[Obelisk ze Tormentor]

Originally Posted by Mad Pierrot

In the tv version of the first Gundam, Amuro asks the engineers to alter the mecha based on his skills as a newtype for the last episodes. Was the change that notable or the mobile suit still looks the same?

Straight from Wiki:

Magnet Coating:
Magnet Coating is a special process developed by the Earth Federation in U.C. 0079 for their Mobile Suits. The need for this process came as the higher-ups realized that, despite the RX-78-2 Gundam's amazingly continued performance, there was one major flaw to it - its pilot, Amuro Ray, whose Newtype abilities were overwhelming the unit. To fix this, the Magnet Coating process was created.

The process has the joints of a suit coated with a special material that, when energized, repels the joints to the point where there is zero friction. By doing this, a Mobile Suit's reaction time is increased by 20-30%. The process was first tested on the RX-78-3 G-3 Gundam, then applied to the original RX-78-2 Gundam, later being added to all future Mobile Suits. Zeon would try this with their MS-11 Act Zaku, but the suit wouldn't see the light of day until the Gryps Conflict.

In the original show, the magnet coating process has no visible indication. However, in March 2012, the life-sized Gundam statue at Gundam Front Tokyo was upgraded with sealed joint parts to represent having received magnet coating,[5] and sealed joints were later used to indicate the magnet coating upgrade in several Gunpla model kits, such as the Master Grade RX-78-2 Gundam 3.0.