Gundam MS Encyclopedia 2015 by Media Works

Gundam MS Encyclopedia 2015 by Media Works Available From HobbyLink Japan

By Cacophanus from Mecha Damashii

Every few years we get an epic tome that covers pretty much all the mobile suits used in the Gundam meta-universe. From manga and anime to even games. All manner of well known as well as very niche mecha grace their pages. So it fell to Kadokawa to publish this year’s ultimate mobile suit encyclopaedia and for any self respecting Gundam fan it doesn’t disappoint.

As time goes on we get more mobile suits created for all manner of series; this means these books get big quickly. This edition clocks in at 672 pages and weighs over 2 kilos. So it’s a big book.

The upside of this is that it is properly comprehensive, featuring almost every mobile suit thus far created as well as a bit of information about each one.

The book is split into two sections: color and line-art. Each of those sections is split into three parts: Universal Century, Another Century, and Games and Manga.

Generally the line-art section has more obscure designs and details within it but this year’s edition had all manner of nerdy stuff in the color section, too.

Here are a few of my highlights from this epic book.

The color and line-art sections are partially doubled up they are meant to complement one another, though the Crossbone Gundam only exists as line-art, which makes sense considering the source.

Admittedly much of this information is available online these days but these types of book are generally very useful, especially for modellers who want a quick reference guide in terms of the original designs and their colorings.

It’s also an impressively big and heavy book to own if you’re a fan of Gundam, as well as being hugely helpful in answering the age old question of “Just how many Gundams are there?”.

So if you don’t have any Gundam artbooks to hand then this is definitely your one-stop-shop to cater for almost every single mobile suit thus far created. That in itself is pretty impressive and also shows the sheer breadth and depth of Gundam’s sprawling universe.