Toys: GM Sniper II Previewed
Posted on : 09-05-2010 | By : Cacophanus | In : Toys/Kits
Tags: Dreamcast
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Over at AmiAmi they’ve shown the new Robot Damashii RGM-79SP GM Sniper II that’s set for a September release this year. Effectively a special forces GM, it comes very close to and exceeds many of the RX-78-2 Gundam’s abilities in the saga. This toy, like the others in the Robot Damashii range, boasts some impressive articulation yet it still retains a remarkably faithful sculpt. This is also one of Yutaka Izubuchi’s most loved mobile suit designs and one that played a vital role in the latter parts of Dreamcast game Rise From The Ashes (and the Premium Disc too). The above version is actually the colour scheme seen from the design’s original version in Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket though. The White Dingo livery, from the Dreamcast game, has yet to be given a release date (though it is planned). In any case the GM Sniper II has graced multiple Gundam games over the years and is, in part, responsible for the aesthetic direction for the Master Chief in Halo as well (something the Sniper II also shares with the RGM-79G GM Command). You can pre-order the toy here.
Looks nice. It was pretty cool to use it in GUNDAM: RISE FROM THE ASHES, but it’s also a good suit to use in the ArtDink Gundam Battle series on the PSP.
I love your guys’ coverage of all things mecha, but with the dizzying array of hyperlinks in each post it’s sometimes hard to distinguish the references from the content.
It’s better to err on the side of caution, I think, when it comes to providing context for the reader. Not everyone is going to have a few decades worth of mechanical mythology memorized, as not even the most diehard of fans can have a perfect memory, and while you can generally assume that a Gundam fan will recognize something from Gundam, it’s also important to remember that all fans have to start somewhere, and instead of alienating them we should provide opportunities for them to catch-up to the rest of us.
My personal favorite appearance of the GM Sniper II was in Mobile Suit Gundam: Encounters in Space on the PlayStation 2, where the GM Sniper II is an absolute monster compared to the lesser GM forms–a lot of the Zeon pilots in Ace Mode end with missions against this mecha, most notably with Johnny Ridden, which is basically an endurance round against Federation forces that explains why even the souped-up Gelgoogs fell during the Battle of Aboa A Qu: they might have been amazing technically, but against the Federation’s quantity-alongside-quality forces, it was a battle of attrition that even the well-known Zeon aces couldn’t win.
I hadn’t heard there was a GM influence on Halo before- neat! Where was that mentioned?
Ages ago, when the original Mac version was announced (before Bungie were bought by Microsoft basically). I remember Shi Ki Wang mentioning it in a magazine.
I’ll wait for the GM Powered.