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The XMA-01 Rafflesia is a mobile armor introduced in the anime film Mobile Suit Gundam F91 and was piloted by Carozzo "Iron Mask" Ronah.

Technology & Combat Characteristics[]

This huge mobile armor is one of the products of Iron Mask's secret Rafflesia Project. The Rafflesia resembles a giant flower, and its main body houses a battery of powerful beam cannons and beam guns capable of destroying multiple Earth Federation Forces battleships in one salvo or to unleash a widespread barrage of beams that cover a wide area. Its five massive petal-like binders are each equipped with a single mega beam cannon, 25 tentacle rods for grappling enemy mobile suits, and four forward facing rocket thrusters.

When the binders are closed and the Rafflesia is moving with its bottom facing the front, the mega beam cannons are forward facing, alongside the Rafflesia's other ranged beam weapons, however the tentacle rods cannot be used. The Rafflesia can only use its close combat tentacle rods when the binders are open. The mobile armor is also equipped with an I-Field generator whose barrier deflects all enemy beam weapons. The Rafflesia dispensed with manual controls, and was instead operated by direct mental command using the Neo-Psycommu system. The pilot, Iron Mask, linked his receptor-filled helmet to the mobile armor with a snake's nest of fiber-optic cables.

Like most mobile weapons, the Rafflesia is not designed to be operated for long periods of time. For this reason, Iron Mask had the Crossbone Vanguard's flagship, Zamouth Garr, designed to store the Rafflesia in a secret hanger, where it could be refueled and repaired, that only authorized personnel were allowed to enter. One unusual feature of the Rafflesia is how the armor around the top half of the cockpit can be removed, revealing a glass half-sphere that allows the pilot to look out into space.

Armaments[]

  • Beam Cannon
A cluster of four beam cannons were mounted at the bottom of the Rafflesia. When the binders are closed and the Rafflesia is moving with its bottom facing the front, these beam cannons are forward facing, allowing the Rafflesia to bring its maximum number of ranged weapons to bear on a target area.
  • Mega Particle Gun
The Rafflesia was equipped with five mega particle guns, with each gun situated between two binders, right above a rocket thruster. When the binders are closed and the Rafflesia is moving with its bottom facing the front, these mega particle guns are forward facing, allowing the Rafflesia to bring its maximum number of ranged weapons to bear on a target area.
  • Mega Beam Cannon
The Rafflesia's five movable binders are each equipped with a single mega beam cannon. These powerful weapons can easily pierce a battleship's armor.
  • Scattering Beam Cannon
Eight scattering beam cannons were mounted near the bottom of the Rafflesia. When the binders are closed and the Rafflesia is moving with its bottom facing the front, these beam cannons are forward facing, allowing the Rafflesia to bring its maximum number of ranged weapons to bear on a target area.
  • Tentacle Rod
The Rafflesia's most unique weapon is its tentacle rods, of which it is equipped with a total of 125, 25 per binders. These tentacle rods are highly flexible weapons, similar to their namesake appendage. The tip of each tentacle rod mounts a single superheated chainsaw tip, a melee combat weapon that combines the superheated blade technology from the mobile suits used by the Principality of Zeon during the One Year War with the concept of a revolving chain blade. While not as effective as a beam saber, the superheated chainsaw drains less energy, and makes up for its small shortcoming by weight of numbers and how the tentacles can be used to ensnare mobile suits, rendering them helpless. Each tip also contains a small beam gun that, while weaker than the guns mounted on the body, allows the Rafflesia to perform an all-range attack. Because of the number and complexity of the Rafflesia's tentacle rods they can only be controlled through the neo-psycommu system.
Used by Kei Karima's customized Gunpla to attack and overwhelm opponents from multiple directions.

Special Equipment & Features[]

  • Neo-Psycommu System
An advanced type of Psycommu System, it is based on the technology that Carozzo Ronah developed before he joined the Crossbone Vanguard. Numerous fiber optics wires are connected to the neural receptors within Iron Mask's helmet, allowing him to operate the Rafflesia via thought alone.
  • I-Field Generator

History[]

Mobile Suit Gundam F91[]

The Rafflesia Project was initiated in UC 0119 under command of Crossbone Vanguard leader Carozzo “Iron Mask” Ronah.

The Rafflesia entered combat in March, UC 0123; Iron Mask's goals were to destroy the Earth Federation Forces and to stop his own daughter, Berah Ronah (a.k.a. Cecily Fairchild), who sought to prevent his plan to wipe out all humans on Earth with his Bug weapons. He first attacked a fleet of Earth Federation ships, which proved no match for the powerful mobile armor. Later, he was attacked by Cecily in her XM-07 Vigna Ghina and her friend, Seabook Arno of the F91 Gundam F91, but Cecily’s suit soon took heavy damage and she herself was thrown into space by Iron Mask. Seabook was able to inflict some damage on the Rafflesia by detonating the vacant Vigna Ghina. With the mobile armor damaged Seabook used the F91's special afterimages ability to dodge the Rafflesia's tentacle rods and confuse Iron Mask to the point he was focused more on catching the F91 than paying attention to where the tentacles were. Seabook took advantage of this by moving the F91 directly in front of the Rafflesia's cockpit, then flying away. By the time Carozzo realized what Seabook had done it was too late as the tentacles crashed into the cockpit, the superheated chainsaw tips cutting through it, and Carozzo, like butter. Mobile Suit Gundam F91

Gundam Build Fighters Try[]

A 1/144 XMA-01 Rafflesia was built by Kei Karima, and used it as his entry for the Meijin Cup Open Course (an artistic Gunpla competition). However, due to the kit being too big to fit in a display case, it was disqualified. Upon learning this, Kei demanded to know why he's not the champion and attacks everyone with his Rafflesia's Bugs. Shimon uses the Destiny Impulse to destroy some Bugs, aided by Yomi in the LM312V04 Amethyst Victory Gundam. A RGM-109 Heavygun is rescued by Captain Char as the Gundam Albion and Unicorn Gundam destroy most of the Bugs. An RX-105 Ξ Gundam joins in with the Shiki triplets in destroying the Rafflesia. Our Gunpla

Gallery[]

Lineart[]

Anime[]

Illustration & Artwork[]

Games[]

Notes & Trivia[]

  • The name and concept of the mobile weapon was based on Rafflesia, a genus of parasitic flowering plants found in Southeast Asia. Its shape strongly resembles the form of  Rafflesia arnoldii , the largest individual flower in the World.

References[]

External links[]


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