RB-79 Ball

The is a fictional weapon from the anime series Mobile Suit Gundam. Its design was partially inspired by the EVA Pod from 2001: A Space Odyssey. As a ubiquitous mobile weapon, it has been a popular subject for modeling enthusiasts,
In modeling
The RB-79 has been a popular subject for modeling enthusiasts. The popularity of the unit have granted it 3 different versions 1/100 Master Grade models. In February 2005, Hobby Japan made a special topic called Cannon Ball, featuring the MG RB-79 Ver. Ka, calling it the Last and Greatest featured product of 2004
Role in plot
The RB-79 is mainly a grunt unit in stories, it is normally seen as the unit easiest to produce in the story, with a few exception parody units Saku and Samu. The strength of the RB-79 comes from numbers, in the game, the RB-79 and RB-79C both got a secondary weapon named Call Ball and a SP attack summoning dozens of RB-79 and swarm the field with their 180mm cannons. However, the designer Katoki Hajime viewed the unit differently. In his design notes, he granted the RB-79 a much higher position as a war weapon, making it an attempt of the Earth Federation Forces to create a small size mobile armour, since the specs of the unit could be compared against the MS-09R Dom.
Backstory
In the background story of Mobile Suit Gundam told in official books, the fictional One Year War between the Earth Federation and the Principality of Zeon, the Federation lacked any sort of the mass-produced humanoid mecha, known as mobile suits. The Zeon forces laid waste to the Federation fleet with their mobile suits, the MS-05 Zaku I and the later Zaku II. To counteract this, the Federation scrambled to make some sort of mobile weapon that could counter the Zeon attack. However, their new prototype mobile suit, the Gundam, was too costly to mass-produce, and their first mass-production mobile suit, the GM, just wasn't being fielded fast enough.
The RB-79 Ball mobile pod was created with the cancelled number of the Project V RX-76 Prototype Ball. The Federation refitted about 1200 of the civilian-model space construction pods, known as SP-W03 mobile pods, and installed heavier armor platings and a 180mm recoilless cannon on top. The Ball mobile pod also had vernier thrusters mounted all along the body, which used solid-fuel explosives rather than more conventional liquid propellants. As an improvised conversion, the Ball was initially seen as ill-suited for combat, earning the nickname "Mobile Coffin" among EFSF pilots. It was, however, smaller, more maneuverable, and more stealthy than a mobile suit, and its real strategic advantages were its low cost and large numbers. Harassment from hit-and-run attacks by Federation's fast s and their attached Ball squads proved to be a constant headache for Zeon supply fleets, who often had to deploy additional forces to escort their vulnerable Papuas and s.
Parodies
A joke about the Ball unit is that if it is painted red and a horn is attached to it, it will become one of Char Aznable custom and became 3 times more powerful than an ordinary unit. This gag has at least appeared in two manga, one Super robot wars doujin manga was actually published by a branch of Bandai showing a Ball unit painted red, with a horn and stripped with ammo. Char Aznable seems to actually like it but was shot down in less than 3 panels — totally not helpful to the battle at all.
An official manga published on Gundam Ace, where titled as Why Char assassinated Kycilia showing in place of where in the original story should be MSN-02 Zeong, Kycilia Zabi actually provided Char with a red Ball, with two conical horns, labelled Horns next to them; an enlarged bottom thruster, labelled 3 times next to it; the cannon was replaced by a hand of Zeong, labelled Psycommu next to it, referencing the traits of Char's custom units. This unit is in fact designed by Katoki Hajime and he designed the box art for it to look like the MG model box as well in the back, along with other custom Ball units for other Zeon pilots.
Another appearance is in the SD Musha Gundam series, the Ball was called and is the primary foot soldiers siding with the Gundam Warriors and Generals.
In Superior Defender Gundam Force Kao Lyn had a personalized Super-Deformed ball similar to the SDG-style ball in the same series. In spite of the Super-Deformed balls however, there were two normal sized ball-variant vehicles.

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