Ha! This is great, I've seen this cover before but I never realized it was based on the NT-1. But those are totally NT-1 arms! The SD Gundam cartoon also has some other mobile suit appearances like that, like some Gogg-colored Hygoggs.

I think Okawara has always had some variability in his designs (his paintings often have different small markings). As the other, newer design elements show up he sometimes includes them in his designs. This one you've posted has the skirted pelvis, smaller hands, and thinner kneepads.

Looking into it now, it's changed shockingly little, besides standard things like panel lines or decals. It looks like the GTO manga has some unique takes on it, though. By far, that version of the Gundam is the most unique version of the RX-78-2.

Well, within a certain threshold. Sorry, Wilbur.

Heh! I almost styled the old Gundam after the 1980 1/100 model kit, with the lower half of the torso obviously being the Core Fighter, but I decided against that early on. Plus, the RX-78-2 only looked like that once, in that single model kit. After that I just forgot about the Core Fighter.

I would have liked to claim that the RX-78-2 first got the framed vents in SD Gundam Mk IV, where it appears with various elements from the RX-78NT-1, but it's kind of inconclusive how the vents look, and they don't even stick out all that much on the NT-1, so it's not really that much of a change.

This isn't perfect (I didn't highlight the difference between the "schoolbags" on the back!), especially in the text research, so let me know if there's anything to fix or reassess. I've done some research, but I haven't even finished watching Zeta Gundam yet, so I'm no superfan.

I love these pages. When comics take advantage of their power of text and layout... it's great. I especially like panel 2 (under panel 1) on page 4, because it gives a lurching sense of disorientation. The "dislocated & purposeless" panel is also great, because it betrays the natural reading order.

Ha! I've seen the Hulk one, but somehow I haven't seen the rest. The Fantastic Four one is probably the best FF cover parody I've seen. Thanks for sharing this and the rest of the start and end pages.

Still, it's hard to not stop and read the comics, even if they are grayscale.
As a bonus from my end, this is a signature and doodle in my TPB. I got most of the collection for a great price on ebay, and they didn't even note that all volumes were signed! Sometimes I do pity Shawn, though.

With the help of Samuel's images, I've matched up the pages to the page numbers in the collected edition.
#1: 9
#2: 34
#3: 59
#4: 84
#5: 109
Seeing the colored pages makes me jealous! I've only read the stories through the TPBs, so I haven't seen this or Fragile Creature they way they were intended.

POD Akito! For a guy with no sense of taste, he has a really spiffy getup.

Aw yeah, Mazinger USA! U-S-A, U-S-A!

While it's not a robot anime, if you want to honor Western-altered anime, it might be interesting to include Battle of the Planets. They could fit in the Galaxy Alliance, and it's not unheard of for ships to appear in SRW.
I could list off other suggestions, but none of them are as distinct as BOTP.

I love the inclusion of Frankenstein Jr. I only included him in my art because I saw him as a response to Gigantor, so it's great that he's a Gigantor response in your timeline too.
I had forgotten all about The Bots Master. Once I saw the opening and then promptly forgot about it all.

What's the actual conceit? I saw the TV series but it's been a while. Is it how Chirico is actually a superhuman, or something else like how they go and "kill god" at the end?

A lot of great history is in this interview, what a neat read. Fenelon thinking Battle of the Planets was Italian was funny. It's a shame the Go Nagai and Jack Kirby collaboration didn't pan out, that would have been awesome.

The transforming-robo versions of the White Base and the Musai are great. Especially because (as far as I know) they predate any concept of Macross or similar battleship robots, like the Iron Gear from Xabungle. The Star Trek homage is neat too.
Thank you for archiving such a great piece of history!

It's a very interesting show, for being an original Super Robot cartoon produced for American audiences, and also for having some crazy talented names behind it, being directed by Osamu Dezaki and scored by Yuji Ohno.

After hearing about the plan to bring the unreleased Mighty Orbots toy back to life (and also that all the episodes were uploaded to the official YouTube channel), I went and finally watched the whole series and loved all of it.