RB-79 Ball

The RB-79 Ball was a refitted civilian mobile pod used by the Earth Federation as combat support for the RGM-79 GM in the One Year War. Several variants were developed including the Type C, Type F, Work Type, Type K, and Type M.

The “R” in the type code meant it was a Federation model¹ and the “B” indicated that it was a Ball-type mobile pod. The “79” in the model number denoted it was developed in UC 0079.

Despite having inferior fire-power the Federation was able to produce the Ball in greater numbers and at a lower cost. However, the Ball was slowly phased out as more variants of the RGM-79 GM were developed.

History

The concept for a combat mobile pod was formulated by the Earth Federation as early as UC 0076 under the RX-76 project. However, development was put on hold until 13 February UC 0079, when the project was revived with renewed interest. The first RB-79 Ball was launched in June UC 0079.

At the beginning of the One Year War with the Principality of Zeon, the Federation lacked any sort of mobile suits. The Zeon forces held the upper hand in the war with their mobile suits, the MS-05B Zaku I and the MS-06F Zaku II.

The Federation scrambled to develop mobile weapons to counter the Zeon supremacy. They produced a prototype mobile suit, the RX-78-2 Gundam, but it was too costly to be mass produced. Their first mass-production mobile suit, the RGM-79 GM, was not produced fast enough to be deployed at all battle fronts. Thus, the Federation revived their cancelled RX-76 Prototype Ball from Project V and refitted around 1,200 civilian-use SP-W03 Space Pods to be deployed in combat.

As an improvised conversion, the Ball was initially seen as ill-suited for combat. It earned the unfavourable nickname “Mobile Coffin” among Earth Federation Space Force pilots. However, it was smaller, more manoeuvrable, and more stealthy than a mobile suit. The Federation stuck to it for its low production cost and availability in large numbers.

The fast Salamis-class cruisers and their attached Ball squads harassed Zeon supply fleets with hit-and-run attacks, resulting in Zeon deploying additional forces to escort their vulnerable Papua-class and Pazock-class transport ships.

During the One Year War, the Moore Brotherhood of the Federation fielded Ball units in their attempt to reclaim the Thunderbolt Sector from Zeon’s Living Dead Division.

The most famous battle involving Balls was Operation Star One, an offensive to further pressure Zeon into retreating from Earth after the Federation took the upper hand following Operation Odessa. Being the only viable attack option, over 1,000 Balls were committed along with Salamis-class and Magellan-class warships. Their numbers overwhelmed the Zeon fleets and drove them away, but countless Balls were destroyed during what turned out to be one of the most brutal battles for the Federation.

After the One Year War, the autonomous South Sea Alliance declared independence from the Federation and deployed Ball units in the ensuing conflict.

Design

The RB-79 Ball had its armor reinforced and a 180 mm recoilless cannon was mounted on each unit. Vernier thrusters were added to increase maneuverability. These used solid-fuel explosives rather than more conventional liquid propellants.

The Ball was considered ill-suited for combat for many reasons. It had limited ammunition, less heavily armored compared to its counterparts, and it had poor maneuverability. The mobile pod also had no close-range weapons aside from its manipulator claws. Being smaller than the average mobile suits made the Ball harder to hit. It was also lighter and had a better acceleration than most mobile suits, especially the early generation units.

It had a standard cockpit located in the center of the Ball.

Armament

The RB-79 Ball was equipped with a 180 mm recoilless cannon mounted on its top. The cannon provided limited power and was only effective against light armor. Due to the fixed angle of the cannon, it was only effective against targets in front of the Ball.

Known pilots

• Hiden
• Chiba
• Paul Mercury
• Broglie Ligera
• Philip Hughes
• Summona Fulis

Variants

• RB-79C Ball Type C
• RB-79F Ball Type F
• RB-79G Ball Work Type
• RB-79K Ball Type K
• RB-79M Ball Type M
• RB-79(M)Ball Marine Type
• RB-79N Fisheye
• RB-133 Type 133 Ball

Behind the scenes

Okawara Kunio was the original mechanical designer. Ohtagaki Yasuo designed the version seen in Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt.

Katoki Hajime, one of the mechanical designers of Bandai, stated in the MG gunpla instruction manual that the Ball unit was actually an attempt by Earth Federation Forces to reproduce the mobile armors and that it was actually quite powerful.

Gundam Officials, a Japanese magazine by Bandai, has made similar positive statements on the unit. In the SD Gundam series of tactical RPGs, the Ball’s large movement range, low cost, and very powerful long-range main gun make it a devastating second-line unit, although lackluster in close combat. In the Versus series of arcade games, the Ball is similarly dangerous.

Char’s Custom

A running joke about the Ball is that if painted red and a pair of horns added, it becomes a Char Aznable custom that was three times more powerful than a standard Ball. This is a play on the running joke about Char’s custom mobile weapons being three times faster and more powerful.

The Char Custom Ball appeared in doujin works, most notably in the parody photonovel Why Char Assassinated Kycilia serialised in the magazine Dengeki Hobby. Instead of an MSN-02 Zeong, Kycilia Zabi gave Char a red Ball with two horns similar to the Zeon’s, a large rocket thruster on the bottom, and a Zeong hand with a mega particle gun in each finger in place of the Ball’s head cannon.

Gunpla

In 2006, Bandai released the first Ball model, the 1/100 MG RB-79 Ball featuring the MS IGLOO version with the Shark Mouth decal.

Bandai released the 1/144 HGUC RB-79 Ball Twin Set in 2010, followed by 7-Eleven Japan exclusive 1/144 HGUC RB-79 Ball Twin Set 7-Eleven colours in 2014.

In 2012, Bandai released the P-Bandai exclusive 1/144 HGUC RB-79K Ball & RB-79 Ball set, with the RB-79 Ball once again being the Shark Mouth version.

Appearances

Anime

• Mobile Suit Gundam
• Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory
• Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO: The Hidden One Year War
• Gundam Evolve
• Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO: Apocalypse 0079
• Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt

Manga

• Mobile Suit Crossbone Gundam: Skull Heart
• Mobile Suit Gundam MS IGLOO 603
• Mobile Suit Gundam 0083 Rebellion
• Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt
• Mobile Suit Gundam Side Story: Space Beyond the Blaze
• Gundam Legacy
• Mobile Suit Gundam Katana: Bond of the Battlefield UC 0084
• Mobile Suit Gundam MSV-R: The Return of Johnny Ridden
• Mobile Suit Gundam Side Story: Missing Link
• Mobile Suit Gundam: Far East Japan

Games

• Mobile Suit Gundam Tactics Mobility Fleet 0079
• Mobile Suit Gundam Side Story: The Blue Destiny
• Gundam: The Battle Master
• Mobile Suit Gundam: Federation vs Zeon DX
• Mobile Suit Gundam: Encounters in Space
• Gundam Battle Assault 2
• Mobile Suit Gundam: Pilot’s Locus
• Mobile Suit Gundam: Spirits of Zeon Dual Stars of Carnage
• Dynasty Warriors: Gundam
• Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme vs
• Mobile Suit Gundam Extreme vs Full Boost

External links

• RB-79 Ball on the Gundam Wiki
• RB-79 Ball on MAHQ

Footnotes

1. Federation in Japanese is renpou, hence the use of “R”. ↩