Briefly, they are FASAs first edition of the 3050, "standard" clan omnimechs.
They were first printed in a magazine, and were changed, mostly for the worse, by the time the TRO came out to make them a little more fair.
But, now the IS has caught up a bit, and it's time for them to return in all their former glory!
PROJECT PHOENIX for the CLANS!
or
The REVENGE of the MK 1 OMNIS
Mk1 History Mk 1 TRO
Pawel Czannecki
First, questions on why I would use these mechs. Obviously, they are really good mechs, each the pinacle of its particular class. That alone is not a reason to use them, because not every mech needs to be maxed-out. However, when designing mechs, as we all do, we usually try to squeeze the maximum out of all our mechs. Now, to play with official models, being a clanner is easy, because modifying an omnimech is easy (though some people try to limit us to official variants only). And these original clan omnis form the backbone of each clans arsenal, and though quite a few new omnimechs have popped up since 3050, most clans still rely on these designs.
The issue is that some of these 3050 omnis have a serious flaw. The Wolf standard assault is the Gargoyle, which would never hold up to that role against Warhawks, Executioners and DireWolves, or even TimberWolves. The Falcons make heavy use of the Hellbringer, which is common to most clans as well--but why? There is less armor on the thing than the 40-ton Viper! The list goes on (details below).
I can remember in MechWarrior2, how with a few clicks you could change everything on your mech, which isn't true omni-tech, obviously. Sometimes, you could make a mech much better with a few simple changes. Armor, weapons, sinks and even speed could be added by the computer gamer to max out his mech. And later, I made some of the same modifications to them again, now in a BattleTech sense. Why didn't the designers see this?
Well, simply, they did see it, they weren't more stupid than every kid with a set of mech designing rules, and they made them right. They had armor, weapons, speed and sinks to spare in most cases. And they published them in a magazine, and people wrote them down, and were really scared. And they play-tested them.
And they decided they were too good.
They were probably right, because nothing in 3050 could have stood up to the original Hellbringer or Gargoyle. Wonderful machines. So they made them worse, usually leaving the weapons and dropping armor or heat sinks. Now, the 3050 versions are clearly good mechs, too. And they each have character of their own, and it takes more skill to pilot them than some cool-running, thick-skinned ubermech. But, sometimes they went a little too far. And what does this leave us, the clanners who live and die in them? Especially Wolves or Falcons whos Galaxies are filled with mechs that would have been cut from production long ago in a society as efficient as the clans (that's part of reason two, wait for it...;)
And, ultimately, now it's 3067. The IS have Gauss rifles and C3 on everything. They have RACs, TSM, and even targeting computers (the nerve!), as well as their (admittedly worse) versions of pulse and ER lasers, DHS, LBX, etc. You aren't safe in a Hellbringer anymore. A Gargoyle can't take on IS assaults. And they don't seem to be addressing the problem--at least, not as fast as the IS is going. What did the clans get? Heavy Lasers: short-ranged, hot-running and not that great. ATMs--flexible, deadly close-in, but not a replacemnt for Streaks or LRMs in every situation. And the new mechs aren't all that inspiring, usually either second-line or related to some crazy clan from deep space. The Wolves, still without a front-line assault omni, get the Naga, which they really can't use in honorable combat, and three fast hunters.
But we don't need new mechs at all, we need to BRING BACK THE OLD ONES!
For more, read on here.