But the purpose of Gundam is to sell gundam models. The characters, especially post UC, have mostly been copies of UC-archetypes or simply 2 dimensional in general.
The purpose of Star Trek is not to sell models of the Enterprise, but more to sell DVD's (media).
The exact purpose of Star Wars is to sell EVERYTHING. They are killing it with sales of 'media', 'characters figures' and 'spaceship toys', A shining example of sci-fi merchandising done right.
I still remember a time when Star Wars was that 'thing' only people's older brothers were really into, now its a franchise powerhouse