It may not be the Master Grade Turn A Gundam I planned on building, but this kit is still based on another great mobile suit from the show:

This is the Wodom Pod from Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE.

Spoiler Preface!!!

This post contains some spoilers from late in Build Divers Re:RISE. You may want to skip it if you haven’t watched the show.

About the Wodom

The Wodom Pod is based on the original Wodom that appears in Turn A Gundam. Briefly, here is what you need to know about it, courtesy of this kit’s instruction manual:

The main force mobile suits used by the Dianna Counter in the First Return Fleet.
Due to its peculiar appearance, with limbs growing directly from a hemispherical head, the Wodom was expected to become a psychological weapon that would strike fear into Earthlings without combat, to decisively dismantle their rebellious attitude.

It cannot be overstated just how tall the Wodom is. Here’s a screenshot where it towers over the Turn A Gundam itself:

Between its size and its appearance, it gives off some strong War of the Worlds energy, which is a perfect fit for its role in the story.

Syd Mead

The Wodom is one of several mobile suit designs created for the show by the legendary industrial designer Syd Meade. And like all of his designs for the show, I'm a big fan.

*I love the stiff, robotic gait that mobile suits have in* Turn A Gundam, so I had to include this GIF

About the Wodom Pod’s Pilot

Obviously I’ve built a lot of kits from Build Divers Re:RISE, but as of this writing every single one of them has been a mobile suit used by Hiroto Kuga, one of the members of Team Build DiVERS. But there are other members of the team, like May for instance:

May is the only woman on Team Build DiVERS (unless you count Hinata, but May is still the only woman on the team that fights in a mobile suit). She’s also the only member who is an El Diver, one of the many electronic lifeforms created in GBN.

I find the whole El Diver concept a bit silly, but I also think May does a lot to give it some legitimacy. Initially she’s a bit too cold and logical (as you might expect from a being that doesn’t quite understand human emotions), but she’s also confident and assertive, meaning she’s never just a waifish doormat with zero personality. And over time, as we watch her form bonds with her teammates - as well as find something to fight for - her true personality really comes into bloom.

Basically, if you wanted to convince the viewer that El Divers are sentient beings, Sarah was the absolute worst way to go about it. But May strikes the right balance between feeling strange and alien and feeling real and human.

About May’s Mobile Suit(s)

Like all El Divers, May has a physical body that she can use to navigate the real world, which also happens to be a Gunpla:

*May’s Gunpla body as it looks in real life*

Her Gunpla body doesn’t look too different than her virtual avatar, save for the fact that some of her body parts (like her hands, feet, and hair) clearly look like they’re made of plastic.

Also, it’s really small:

*Watching May in her tiny Gunpla body try to hail a taxi is unironically one of the best scenes in the show*

But when she logs into GBN, her plastic body is scanned in as her personal mobile suit, where it basically looks like her in robot form:

*May’s mobile doll form as it appears inside GBN*

I know what you might be thinking - where does the Wodom Pod fit in? I thought THAT was May’s mobile suit?

It is! As we discover in Episode 9, May technically pilots her Mobile Doll, while the Mobile Doll itself is packed in tight inside the upper dome of the Wodom Pod, where it controls the Wodom with what is essentially a video game controller, as is demonstrated in this animated GIF:

So that’s how it all fits together (literally and figuratively)

About the Wodom Pod

Here is what the instruction manual has to say:

May came up with the idea to make her Mobile Doll board another Gunpla to engage in more strategic Gunpla Battles. The Wodom Pod was based on the concept of the Wodom featured in ∀ Gundam and was produced by Tsukasa Shiba and built by May herself.

The Build subseries of shows has always been pretty good at including Turn A representation, but I’m still a little surprised that:

They made a Turn A mobile suit one of the stars of the show
That they chose the Wodom of all things, considering how big it's supposed to be

But I guess it makes sense in a way. If you’re going to do a gimmick where one Gunpla is crammed inside another, it makes sense to pick one with such a large head to act as a storage space.

Also, since the Wodom Pod is simply based on the Wodom, it doesn’t have to be quite so giant. And indeed it is not; according to the Gundam Wiki, the Wodom Pod is about 24 meters, while the Earthree Gundam is nearly 19 meters. So it’s tall - taller than its comrades - but it’s not a literal giant.

*I tried looking for some good screencaps that demonstrate the size difference, and this is the best I could come up with*

Though it’s still tall enough that it leads to this very funny scene where it tries to “hide”

Weapons and Abilities

The Wodom Pod’s arsenal is similar to its big sister. Both are equipped with a large beam cannon and missile launchers. That might not seem like a lot, but they pack quite a punch.

*I couldn’t find a good shot of May’s beam cannon doing huge damage, so here’s a GIF of the original Wodom laying waste with a single shot*

And of course there’s the fact that its legs are very long, which means it’s pretty good at kicking and stomping too:

Weapon Placement

On the original Wodom, the beam cannon is inside the head dome. But since May needs that space for her Mobile Doll, she instead has her beam cannon mounted to the right side of the dome (while the missiles are mounted on the left)

It can also generate a protective shield, which manages to deflect some extremely powerful attacks throughout the entire show:

Despite its lack of different kinds of weapons, and despite its weird design, the Wodom Pod is probably the most well balanced mobile suit used by our heroes. It’s got good offense and defense, and it works well at both long and close range.

About the Wodom Pod+

Out of all the members of Team Build DiVERS, poor May gets the lamest midseason upgrade. Dubbed the Wodom Pod+, it’s just the same thing with some extra pieces of blue armor slapped onto it:

In-universe lore states that these new parts enhance the mobile suit’s armor and speed, and that may indeed be true, but the real reason they exist is because the Wodom Pod serves as the legs and skirt armor for the Re:Rising Gundam.

I’m of two minds with this upgrade. On one hand, I think the blue clashes with the existing color scheme. On the other hand, it’s been pointed out to me that from certain angles the armor mounted on the dome looks a lot like a bow, which is a really cute idea.

About the Model Kit

The kit does not come with May’s Mobile Doll form, though you can buy that separately if you want it.

On the other hand, it does come with the armor to make the Wodom Pod +, so that’s kind of nice.

Other Thoughts

I’ve come to refer to all forms of the Wodom as “she”, not because there’s anything about its form that’s decidedly female, but because its two most famous pilots are women (those being May and Poe Aijee)

*Oh Poe, you’re one of my favorite girlfailures*

I love how the mobile suit matches May’s own personal color scheme.
I’ll leave you with this great piece of fan art:

Gunpla Build - High Grade Wodom Pod