RX-79 Gundam

The RX-79 Gundam is a series of fictional mobile suits in the Gundam Universal Century developed by the Earth Federation.

The RX-78 development program, in addition to the experimental RX-78 Gundam, managed to generate a significant stockpile of mobile suit parts. The Federation, not wanting to have such parts go to waste, used these stockpiles to create a line of pre-production mobile suits used to field test mobile suit tactics.

RX-79 Gundam( Mass-Production Review Unit)/Prototype GM

Due to the high specification of RX-78 series, most of the parts that failed to meet the quality control of the RX-78's production line were still usable, and had high performance specs. The stockpiles of these parts inspired the engineers of the Earth Federation to start a new line of Mobile Suit using them. That is RX-79 Gundam(Mass-Production Review Unit)/Prototype GM (ガンダム(量産検討機)/プロトタイプジム), which served as the test-bed for further refinement of the GM. The legs were the first part to be reviewed and determined to be too complicated to mass-produce. The thruster units were simplified and the more expensive thruster parts were used to produce a small number of RGM-79 [E] for space combat. Less expensive parts were then used to increase the ground performance and technology put into use in the RX-79 [G] as Ground combat units for more testing. Finally, they were able to produce the RGM-79 [G] ground combat GM. Due to the high cost of the camera eyes, RX-77 main camera was used in the GM series instead of the Gundam Head. By this period, the Earth Federation finished the production line of GM and used a lot of simplified parts tested on the RX-79.

RX-79 [G] Gundam Ground Type

While Zeon recognized the effectiveness of Newtypes in battle, they also realized that natural Newtypes were very rare. Zeon thus experimented with increasing the number of Newtype-class pilots in two ways:

* Development of artificial Newtypes, which did not produce results until too late in the One Year War, and

* Development of control systems that would allow regular pilots to operate at Newtype skill levels.

Zeon researcher Professor Chlust Morses, as part of the latter program, developed the EXAM system and then defected to the Federation, bringing the EXAM technology with him. The Federation immediately began their own EXAM program, code named "Blue Destiny", to take advantage of this technology. RX-79BD-1 GM Blue Destiny Unit 1, RX-79BD-2 Gundam Blue Destiny Unit 2, and RX-79BD-3 Gundam Blue Destiny Unit 3 were built from RX-79 [G] units, though the RX-79BD-1 used a GM head, rather than a standard Gundam head.

The stress that EXAM exerts on the pilot, however, limited any widespread adoption. EXAM lead researcher Alf Chamara went through several test pilots until he found the perfect candidate in Federation test pilot Yuu Kajima. Kajima spearheaded the California Base assault in the RX-79BD-1, where he confronted the Zeon MS-08TX(EXAM) Efreet Custom, an EXAM mobile suit piloted by Zeon ace Major Nimbus Schterzen in combat, resulting in the destruction of both the RX-79BD-1 and the MS-08TX(EXAM). Schterzen then stole the RX-79BD-2 and escaped to space, forcing Kajima to pursue him with the RX-79BD-3. The two EXAM units then clashed in space, resulting in Schterzen's defeat at the hands of Kajima, and the destruction of both the RX-79BD-2 and the RX-79BD-3.

First appear in Sega Saturn video game Mobile Suit Gundam Side Story THE BLUE DESTINY, design by Kunio Okawara.

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