Gunpla Build - SD Tornado Gundam

You know, sometimes your kids love Sanrio characters so much that you inadvertently end up with enough Miniso reward points to score a model kit completely for free:

I’ve been eyeing this little guy ever since it popped up on Zaku Aurelius’ list of “Most Underrated Gunpla”. Let’s see if he was right.

An Obscurity(?)

I put the question mark there because whether or not this is an obscurity depends on your level of knowledge of SD Gundam G Generation video game lore¹.

(which, to be clear, I had very little knowledge of myself. Everything I’m about to tell you is brand new to me)

If you’re like me, and your first real exposure to G Generation was through playing G Generation Eternal on your mobile phone (or Battle Alliance on your favorite console) you might assume that the series as a whole doesn’t do original stories, instead preferring to let you replay existing Gundam moments with a custom army of your choice.

But that’s not the case! Many of them do in fact have their own stories, featuring original characters and original mobile suits.

In fact, if you’ve played G Generation Eternal, you’ve almost certainly encountered some of them in some of your earliest pulls.

Of course, having no prior experience with these people or mecha, I had no idea who they were or where they came from, so I didn’t pay them much heed. Nor did I pay any heed when Bandai actually went ahead and made Gunpla of some of these original designs for the Cross Silhouette line (including the Tornado Gundam):

So yeah. They exist, and if you are (or have recently become) a fan, you can go and get them.

Origins

The very first game that Tornado Gundam appeared in was 1994’s SD Gundam GX on the Super Famicom:

The game looks to be a precursor of sorts to the modern G Generation games. There’s a tactical map:

As well as action scenes where units fly around and attack one another:

And sometimes I guess you have to fight from above in Mode 7:

On top of all that, it also seems you can capture bases and factories and use them to manufacture units for your army. This is where Tornado Gundam comes into play. According to the Gundam Wiki, the mobile suit is a rare unit that has a chance to appear at neutral factory sites. Should you then capture the factory, you can then build it for yourself.

Unfortunately, because it is a rare unit, I was unable to find any footage of the game in which Tornado Gundam appears (not even on Japanese video sites). The best I could do is this image from the Wiki, which I’m 99.999999% sure is in fact from the game, since it lines up with the look of the User Interface that I saw in playthroughs

Role in G Generation

As far as I can tell, once they started making the G Generation games, eventually they re-used/re-purposed Tornado Gundam. Specifically, it seems to be commonly used as a starting unit, something solid and versatile to help you get through the early (and maybe even mid?) game. While perhaps not as iconic and narratively important as something like Phoenix Gundam, I have to imagine that a lot of G Generation players have a soft spot for Tornado, if for no other reason than due to the amount of time they’ve spent using it over the years.

About the Mobile Suit

Tornado Gundam doesn’t have much in the way of lore. It’s worth nothing that according to the Wiki, the design was originally the winner of a fan contest, which might explain not only why there isn’t much to it, but also why it reads in that “Mary Sue” style that’s common in fan fiction, where your Original Character (do not steal) is the bestest, coolest, most powerful person in the group.

(This is taken from the unit’s database entry in G Generation Eternal, though I’d say it applies to any and every game it appears in):

A mysterious mobile suit bearing the name Gundam. Several of these were discovered in the hangar of a derelict factory, and since they were fully operational, they were sent straight to various teams.

In addition to standard armaments, its chest has a Diffuse Beam Cannon.

For defense, it has multilayered arm plating that employs a Luna Titanium alloy and shock-absorbent material, which allows its arms to act as shields.

It is also capable of atmospheric flight, allowing it to be fielded in many places fo a wide range of needs.

Since there was no data left by the time these suits were discovered, nothing is known about how or when they were developed.

Based on some context clues in this description, as well as what I’ve seen from SD Gundam GX, I think it’s safe to say that Tornado Gundam is supposed to be a mobile suit from the Universal Century. But I digress.

Weapons and Stuff

So the blurb up there doesn’t actually describe all of Tornado Gundam’s weapons and abilities. In addition, it also has gatling guns built into its arms (like Gundam Alex), and its beam sabers can link to create a single double-bladed weapon.

Like I said, it’s got some Mary Sue-ish vibes for better or worse.

Some Animations

Since there’s no “onscreen” footage of Tornado Gundam, I made some GIF’s of some of its attack animations from various G Generation games, to serve as a bit of an Amuse Bouche before the build.

Here it is in the 2006 PSP game G Generation Portable using its arm guns (also, I’m not sure if the pilot shown it Ellis Claude, but it kind of looks like her):

And here it is in 2007’s G Generation Spirits on PS2, kinda-sorta using its arms to block and attack (also, we definitely get an appearance by Ellis Claude here, thus proving that at least one real life player likes pairing them together):

2016’s G Generation Genesis is ten years old now, but honestly it looks an awful lot like G Generation Eternal. Here is Tornado Gundam using its two beam sabers:

And 2019’s G Generation Cross Rays looks even better. Here we get to see it use the double beam saber (and yes, once again it’s Ellis as the pilot)

Also from Cross Rays, this is actually a squad of Tornados all firing beam rifles together (which is why it looks like a bombardment when the enemy gets hit)

And finally, from G Generation Eternal, here it is using the beam cannon:

I’ve gotta say, these clips do a great job of selling this thing as being really strong. It’s kind of a bummer to know it’s used as an early unit, because I assume that means that eventually you’ll have no choice but to phase it out in favor of better, late-game stuff.

About the Visual Design

This post forced me to sit and think a lot about SD Gundam design methodology, which is something I haven’t really done before.

So after thinking it over a while, my first takeaway is that when it comes to SDs, the approach you take when SD’ifying an existing design is different than the approach you need to take when creating a new and original SD design.

My second takeaway, then, is that if you’re going to make an original SD design, the Tornado Gundam is a great example of how to do it right.

But first things first. It’s my belief that when you’re SD’ifying an existing design, the head is the most important thing to get right. That might sound like a “Captain Obvious” kind of thing to say, considering the massive head of an SD is always the focal point, but hear me out.

What I mean is that it’s important that the head be recognizable. It doesn’t matter if the rest of its super-deformed body is lacking in features or detail; as long as you can identify what mobile suit it is from the head, your imagination will “fill in the gaps”, so to speak, about the rest of the body.

But with an original SD design, the reverse is true. I think the head can be (and possibly should be) fairly generic, while the body needs to look as nice as possible.

Because it’s a new design, the head no longer serves the same role of anchoring it to an existing mobile suit in your mind. In fact, my assertion is that if the head is too fancy and stylized, it may end up backfiring. Your brain may try and make a connection to something that (doesn’t) exists, which might in turn cause some (mild, unintentional, subconscious) psychological distress that turns you off from the design.

So you make the head simple and generic, but then what? You still want the design to stand out and leave an impression, and that’s where a good body comes into play. If you create a unique silhouette that differs from everything else, then that, rather than the head, makes it easy to identify.

Also, since this isn’t an existing design, we can’t use our imagination to fill in the gaps about its weapons or abilities. That’s another reason why you need a good body design, one that clearly telegraphs what it’s capable of at a glance.

Now to be fair, this is all easier said than done when we’re talking about the old school, BB Senshi-era SD proportions, which is likely one of the reasons why, over time, SD Gundams have changed to have slightly larger bodies and slightly smaller heads.

But I think the point still stands. In fact I think Command Gundam (one of my very favorite SD’s) proves it. Even in the candy toy version below, with its big head and squat body, it manages to use a combination of detailing, color placement, and large weapons to make its body visually striking and easily identifiable:

And keep in mind that Command is one of the earliest original SDs ever made, so these design principles have been in place for a long long time.

And just like Command, Tornado Gundam works so well because it follows “the rules”. It’s head is fairly generic, but it’s body is quite elaborate, what with its massive wings, big arms, and big shoulders.

It’s also smart about its usage of color. The overall color palette is rather familiar (it’s basically the colors of the Titans from Zeta Gundam), but the color placement is quite unique. The sheer amount of yellow and red across its body helps it stands out, because there’s nothing else that quite uses these colors in this way.

It looks one of a kind, and it looks powerful. That’s what any good SD original needs to do.

About the Model Kit

This is, thankfully, one of those Cross Silhouette kits where the special Cross Silhouette inner frame is included. They seem to do that for the really special ones, and I appreciate it.

Beyond that, I’m curious how this one is going to go. My last two Cross Silhouette kits required quite a bit of color correction to get them looking right. Maybe not as much as an EX Standard model, but enough to be kind of a pain. We’ll see if this one continues the trend.

One More Thing

I tried to see if there was any other Tornado Gundam merch before this Gunpla. The only thing I could find was this product listing on Hobbylink Japan for a small figurine released to coincide with G Generation Wars, a PS2 and Wii-era release:

It’s very tiny, with a very tiny body, but it still captures the essence of the design.