Thursday, September 5, 2013

HGUC 1/144 Zogok - Review by Hacchaka

HGUC 1/144 Zogok (Release Date: Released in Japan, Price: 1,700 yen)
Review by: Hacchaka
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8 comments:

  1. I actually am beginning to like this design yet at the same time it makes absolutely no sense for a hand to hand use MS having a large exposed camera window for its opponent to punch. If it jumps into combat with you just punch it in the chest and move on to the next combatant.

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    2. 95% of mobile suit designs don't make practical sense... and this is even taking into consideration that some minovski particle exists.

      typo :)

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    3. @Jason R.:

      If an Acguy can sheer off the main camera unit and batter down the cockpit area of a better-armored, smaller (than a Zogok) opponent (almost killing the pilot in the process), I don't think vulnerabilities would matter as much as the skills to protect said vulnerabilities and exploiting your opponent's (or just overpower them). Especially since most beam weaponry seems to make armor useless (except for when it isn't to make weird Zeon OYW MS designs look good in an OVA).

      But yeah; as MHF typed, all of this is fiction based on the premise of a giant humanoid machine as a military weapon, which is pretty much pointless. Fun to geek out on occasion over this Rule Of Cool concept (which I just did), but it's best to take such a thing with a grain of salt.

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    4. Absolutely right.

      I would like to note that the Zogok is primarily a unit designed by the Principality as, more or less, a test unit. The fact that it was combat-capable at all is amazing, but the Zogok certainly leaves much to be desired as a front-line MS unit (much less a submersible MS).

      I also have a qualm with TMS as well; streamlining the design in Waverider Mode does not influence the effects of G on the pilot nor increase its top speed in space. The only justification I can think of for the use of Transforming Mobile Suits would be either:

      - On Earth / inside colonies, where friction and gravity would force designers to build an MS that could operate on the ground like a tank but be able to quickly chase after enemy units;

      - Colonial / Fleet defense, where a TMS would be tailored so that it makes better use of maneuvering thrusters in MS mode and better use of the main engines in MA mode.

      As a sidenote, I think about these things WAY too much but...the Re-GZ had it right; the most economical use of an MS in space is to include a rocket sled to its design. The Sleds most commonly used by Jegans and the Jesta team are both cheap and have enough fuel to carry them to the theatre of battle and back again.

      This is why few designs by the second century are testbed suits or TMS; the economical problems of building, maintaining and justifying the need for such suits are well-known by this time.

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  2. Wow, It really is hard to please this community based on the comments.

    Siroh, you should really find and follow another hobby because if you keep bringing your personal hang-ups and bitch-fits about humanoid mecha, then you shouldn't be following a show/comic/models about humanoid mecha. Maybe you can try to find realism in magical girls, pocket monsters, and katana-wielding grim reapers, because if geeking out on the designs is the only way for you to enjoy the concepts gundam has to offer then maybe you should just stop following it all-together.

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    1. @Anon (Sept. 6, 5:57 AM):

      You'd be correct if that were true, but I'd actually be one of the first to point out the pointlessness and unrealism of the genre as things not to get serious over. In fact, my comment was to Jason R. above who--while he expressed liking the Zogok design--was also just a tad hung-up in part over the big camera eye as if it was something to be bothered over. My point was that if you really want to get into things and be bothered by little details like that, there are lots more that could be potentially bothersome (such as the examples I listed, or the concept of "real robot" in general), and is therefore best not to get bothered over it.

      I follow a franchise about humanoid mecha not because I thought there was any realism here (if there were, the mecha wouldn't be humanoid nor gigantic at all) but because it's a Rule of Cool concept I find appealing, coupled with good characters and plots (for at least some of 'em) and appealing mechanical designs (to collect in model form). If you honestly thought I was seriously bothered over it, then sorry for confusing you.

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    2. I think he might have been talking to me too (the reply to your comment). Now that I look at it, it does come off as nit-picking. I meant to show how something like the mobile suit developed along a reasonable path given the state of affairs in the UC universe. I'm with Siroh on this one; the "cool" factor is what keeps me coming back.

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