Mecha Profile: RX-78GP01 Zephyranthes

There are tons of Gundam series that have not only one but many Gundam variants for themselves. Sometimes, their spin-offs are getting looked over while there are many interesting designs out there, such as the awesome GP01 Zephyranthes in the Stardust Memory series, which is something they should not be skeptical about.

I. History:
– The RX-78GP01 “Zephyranthes” was one of the new prototype mobile suits under the Gundam Development Project plan which aims to close the gap between the Earth Federation Forces’s combat and technological capability to be able to match the already defeated Principality of Zeon that was actually ten years more advanced than them in terms of mobile suits. In the Universal Century of U.C.0083 Anaheim Electronics revealed their two of the newest prototype mobile suits at the time – the GP01 and GP02 at the Earth Federation’s Torrington Base in Australia around September.

– The GP01 was supervised by Nina Purpleton – one of the professional Anaheim staff, and while it was stationed there, when the GP02 was stolen by Anavel Gato from the Zeon’s Delaz Fleet, a young ensign – Kou Uraki then used GP01 to chase it off. Although he failed at first, he proved to be skillful enough to pilot this new Gundam, so the GP01 was then assigned to him under the command of South Burning’s search team in the Pegasus-class carrier – the Albion.

– The GP01 went into many battles, from fighting in the Africa region to up in space. Although unsuitable for space combat at its pure form when Kou was piloting it against Zeon’s mobile suits, the GP-01 was then outfitted with its brand new Full Burnen upgrade after it was heavily damaged, which allowed it to be extremely maneuverable for space combat, Full Burnern’s first encounter was the Mobile Armor Val Walo. In its last battle, it exploded along with GP02 during a one-on-one fight. Its pilot – Kou Uraki – survived and switched to the GP-03 Dendrobium.

II. Technical Specs & Armaments:
– The RX-78GP01 “Zephyranthes” is a part of the Gundam Development Project, which aimed to enhance the capabilities of Earth Federation’s mobile suit forces, which were taken from highly advanced Zeon technology during the One Year War. Derived from the older RX-78-2 Gundam, it retained the Core Block System for the pilot’s safety supported by the FF-XII Core Fighter as its central body part, which its guns also served as GP01’s beam saber pack. With its movement more similar to humans, which would eventually evolve into movable frames in the future, the GP01 can be very maneuverable as a general-purpose mobile suit.

– Although able to operate in space with some adjustments and changing the Core Fighter, GP01 has the capability to install various equipment. The Aqua Equipment allows it to operate underwater with calf hydro jet units along with four torpedo pods. For ground use it also has a Chobham add-on armor available, and for space, it has a whole new upgrade variant called the RX-78-GP01-Fb Full Burnern which overhauled most of the main systems, including the Core Fighter and two new 180-degree gimbaled universal boosters on its back extremely increasing its performance several times than the original one thanks to their thermonuclear rocket engines. The Full Burnern also has a lot of minor overall improvements and weaponry as well with a better Beam Rifle and had access to a powerful prototype XBR-L83d Long Beam Rifle.

– Armed with a pair of Du.02 Beam Sabers, a 60-millimeter Vulcan gun on its head and the M-82-05H Beam Rifle with 1.5 Megawatts power and 20-shot epic as standard armament including a small beam Jutte under its barrel. It also has a large S-04712 Shield for withstanding direct 2-3 beam attacks. The GP01 can also carry an Earth Federation’s standard 90-millimeter machine gun or a Hyper Bazooka as well as missile launchers when wearing Aqua Equipment.

III. Gallery: