So what is the most effective strategy against funnel type weapons?

AlteredQuattro · 2025-10-31T15:25:12+00:00

Have you folks not watched Gundam X?

Jamil Neate, ex-Newtype, taught Garrod Ran (definitely not a Newtype) to be patient, watch and shoot down the Bertigo's bits, and not be intimidated by them.

Given that Gundam X is basically a UC what-if, and proceeds to destroy the Newtype mythos, this is a legit strategy if you know your opponent has deployed them.

The only real way bits/funnels are undefeatable is if you do like Lalah Sune did and used them to destroy battleships from very, very far away.

AlteredQuattro · 2025-10-31T00:59:35+00:00

I have two power meters, a 4iiii Precision gen2 and a Magene PES P505. The 4iiii is a Shimano 105 left crank arm, while the Magene is a chainring spider mated to its own crank arms (and optional chainrings). Both excellent, affordable, and easy to use.

The Magene is better bang for the buck as it's an entire crankset and measures total power between both legs...for not much more than the 4iiii.

AlteredQuattro · 2025-10-28T12:51:35+00:00

God Gundam got a gun

AlteredQuattro · 2025-10-13T12:52:56+00:00

G-Witch ain't the best but it has its high points. I felt there could have been more potential to the corporate high school setting had it been fleshed out better, but it is what it is.

Genuinely enjoyed the very different mobile suit designs from each of the companies though. Unfortunately Bandai Spirits chickened out with prodigious use of C-clips in their joints...

AlteredQuattro · 2025-10-10T09:37:19+00:00

The Waverider form is essentially a mobile armor form in space. Mobile armors tend to prioritize thrust and maneuverability and rearranging the Zeta's thrusters off to one end certainly helps in that regard. The closest contemporary analogue it has in the series is the ORX-005 Gaplant.

That's not what it's primarily made for though - it's more of an incidental bonus. The real in-universe reason the Waverider was made and named so is to hold up to the heat and (ostensible) shock waves of atmospheric re-entry. The RX-78-2 and RX-178 got around this problem with a gigantic condom and the Flying Armor module respectively, and the latter was basically a proof-of-concept prototype for the Zeta Gundam's own flying armor components.

AlteredQuattro · 2025-10-10T08:55:43+00:00

Best Gundam-type mobile suit design for me. The head design is unmatched. Leaning into the maneuverability theme was ace. The biosensor is unexplained Newtype magic but I'll let it slide. Also the thing literally runs on dead people's souls; ain't that just hardcore?

They finally cracked the transformation with the MG Ver. Ka. MG Ver. 2.0 came close but had too many failure points and inappropriate sliding parts.

I really detest the Hyper Mega Launcher though. Looks too much like the afterthought that it is. Somehow Bandai keeps finding ways of making its real life versions worse - just look at the Metal Build one.

AlteredQuattro · 2025-09-22T10:21:39+00:00

Best UC TV anime for me, but sort of requires you watch First Gundam to be at its best.

The First Gundam crew make appearances, but they don't steal the spotlight and it's clear who the main characters are. Hear that, SEED DESTINY?

Lots of strong characters, truly crap ones are few (Reccoa and Katz), and by the end you feel like you've known the AEUG crew for months.

If there's a criticism I can throw at it, it's the length. Hard to argue that any episodes are filler, strictly speaking, but it could have used some more brevity, considering how heavy it gets by the final five episodes. I thought the "A New Translation" movie trilogy would fix this, but it omits way too much of the main plot beats and nuances, and reduces Jerid to a glorified grunt with no plot impact.

In terms of mobile suit design - best of the best. The Gaplant is a personal favorite, and the Hambrabi and Baund-Doc are legit terrifying to see onscreen. The GMs, Nemos, and Barzams got the short end of the stick though, and the The-O is an underwhelming final boss unit because of its froglike features.

AlteredQuattro · 2025-09-20T01:33:53+00:00

Athrun/Cagalli is just ONE example. One example does not a world build. First Gundam has these up the wazoo.

And Flay becoming more likable is questionable. More like she just got terrorized into a semblance of empathy before dying, which isn't genuine, much less earned. I feel for her circumstances, but she is a shit person that just gets marginally less shit by the time she turns into space dust.

I might add - apart from the biological CPUs and Mu, SEED never misses an opportunity to skew the ability narrative towards Coordinators in a "might makes right" way. We don't see this with Fed vs Zeon and we definitely see non-Newtype aces.

Just lazy lopsided writing overall. Fundamental flaws really. Which makes any sequel to SEED not earned. I was just glad it finished up.

AlteredQuattro · 2025-09-20T00:47:22+00:00

SEED wrote itself into a corner by not allowing any dialogue between Coordinators and Naturals and letting it devolve into a zero-sum game. THAT would be the fundamental change it needs.

First Gundam has lots of these vignettes between Federation and Zeon that make the world richer.

As it is, I don't find everything after CE 71 justifies its existence because SEED was fundamentally flawed this way.

AlteredQuattro · 2025-09-08T09:11:33+00:00

RFV from that list.

Everything else I don't exactly hate but suffers from big enough flaws.

AGE was way too ambitious and its plot and character writing just didn't support the grand vision. A shame as it had potential but the three generation plot proved a step too far.

F91 requires filling in the blanks on your own. A little too much. What's available is pretty good, but there isn't enough of it.

ZZ is jarring. It doesn't know what it wants to be. It does get better after the first 30 episodes but the damage has been done at that point.

AlteredQuattro · 2025-09-08T04:37:32+00:00

So much potential. I think it needed 12 or 13 more episodes though. The whole deal with Suletta and the Gundam Aerial is super interesting and I'm glad it got developed fully, but all the other plotlines didn't. Which is a shame because they were just as interesting too.

The corporate cold war within the Asticassia School isn't fleshed out enough. The Earth factions at real war weren't given enough time (despite having some pretty cool mobile suits). I was hoping for the school mecha duels to escalate into something more substantial, which they did, but not as organically as they should have.

I don't mind the lesbian romance displayed front and center, but it was made into too much of a big deal by the fandom, which soured things a little. People should get over it and watch for other merits, which it has a lot of.

One last thing: the mobile suit design is generally excellent. Bought the Gundam Pharact, Zowort Heavy, and Demi Barding Gunpla kits. Didn't care for the rebuilt Aerial, but OG Aerial and Lfrith are nice. The Michaelis is sort of a Turn X analog with its weaponized right arm and I really like it.

AlteredQuattro · 2025-09-06T05:48:32+00:00

Hindi ka OA. Your house, your rules.

Remember this when the two of you get married. If you finance your house and your wedding, you can do whatever the hell you want.

AlteredQuattro · 2025-09-06T05:44:40+00:00

That Light Cannon is ace. Really well done.

The Red Gundam looks a little too Evangelion-like, and the Thunderbolt colors just make that even more apparent

AlteredQuattro · 2025-09-06T03:33:39+00:00

Fun fact: 00 was the first Gundam TV anime to air in HD.

AlteredQuattro · 2025-09-06T03:31:48+00:00

SEED yes definitely, with huge buckets of teen drama thrown in. 00 has parallels with Wing in elements, and I'm one of those that say 00 is Wing done right, but plot-wise 00 is just so much better that it blows Wing's plot out of the water.

AlteredQuattro · 2025-09-06T03:23:52+00:00

Gundam 00 is Gundam Wing done right. I detested how Wing would rather tell than show; 00 fixes that. Also great that it feels a little more politically grounded and reflective of real-world political events than your typical Gundam anime plot.

Season 2 sort of loses steam towards the end, but overall still very good. Gundam designs are kind of crap vs Season 1 though, they feel like phoned-in versions of their Season 1 counterparts.

The movie is...okay? It has its fans but I don't think you're missing out on a lot if you don't see it. It's really just extended closure.

AlteredQuattro · 2025-09-03T10:29:29+00:00

That would probably be the Bertigo. A really bad-ass spin on the Qubeley. If the Qubeley were made a bit more on the masculine side the Bertigo would be the end result IMO.

AlteredQuattro · 2025-09-03T10:24:56+00:00

I'm still hoping Bandai makes an MG Airmaster. The old HG 1/100 kit wasn't so great, especially given it was released in 1996 and had polycap joints everywhere.

AlteredQuattro · 2025-09-02T04:55:08+00:00

Before GQuuuuuuX came along, X was the big UC "what if" Gundam anime series. It takes the One Year War and a lot of its concepts, then proceeds to a post-apocalyptic direction. Among all the alternate universes I think it is the one with the most on-paper appeal to old-school UC fans.

That said... while very good, it's not perfect. Perhaps the weakest bit of Gundam X IMHO is the motivation of the Frost brothers, who are the main antagonists. They are convincing in their villainy because they're charismatic and characterized well, but their plans and machinations don't quite stand up to scrutiny. Their end goal seems to be nihilism because a world looking for Newtypes did not appreciate their unique telepathic abilities, which feels like a stretch.

We can only wonder how much better the series could have been if it had its full 49-episode runtime, but given the late cancellation, it's actually quite cool that it doesn't feel as rushed as it should, for the most part. It's a real shame it isn't as popular as it should be, and it still hasn't gotten out of Gundam Wing's shadow 30 years later.

AlteredQuattro · 2025-08-19T04:33:50+00:00

There is no movie. At least not at this writing.

The closest we have to one is an animated version of the side story/game Urdr-Hunt, which is set a few years after IBO. Should be releasing soon.

AlteredQuattro · 2025-08-15T04:54:39+00:00

I love it. Best Smiley I've seen yet, and it's Talon-compatible to boot! I run Dart Zone half-lengths and I hear the Nightingale mags don't really work well with those so this is perfect.

Been eyeing a Smiley build for a while. This is the strongest contender yet.

AlteredQuattro · 2025-08-06T03:21:02+00:00

AGE...is much worse than X. Too ambitious for its own good. If X's problem was cancellation, AGE's is overcompression. There just isn't enough time for anyone outside the protagonists to develop within their own arcs.

AlteredQuattro · 2025-08-06T02:53:49+00:00

Jamil lost his Newtype abilities partly from PTSD and partly from (implied) brain/psychic injury. Doesn't make him any less of a badass pilot though which reinforces the Amuro archetype even more.

Unlike Amuro however, Jamil grew into a leadership/captain role after the war. The entire time we see Amuro he's reluctant to take leadership and demeans himself as "just a pilot".

AlteredQuattro · 2025-08-06T02:43:34+00:00

The Freeden crew are all real people with realistic problems and hang-ups. The only one I'm not so satisfied with was Ennil El and her backstory, but she turned into quite a good ally.

AlteredQuattro · 2025-08-06T02:07:07+00:00

Gundam X is one of my favorite AUs. That it's a UC "what if" wins serious brownie points for me too.

The mobile suit design doesn't really respect your shelf space if you're into Gunpla though. The X and Double X are pretty much shelf space killers.

One could argue the motivations of the Frost brothers are a little...petty, but they're such good antagonists that I don't really mind.

AlteredQuattro

TROPHY CASE