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| Ahab Jenova (2013) |
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| Nomad Paragon (2026) |
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| Nomad Paragon (2013) |
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| Griever Dervish (2026) |
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| Griever Dervish (2013) |
Back in 2013,
I watched Pacific Rim and decided that simply enjoying it was not enough.
No.
I had to become part of the Pan Pacific Defence Corps.
I had to design Jaegers.
I had to invent pilots.
I had to imagine defence programs.
I had to wonder what giant robots Finland, Bolivia, Cyprus, Sweden and Nunavut would build if giant monsters started climbing out of an interdimensional hole in the Pacific Ocean.
This eventually resulted in a fleet of over thirty custom Jaegers, a brief and somewhat infamous stint as “JaegerDesignTeam”, a direct response from Pacific Rim writer Travis Beacham on Tumblr, and enough worldbuilding to fill an operations manual.
Looking back, I regret absolutely none of it.
The funny thing about PacRim is that it encouraged this sort of behaviour.
The film only showed us a fraction of its universe. We saw Gipsy Danger. We saw Cherno Alpha. We saw Crimson Typhoon. We saw Striker Eureka.
Beyond that?
Blank space.
And blank space is irresistible to creative people.
What was Britain’s Jaeger?
What was Sweden’s?
What was New Zealand’s?
What was protecting inland nations?
What happened in places never mentioned in the film?
Pacific Rim never answered those questions.
So I did.
Or at least…I tried, lol.
The result was a growing multinational Jaeger program that occupied an embarrassing amount of my free time:
Esper Jericho was Sweden’s sniper-type machine, built for precision rather than brute force.
Anode Dragoon was Britain’s lancer-class Jaeger.
Vulcan Specter patrolled Australia’s Northern Territory.
Atlas Vigilant stood as a sort of ceremonial Queen’s Guard machine.
Shiva Leviathan represented India’s answer to the Kaiju War.
Meteor Fortune guarded the Breach itself.
Reaper Didact protected Victoria.
Orion Dawn represented the ACT, because apparently giant robots require Canberra representation too.
Eventually the roster grew into something far larger than I ever intended.
Here’s the cleaner copy-paste version with compact bracket details.
Eventually the roster grew into something far larger than I ever intended. Here’s the 35 that came alive:
- Dyad Sentry. (Africa / Madagascar coast patrol.)
- Seraph Omega. (Italy / northern coast guard.)
- Tempest Bolero. (Spain / inland ranger-type.)
- Delta Meridian. (Ecuador / mountain-stationed inland Jaeger.)
- Vulcan Specter. (Australia / Northern Territory inland Jaeger.)
- Orion Dawn. (Australia / ACT, inland Jaeger, ‘berra represent!)
- Juno Behemoth. (Ukraine / bouncer-type.)
- Esper Jericho. (Sweden / sniper-type.)
- Pluto Chimera. (Cyprus / heavy-assault type.)
- Anode Dragoon. (Britain / lancer-class Jaeger.)
- Topaz Goliath. (Portugal / fortress-type.)
- Onyx Eclipse. (United States / west coast guard.)
- Odin Medusa. (Norway / reconnaissance-type.)
- Mantis Rampant. (China / inland Jaeger.)
- Viper Tornado. (Thailand / bladed-type.)
- Zephyr Bravo. (United States / southern coast guard.)
- Aeon Scimitar. (Canada / inland Jaeger.)
- Tecton Indigo. (India / inland Jaeger.)
- Griever Dervish. (Philippines / brawler-type.)
- Eden Assassin. (Russia / Moscow-region Jaeger.)
- Ahab Jenova. (United Kingdom / coastline sentinel.)
- Nomad Paragon. (France / surveillance-type.)
- Golem Olympus. (Greece / Athens-region Jaeger.)
- Archon Basilisk. (Finland / national Jaeger.)
- Shiva Leviathan. (India / New Delhi-region Jaeger.)
- Caldera Akator. (Bolivia / inland Jaeger.)
- Reaper Didact. (Australia / Victoria-region Jaeger.)
- Husky Prosper. (Nunavut / all-region Jaeger.)
- Meteor Fortune. (South Korea / Breach guard.)
- Teuton Axiom. (Germany / Breach guard.)
- Lima Centurion. (New Zealand / Breach guard.)
- Amber Noble. (Iraq / Breach guard.)
- Cobra Galahad. (Scotland / island guard.)
- Atlas Vigilant. (United Kingdom / Queen’s Guard Jaeger.)
- Tremor Red. (United States / Appalachia-region Jaeger.)
Reading those names now feels like opening an old sketchbook.
I can see exactly who I was.
Every name was an attempt to capture the strange naming convention Pacific Rim used so brilliantly. Not quite military. Not quite poetic. Two words fused together until they sounded like something capable of throwing a Kaiju through a skyscraper (echoing how it takes two seemingly mismatched souls to pilot the machines).
Some worked better than others.
Some were absurd.
All of them were fun.
And yes, there were Kaiju too.
The Jaegers were only half the equation.
A giant robot is only as interesting as the thing trying to tear its arm off.
So there were Kaiju concepts, attack scenarios, classifications, regional threats and enough fictional military bureaucracy to keep the PPDC employed for decades.
Most of that material has vanished into the depths of the old internet.
Which brings us to the funniest part of the story.
Because somehow this little hobby became visible enough that it eventually attracted the attention of Pacific Rim writer Travis Beacham himself.
The entire saga still survives online.
In September 2013, Beacham responded directly to my whole ‘JaegerDesignTeam’ stint on Tumblr:
His point was fair.
Make it clearer that fan creations are fan creations.
Don’t accidentally make people think you’re involved with the official production.
Reasonable advice. And I apologised, of course.
Still, not everybody can say the writer of Pacific Rim personally responded to them on Tumblr!
The original JaegerDesignTeam trail still exists too:
https://pacificrim.fandom.com/f/u/20404222
Years later, I discovered that a surprising amount of the fleet had survived in scattered archives and posts.
One of the cleaner surviving snapshots can be found here:
The whole thing feels impossibly distant now.
Pacific Rim had only just released.
Tumblr was still Tumblr.
Wikia communities were thriving.
The internet was smaller.
Everyone was inventing Jaegers.
And for a brief period in 2013, I was apparently operating my own unofficial multinational giant robot design bureau.
Honestly?
There are worse ways to spend your youth.
And if the Breach ever opens again, I maintain that Esper Jericho, Vulcan Specter and Atlas Vigilant deserve their chance.
…also…
PS: special shout out to GEN ATLAS, Ueda-san’s recently revealed Robot title and a cousin to PacRim I feel. What a lovely bit of inspiration looping, since I’m certain PacRim was majorly inspired by SOTC. Both he and del Toro (the latter’s excellent commentary is here by the way) have a sense of slow, operatic movement to their titans, unlike what the physics-breaking Monsterverse became. Methinks I might write a ‘Gen Atlas, the PacRim game we didn’t know we were getting’ type article or something. Maybe…
