T5W#561-Top 5 Mobile Suits Originally Meant to be (or refitted from) Gundams Designs

This Friday, the long wait for US Gundam fans comes to an end as Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway: The Sorcery of Nymph Circe touches down in theaters.  I’m definitely aiming to check it out Friday and will have a review up at last on Memorial Day Monday.  It’s not often we get a Gundam movie in theaters so figured todays Top 5 Wednesday should be Gundam related.  One thing I’ve noticed in recent years despite being a Gundam fan for most of my life: there’s a bunch of Mobile Suits that were meant to be Gundam’s themselves.  And I’m not talking about Tallgeese being the Godfather of Gundams in Gundam Wing, no I mean in the long history (mostly of the Universal Century) there’re examples aplenty of suits that started development as new iterations of the Gundam but got changed for various yet similar reasons.  Most of these resulted in some cool and iconic designs for the franchise.  And today we’re paying homage to these (mostly) little known machines that may not be Gundams but are just as effective on the battlefield.  These are my Top 5 Mobile Suits Originally Meant to be (or refitted from) Gundams Designs.
 
#5-GM (Model based on the RX-78-2 Gundam)

Of all the Mobile Suits developed during the Federation’s Project V, the Gundam was easily the big breakthrough in terms of performance and power.  Sadly, as with most special weapons like these, mass producing it was next to impossible outside of the usual variants.  To compromise, the Gundams design was scaled back and revamped for the more production friendly grunt suit we know as the GM.  While not nearly as powerful, the GM would become the definitive poster model, getting reworked, revamped and updated to various new models across the entirety of the Universal Century. 
 

#4-Rick Dias (Origianlly meant to be the Gamma Gundam)

I only just recently found out about this ones tepid connection to Gundam-hood.  The Rick Dias and several Mobile Suits in the AEUG’s weapons cache were all part of the same development project, Project Zeta (you can probably guess which famous Gundam that ended up producing).  Well the Zeta wasn’t the only considered model in this endevour.  There were multiple others but the Rick Dias is arguably the most popular choice amongst the AEUG’s Veteran pilots, including Char Aznable himself before he updated to another suit we’ll see later.
 

#3-ReGZ (Refitted from the Zeta Gundam)

Following the end of the First Neo Zeon War, many AEUG members folded back into the Earth Federation and got some new toys along with the transfer.  The ReGZ was apparently meant to be a new mass produced model based on the Zeta Gundam.  Like most other specialized suits, it was too expensive to do so, hence the solo model we see used during the Second Neo Zeon War.  It’s notable for being originally used by Amuro Ray during the start of the conflict and while he did make good use of it, even Char noted he couldn’t beat him with the ReGZ.  While Amuro would trade up to the Nu Gundam, the ReGZ would continue to fight in the war until it’s destruction during the final battle.

 
#2-Hiyaku Shiki (Originally Meant to be the Delta Gundam)

While not bearing the Gundam moniker, many still consider the Hiyaku Shiki a surrogate Gundam.  And apparently it was meant to be one as part of the aforementioned Project Zeta.  For whatever reason, it was instead reworked into the golden armored Mobile Suit that would famously go one to be used by Char Aznable during the Gryps War and later during the First Neo Zeon War.  Apparently, one reason for the redesign was the inability to add in the same transformation features of the Zeta Gundam.  Still, the Delta Gundam design would continue to float around throughout the Universal Century, with the closest iteration being the Delta Plus used by Londo Bell pilot Riddhe Marcenas during the Third Neo Zeon War.
 

#1-Gerbra Tetra (Originally Meant to be the Gundam Unit 04)

This takes the Number One spot from be simply because it was the first time I’d ever heard of a Mobile Suit originally meant to be a Gundam.  Before the Delaz Conflict in UC0083, the Federation had commissioned a new Gundam project codenamed the GP Project.  Four new designs were crafted and three of them saw construction and completion.  The fourth unit was abandoned and several of its features were merged into the Gundam Unit 03.  However, the suit was later recrafted into a specialized suit for Cima Garahau of the Delaz Fleet.  While a formidable adversary, the Gerbra Tetra was ultimately destroyed, along with Cima, by Kou Uraki and the Gundam Unit 03 during the final battle of Operation Stardust.