GBT#9-The O

The term “Gunpla” might be a little misleading sometimes.  Sure it’s a generalized short hand term for “Gundam Plastic Models”.  But, it’s pretty clear there’s more than just The Gundams themselves.  If there’s a Mobile Suit in a series, it’s bound to have a model kit of its own.  Heck, the first Gunpla Builder Thursday was about a non Gundam Mobile Suit, the Shinenju Stien from Gundam Narrative, and one of my favorite Gunpla to cover to date in this new blog feature has been the Kampher from Gundam 0080.  Seems kind of silly to cover this 9 episodes in but figured why not.  Today’s Mobile Suit in the spotlight today is a Final Boss kind of Mobile Suit, the personal creation of one Paptimus Scirrocco that would be used in the final battle of the Gryps War depicted in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam.  It’s also shares part of its name with a Mecha Anime I looked at a couple of months ago and man would I love to build a model of The Big O.  Anyway, on to this O, The O.

 
Suit History

During the Gryps War in UC0087, the rebel forces of the Anti Earth Union Group (AEUG) clashed with the totalitarian peacekeeping forces of the Earth Federation’s Titans division.  Midway through the war, an expedition to Jupiter returned to the Earth Sphere, carrying a contingent of Newtype explorers led by Paptimus Scirocco.  They quickly aligned themselves with the Titans and subsequently took total control of the unit.  During the climactic final battle at the Gryps Laser, Scirocco deployed in The O, a custom made Mobile Suit.  While it was a large suit, The O was a deadly adversary for the AEUG thanks to its abundance of armor and weapons, including a powerful Beam Rifle and several limbs each capable of wielding multiple Beam Sabers at once.  The suits special Psy-Commu interface also allowed better integreation for Scirocco’s powerful Newtype abilities, giving The O unbelievable movement and reflexes on the battlefield.  At the battle conclusion, both Scirocco and The O were destroyed by AEUG Gundam Pilot Kamille Bidan and the Zeta Gundam but not before Scirocco used the last of his power to fry the young pilots mind so badly it would take nearly a year for Kamile to recover.

Build Experience

When you see a Gunpla in a bigger box than usual, youre not sure what to expect from its size.  In the Anime, The O certainly looks larger than the Zeta Gundam, fitting for a Final Boss type Mobile Suit.  So I guess it was always going to be big, at least bulky.  The sad thing is, under all of that armor is where all of the hard work is hidden.  The interior of The O was a challenge.  Those red pipes especially took some time to figure out and warp to the way I needed them to be to fit into their spots.  There’s so much intricacy on this one you’d think The O was a practice run before attempting a Master Grade, maybe even a teeny hint at a Perfect Grade.  I’m just glad I got those two lower arms to work, those I did worry about.  In fact, much of the Gunpla was pretty easy to snap together once I got some of the harder, smaller stuff out of the way.  It’s even easy to swap the weapons in and out and I don’t even know if I wanna give The O it’s Beam Rifle when it looks so damn cool holding 4 Beam Sabers at once.

 

Rating/Conclusion
Enormous and threatening, The O is a true test of a Gunpla Builders metal at the High Grade stage.  The end result is something to behold though if you can figure out the intricacies of the complex interior.  This is probably the second biggest Gundam I’ve built next to the Master Grade of Deathscythe Hell from Endless Waltz.  Staging it next to any of my other Gunpla you can see how intimidating this suit is supposed to be.  Guess I need to find a High Grade Zeta Gundam and pit it against its eternal rival eh?
 
9/10 

Next Thursday we jump ahead a few decades in the Universal Century to take a look at an underrated Gundam from a bad Gundam Movie, one I still think deserves a second chance with this UC NxT 100 project Sunrise has going on right now.  Find out which suit I’m talking about on the next Gunpla Builder Thursday right here at the Gundam Anime Corner.