The Mecha Hall of Fame

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Sci-Fi Wi-Fi > The Mecha Hall of Fame

twistedmentat: Nov 21, 2003; Its my party
and I'll die if
I want to

Gunhead is a bad movie, the Front Line Assembly video that uses clips from it is probably a better way to watch it, but the titual Gunhead is awesome

# ? Jul 2, 2020 05:30

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Apr 26, 2024 21:35

Megillah Gorilla: Sep 22, 2003; If only all of life's problems could be solved by smoking a professor of ancient evil texts.; Bread Liar

reignofevil posted:

Here is the Gustav owned by one of the main characters of the Zoids Chaotic Century anime, Moonbay. It is helpfully hauling around the more agile and exciting zoids from the series and without its help none of the cool things those zoids did from episode to episode would ever have happened because they never would have made it through the endless anime desert! Zoids Wiki says this bad mofo can haul up to 250 tons without losing any speed which doesn't make any logical sense at all but who gives a poo poo the engine is basically either magic or else the Zoid is consciously limiting itself so as to not make the other Zoids feel bad when it rides past them unfettered by cargo at ten thousand miles per hour.

It's torque, not horsepower :eng101:

# ? Jul 2, 2020 06:18

Ghost Leviathan: Mar 2, 2017; Exploration is ill-advised.

I'm surprised there's no horse Zoid, come to think of it. There's bison and tigers/lions/ligers and saber-toothed tigers and scorpions and dinosaurs and gorillas, but no horses. At one point in New Century there's a giant vehicle that seems to basically be a mobile mansion that's hauled by four of the bison Zoids.

# ? Jul 2, 2020 06:24

WilWheaton: Oct 11, 2006; It'd be hard to get bored on this ship!

I'm just going to say it

I don't get hands on mechs they make no sense. Giant robots that punch each other are dumb.

Battletech seems to mostly understand this but I occasionally see some with giant robot hands? I dont get it.

# ? Jul 2, 2020 06:44

McSpanky: Jan 16, 2005

WilWheaton posted:

I'm just going to say it

I don't get hands on mechs they make no sense. Giant robots that punch each other are dumb.

Battletech seems to mostly understand this but I occasionally see some with giant robot hands? I dont get it.

# ? Jul 2, 2020 09:55

Captain Rufus: Sep 16, 2005; CAPTAIN WORD SALAD

OFF MY MEDS AGAIN PLEASE DON'T USE BIG WORDS

UNNECESSARY LINE BREAK

Where the hell is the King of Braves?

https://youtu.be/UOjrBYgRBxo

With courage and bravery the strongest god of destruction can defeat any of your bs op cheesebots. Why? Because Gai is a HERO that's fricking why.

But for favorite series of mecha I gotta go with Dougram. 80 odd episodes of revolutionary low tech warfare with tons of really Derpy faces.

https://wargamedork.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-dougram-boardgames-part-1.html but the robots are sweet and the Soltic Roundfacer is my grunt mecha of choice. (One of these days I might do an LP thing with those Dougram boardgames. Maybe.)

Oddly enough I was building a Gunpla today after work. A ridiculous combination of a Haro and the Aliens Powerloader. https://www.hlj.com/haropla-haro-loader-bans59226

(Future kit purchases involve Grendizer, IDW Comics version of Megatron, and the armor from the 80s Starship Troopers anime. We won't think about the dozens of kits I already have in a backlog going to the late 90s..)

# ? Jul 2, 2020 11:22

Taintrunner: Apr 10, 2017; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

WilWheaton posted:

I'm just going to say it

I don't get hands on mechs they make no sense. Giant robots that punch each other are dumb.

Battletech seems to mostly understand this but I occasionally see some with giant robot hands? I dont get it.

So Battletech is a simulation level tabletop game where mechs can suffer all sorts of horrible and different fates.

One of them is that you can get your arm blown off, and if your enemy has a hand actuator, they can pick up your own arm, and proceed to beat you to death with it.

# ? Jul 2, 2020 11:35

Error 404: Jul 17, 2009; MAGE CURES PLOT

LeadSled posted:

What the hell is a Mad Cat supposed to be here? All I see in that particular picture is a Timber Wolf.

# ? Jul 2, 2020 11:42

Gravitas Shortfall: Jul 17, 2007; Utility is seven-eighths Proximity.

Taintrunner posted:

Anyone familiar with Warhammer 40k is familiar with the Dreadnought and its infinite variants. A walking coffin armed to the teeth, nothing is more terrifying than "even in death I still serve." Utterly non-practical and just over the top comical, it earns a special spot on this list for how over the top it is.

Please, a Dreadnought is one of the least over the top 40K mechs. It's just a walking box? For true ott bullshit you want this:

An Imperator Titan. ~160 ft tall, with a full sized Battle Cathedral on its shoulders.

Bridge crew of three, with one being the Princeps who's wired directly into the engine's murderous and hard-to-control AI. The cathedral is full of cybernetically enhanced troops that also man its various smaller weapon emplacements.

The "toes" on its feet? Huge flights of stairs so the murder robo men can go in and out.
It's incredibly stupid and extremely 40K

# ? Jul 2, 2020 12:02

Ghost Leviathan: Mar 2, 2017; Exploration is ill-advised.

And don't forget the one on the right there is the Ork counterpart, a Gargant!

Funny thing is, while Ork technology is all ramshackle Mad Max constructions that may only work as well as they do because of the Orks' unconscious gestalt psychic field, Gargants are actually among the most practical mecha designs in 40k; bottom-heavy designs with large skirts to protect the moving parts, big stompy legs or treads to prevent them sinking into the ground, and large onboard crews operating individual parts.

# ? Jul 2, 2020 12:50

Punished Chuck: Dec 27, 2010

dudeness posted:

Cartoons? 3d models? No thank you. How about some motherfuckin' stop-motion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgKqKggYdDE

and some behind the scenes pics-

We should never have gone away from stop-motion and guys in suits

# ? Jul 2, 2020 13:04

Ghost Leviathan: Mar 2, 2017; Exploration is ill-advised.

Chuck Buried Treasure posted:

We should never have gone away from stop-motion and guys in suits

That's basically what CG and motion capture are, though!

# ? Jul 2, 2020 13:05

reignofevil: Nov 7, 2008

Comin' at ya at snail speed it's the god damned GDI Titan. Two guns would be expensive so it just has the one and a massive counterweight on the other side because otherwise you could just push the damned thing over. Here are some of the sexy features coming with your new mechanized purchase:

1) You can walk over the mutant crystals that are slowly converting all life into alien matter.

2) You can walk over the mutant deathvines that have been slowly strangling the earth after they got mutated by the crystals

3) You can have more than one of these bad boys as compared to the expensive slow and otherwise worthless Mammoth Mark 2 which only got built as some kind of make work project between world wars.

# ? Jul 2, 2020 14:39

Droyer: Oct 9, 2012

WilWheaton posted:

I'm just going to say it

I don't get hands on mechs they make no sense. Giant robots that punch each other are dumb.

Battletech seems to mostly understand this but I occasionally see some with giant robot hands? I dont get it.

I finally found it. At long last here it is: The Wrongest Post

# ? Jul 2, 2020 15:30

Snake Maze

Jul 13, 2016

3.85 Billion years ago

Having seen the explosion on the moon, the Devil comes to Venus

WilWheaton posted:

I'm just going to say it

I don't get hands on mechs they make no sense. Giant robots that punch each other are dumb.

Battletech seems to mostly understand this but I occasionally see some with giant robot hands? I dont get it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDLlGYsKC80

# ? Jul 2, 2020 15:48

paragon1: Nov 22, 2010; FULL COMMUNISM NOW

Battletech has a ton of melee combat lol.

# ? Jul 2, 2020 16:38

Man with Hat: Dec 26, 2007; Open up your Dethday present
It's a box of fucking nothing; Exciting Lemon

Droyer posted:

Centaur robots are cool!

Realtalk though, I'm glad I found a thread that appreciates Pacific Rim. It was literally my favorite movie that year. I've probably never had as fun watching a movie in the theatre.

150% arms 150% death!

# ? Jul 2, 2020 17:00

Polaron: Oct 13, 2010; The Oncoming Storm

paragon1 posted:

Battletech has a ton of melee combat lol.

Let he who has never lost a pilot in the PC game due to an enemy mech with no arms and no weapons waddling up to them and somehow managing to kick their head off throw the first stone!

# ? Jul 2, 2020 17:02

W.T. Fits: Apr 21, 2010; Ready to Poyozo Dance all over your face.

WilWheaton posted:

I'm just going to say it

I don't get hands on mechs they make no sense. Giant robots that punch each other are dumb.

Battletech seems to mostly understand this but I occasionally see some with giant robot hands? I dont get it.

Nah, hands on mecha is cool and good. The tactical flexibility of being able to wield a variety of weapons that a humanoid hand offers, as well as the option to just straight up punch poo poo makes for far more exciting and spectacular fights than two giant walking gun turrets mindlessly shooting at each other. I mean poo poo, if you're not going to put hands on it, why the hell are you building a giant humanoid war machine to begin with? At that point, you might as well just build a tank with hover jets in place of treads. :colbert:

# ? Jul 2, 2020 17:54

Ghost Leviathan: Mar 2, 2017; Exploration is ill-advised.

Holding back in the name of 'realism' with mecha is always a losing battle, because the concept is inherently ridiculous.

Now, you can have realism as an aesthetic; treating your mechs like military hardware, which a lot of mech stuff does, even ridiculous anime and stuff like Zoids. Like the Gustav above, which is basically just a giant robot truck, but has personality, a distinctive design and a clear purpose. Zoids New Century even does something similar with the Hovercargo as the mobile base, which vaguely resembles a giant snail.

# ? Jul 2, 2020 18:10

Droyer: Oct 9, 2012

Ghost Leviathan posted:

Holding back in the name of 'realism' with mecha is always a losing battle, because the concept is inherently ridiculous.

Now, you can have realism as an aesthetic; treating your mechs like military hardware, which a lot of mech stuff does, even ridiculous anime and stuff like Zoids. Like the Gustav above, which is basically just a giant robot truck, but has personality, a distinctive design and a clear purpose. Zoids New Century even does something similar with the Hovercargo as the mobile base, which vaguely resembles a giant snail.

Ghost Leviathan has the right of it, and in that spirit here is to me the peek of realism as an aesthetic:

# ? Jul 2, 2020 18:59

nine-gear crow: Aug 10, 2013

Man with Hat posted:

150% arms 150% death!

My favourite part of that Jaeger was that instead of two pilots, it had three, a set of triplets and the third one was needed specifically the operate the weird third arm. I love Pacific Rim. So many weird worldbuilding details packed into one movie, it feels like there should be like 3 or 4 films already that we just missed thanks to dimensional chicanery or something.

# ? Jul 2, 2020 19:02

Tulip: Jun 3, 2008; yeah thats pretty good

Hands on mechs are far, far less silly than legs, which introduce devastating problems in terms of terrain traversal, so if you're accepting that then you may as well just roll with the hands. Speaking of

This is an SSC Death's Head, a sniper mech that has one of my favorite funny features of LANCER. If you look near the center of the mech, below the 'face,' you can see two tiny little arms there. Those arms are "manipulators," which are useless for combat. They exist so that the pilot can use human-scale tools and interfaces (e.g. regular keyboards) without dismounting. I think this is cute.

# ? Jul 2, 2020 19:04

CainFortea: Oct 15, 2004

I would like to commend the OP on this thread for such a great OP about giant robots. Also specifically their OP about giant robots did not include anything from Evangelion.

Thank you for your service.

# ? Jul 2, 2020 19:05

Fantastic Foreskin: Jan 6, 2013; A golden helix streaked skyward from the Helvault. A thunderous explosion shattered the silver monolith and Avacyn emerged, free from her prison at last.

There's only one robot in Eva and it was a piece of poo poo.

# ? Jul 2, 2020 19:07

Psycho Landlord: Oct 10, 2012; What are you gonna do, dance with me?

Some Goon posted:

There's only one robot in Eva and it was a piece of poo poo.

Was just about to mention this

# ? Jul 2, 2020 19:08

Ghost Leviathan: Mar 2, 2017; Exploration is ill-advised.

nine-gear crow posted:

My favourite part of that Jaeger was that instead of two pilots, it had three, a set of triplets and the third one was needed specifically the operate the weird third arm. I love Pacific Rim. So many weird worldbuilding details packed into one movie, it feels like there should be like 3 or 4 films already that we just missed thanks to dimensional chicanery or something.

I do like how that illustrates how Jaegers work too- it's not just about duos, but about teams. I feel the movie underused its ideas and the sequel squandered them, but there's real creativity there nonetheless.

Tulip posted:

Hands on mechs are far, far less silly than legs, which introduce devastating problems in terms of terrain traversal, so if you're accepting that then you may as well just roll with the hands. Speaking of

This is an SSC Death's Head, a sniper mech that has one of my favorite funny features of LANCER. If you look near the center of the mech, below the 'face,' you can see two tiny little arms there. Those arms are "manipulators," which are useless for combat. They exist so that the pilot can use human-scale tools and interfaces (e.g. regular keyboards) without dismounting. I think this is cute.

That's weird, cute, and an oddly practical touch. If you can make limbs for a robot, why not add some utility ones?

That reminds me i might as well copy a rambling post I made in another thread:

Ghost Leviathan posted:

While I'm on a drunken kick about anime dinosaur robots, let's look at something that's rather similar to the Liger Zero Panzer above, but with visual aids.

So, this is your more typical Gun-Sniper:

Yes, it's a robot raptor, and yes, it might have a crotch gun. That and the arm gatling guns are actually its secondary weapons: it lives up to its name when you use it as intended by turning it around and using the heavy rifle built into its tail, which the cockpit seat flips around to a prone position for the pilot to operate almost exactly like your stereotypical sniper. For the most part it's good at exactly one thing, and Naomi 'The Red Comet' Flugel proves its worth by being an extremely good shot, when most Zoids are awful with accuracy- not too surprising when it's literally the only Zoid firearm built around a human form factor.

Now, for any of you who actually read my rants- remember the guy who made the Liger Zero Panzer above? Taking a fast, melee-oriented big cat robot and giving it so much firepower it literally can't move? This is what happens when his daughter goes on a shopping spree:

Yes, the shopping basket is canon.

Her teammates wonder why Leena Toros didn't throw in a couple of nuclear missiles for good measure on this thing. To her credit, the Wild Weasel Unit Total Assault pretty much wipes out any enemy dumb enough to get in its firing line, and it has enough agility to both get out of the way of return fire and to gaily skip home with the abovementioned shopping basket, but ammo and parts costs for the thing are noted to be significant, to the point where after fighting off bandits the Blitz Team has to drop out of the battle royale they came all that way for because they can't restock the ammo in time. And no, she never actually uses the sniper rifle.

# ? Jul 2, 2020 19:09

Psycho Landlord: Oct 10, 2012; What are you gonna do, dance with me?

Also you can't show of Lancer Mechs without showing off the biggest of boys

This is, as the text states, the Barbarossa. That thing on his shoulder is The Apocalypse Rail. It's for shooting ships in low orbit.

There is nothing stopping you from using it on the mech giving you problems a few hundred meters away :getin:

Psycho Landlord fucked around with this message at 19:19 on Jul 2, 2020

# ? Jul 2, 2020 19:13

Droyer: Oct 9, 2012

Some Goon posted:

There's only one robot in Eva and it was a piece of poo poo.

Pretty rude thing to say about Rei tbh

# ? Jul 2, 2020 19:17

CainFortea: Oct 15, 2004

2 pages and nothing on the shiniest robot?

The Glitter Boy.

Reflective armor to reflect lasers.

A railgun so powerful that the mech had anchor systems built into it's legs to shoot rods into the ground to keep the mech from getting blown backwards from the recoil.

# ? Jul 2, 2020 19:21

Megillah Gorilla: Sep 22, 2003; If only all of life's problems could be solved by smoking a professor of ancient evil texts.; Bread Liar

W.T. Fits posted:

Nah, hands on mecha is cool and good. The tactical flexibility of being able to wield a variety of weapons that a humanoid hand offers, as well as the option to just straight up punch poo poo makes for far more exciting and spectacular fights than two giant walking gun turrets mindlessly shooting at each other. I mean poo poo, if you're not going to put hands on it, why the hell are you building a giant humanoid war machine to begin with? At that point, you might as well just build a tank with hover jets in place of treads.

Plus, you can flip off your enemies

# ? Jul 2, 2020 19:29

Man with Hat: Dec 26, 2007; Open up your Dethday present
It's a box of fucking nothing; Exciting Lemon

nine-gear crow posted:

My favourite part of that Jaeger was that instead of two pilots, it had three, a set of triplets and the third one was needed specifically the operate the weird third arm. I love Pacific Rim. So many weird worldbuilding details packed into one movie, it feels like there should be like 3 or 4 films already that we just missed thanks to dimensional chicanery or something.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiuCpXg_jgU
FOR MY FAMILY!

People have told me so many times this is dumb. "Why not use the sword more if it's so good" they ask but it's because the Kaiju bleed toxins, c'mon, stop telling me my giant robot movie is dumb.

# ? Jul 2, 2020 19:31

Droyer: Oct 9, 2012

It was lame as hell though when the Gypsy Danger had a rocket in its elbow but it didn't lead to a rocket punch.

# ? Jul 2, 2020 19:35

Taintrunner: Apr 10, 2017; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Megillah Gorilla posted:

Plus, you can flip off your enemies

Oh gently caress I need this mini so bad

# ? Jul 2, 2020 19:38

Ghost Leviathan: Mar 2, 2017; Exploration is ill-advised.

You can never go wrong by taking a mech and sticking a fuckload of missile pods on it.

# ? Jul 2, 2020 19:39

Taintrunner: Apr 10, 2017; by Jeffrey of YOSPOS

Like that model is specifically for 3D printing for use with Battletech. I have hundreds of these fuckers sitting in a Detolf:

# ? Jul 2, 2020 19:42

Tulip: Jun 3, 2008; yeah thats pretty good

I'm surprised that Armored Core hasn't come up. I can't find any pictures I like quickly so RIP.

Ghost Leviathan posted:

That's weird, cute, and an oddly practical touch. If you can make limbs for a robot, why not add some utility ones?

That reminds me i might as well copy a rambling post I made in another thread:

I love it, also I love the dumb sniper butt bot.

Psycho Landlord posted:

Also you can't show of Lancer Mechs without showing off the biggest of boys

This is, as the text states, the Barbarossa. That thing on his shoulder is The Apocalypse Rail. It's for shooting ships in low orbit.

There is nothing stopping you from using it on the mech giving you problems a few hundred meters away

_{I actually don't like the Barbarossa even though it's got The Morgan Special: a dude smoking an old timey pipe}

# ? Jul 2, 2020 19:56

paragon1: Nov 22, 2010; FULL COMMUNISM NOW

Taintrunner posted:

Like that model is specifically for 3D printing for use with Battletech. I have hundreds of these fuckers sitting in a Detolf:

Thank you for having the bravest/most glorious mech front and center.

# ? Jul 2, 2020 20:06

reignofevil: Nov 7, 2008

This mech suit needs no introduction, nor any explanation, nor any conclusions parts to the post!

# ? Jul 2, 2020 20:27

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Apr 26, 2024 21:35

smooth jazz: May 13, 2010

Battletech is the finest mech game.

# ? Jul 2, 2020 20:39

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Sci-Fi Wi-Fi > The Mecha Hall of Fame

«‹›16 »