For this month’s MechaStellar update we are featuring units from Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory. This is an OVA series from the 90s with very detailed mechanical designs and gorgeous animation for Mobile Suit dogfighting. With a top notch opening song reminiscent of Highway to the Danger Zone many have called this Gundam’s version of Top Gun.
The story involves the theft GP02 Physalis, a Gundam equipped with a tactical nuclear bazooka by Zeon remnants and their stand against the Federation, meanwhile our protagonists onboard the assault carrier Albion using GP01 Zephyranthes and a team of GM Custom and GM Cannon IIs chase after the Zeon remnants in order to recover GP02 before the unthinkable happens.
Our protagonist, Kou Uraki, is an inexperienced test pilot at the Australian base Torrington. The Gundam Development Project (GP) transfer GP01 and GP02 to Torrington for testing, but when the GP02 is hijacked Kou sorties in GP01 in order to stop it. An inexperienced but talented pilot we see him progress from greenhorn to first-rate pilot throughout the course of the series, mainly driven by his his rivalry with Anavel Gato, the hijacker of GP02. Gato is a notorious ace known as the Nightmare of Solomon, he is a man of strong convictions and is the spearhead of Operation Stardust working for Admiral Delaz. The clashes between these two pilots make for some of the most memorable fights in Universal Century (UC) Gundam.
As for the Mobile Suits themselves, the GP project is Anaheim Electronics first crack as building a Gundam, the original Gundams the RX78 series were developed in-house by the Federation as part of Operation V. GP01 Zephyranthes is very similar to the Original Gundam albeit a bit lighter weight, it’s a refresh of the classic design done by Shoji Kawamori of Macross fame. For its unit profile you will see its fairly similar to the original RX78-2 and brings the option of an assault rifle and a beam rifle into the fight which you may recall from its operation against the Kimberlite forces in Africa.
The GP02 on the other hand has a very distinctive silhouette, massive bulky body and shield with a very distinguished samurai helmet. Despite being a nuclear delivery device its design captivated many fans, several variations have been shown including one that uses a Beam Bazooka instead of an atomic bazooka and another using a Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS). We’ve included several profiles here for the GP02. We declined to give it an Atomic Bazooka special ability as many Gundam Vs games do, since that wouldn’t very fair on a tabletop game given the destruction it caused to an entire fleet in the events of the story.
GP01 was damaged considerably in its first foray into space when it hadn’t adequately been adjusted for Space combat. The Gelgoog Marine Commander piloted by Cima Garahau fired beam after beam into it, slowly breaking it apart piece by piece. This was devastating to its Pilot and the morale of the team but the engineers at AE rebuilt it and further modified it for space use producing the GP01-Fb, originally translated as Full Vernian, sensible given the massive verniers on its shoulder, but the translation was later retconned into ‘Full Burnern’ to match the Fb in its model number. The GP01-Fb was remarkable for its extreme speed and mobility which on the tabletop is well represented with its very large movement and role swap to an Interceptor type giving it additional Evasion.
GP01 and GP02 have their historic final duel where both Gundam’s destroy one another, the pilots finally meet face to face as they escape their mobile suits. Their rivalry continues until the end of the series with the GP03 and the Neue Ziel.
Next months update will include the remaining units from Gundam 0083 including the GP03 Dendrobium Orchis and Stamen, the GP04 Gerbera, GP04 Gebera Tetra and the Neue Ziel. The Mobile Armors in 0083 have some of the most impressive in all of Gundam and we’ll need additional time to playtest them to make sure the unit profiles do them justice.
Last but not least, in one of our request threads we did receive a request for a Fb version of the GM Custom. This Mobile Suit was depicted in the Gundam Weapons hobby magazine modeled by Makoto Hachisu and later featured in the SD Gundam G Generation Zero video game. While it can use the GM Rifle we opted to give it the beam rifle it has which is very similar to the GP01 beam rifle.
Thank you all for reading and see you next month!
Update Summary:
-10 New Units added: Gelgoog Marine & Commander, Xamel, GP02 Physalis (x3), GP01 Zephyranthes (x2), GM Custom (x2)
-Reorganized the Gundam’s on the Federation Unit Sheet
-Fixed error on HP for Gundam Units 4 & 5
-Updated pilot traits for Deathscythe & Shenlong. Adjusted cost for Aries.
-Updated Invisibility Cloaks for Alseides units and pts cost
MechaStellar 