Summary
Mobile Suit Gundamdidn’t invent mecha or space opera stories. But by combining the two, it’s become the most iconic series in both genres. Whether fans got into the original 1979 series, or later series likeGundam Wing, its combo of complex space politics, the cost of war, and dramatic space battles have made it a mainstay of manga and anime. The toy and model tie-ins don’t hurt either.
Especially when the designs ofMSG’s mecha have been as epic as its storylines. Each universe and timeline in the series has produced some gigantic mobile suits. So, this list has compiled some of the largestGundammecha ever made, from kaiju-sized mobile suits to ones that could have their own orbit.
10Xvg-xxx Vagan Gear
The Vagans' Ultimate Weapon
It’s a sensible, if common, strategy to save the biggest and best weapons for last. Having that last ace in the hole could help win the game. Falk Ocramud certainly thought so at the end ofMSG Gundam AGEwhen he ordered the launch of theXvg-xxx Vagan Gear, which Zera Gins would pilot in the last battle against the Earth Federation.
It stands proud at just over 100ft, which according to TripAdvisor, is the same size asthe Hanuman idolin Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh, India. Or roughly the size of a superyacht. The Vagan Gear didn’t have long to show off before it merged with the unmanned mobile suit Sid. Kio destroyed both but, instead of doing the same to the Vagans, chose to let them survive and bring peace instead of retribution.
9RX-104FF Penelope Gundam
The Queen Of Gundams
Taking place afterChar’s Counterattack,Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathawaysees the increasingly corrupt Earth Federation government become the target of terrorist attacks by the mysterious “Mafty” organization. From bombings to assassinations, Mafty does all it can to hurt the government, much to the support of the common people. AsMSGcan be, it can still be relatable to current events.
Not willing to take this lying down, the government orders their Circe Unit to capture and destroy Mafty members. One of their members, Lane Aim, became the test pilot for the newRX-104FF Penelope Gundam, which has a beefy set of weapons to go with its height, like funnel missiles, a beam rifle, and a Mega Particle Cannon. Whether that was enough to put down Hathaway’s similarly armed Ksi Gundam is another matter.
8ZGMF-X11A Regenerate Gundam
Standing Tall After All This Time
As big as the Penelope Gundam is, theZGMF-Z11A Regenerate Gundamhas an extra 10ft and change on it, standing at nearly 117ft. That’s about the same height as the Longships Lighthouse at Land’s End, Cornwall, UK, orthe Batillus supertanker. For a while, it was the biggest mobile suit in the series, but it has since been beaten by models from other series in the franchise.
The Regenerate Gundam was reverse-engineered by ZAFT from the Earth Federation’s G-Project suits and could switch between multiple forms from Mobile Suit to Mobile Armor, and from Mobile Armor to Mobile Armor Cruise. Piloted by Ash Gray, it protected ZAFT’s propulsion system, GENESIS Alpha, where it took the combined efforts of the Powered Red and Blue Frame Second L to defeat it. Its Core Unit would later become part of Proto-Saviour+11, a giant gestalt Gundam too big to receive official dimensions.
7RX-78GP03 (RX-78GP03D) Gundam “Dendrobium”
A Mecha and a Space Base In One Design
The list is generally sticking to mobile suits over mobile armor, since when people think of “mecha,” they think of the humanoid robot-looking ones over spaceships, battle cruisers, space stations, etc. Even so, the franchise’s different designs have blurred the lines between the two. Like inMSG 0083: Stardust Memory, where the Stamen Gundam was combined with the Orchis armed base.
The result was theRX-78GP03 (RX-78GP03D) Gundam “Dendrobium,”an admittedly ugly design that had maintenance chief Mora Boscht questioning whether it was a mobile suit or not. Still, at just over 126ft and with the power to match, it wasn’t a machine to be sniffed at. It took the power of the Solar System 2, a multi-mirror superweapon, to reduce it back down to the Stamen Gundam, which was much easier to dispatch.
6RX-124 Gundam TR-6 [Queenly] Full Armor Form
Providing A Royal Beatdown
Speaking of ugly designs, theRX-124 Gundam TR-6 [Queenly]is anything but regal in its looks. It’s a chunky model that reuses parts from the Psycho Gundam Mk-2, with the Woundwort Gundam as its core unit. ItsFull Armor Formis its final, upgraded model, and used by the T3 Corps (“Titans Test Team”).
Getting sturdier armor also gave the machine its official height: 40 meters, or 131.23ft. That’s twice the size of the Grecian Helepolis siege towers, or the length of one NASA Crawler-transporter, machines designed to carry and lift rockets and space shuttles. Though, surprisingly, it’s not the only machine to hit that exact height.
5MRX-009 Psycho Gundam
A Killer Of A Gundam
The two machines don’t look anything alike, yet much of the Queenly’s tech came from theMRX-009 Psycho Gundam, a mobile suit designed using concepts inspired by Char Aznable’s MSN-02 Zeong. On top of being just as big as Queenly, it was also twice the size of the average mobile suit inMS Zeta Gundam.
This was largely because it housed the Psycommu System, a new form of technology that allowed psychic humans called Newtypes to control it with their minds. It was also designed to be used as a Mobile Fortress and house an anti-beam barrier to protect it from projectiles. However, if it was meant to be invincible, it wouldn’t have received an upgrade.
4MRX-010 Psycho Gundam Mk-2
Bigger, Badder, Stronger
Like its predecessor, theMRX-010 Psycho Gundam Mk-2used the Psycommu system forNewtypes to pilot it. Except that ability now extended to Cyber Newtypes, humans who gained psychic abilities through biomechanical enhancements, who could now control it without risking their lives as ordinary humans would. It could also use its transformation and defensive abilities without straining its power supply as much.
This made it just slightly bigger than its original form, at just under 134ft, and made it a hard machine to fight against.Zetaprotagonist Kamille was lucky enough to defeat it in the Gryps Conflict, taking out its pilot in the process. It came back inMSG ZZ, where it was destroyed after a long and intense battle by Judau Ashta’s ZZ Gundam.
3GFAS-X1 Destroy Gundam
An Overwhelming Height To Go With Its Overwhelming Firepower
Looking like a mecha with a very large backpack, theGFAS-X1 Destroy Gundamwas built to do exactly what it says on the tin: destroy everything. Its vast array of cannons, beam guns, and missile launchers were meant to destroy whole cities, let alone fleets of other mobile suits. Which it could do in either its normal Mobile Suit mode or its transformed Mobile Armor mode.
In Mobile Suit mode, it’s nearly 185ft tall and 125ft wide, which is about the same height as the Leaning Tower of Pisa, only with the width of an ocean liner to go with it. It saw action in multiple battles, destroying much of Berlin and other Eurasian Federation cities. Though its last appearance inGundam SEED Destinysaw it defeated by the Rising Freedom Gundam and Justice Gundam, proving size isn’t everything.
2Grand Master Gundam
Makes The Megazords Look Puny
TheGrand Master Gundamis unique for a bundle of reasons. It’s a Mobile Fighter made from the remnants of the Four Heavenly Kings: The Gundam Heaven’s Sword, the Walter Gundam, the Grand Gundam, and Master Gundam (hence the name). It can also regenerate from damage and shapeshift into different forms thanks to its DG (Devil Gundam) cells.
It also doesn’t have official size figures. The details here were taken from measuring it up against its opponents in the Shuffle Alliance. Compared to their relatively humble 50+ ft height, the Grand Master Gundam comes in at roughly 272ft, or roughly 33ft longer thanthe International Space Station. That’s big, but compared to its “master,” it’s the equivalent of a mechanized guard dog.
1Colony Devil Gundam
Achieving New Heights Figuratively And Literally
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and there’s no number of figures or comparisons that could better explain the size of theColony Devil Gundamthan that one image of it literally sitting on the Earth. Originally, back when it was the JDG-00X Devil Gundam, it stood at a humble 78.4ft, a slightly taller than average height for a mecha.
However, Dr. Kasshu designed it to recover from damage by itself, as well as adapt to its surroundings and replicate itself. This went wrong fast when the Devil Gundam decided by itself that, to restore the Earth, it had to destroy humanity. Through its DG cells, it evolved bigger and bigger until it became the size of a space colony, making it the biggest Gundam mecha to date.
