RX-78-3 Gundam "G-3"

The RX-78-3 Gundam "G-3" is a variation of the original RX-78-2 Gundam. It first appeared as part of Mobile Suit Variations model kit series, designed by Kunio Okawara and later reappeared in the game Gundam Battle Universe and Gundam the Ride: A Baoa Qu.

Armaments

 * 60mm Vulcan Cannon
 * The Vulcan cannons were 60mm chain guns stored on the sides of the Gundam's head. Having the greatest rate of fire of all the Gundam's weapons these are primarily used to ward off advancing enemies, shoot down missiles, or hit other fast moving targets. They also made good use as an anti-aircraft and anti-personnel weapons. The Vulcan cannons however had a hard time piercing heavy armor (Though they had shown the ability to do severe damage to Mobile Suit's if fired at point-blank range)and thus were not often used against larger more heavily armored foes. Still the vulcans were useful in preserving ammunition for the Gundam's more powerful weapons.


 * Beam Rifle
 * A revolutionary weapon for it's time, the Beam Rifle is the primary weapon used by the Gundam. Making use of the Federations E-cap (or "energy capacitor") technology, the rifle uses charged concentrations of mega-particles as ammunition. This gives the beam rifle firepower equivalent to that of a battleship's main cannon. As the mega particles destroy mater on a molecular scale, the beam rifle can penetrate even the thickest armor and destroy its target in a single shot. One weak point of the rifle was its energy limits. The rifle could only be fired 16 times before depleting its energy and becoming useless.


 * Beam Saber
 * The Gundam is the first ever mobile suit to use a beam-oriented weapon in melee combat. The sabers are stored on the backpack, and can transform into the Gundam Javelin, a large pole with a three pronged beam at the end. The beam sabers use Minovsky particles held in place by an I-Field to form an effective cutting surface that can slice through nearly any material. The particles for the beam sabers are stored by E-cap in the hilt of the saber, which is recharged from the Gundam's reactor when the saber is returned to its socket. Once activated, beam sabers do not rely on the mobile suit's reactor and can be thrown or discarded as decoys. The beam saber is most often used for close range combat or as an emergency weapon once all other ammunition has been depleted.


 * Gundam Hammer
 * A rather unusual weapon, the Gundam Hammer was essentially a large spiked ball attached to a chain. It was used to give the Gundam a ranged melee weapon. The Gundam could either throw or swing the Hammer around itself in order to impact and damage its target through the sheer mass of the hammer. Later it was upgraded into the Hyper Hammer and had several rockets mounted into the ball in order to enable it for use in space, and to increase the damage it could cause.


 * Hyper Bazooka
 * Similar to the Zaku's Bazooka, the Hyper Bazooka was a heavy weapon used by the Gundam. Technically a large rocket launcher it could fire several 380mm missiles to attack targets at long range. While very powerful the Hyper Bazooka had a slow rate of fire and fairly little of ammunition. Most often used to take out slow, heavily armored targets.

Special Equipment & Features

 * Core Block System
 * The initial idea of the Core Fighter was as a form of escape if the Gundam were to be destroyed, allowing the irreplaceable data collected by the learning computer and the pilot to escape from a replaceable machine. Another idea was that the Core Fighter could be launched into the field as a support fighter, and the A and B blocks could be delivered by another vehicle (the Federation developed a support unit, the Gunperry, for this role) if needed for a mid-air conversion into a mobile suit.

History
During the attack on Side 7, in September UC 0079, two of the three RX-78 Gundam prototype mobile suits were destroyed. The destroyed parts made their way to the Pegasus-Class assault cruiser White Base, and then to the Earth Federation's General HQ in Jaburo. Once there, the parts were cobbled together and the RX-78-3 Gundam (nicknamed G-3 for being the third incarnation of the Gundam) was born. The G-3 Gundam became a testbed for the magnetic coating that was later applied to Amuro Ray's RX-78-2 Gundam and his intended unit the RX-78NT-1 Gundam "Alex". Visually, the G-3 is very similar looking to the Gundam, except for its gray and light blue paint scheme.

In the novel version of Mobile Suit Gundam, the G-3 became Amuro Ray's mobile suit in the later half of the war after his Gundam was destroyed in battle with Zeon Newtype Lalah Sune. It had the magnetic coating added to the joints to increase response time for its pilot. Other than the gray color scheme, it is identical to RX-78-2. The G-3 Gundam was later destroyed in battle by Leroy Gilliam, a member of Char's Rick-Dom Squad, which proved fatal for its pilot.

Notes & Trivia

 * The RX-78-3 Gundam is the closest to Yoshiyuki Tomino's conception of the Gundam. As he wanted to stress that it was a true military machine, a weapon of war a "real robot", he originally wanted it's entire color scheme to be dull and greyish, however Bandai had concerns that this would limit it's appeal to children and marketability as a toy, hence the final version in series follows the color scheme of the RX-78-2 rather than the RX-78-3.
 * In recent SD Gundam G Generation games, the gundam hammer is omitted from the G3's move list and has a double Hyper Bazooka attack as opposed to a single one. The Hammer's omission may be a reference to Tomino's original concept and the fact the movies also omitted this weapon.
 * In the first Super Robot Wars Alpha game, it was a hidden unit that was superior to the RX-78-2 in various ways, particularly higher mobility and limit (limit on how much of the Pilot+Suit's mobility will be counted) and more post movement weapons. Properly upgraded, Amuro could use it for a longer time before hitting its limit. This allowed most players to pass on the Re-GZ they get to someone else and wait until the Nu Gundam becomes available.