It’s time for another Premium Bandai build. This time it’s the TR-6 Woundwart Psychobade Custom, from the Advance of Zeta Re-Boot manga.
About the Mobile Suit
I’m not going to go too far into this, otherwise my brain is going to explode.
First, we have to talk about the mobile suit this is based on, the TR-6 Woundwort. It’s one of many, many prototypes flown by the Titans Test Team during the events of the Advance of Zeta: The Flag of Titans manga. The sheer number of prototypes and variants within this one story is mind numbingly staggering. Here is a very compacted list from the Gundam Wiki:
Yeahhhhhh …. I’m not going to get in the weeds about all that. Instead, let me just post what the Gundam wiki has to say about the Woundwort in particular:
The RX-124 TR-6 was developed as a compilation of the TR series mobile suits. As with the RX-121 Gundam TR-1 [Hazel], the base Woundwort mobile suit can be enhanced with a wide variety of optional parts, and these parts are designed to display maximum performance in any environment. It can theoretically achieve higher performance than any existing machine by swapping parts.
The TR-6 is essentially a set of components attached to a drum frame that serves as the central unit of its transformation mechanisms. The mobile armor form's aerodynamic characteristics are poor, and special option parts are required for atmospheric flight, so this form is mainly for use in space. Its nose section is a booster pod with atmospheric entry capabilities. Its torso section is extremely small, and its thigh sections are relatively large because its generators are housed in the thighs and booster pod.
The booster pod of the TR-6 is based on the movable booster pod used by the Hazel, and it includes coolant gas emitters that allow the TR-6 to perform atmospheric entry. This booster pod can be replaced by other types, including an EWAC radome and a "double shield" type similar to the multi-connector pod of the RX-121-2A Gundam TR-1 [Advanced Hazel]. This double shield version lacks coolant gas emitters, but it includes a mega particle cannon and two shield latches that can hold composite shield boosters.
So it’s transformable and highly configurable, and in theory it can be configured to be extremely capable and performant. But in its base form it’s apparently incomplete and kind of crappy.
And yet, based on nothing more than its strange appearance, the Woundwort became a fan favorite among seasoned Gundam fans.
More on that later. For now let’s continue our history lesson.
Advance of Zeta: Re-Boot is a sequel manga to the original Advance of Zeta. I have no idea if it is at all canonical, because the story sounds like a real trip. It depicts a civil war between two Neo-Zeon factions. One is filled with Kycilia Zabi loyalists who fled to Mars, while the other faction, named ReZeon, represents a merging of Axis refugees, Gihren Zabi loyalists, and remnants of the Titans. Their mobile suit fleet thus becomes a mixture of Neo Zeon tech and Titans tech, including many mobile suits once used by the Titans Test Team.
One of those suits is a Woundwort, which is renamed to the Woundwart and painted black:
Later on, it gets further modified with a custom V-Fin called a Psychoblade, which is capable of sending and receiving Psycommu waves. This version is what is known as the Woundwart Psychoblade Custom, and is what this new model kit is based on:
The Psychoblade Custom ultimately became a Commander-use unit, and a symbol of hope and pride for the people of ReZeon (at least that’s the impression that I get).
Is Advance of Zeta: Re-Boot canon?
I don't have proof one way or another, but I _really_ don't think Advance of Zeta: Re-Boot. It's just way too weird:- There seems to be no reference to the original Mars Zeon factio and the Oldsmobile Army, which makes me wonder if they were simply written out of this continuity
- The leader of ReZeon is a girl named Alicia Zabi. That means she's either a secret Zabi heir, or someone simply using the name for the prestige. Either way, the Universal Century already has an extremely famous and influential Zeon Princess, so it would feel cheap for a canonical story to repeat this very specific story beat.
- Alicia is allegedly a believer in female supremacy, and she has an army of clones and other young women as her personal guard and trusted advisors. This might be an interesting plot point if it didn't feel like it came out of left field. It might make sense if ReZeon stemmed from Kycilia loyalists, but apparently that's not the case.
Really, it sounds like an excuse to write a story in which Zeon forces are led by a bunch of teenage girls.
- The mobile suit designs are insane. Here's some illustrations of some souped up versions of the Barzam, originally one the gruntiest of grunt suits:
Every mobile suit design for this manga looks like the MS equivalent of a steroid abuser. It's power creep to insane levels.
Personally, I don't see how Re-Boot could possibly be canon. It's not that I'm against the idea, necessarily: it's just that everything about the manga feels at odds with everything we've seen from other, canonical stories set in the Universal Century.
Nevertheless, Bandai seems to have a certain amount of interest in making model kits out of some of its "biggest" mobile suits, including the Woundwart and the Barzam.
Weapons and Stuff
In its base form, the Woundort isn’t really packing much in terms of firepower. Aside from head vulcans, its main armament is something called a “Long Beam Rifle/Beam Claw”. Here is what the Gundam Wiki has to say about it:
The main armament of the Wondwart. A multi-functional shield that can be used as both a long beam rifle and a claw for melee combat. It also includes a targeting sensor and an I-field Generator, and can function as a winch unit. The winch unit can operate as a Mobile Bit.The claw contains a beam emitter that can be connected to a long rifle barrel. It features Heat Blades on both sides of the barrel.
Sounds like a multi-purpose device, which is pretty cool, but it still doesn’t seem versatile (or powerful) enough to make the base Woundwort a serious threat on the battlefield.
About the Visual Design
Based on everything we’ve seen so far, the base Woundwort seems … kind of crappy. So why is it so beloved by fans?
Simply put, it all boils down to its visual design.
Call it weird. Call it alien. Call it cool. Or even call it cute. Whatever you call it, there really is nothing in the Gundam franchise that looks quite like the Woundwort, what with its big wide legs, tiny retractable feet, teensy torso, and very big, round head. There’s something about it that people find fascinating, myself included.
Is the Woundwort Coded Female?
This is the million dollar question. Just like with the Nobel Gundam, the Engage Zero, or Aerial, there are a lot of fans who believe that the Woundwort is very obviously coded as female.
When it comes to those other examples, I wholly agree. There are lots of things about the shape and design of their bodies, armor, etc, that unquestionably invokes the female form.
But what is it about the Woundwort? I’ve never actually seen anyone explain why they think it looks feminine. Heck, I think it does too, but I’ve long struggled to explain why.
I asked Mrs. Wolfe for her opinion, and her theory is that, from a certain point of view, the Woundwort is a hyper exaggerated version of the stereotypical female form. It has an extremely narrow waist, thick thighs, and it’s rear carapace looks like a big ol’ booty:
Also, if you look closely, you’ll notice that its fingers are long, manicured, and painted red:
On top of all that, like the Engage Zero (another female-coded design), the head is more rounded than usual, and thus looks less threatening and more “feminine”.
So I guess I just convinced myself that the Woundwort is coded female. That makes the Woundwort an entirely fitting unit to be the flagship of ReZeon and its cadre of teenage female supremacists. But even if you don’t buy any of these arguments, perhaps you’ll at least agree that it has a bit of a “cute but deadly” vibe.
Other Thoughts
- From here on out, I’m probably going to refer to this as both Woundwort and the Woundwart. I don’t think it’s too big of a deal.
- This model kit can dock with the High Grade model of the ReZeon Barzam. Honestly, I think it looks pretty dumb, but your mileage may vary:
