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-Z- (z@gundam.com)
Sun, 26 Nov 2000 10:07:41 -0800
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-gundam@1u.aeug.org [mailto:owner-gundam@1u.aeug.org]On
> Behalf Of Echo|Fox
> Sent: Sunday, November 26, 2000 00:41
> To: gundam@aeug.org
> Subject: [gundam] Why 18 meters?
>
> Has there every been an official explanation as to why the head height of
> mobile suits is around 18 meters (+/- 3m or so). My guess is that it's
> either they need to be that height to be structurally sound, or that's the
> smallest size they could make an MS while still packing the smallest
> generator and other internal equipment.
Not officially, but the MS proportions are generally that of a normal human
scaled up by a factor of ten. Thus, a human being stands between 1.5 and 2.5
meters tall, while an MS stands between 15 and 25 meters tall.
> I was just kind of curious because of the wildly varying sizes of mecha from
> various different mecha series ... everything from hardsuits/powered armour
> a la BGC, up to Gasaraki's TA, slightly up to Patlabor's labors, various
> less well known mecha in the middle, eventually hitting Gundam designs, and
> then onto the Really Big Fuckin' Robots(tm). Hard suits make sense, its a
> natural evolution of personal body armor. The TA's are logical advances,
> especially given their role as used in the Gasaraki world (i.e. whooping all
> ass on tanks, among other things). Labor's are about as big as you can make
> 'em while still permitting them to traverse city streets, along with their
> target of construction labors, etc. Gundam doesn't have such a convenient
> plot requirement, so there must be something technical to it ...?
The variable sizes and various scales of anime mecha are closely tied to that of
the models, toys and other merchandise, which are often developed in advance of
the actual show.
The idea is that the models, toys and merchandize should all be the same
standard form factor, with lines of 125 mm (4.92 inch), 150 mm (5.9 inch), 180
mm (7.1 inch), 250 mm (8.85 inch) and 300 mm (11.8 inch) figures.
Standard modeling scales are 1:35, 1:60, 1:72, 1:100, 1:144 and 1:220. The
mecha in any given series are usually sized so that they can be scaled to the
standard form factors using one or another of those standard scales.
For example, a 1:144 scale RX-78 Gundam (18 m = 18,000 mm) stands 125 mm tall.
A 1:100 Gundam is 180 mm. A 1:60 Gundam is 300 mm.
Mecha from other series is similarly sized such that a 1:35 Tactical Armor or
Armored Trooper, a 1:72 Labor and a 1:144 Mobile Suit all scale to the same form
factor. When Gundam was made, Giant Robots were truly giants. Votoms
introduced a more reasonable size and rescaled to match the merchandizing form
factor. Patlabor went for something midwy between Votoms and Gundam, while
Gasaraki echoes Votoms, but all are scaled to match the same merchandizing form
factor.
It should be noted that MS pilot figurines are almost never to the same scale as
the MS with which they're shipped, as they would be ridiculously tiny. I almost
lost the one figure that I remember being to scale, the pilot for the 1:60
Gundam F91 (15.2 meters = 254 mm, so the pilot was 25.4 mm = 2.54 cm = 1 inch
tall).
-Z-
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