RX-78 FANT-2 Armored Gundam "Alex"

The RX-78 FANT-2 Armored Gundam "Alex" (aka  Armored Gundam Alex , or  Armored ALEX) is a variant of the RX-78NT-1 Gundam "Alex", and the Heavy Vanguard and Commander of Team Build Force. Appear in Gundam Build Fighters: Build Force,  the unit is built and piloted by Tsumuki (Taki).

Technology & Combat Characteristics
A slightly customized RX-78NT-1 Gundam “Alex” Gunpla built as the heavy fighter type. Using the original form of the Full Armor version of the Gundam Alex, the Armored Gundam ALEX had the chobham armor plates embedded to the main body frame. With the help from her seniors, the Armored Alex retains most of the standards armaments. Minor changes were the armored forearms are able to reveal the 90mm Gatling Guns even with the armor plates on, Micro-missile launchers hidden in compartments throughout the armor, and the beam sabers were move from the back to the new internal recharge rack at the hip armor similarly to the internal recharge rack in the lower legs of the RX-79 (G) Gundam Ground Type. Since it was change from the original, most of the handheld weapons weren’t used in Gunpla Battles since Taki’s battle preferences were heavy assaults and high damage fighter. Given to her from one of her seniors before they graduated was a handheld gatling gun modeled after the Gundam Heavyarms’ EW ver. Beam Gatling Gun, and she used it mostly in all her battles before Hisoka joined her club. As the Heavy Assault type fighter, the Armored Gundam ALEX has the highest defense capabilities than most Gundam both in series and models; however, the heavy weight of both the armor and gatling gun cut the mobility significantly. As the attacker, the damage inflicted is enough to destroy even the largest Mobile Armor, shields and walls, and even I-Fields/force fields with the power and continuous firing rate. Unfortunately, as a fighter, the Gunpla is as good as a stationary sentry or turret, since the bulkiness slowed it down to the point of no-movement. Even the turning or aiming reaction is slowed to that among. Subsequently the Armored Gundam ALEX is often the target of fast moving attackers and mostly the first to be attack. After Hisoka has joined the club and Team Build Force was formed, the Armored Gundam Alex undergoes an upgrade that changes it drastically. Only minor changes happened, it was dubbed the Armored Gundam ALEX Kai after that small, but significant upgrade. With improve weaponries, it gains more weapons in the form of powerful chest vulcan guns, more missile launchers, a back beam cannons, and new versions of the gatling guns. Furthermore, since after Taki learned to use her boxing techniques through the Gunpla, the ALEX became the lethal Mobile Suit it was initially planned.

Armaments

 * 90mm Gatling Gun
 * The Armored ALEX's signature weapon, the gatling guns are normally stored in the armored forearm pieces of the Alex when not in use. When they are activated, the armored piece(s) quickly pop up to reveal the guns. While not near as powerful as a beam rifle, the sheer number of bullets flying through the air shred through almost anything, regardless of how durable it is. Incidentally, it was given stronger ammunition, maybe Battleship's rounds, to cause more damage than usual; plus, it makes it the most lethal among the ALEX's arsenals. After the upgrade, the Gatling Guns each has now four barrels and became a beam type


 * Gatling Gun
 * The primary handheld weapon of the ALEX and was one of the initial armaments of the Gundam before Hisoka joined the Gundam Force Club. It is based on the Gundam Heavyarms' Endless Waltz ver. Beam Gatling Gun, but as the Katoki Hajime's initial idea of a shell-firing weapon. Similar to the Gatling Guns on the forearms, it uses Battleship's calibers for stronger and more powerful shots that shattered on impact or penetrated, ideal for heavy armored mobile suits. Normally it has its own cartridge box attached, it can be belt-fed via an ammunition tank that can be attached to the backpack. Due to this, however, the weapon was discharged more than the whole ALEX's arsenal. Most of the time, the weapon is being hand-held for easy use and discharge, but it can be carried on the backpack for storage or later use.


 * Shield Gatling Gun
 * Based on the Gundam Heavyarms' Beam Gatling Gun Endless Waltz ver. made by Hisoka, it can be said that its the improved or evolved version of the primary Gatling Gun, and like its predecessor it's a shell firing weapon. The shield that is on the Gatling is the RX·C-Sh-05 UBC/S-0003 Shield of the original Gundam "Alex". Like the Katoki's redesign version, the shield is a removable add-on that can be mounted on either the Gatling Gun or on the Gundam's forearm, and it can also be handheld. Not only it protects the guns as well as the user, it can store up to three small extra ammunition box that connects to the Gatling Gun itself or its cartouche box, for extreme amount of firepower. Two can be wielded similar to the Gundam Heavyarms Kai EW ver. increasing the firepower even further. When Taki goes into her boxing mode, she'll use the non-firing rotating barrel of the Gatling as a Drill Punch (also works with any Gatling Guns).


 * Shield Duel Gatling Gun
 * Very similar to Gundam Heavyarms Kai's Double Barrel Beam Gatling Gun, the Shield Duel Gatling Gun is the next evolution of the Shield Gatling Gun and the final evolution of the ALEX's Gatling Gun. What's different from the Heavyarms Kai's is that it's actually two Gatling Guns attached together with a Shield add-on on top. With the duel gatling guns attached together, it's firepower is equivalent to the duel-wielding Shield Gatling Guns, and two can be wield for more fire power.


 * Beam Cannon
 * A pair of mega-particle firing beam cannons mounted on the backpack were made by Hisoka and given to the Armored ALEX to add extra firepower. Mega-particles are fed to the beam cannons by the two large drum-like E-Caps mounted below the backpack. It was taken from the GM Cannon II’s backpack cannons and was modified to fit on the Gunpla. However, it adds to the overweight mass of the Gundam, but the backpack was given extra thrusters to counter that.


 * Mini-Beam Cannon
 * A one-time deployed weapon that replaced one of the 90mm Gatling Guns in the forearms. It had a similar power output to the standard beam rifle. It was built to give one of the gatling guns to Hisoka’s RGM-79SA Armor GM Sniper (Incomplete) for the “element of surprise” tactic. Apparently, two were built as one goes to the Armored ALEX and the other goes to the Improvished Armor GM.

Special Equipment & Features

 * Chobham Assault Armor
 * Based on the Chobham armor of the original Alex combined with the concept idea of the FA-78-1 Gundam Full Armor Type's Full-Armor System and Weapon System (FSWS), it’s a series of heavy armor plated grafted to the main body of the Armored ALEX. Though initially, it supposedly give superior defense capabilities, in turn weighing down the suit tremendously, but it’s armed with micro missile launchers and mini multi-barrel gatling cannons within the hidden compartments throughout the armor for the purpose of the "element of surprise". To counter the heavy weight and slow mobility, extra thrusters were added to the legs, skirt armor, and backpack to minimize the negative effects. When Team Build Force and friends went to the Model Shop, the Gundam was improved and w added with new parts and weapons. The new weapons were the Beam Cannon backpack of the GM Cannon II, another additional barrel to the forearms' three-barrel rotary guns and made it a beam type, and armor parts with more missile compartments were added. The armor was also painted with paint and special coating for stronger defenses.


 * Micro Missile Launchers
 * Hidden within the compartments throughout the whole body, it is the second hidden weaponry of the Armored Gundam ALEX, the first being the 90mm Gatling Guns on the armored forearms. About 10 dozen of micro missiles are stored within each compartment; however, about 5 of them as a group are capable to deal massive damage on mobile suits, making another lethal weapon of the ALEX's arsenal. More were added, but it is unknown how many.


 * 60mm Mini-Multi-Barreled Gatling Cannons "Vulcan Guns"
 * The Vulcan guns were 60mm mini-multi-barreled gatling cannons stored on the clavicle section of the armor. Having a great rate of fire, these are primarily used to ward off advancing enemies, shoot down missiles, or hit other fast moving targets. They also made good use as anti-aircraft and anti-personnel weapons. Learning from the flaws of the vulcan guns of the original, it's now able to pierce heavy armor and retained the ability to do severe damage to mobile suits when fired at point-blank range. It's also supplements to the Gatling Guns that tripled the rate of fire and firepower. It is installed before the battle of the Science Techie.


 * Magnetic Coating
 * Retaining the special membrane treatment applied to the joints, it improves the mobile suit's response speed. Similarly to the mobile suits developed by the Earth Federation Forces, it uses special actuators called field motors, whose efficiency is increased by the magnet coating process. The treatment also reduces friction resistance in the mobile suit's joints. With this, the reaction time of the MS is greatly increased, but also made the "Alex" extremely hard to control, if not handled carefully. Though was initially applied and wasn't much used, it's proven to add high efficiency and handling to the boxing combat performance making it fluent to the boxing arts of Taki's.

Special Attacks

 * Sunday Boxing Arts
 * Techniques learned by Tsumuki during her younger days when she picked up kick-boxing classes as her sport. She was taught many Orthodox Boxing Techniques and Signature Techniques that led her to be the three-timed champion in the middle schools' Kick-Boxing Competition and even both the Junior National and International Kick-Boxing Tournament before her sudden retirement. While piloting the Armored Gundam 'Alex', the moves were exemplified and exaggerated during the Gunpla Battle making it special moves performed by the user.


 * Helix Spear Fist
 * A punch using the rapid rotation of the non-firing Gatling Gun that gathers Plavsky Particles like a twister. From a fixed position, when it is launched it'll create a stream of compressed Plavsky Particles from the epicenter of the punch, forming a drill-like arrow/lance. The arrow/lance can reach very far from that point, and will reached that length limit even if it penetrated through several obstacles or enemies at once. While traversing to its destination, it creates a force like a whirlpool or black hole that pulls anything and everything it pass through or by. The pull force distance has an equivalent length to the frontal assault. Proven to be the most lethal and powerful techniques by the demonstration of penetrating through the XMA-02 Ebirhu Doga, sucking along its Bugs and the Salvagers' Wreackager Ship, and destroying the colossal asteroid that it came out from. This is the first technique demonstrated by Taki during the Mission.


 * Ground Wave Pulverizer? (Earth Shatter Punch)
 * This is the first multiple attack sequences and second technique performed by Taki and also a very destructive attack like the first. First the Armored Gundam ALEX boost jumped up high to use the speed gained while free-falling, the higher it leap, the more destructive power it gains. Then before landing, it first face down and punched the ground with either fist or Gatling Gun to cause the shock-waves and quakes, destroying everything and anything from that position. Sometimes if the punch is angled or slightly not straight towards the ground, it'll cause a forward wave from the point of impact as a frontal attack version of the technique.


 * Spiral Lance Punch
 * The smaller or rather the "motion" version of the Helix Spear Fist, when it follows the punch like the Ryūsei Rasen-Ken. While lunging towards the target, it creates a drill twisting effect that ricochets/redirects any shots and attacks trying to interfere and literally drills through obstacles until the Gundam Alex reached its targets or it wore off. The Punch can initiate from any sort, as an uppercut, hook(s), Gazelle punch, etc. It's the controlled version of the Helix Spear Fist.


 * Brave Winds Punch
 * A punch that is capable of rending the plastic/paint off of a Gunpla and sending it flying. Occasionally, it can also be a mid-range attack as when punched from a fixed position it creates an air punch that fly straight to where the supposed target is.


 * Twin Dragon Storm Fist
 * The Duel Gatling Gun version of the Brave Winds Punch. Synchronizing the rotation speed of the Gatling Guns, it doubles the power of the Brave Wings Punch and creates two-air arrows/lance that will sometimes spiral together towards the target. As it takes flight it’ll somehow take a form of illusion of a two-headed Chinese dragon.

Optional Equipment

 * Blash·XB-B-09 Beam Saber
 * Standard equipment of most Federation Mobile Suit, the original Gundam "Alex" has two beam sabers, stored in the internal recharge rack on the both hip armor of the sides, similarly to the internal recharge rack in the lower legs of the RX-79[G] Gundam Ground Type. Unfortunately, both were hardly use during battle, and probably never be use at all.


 * BOWA·Norfolk XBR-L Type-3 Beam Rifle
 * An optional weapon of the Armored ALEX, which it’s originally the main weapon of its predecessor, the NT-1 Gundam “Alex’s” BOWA·Norfolk XBR-L Type-3 Beam Rifle, before it was replace by the Gatling Gun. It was brought out once during the battle against the Rhapsody Sonata Team.


 * Hyper Bazooka
 * Similar to the Zaku's bazooka, the Hyper Bazooka was a heavy weapon used by the Gundam. This was never used in almost any known/recorded battles.

Notes & Trivia

 * When Taki's uses her boxing moves on the Armored Gundam Alex, it is similar to how Sekai Kamiki uses his Jigen Haoh School Martial Arts on the Build Burning Gundam.
 * The Helix Spear Fist It is similar to Ryūsei Rasen-Ken (流星螺旋拳 Meteor Spiral Fist)
 * The Ground Wave Pulverizer (Earth Shatter Punch) have the sequences similar to Seisō-Geri (聖槍蹴り Sacred Spear Kick) (jumping bit), the Dangan Hagan-Ken (弾丸破岩拳 Bullet Rock-Breaking Fist) (hitting the ground), and the Hadō Reppaku-Ken (波動列帛拳 Burst Wave Fist) (when the impact is angled).
 * The Spiral Lance Punch is like the Ryūsei Rasen-Ken but have the uppercut sequence like the Soten Guren-Ken (蒼天紅蓮拳 Scarlet Heaven Fist/Blue Sky Crimson Lotus Fist)
 * The Brave Winds Punch is similar to the Seiken Zuki (聖拳突き Scarlet Fist Punch) or Shippu-Zuki (疾風突 Gale Punch).