SD Gundam originated from a contributed illustration of a junior student from Nagoya by the name of Koji Yokoi to the "Model News" magazine that Bandai was issuing in the 1980s.
This illustration interested the chief editor and led to Koji Yokoi serializing SD Gundam in 4 frame comics in "Model News".
Built with a hole so they could be skewered into a pencil, the series was a hit with Japanese schoolchildren, and the concept soon expanded to other forms of merchandising and media, including models, manga, trading cards, anime and video games.
[2] And whereas Gundam pioneered the real robot branch of mecha anime, SD Gundam's more comical and exaggerated approach to the genre served to move it away from the ultra-realism that it was shifting towards in the '80s, and inspired a new flood of super-deformed robot shows between the late '80s and early '90s such as Sunrise's Mashin Hero Wataru, Madö King Granzört and Haō Taikei Ryū Knight, as well as video games such as the Super Robot Wars franchise.
Musha Gundam first appeared in "Plamo-Kyoshiro"<プラモ狂四郎> (Story by Craft dan and art by Koichi Yamato).
The original design of the SD form Musha Gundam is credited to Koichi Yamato, and Yasui Hisashi.
A limited subline titled Chi-Bi Senshi (a pun on the mainline's 'BB' and 'chibi', meaning small) consisted of thirteen kits based on Super G-ARMS, Knight Gundam, Gundlaner and Musha.
This gimmick was also utilized with some of the Knight kits to allow them to combine with larger BB Senshi versions of the 'Kihei' mobile weapons they piloted.
The Comic World chapters included with these sets referred to these 'Crystal' versions as doppelgangers made from sentient alien crystals who had chosen to copy the real Gundams.
A related line of merchandise has included the designs from SD Gundam works presented as 'real type' versions, lacking the deformed proportions.
This concept has seen a resurgence in recent years, with Bandai issuing a Master Grade model kit of Hajime Katoki's Shin Musha Gundam (appearing in Dynasty Warriors: Gundam) and Banpresto releasing toys and mini-statues based on 'real type' versions of Musha and Knight characters.
Starting in 2008, the SDX line is a collector aimed series of action figures based on SD Gundam characters.
The first figure released, Knight Gundam, was based on a scratch-built model of the character made by Hobby Japan for his appearance in Musha Retsuden Zero.
Being a collector aimed line, the series focuses on high detail, option parts and updating popular SD Gundam characters who are only otherwise represented by decades old model kits and toys.
For example, Knight Gundam was released with a display base, alternate facial expressions and armor pieces produced from metal.