I don’t know exactly when I first watched Zeta Gundam … it may have been somewhere around 2009? But I do know that I instantly fell in love with the Gundam Mk II, becoming one of my top three favorite mobile suit designs. In the 15’ish years since then, I’ve watched a lot more Gundam, and encountered a lot more mobile suits, and nowadays the Mk II is … still one of my top three mobile suits of all time.
And yet I only have one model of it. The Real Grade Mk II (in Titans colors) was my third ever build, all the way back in 2014. But since then? Nothing. No High Grades, no variants, no alternate colors.
Let’s put it this way - I’ve built more models of Wing Zero - one of my least favorite designs - than I have of the Mk II. You’d think I would have at least built a second Real Grade in AEUG colors or something.
Let’s change that right now, shall we? But this time we’re going big:
It’s the Master Grade 2.0 version of the Gundam Mk II.
About the Mobile Suit
In-universe, the Gundam Mk-II was not, in fact, the second Gundam model ever made. Before it came the Gundam Alex, as well as all the models from Stardust Memory (among others).
The Gundam Wiki has a whole section that catalogs the various in-universe explanations and excuses for why none of these earlier Gundams were called the Mk II, all of which boil down to either “that one didn’t count/isn’t really a Gundam”, or “that one was technically still a part of the RX78 project, so it’s more of a variant of the Grandaddy Gundam than a true successor”. Some of these explanations are flimsier than others, but in the end I suppose they all make a certain amount of sense.
Of course, the real life explanation is simple - it was the second Gundam-type mobile suit ever seen on screen, as it appeared in the 1985 TV show Zeta Gundam.
While it may not look like it at first glance, the Mk II introduced some major in-universe changes to mobile suit development that mark a distinct new era from what came before. Here is what the Gundam Wiki has to say about the Mk-II. It’s several paragraphs long, but this is all vital information:
A direct descendant of the RX-78-2 Gundam developed by the Titans, the Gundam Mk-II is the first mobile suit to utilize the new movable frame concept. In this new concept, rather than merely serving as a structural framework, the movable frame incorporates all the mobile suit's vital mechanisms, including the actuators and control systems required for movement, and excludes the mobile suit's weapons, armor, and propellant tanks. This approach dramatically improves the mobile suit's responsiveness, reliability, and energy efficiency, as well as making it far more agile than traditional designs.
Another characteristic of the Gundam Mk-II is that some of its legs' movable parts are exposed and this design feature is based on the prevailing idea at that time that avoiding being hit by the enemy is the preferable choice. The origin for this idea is because no existing armor can fully protect against beam weaponry, thus it is better to increase the mobile suit's mobility by weight reduction rather than equip more armor which would lead to a higher weight and lower mobility.
The mobile suit also has what had become the standard 360-degree panoramic screen and linear seat fitted in a circular cockpit that also functions as an escape pod. The multiple panels of the panoramic screen make up a single 360-degree display, covering the entire inner surface of the cockpit. The image displayed on this screen is a computer simulation constructed from the cameras distributed around the mobile suit's exterior. The viewpoint is that of the mobile suit's head, and the image is carefully edited to remove the mobile suit itself. The linear seat is suspended in the center of the cockpit, supported by a linear arm which electromagnetically counters G-forces and impact shocks in order to protect the pilot. Together, the panoramic screen and the linear seat gives the pilot a larger field of view and eliminates blind spots.
The most notable flaw of the Gundam Mk-II is that it is armored using the obsolete titanium alloy ceramic composite. Another flaw is that the movable frame's leg sections have rigidity issues associated with the strength of the structural material used, and this problem persisted even after six design revisions. Despite this, for a brief time period, the Gundam Mk-II's movable frame makes it one of the most agile mobile suits available. Three Gundam Mk-II were produced in total. They were later stolen by the Anti-Earth Union Group (AEUG) and given a new paint scheme. Despite being used by two different factions, the Gundam Mk-II's weaponry remains mostly unchanged. Its only fixed weapons are two beam sabers, but it can carry a vulcan pod, a shield, a beam rifle, a hyper bazooka and a clay bazooka if necessary.
Weapons and Stuff
The Mk-II has all the basic Gundam weapons - Beam Sabers, Beam Rifle, Hyper Bazooka, and shield. The only thing that’s a bit different is that it doesn’t have vulcan guns built into its head. Instead, it has a “vulcan pod” that goes around its neck like a pair of headphones.
Appearances in Media
The Mk II first shows up in Zeta Gundam, where it is initially the prized new mobile suit that every faction is clamoring over. Designed and built by the evil Titans, are of their units are then stolen by the AEUG, who dismantle and/or ship off most of them, while leaving one left for use by protagonist Kamille Bidan.
Kamille then uses the Mk II to extremely good use for the first half of the show, after which new and more powerful Titans models begin to overtake it (with the Gabthley in particular giving it a particularly nasty beat down in Episode 21).
But all was not lost. While Kamille would switch to piloting the Zeta, the Mk II would be handed off to Emma Sheen, one of my favorite pilots in all of Gundam:
It also gets a bit of an upgrade. Eventually the Mk. II is able to dock with the G-Defenser:
Turning it into the Super Gundam:
The Mk II/Super Gundam continues to serve throughout the rest of the story, even remaining intact after the cataclysmic final battle.
Which, in turn, means that it was able to continue to serve throughout the entirety of ZZ Gundam:
In ZZ, the Mk. II is piloted by different people at different times, though I suppose it is most frequently helmed by Elle.
Despite seemingly being outdated before the end of Zeta, the Mk. II performs more than admirably throughoutZZ. Whether that’s because it was still highly capable, or because Neo Zeon’s pilots were green and terrible is unknown.
Either way, sadly the Mk II does see its demise during the events of ZZ. During the final battle, it takes major damage from the Queen Mansa:
While Elle is able to escape, she’s forced to leave the Mk II behind inside of Axis as it explodes from the inside. While I suppose there is some chance it survived, the fact that we never see it again in the Universal Century is pretty strong evidence that it was indeed destroyed.
The Mk. II’s other major onscreen appearance is in Gundam Build Fighters. Sei Iori, the show’s protagonist, uses his custom Build Mk-II as his backup Gunpla.
Also, speaking of Build Fighters, guess who is Mao Yasaka’s waifu?
About the Visual Design
If I had to explain the glory of the Mk. II in a single sentence, I’d use this meme:
It preserves the shape, look, and overall feel of the original Gundam, but makes it just a bit tougher and more “real robot”-y. It’s a bit more angular, but not sharp or spiky. It’s a bit wider, and a bit bulkier, but again, it doesn’t go too far. Everything is just … right.
A few other remarks:
- I love the AEUG color scheme. It’s a darker take on the classic Gundam color palette, and I think it works perfectly.
- (Depending on the artist and/or Gunpla, the chest section of the Mk-II is either depicted as blue, or a very dark blue/black. I prefer the latter, but I’m fine with either as long as it isn’t too bright).
- I also love the Titans colors, if for no other reason than it’s a fun inversion of the classic colors.
- It also makes it look different without making it necessarily look “evil”.
- I love how there’s a dedicated mount point for the beam sabers, so that they don’t just look like they’re poking out of the backpack.
- I love how the backpack looks significantly larger than the Grandaddy Gundam’s. It actually looks capable of providing sufficient lift.
About the Model Kit
This particular kit just so happens to have been the very first “2.0” Master Grade ever released, all the way back in 2005:
For those who need a refresher, for any given mobile suit in any given Grade/product line, Bandai usually releases one model. However, if the mobile suit is popular enough - and if the model is old enough - sometimes they’ll design a brand new version using all the latest and greatest advances in model kit engineering. For Master Grades and Real Grades, these updated kits are labeled as “2.0” (or even “3.0”). Technically updated High Grades don’t get an official label, but they are colloquially referred to as “Revive” models (like this one for example).
I don’t know enough about Gunpla history to know whether this was the first time ever that Bandai released an updated model in an existing product line, but the collective Internet acts like it is. Draw your own conclusions I guess.
Anyway, the fact that this 2.0 kit is itself twenty years old means that I’m not sure what to expect from it. The only thing I know for sure about it is that it comes with this nifty display base made to look like the hangar of the Argama:
I’m not sure if they included it because of the kit’s special status as the first 2.0, or because the model is so simple that they needed to “fill it out” with extra stuff in order to justify it’s MSRP. Whatever the reason, it’s certainly appreciated. It’s the kind of thing I’d expect to see more of from so-called “Master” Grade kits, but sadly it seems these kinds of extras are uncommon.
About the Instruction Manual
The manual for this kit comes with tons of flavor text about the Mk II, as well as some cool sketches. I’m going to include these sketches (or at least my best attempt to extract them) in the build posts, and just like with the Zaku Mariner I am going to include my phone’s machine translations of the flavor text.
It also has a two page spread cataloguing all the different Mk II Gunpla made up until 2005:
It’s fun to compare the different designs, the changes in detail, etc. over time. I’m impressed with just how good some of the older models look (or can look; I’m assuming they require quite a bit of work to make them reach their potential).
Other Stuff
Long before he worked on Turn A Gundam, legendary artist Syd Mead was commissioned to draw promotional poster art of the Gundam Mk II:
It’s instantly recognizable as a Syd Mead illustration, and I absolutely love it.