MS-12 Gigan

The MS-12 Gigan was a Principality of Zeon prototype artillery mobile suit from the Gundam anime series. The Gigan never appeared in any actual animated form, but it is an official MS-X mobile suit variation.

Technology and Combat Characteristics
The Gigan was designed mostly as an anti-air and artillery mobile suit. Its main and most prominent weapon was the 180mm recoilless cannon mounted on the top of the Gigan's head, which served as the weapon of choice for long-range bombardment. For use in close to mid-range combat the Gigan also featured a 120mm four-barrel machine gun mounted in the place of its right forearm, as well as two Vulcan guns mounted in the top of the main body.

History
One of the many mobile suits built under the Pezun Project at Zeon's Pezun space asteroid base, the bizarre MS-12 Gigan was oddly similar in design to the Earth Federation's own RX-75-4 Guntank. Much like the Guntank, the Gigan did not have legs to provide mobility as the vast majority of standard mobile suits did. However, instead of relying on twin caterpillar tracks for locomotion like the Guntank, the Gigan had three large wheels which granted the unit a much higher ground speed.

The Gigan was one of the few Pezun Project mobile suits to actually be produced and see use outside of Pezun. The Gigan was mass-produced in small quantities and sent to many of the Principality of Zeon's bases for use as guard and defense units.

Behind the scenes
It should be noted that the Gigan was originally slated to appear in the original Mobile Suit Gundam anime, but was cut out when the series was reduced from 52 episodes to 43. In one of Tomino's trademark ironic twists, the original script for the series called for a Gigan with an unnamed pilot to destroy the RX-78-2 Gundam, rather than Char Aznable's MSN-02 Zeong as depicted in the final animated version.