While there are some real work horses in Gundam lore, like the Zaku, not all were as important or useful in the grand scheme of things. Today we're going to look at a few of these suits that served little to no purpose. Sadly most of them are cool looking to.
5. EMS-10 Zudah From MS Igloo
I feel a sharp pain putting this on the list. The Zudah is such a cool design but suffers due to the time it's set in. MG Igloo's about a test team during the One Year War running trials with the EMS-10 Zudah from Zimmad. This unit was meant to surpass the Zaku 1 and become Zeon's new shiny boot. The core of this was the high output thruster that functions as the main suits propulsion unit. Located on the back this thruster could far surpass what even the High Maneuverability Type Zaku 2's could do, however this came at a cost.
These units liked to explode if ran too hard for too long. While later iterations tried fixing this and the recommended not pushing the suit to it's limits, Zeon decided the Zaku 2 was a much safer bet.
4. RGE-BB90 Genoace 2 From Gundam AGE
Good old Gundam AGE, while it had some great designs, it had some really rough ones. One of these was the Genoace & Genoace 2. The GM of this universe, but by the time the Genoace 2 was in use the Adele's were far out pacing it.
Not only was the Genoace 2 outdated it was ineffective in most hands. While it did function it couldn't keep up with most the Vegan suits being fielded at the time. In a few select, experienced pilots hands it could be an effective weapon, however the Adele's copy of the AGE system was too powerful to compare.
3. RMS-106 Hizack From Zeta Gundam
Another cool design sadly was just not up to snuff. While the Hizack is an improvement on the Zaku, pulling a lot of data from the Zaku F2, it's still not equal to the rest of the suits being fielded in 0087, nearly 7 years after the One Year War concluded.
We see a lot of designs come out of Zeta but the Hizack probably gets the boot the hardest. Even them Nemo out classes it in most combat situations. Zeta's technology progression reminds me a lot of the early era jet's produced in the late 1940's & 1950's. Technology was progressing so fast that as soon as a plane came out, it was already being bested by something else. Like the F-84 Thunderjet, the US's first turbo jet fighter, was almost immediately replaced for most combat roles. While the Hizack would've been a good match for a Zaku 2 or a GM, the lack of a more powerful reactor and beam weaponry, this suit really doesn't fit the bill of a front line grunt well in the Zeta era,
2. OZ-09MMS Pisces From Gundam Wing
A strange pick for sure but something has always bothered me about the Pisces from Gundam wing. Why does it exist? Sure it never hurts to have more than 1 type of specialty mobile suit, however that didn't really fit Oz's design doctrine at the time.
The Leo was for the ground and the Aires for the air. Why 2 aquatic mobile suits when there weren't really a lot of naval battles to begin with. Outside of fighting the Gundams, we see these units on 2 operations, both times they proceed to get wreck by Zechs. Then why was there a need for a heavy aquatic mobile suit. The Cancer was a smaller, faster more agile craft, while a decent range of armament. They were also deployed in greater numbers, more fitting of Oz's whole outlook on mobile suit development. the Pisces never wants takes on an enemy the Cancer couldn't.
1. TMF/A-802 BaCue from Gundam SEED
While the BaCue does serve a purpose in canon, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. In Gundam Seed's Cosmic Era, the N Jammers block things just a long range radio communications and radar, thus the need for mostly visual combat. These dog like units were designed for recon much like the Dinn. However this makes almost no sense.
While the Dinn would be better equip with longer range optics and the ability to fly, it's not nearly as cool as zoids. It does make sense for a Rommel style commander to have a really fast strike force, it really doesn't serve it's intended purpose, or any purpose other than to be cool. Up until the Strike happens to land in their backyard, the BaCue's only fought jeeps and maybe different types of aircraft. Neither of which it would be any better at than a Ginn or a Dinn. A land based mobile suits makes a terrible recon unit when things like satellites, helicopters and jeeps exist.
