of Bandai, Katoki Hajime, stated in the MG model instruction manual, that the Ball unit is actually an attempt of the Earth Federation Forces trying to reproduce the Mobile Armours. It is a small Mobile Armour the Earth Federation Forces have created and is actually quite powerful. This is actually not the first time such a positive review was seen on the unit. Gundam Officials also stated similar reviews on the unit.

[edit] Variations

Since the RB-79 Ball was manufactured in a very short period of time, a lot of variations were produced. The original type and the RB-79K First production type was mentioned above.

[edit] RB-79 Ball variant

One of the most common ones were the ones that appeared in the original Gundam series, with only one manipulator hand on each side unlike the RB-79K double handed on both side which should be the official configuration. Some were still equipped with 120 mm cannons. The Ball as shown in First Gundam is also very different from the later redesign in the number of directional thrusters.

[edit] RB-79C Ball

The RB-79 Ball units left after the One Year War were refitted and integrated into a single design as the RB-79C Ball and were still in use in UC 0083. They were the basic units for combat zone working conditions and used for adjusting the focus of the mirrors for the Solar System II while defending it.

[edit] B Gundam

In the hands of a good pilot, the Ball unit can display amazing powers just like any other weapon. In the manga Crossbone Gundam there is an old Ball pilot boasting to have destroyed 6 MS-09R Rick Dom units in one battle. The sequel Skull Heart, however, shows that at least three of these kills were in large part aided by the fact that the Dom pilots mistakenly believed the Ball to be a gigantic RX-78 Gundam, due to a Gundam-style faceplate mounted on the Ball, and one of the kills came from the pilot, Umon Samon, ejecting the faceplate directly into a Rick Dom's cockpit.

[edit] Tagged on GM

Since the Ball unit was so small and inexpensive, it was also used in some rather odd situations. The Newtypes used a GM prototype Juggler which consisted of a GM body and 2 RB-79 as its Psycommu weapon units mounted on its shoulders. It was built as the EFSF's Newtype weapon test bed for remote control long range weaponry using Newtype abilities.

[edit] RB-79N Fisheye

The Ball unit even entered into environment other than space. RB-79N Fisheye was designed for underwater use. The generator output was increased to 425 kW(as compare to the 400 kW of the other Ball configurations) and a multiple barrel long spear launcher was mounted to replace the 180 mm cannon. The manipulators are also enlarged for melee combat. This type had a single propellor instead of two thrusters on the back of the unit.

[edit] RB-133 Type 133

As late as UC 0133, in the story of Crossbone Gundam, the Earth Federation still had Ball units mixed in Mobile Suit formations. These units have a triple barrel configuration and are seen in the background. These units are later called Type 133 (133式 or 133 shiki)

[edit] More Impact on other authors

A joke of the Ball unit is that if it is painted red and a horn is attached to it, it will become one of Char Aznable custom and became 3 times more powerful than an ordinary unit. This gag has at least appeared in two Doujin 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 actually like it but was shot down in less than 3 panels. Another model manga(a comic with model pictures instead of drawings) was published in a modeling magazine Dengiki Hobby, where titled as Why Char assassinated Kysilia showing in place of where in the story should be MSN-02 Zeong, Kysilia actually provided Char with a red ball, with two horns like Zeong, labelled Horns next to them; an enlarged bottom thruster, labelled 3 times next to it; the canon was replaced by the hand of Zeong, labelled Psycommu next to it, referencing the traits of Char's Custom units. Another appearance is in the SD Musha Gundam series(a SD Gundam series featuring sengoku period like world where residents are super deformed Gundam world mechas), the ball was called 暴流 (Bakuru) and is the primary foot soldiers siding with the Gundam Warriors and Generals.