This is the first variation I've done. It was for a contest by Gundam.com to redesign the zakrello, a pretty goofy looking design from the original series. I won fourth place in the contest.

In my redesign, I wanted to try and keep to the original design as much as possible. The Zakrello is essentially a frog-like thing with a big "head", a laser in it's big mouth and scrawny scythe arms. The first thing I did was turn the big "eyes" into a single mono-eye. I kept the protruding beam cannon but the mouth was turned into big vents. It still reads as a mouth, it just makes more mechanical sense. The overall proportions were all retained, though the "legs" were bulked up bit. I'm happy with the way it turned out. It still is a frog-like thing with a big "head", a laser in it's big mouth and scrawny scythe arms, but it looks so much more plausible as a machine. That is what I think a great redesign (retcon) does. It retains the spirit of the original, even it's quirkiness and goofy qualities but makes it more believable.