MS-04 Bugu

Please note that this is the Gundam Wiki's article on the mobie suit from Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin; if you are looking for the article on the mobile suit from G-Saviour then you should head to CCMS-03 Bugu.

---

Disambiguation:

• Main
• Origin

  ---

MS-04 Bugu
MS-04 Bugu (MS-04 ブグ)
Unit Type
Mobile Suit
Profile
Other Names	MS-04 Prototype Zaku
Developed from	YMS-03 Waff
Developed Into	MS-05 Zaku I
Manufacturer	Zeonic, Inc. Yashima Heavy Industrial (Machine Gun)
Operator	Autonomous Republic of Zeon Space Defense Force Y-02 Development and Training Team
Known Pilots	Cucuruz Doan (Origin) Ramba Ral
General Characteristics
Head Height	17.5 meters57.415 ft <br />688.976 in <br />
Overall Length	9.3 meters
Pilot Accommodations	Pilot only (in cockpit in torso)
Standard Armaments
Handheld	Machine Gun Heat Hawk Shield
Optional Armaments
Fixed	2 × Shoulder Shield
Handheld	MS-use Bazooka A2 Type
Real World
Appearances*
OVA	MSG ORIGIN: First Seen in Episode #4
Manga	MSGTO MSGTO Doan

The MS-04 Bugu (MS-04 ブグ, MS-04 Bugu^?) is a mobile suit featured in the Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin MSD Cucuruz Doan's Island manga, the Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin OVA, its television recut, and the Mobile Suit Discovery design series. Developed by Zeonic from the YMS-03 Waff , tests were conducted at the Dark Colony in U.C. 0077 . In U.C. 0078, Ramba Ral's Bugu fought in the Battle of Mare Smythii .

Technology & Combat Characteristics

The development of the mobile suit took a huge step forward thanks to the compact fusion reactor and fluid pulse system designed by Dr. Torenov Y. Minovsky, resulting in the birth of the prototype YMS-03 Waff. The MS-04 Bugu was completed using data gathered with the Waff, and it was designed with a focus on its mobility, maneuverability, and ease of production as a weapon, making this the first machine capable of handling genuine combat. To improve its mobility, the power pipes that transmitted energy as part of the fluid pulse system were attached to the outside of its armor, and the increased supply of the energy used to drive its limb joints gave it very high maneuverability. However, as is often the case in the development of high-performance prototypes, it was designed with no regard for ease of production. With its high production cost, it was unsuited for mass production, and the role of official mass-produced machine was given to the redesigned MS-05 Zaku I. Though the Bugu never entered mass production, several units were built .

Equipment & Features

Head

The head adopted a mono-eye main camera .

Backpack

The backpack was equipped with two main thrusters, and had four power pipes connected to the chest and stomach .

Armaments

Machine Gun

A side arm for mobile suits manufactured by Yashima Heavy Industrial. It shot real rounds, and was also used by a group of mobile suits of the Earth Federation Forces .

Heat Hawk

A hatchet-type weapon for close combat. The blade could glow red with heat that was hot enough to melt armor. The MS-05 and many other suits were also equipped with this weapon .

Shield

A defense equipment attached to the upper arm. It could protect against a machine gun, but its bulletproof performance was not as strong as the L-shaped shield of the MS-06 .

Variants

Ramba Ral Unit

Because it had better basic performance than the mass-produced Zaku I, one of these units was given to Ramba Ral, who served as a test pilot during the mobile suit's development. Painted in his blue personal colors, it participated in the Battle of Mare Smythii on the lunar surface, alongside Gaia, Mash, Ortega, and Char . Attached to the head of Ramba's suit was a blade antenna, symbolic of the commander .

History

Zeonic, Inc. followed up on its development of the YMS-03 Waff prototype with the much refined MS-04 Bugu. To respond flexibly to close combat, the upper attachment was eliminated. Instead, power pipes were attached to the outside if its armor to increase the transmission of energy to the fluid pulse system and enhance its joint drive performance. This gave the MS-04 greater mobility and a burst of acceleration to its degree of perfection as a mobile suit. However, the MS-04 was not only over budget, but also had production and operational problems. Strategically, it was most important to be able to mass-produce weapons that deliver stable performance/durability and establish steady logistics to maintain weapon supply/operations. In this respect, the MS-04 failed to be adopted for mass production .

U.C. 0077: Dark Colony

The Bugu destroys an Arcana-class during one of its tests.

In May, Sasha Kitz was invited to the Dark Colony where the development of mobile suits was carried out. Various tests had been conducted under Special Operations Lieutenant Cucuruz Doan. On June 23, although the verification testing of the MS-04 Bugu and YMS-03 Waff was to be conducted, commanding officer, Captain Yat Delma, told Doan that one of the pilots, Calden, was an industrial spy and gave the command "do not do anything" .

U.C. 0078: Battle of Mare Smythii

Though it failed to be adopted for mass production, it nevertheless garnered an extremely high reputation from pilots, such that Captain Ramba Ral made his sortie in a blue MS-04 instead of an MS-05 Zaku I, the first lot for which mass production was completed, in his assignment to prevent Dr. Minovsky's defection .

On the dark side of the moon, Ramba Ral in his MS-04 Bugu led the Black Tri-Stars, to reach the edge of Mare Smythii within 12 hours . Zeon would be targeting the buggy, giving it the codename "rabbit" .

Ramba Ral spotted the buggy ahead . The MS-04 Bugu revved up its main thruster at full throttle, beginning the "lunar rabbit hunt" . Ral asked Minovsky to come back as he and his Bugu chased the buggy. Erdush's Guncannon and Guncannons VB102 through to VB107 fired their cannons at the Bugu and the Black Tri-Stars, but the Bugu leaped out of the explosions undamaged. The Bugu dealt heavy damage to Erdush's Guncannon's chest with his main gun and then kicked it over. Later, Captain Ral turned his Bugu around to see Gaia's Zaku I chasing an armless Guncannon VB103 . The success of the MS-04 in the battle illustrated the effectiveness of the mobile suit .

Gallery

Lineart

Gundam The Origin Mechanical Work 1st Vol:MS-04 Bugu A

Anime

Ramba Ral's Bugu aiming machine gun

Ramba Ral's Bugu Firing machine gun

Ramba Ral's Bugu close-up

Ramba Ral's Bugu Front

Ramba Ral's Bugu wielding a Heat Hawk

Illustrations & Artwork

Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin Mechanical Archives MS-04 Bugu

Equipped with Shoulder Shields and Beam Sniper Rifle

Gunpla

HGGTO 1/144 MS-04 Bugu (Ramba Ral Custom) (2016) - Box art

HGTGO 1/144 MS-04 Bugu (P-Bandai exclusive; 2017) - Box art

Notes & Trivia

• In the manga, it was only referred to as the "MS-04". It is given the name "MS-04 Prototype Zaku" (MS-04 プロトタイプザク, "MS-04 Prototype Zaku"^?) in some early sources such as Mobile Suit Illustrated 2006 , and the second volume of the official guidebook released in 2010 . It received its current name "MS-04 Bugu" with the release of Eve of Destiny in 2016 .
• Similar to how the YMS-03 Waff is named after the German word "Waffe", meaning "weapon" , the Bugu was named after the Japanese word "武具" (bugu), meaning "arms" or "armor" .
  • It shares its name with the CCMS-03 Bugu from G-Saviour.

References

This article is part of Project: The Origin

---

Please read the linked project page before editing this article.

Project Leader: User:FortressMaximus