Mecha Monday: What the cats have been plotting all along

imgur.

Thank god for catnip and cheeseburgers, because they're the only things delaying the feline revolution.

Mecha Monday: It's a Gundam!

Also know as a minute and half long video of people crapping their pants at the sight of a Gundam. Fair warning, there's a bit of language near the end.




IT'S A GUNDAM!!!!

Mecha Monday: Robotech live-action movie

A belated Mecha Monday is still better than no Mecha Monday, right?

The other day Ashley of Paint-it-Pink and secret member of the Legion of Doom posted about a live-action version of Robotech getting a director. Nic Mathieu, has apparently never directed a movie before and is mostly known for doing commercials. But boy, is he good at it. Topless Robot has a video for a commercial he did for Zenith a few years back and frankly, the fact that this guy hadn't been tapped to direct big budget scifi movies sooner is terrible, because the commercial is awesome.



Seriously, why was this guy overlooked for so long!?

Anyways, here's to hoping the Robotech movie sees the light of day.

Mecha Monday: The MAC II truly is a Monster

Inspired by a post over on Spaceman Spiff's Blog Full O' Battlemechs...and more., today's MM is about the behemoth mech of Robotech, the Destroid Monster, aka the MAC II Monster.

Armed with four 406mm cannons and backed up with triple barreled missile launchers for arms, the Monster is a mech that anyone would be wary of messing with. Despite its impressive loadout, the Monster isn't meant to be a front line mech, but rather the kind of unit you would deploy against enemy warships and installations. Because of that, it lacks thick armor (save for the three-crew cockpit and ammo storage areas) and the missile launchers are its only other weapons.

Baby got back.

Another downside is that its barrels are only good for thirty rounds each before having to be replaced, which I can only imagine is consuming in cost, materials, and downtime. Still, it would be a great asset to have if you've got a group of enemy mechs or vehicles heading your way and you need to teach them a lesson.

Pictures via Robotech RPG.

Mecha Monday: Windmill Gundam is truly the best Gundam

Gather around, children, and hear the tale of a godawful Gundam series called Mobile Fighter G Gundam and it's entirely ridiculous Gundams. The show's premise was simple: Every country on Earth emigrated to an orbital space colony that bore the name of their nation, but with the "Neo" prefix. In order to decide who would rule the colonies and Earth, these nations hold a tournament every four years and each sends a Gundam "modeled" after their culture. In actuality, the Gundams are based largely on cultural stereotypes. Neo-Mexico's Gundam, for example, wears a poncho, a sombrero, and is called Tequila Gundam, but that's a post for a different day. Neo-Holland's Nether Gundam has always been one of my favorites from the series for no other reason than because it can transform into a windmill.

Now you see it...
Credit: Gundam Wiki.

Now you--hey, where'd it go!?
Credit: Gundam Wiki.

In fact, Neo-Holland's entire strategy in the tournament was simply not to fight. Their Gundam pretty much just stayed in windmill mode and progressed to the finals by default. Not surprisingly, when you have a Gundam that is also part windmill, it's not going to very good at fighting and it got curbstomped.

Mecha Monday: Voltron

Truly, the greatest of all mechs that are made up of other robots. Sorry, Power Rangers.

I used to watch Voltron when I was a kid during the late 80s/early 90s, though I don't remember match. I remember the ass kicking and one of the original members of the team, Sven, being replaced by Princess Allura after he's bitten by a cat. He was actually killed in the Japanese version, but they couldn't really say that back then.

Voltron could also dance, but is a loser when he gets served.




Picture via Tumblr.

Mecha Monday: Giant Gundam statue? Giant Gundam statue.

Because what better way to celebrate the 30th anniversary of your flagship anime franchise than with a sixty foot tall statue of a goddamn Gundam?

It lights up too! Batteries not included.

I wrote a post about the statue last year on my nerd blog, Giant-Size Nerd-Thing!, which you can check out right here. They did disassemble it after a while and laid the dismembered mecha on an artificial island. But fortunately, decided to reassemble and station it in Tokyo, presumably to ward off Kaiju attacks.

Did I mention that this fucker is sixty feet tall?

Pictures via TechCrunch, Pink Tenticle, and Punyari. Hat tip to Geekspective.

Mecha Monday - Mechagodzilla 2

I was going to go with the original, but then remembered that I had a Mechagodzilla 2 toy when I was a kid and nostalgia won out.

Credit: Wikizilla.

Unlike the first Mechagodzilla, which was created by a race of alien gorillas, its second incarnation was created by G-Force, a taskforce created by the United Nations to counter the King of the Monsters, Godzilla. Mechagodzilla 2 had a second form called Super Mechagodzilla, when combined with Garurda, an aircraft that was created prior to MG2 to fight Godzilla, but was deemed a failure, because really? Someone thought an aircraft was going to do what other Kaiju and a hydrogen bomb repeatedly failed to do?

Mechagodzilla (in his super form) actually came close to winning during his battle with Godzilla and would have, had a Kaiju named Fire Rodan not sacrificed itself to heal the latter and supercharge him.

A little something different for Mecha Monday: Who wants to watch the original Gundam?

Because, as it turns out, the entire series is on YouTube for free! I feel a tad dumb for not knowing this sooner, especially since it's been on there for two years. I'd suggest muting the sound for the first minute or so on each episode. All of them have a commercial for the Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn DVD at the beginning. Then there's the music. I mean, if you're into listening to a guy singing the theme music overly-dramatically in Japanese, then you're day is made.

If you've never watch Mobile Suit Gundam, you are in a treat. The whole premise is that it's the year 079 UC - Universal Century) and a good chunk of the human race is living in giant space colonies orbiting the Earth, called Sides. Well, at the beginning of the year, a group of colonies, Side 3, join together as the Principality of Zeon, declare independence from the Earth and proceeds to commit acts of genocide that, if real, would made the Holocaust look minor by comparison. Both Zeon and the Earth Federation employed nukes, but the former went further. Zeon forces would actually wipe out the entire population of Federation-allied colonies or ones they suspected supported their enemies by pumping nerve gas into their air supply. Oh, it gets worse, believe it or not. I guess the writers really wanted to make Zeon totally despicable, because these guys would use colonies themselves as weapons against Earth. Believe it or not, Zeon would drop a colony into the Earth's atmosphere and completely wiped out Sydney, Australia.

Space colonies as kinetic weapons. Damn.

In any event, before the year was over, half the populations of the two sides were killed and common sense finally came to them. Horrified by what they'd done, Earth and Zeon signed a treaty in Antarctica agreeing not to go extreme like that again. The show opens in the eighth month of the One Year War. Anyway, check out the first episode below.



That awkward moment when a teenager with no prior experience at piloting a mecha manages to destroy several experienced veteran pilots.

Mecha Monday: Mazinger Z

Mazinger Z by Jose Manuel Liebana.

Originally, I was going to go with Gigantor, since he was the first super robot of anime/manga. The thing is, Gigantor isn't a mecha, since he's controlled externally. So, I did some checking and discovered that the first mecha was Mazinger Z. Whereas the former was controlled by a 12 year old with a remote control system, Mazinger was piloted by Kouji Kabuto from Mazinger's head. The cartoon's intro isn't bad either.



I like the bit where the snake monster grabs Mazinger's arm and he just rocket punches the fuck out of it.

Oh, you need a hand? How about a fist? A ROCKET FIST, I MEAN! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

But in all seriousness, the placement of the cockpit just seems bad. I mean, when I watched the intro for the first time and they showed the whatever it is drop down inside Mazinger's head, I figured top would close up, but it doesn't and you have to wonder about it. One lucky shot and the mecha is just a big statue. I do regret not watching this show, though. To be fair, I was like two years old when the show was imported to the U.S. as Tranzor Z in 1985, so I wasn't up for it. Always a good time to catch up, I suppose.

Mecha Monday: MS-05A Zaku I Early Type from Mobile Suit Gundam

Seemed appropriate, since it was the first mobile suit the Principality of Zeon mass produced prior to the One Year War.

Gundam Wiki.

While the MS-05A Zaku I Early Type was the first mobile suit to be mass produced, it was not the first to be deployed. By the time the OYW erupted, the Zeon military had already moved on to the Zaku IIs and the Is were relegated to construction and support jobs in the rear. They were ultimately deployed near the end of that war as Zeon had lost a considerable amount of its mobile suit force.

Awesome new thing: Mecha Monday!

Because like a incontinent person, this blog needs some regularity, I'm creating a new weekly feature that (should) run every Monday: Mecha Monday! The mechs will come from various franchises such as Gundam, BattleTech, Macross/Robotech, and more.

And if I actually manage to keep this up for more than four weeks, I'll be amazed.