A Mech by Any Other Name

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Clockwise starting left: A Megadeus, a Mechanoid, a Mobile Suit, an Armored Trooper and an Armored Soldier
"...So they gave me this spear and I said, 'What the hell am I supposed to do with that if we get attacked by giant robots?' and they said, 'First of all, they're called Guymelefs because that sounds more fantasy like...'"
—Red Shirt, Vision of Escaflowne Abridged

In fiction, Humongous Mecha are rarely simply called such. This is particularly true in Real Robot-type shows, where the mecha in question are usually numerous. Super Robots are typically one-of-a-kind, and such are only called by their proper names. Powered Armor may or may not fall victim to this as well.

Keep in mind that, in Japan, the term "mecha" means "anything mechanical," rendering it essentially meaningless—the word "mecha" specifically means "giant robots" only in the west. Just because a series has a "mecha designer" doesn't mean it has Humongous Mecha in it—the "mecha" designed can even be something like a Magical Girl's wand (or even the Magical Girl herself, in some settings).

The name used is usually different in just about every series that features Humongous Mecha, unless it's deliberately trying to reference another series.

Similar to Not Using the Z Word, but the naming is often a matter of copyright trademark law as much as the Sci Fi Ghetto; often, it's also due to Rule of Cool. See also Call a Rabbit a Smeerp.

(By the way, the Japanese equivalent to "mech" or "mecha" is kitai.)

Examples of A Mech by Any Other Name include:

NOTE: When adding examples, remember that we're looking for the "generic" name for the mech, not the model designation. In Gundam terms, for example, we're looking for "Mobile Suit" rather than "Zaku", "GM", etc....

Anime and Manga

  • Gravion brings us the Gran Divas, the name for the individual parts that make up Gravion, the Gran Kaiser, its central core, and the Gran Troopers, the Real Robot variants that show up in Gravion Zwei.
  • Gundam, of course, started all this when they called theirs mobile suits and mobile armour. A normal suit, if you're wondering, is a regular spacesuit. (And a pilot suit is the Latex Space Suit version, easier to fit into cramped cockpits.).
  • Arm Slaves appear in Full Metal Panic!. Arm Slave is for "Armored Mobile Master-Slave System" and is often shortened to just AS. Arm Slaves essentially mimic the movements of their pilots, so the name actually makes some sense (although you'd think people would come up with a better name for them then that).
    • The established term for this in sci-fi is a "waldo", or maybe "voodoo control". Whether this is better or worse term is dependent on the beholder.
  • B'ts in B't X, themed mostly for legendary animals.
  • Variable Fighters (Transforming Mecha, with the mecha mode additionally being refered to as a Battroid) and Destroids (Non-Transforming) in Super Dimension Fortress Macross. The Zentraedi also have their Battle Pods. Also, variable fighters are frequently referred to as Valkyries, which was the actual nickname of the first regular production VF.
    • Robotech mostly uses the same names, although they call the fighters and other human transforming mecha Veritechs. It should be noted, however, that the series often did refer to them collectively as "Mecha."
  • Code Geass has Knightmare Frames.
    • Joined later in the series by the Giga Knight Fortress, which is essentially a giant flying cockpit with KMF technology.
  • Sora Kake Girl has QT ARMS (or Quantum Technology Advanced Reinforced Maneuvering Shroud) for the main girls, with the B.O.A.R Ship (Beyond Orbit Azonal Runabout) for two employees of the Space Police, and a mechanised force called Existence who were made to serve the titular Girl Who Leapt Through Space
  • Magic Knight Rayearth In Cephiro, a Rune-God is basically a mecha that's controlled by a Magic Knight's spirit. This is an attempted Woolseyism—the original Japanese Punny Name is "Mashin", both "Demon-God" and "Machine".
  • Mars Daybreak has Round Bucklers. They are further separated into Corded and Cordless, the difference being that the former are remotely controlled through EVA-style umbilical cables linked to a "Seahorse" command craft and the later have a conventional cockpit.
  • Guymelefs in Vision of Escaflowne.
    • Smaller ones were simply known as Melefs but these never played much of a role in the series.
  • The Five Star Stories call theirs Mortar Headds. (No, that's not misspelled.)
  • Megadeuses in The Big O. Their pilots are called Dominus Megadeus.
  • Gasaraki has one side calling their mechs Tactical Armor, (TAs) while the other calls them (Metal) FAKES.
    • Not to mention the giant demoic creatures dressed in samurai armour known as Kugai that both of the above were based on. (though the group that calls their mechs FAKES refer to the Kugai as Originals.)
  • KLFs and LFOs in Eureka Seven. Stands for Kraft Light Fighter and Light-Finding Operation respectively.
  • Bubblegum Crisis calls the Powered Armor used by the heroines Hardsuits and their transforming motorbike / exoskeletons Motoroids or Motorslaves. Other armors are Battlesuits, and large mechs are called Battlemovers. Genom's ubiquitous synthetic soldiers are known as Boomers. Or, if you prefer mistranslations-made-canon, Voomers.
  • In Super Dimension Century Orguss, the Chiram faction call mecha Devices.
    • The sequel Orguss 02 simply called them Armor in the original Japanese, while the dub called them Decimators.
  • Soukou no Strain had STRAINs (STRategic Armored INfantry) and GAMBEEs (General Axis Motorized Battle Exoskeleton Equipment).
  • Evangelions, (mostly shortened down to EVAs) from, obviously enough, Neon Genesis Evangelion.
    • Although not calling them mechs makes sense considering they're not even robots at all. There are 'true' mechs in the series as well: Jet Alone and the Trident Country Crawlers, though there is much bickering over the canon-icity of the latter. General consensus is no, they're not, if they've even heard of them.
  • Sakura Taisen calls theirs Koubu (or Kohbu, whichever spelling you prefer); the now-defunct European Star Troupe had Eisenkleids. The English translation of the fifth game calls them S.T.A.R.s.
    • Those are model names. The generic term is Ryoushi Katchuu (bless you), which translates as "psychic particle armor".
  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has the Ganmen (though the official translation is Gunmen), while the mass-production Gurren Lagann prototypes are called Grappal/Gurapural/Grapearl.
    • However, the general term actually is mecha.
  • Brain Powerd has Grandchilds or Grand Chers (depending on your translation) on the antagonist side, and the titular Brain Powerds on the protagonist side. Universally, a machine with a pilot is called an Antibody (although the term is also used to describe the pilot himself, sometimes).
  • Flag has the HAVWC (pronounced "havoc") or High-Agility Versatile Weapon Carrier
  • RahXephon has Dolems, smaller craft called Dotems and the titular RahXephon, often shortened to "Xephon." The humans also field giant Vermillion robots near the end of the series. However, the Dolems and Dotems are not actually mecha, as they are actually made of clay (and one of ice), feature no actual mechanisms and are shown to be completely solid when broken open. The Rah-Xephon itself is made of similar material and seems to operate in much the same way, bar the remote control, so while it shares a lot of mecha characteristics, it is not a mecha as such, though it still qualifies, as it features what amounts to a cockpit.
  • Break Blade features Golems. Only the titular one is a mech in the traditional sense; modern Golems are more magical / psychic in nature.
  • Gun X Sword calls theirs Yoroi, Japanese for "armor".
  • Zoids has, well, Zoids.
  • Appleseed: Regular Powered Armor are called Protectors, while the larger Mini-Mecha are Landmates. And the giant Spider Gun Platforms are referred to as Land Master at least once.
  • Vandread has the mecha used by the men called Bangata ("Barbarian" - although the translations call them "Van-type" instead) which the women call Vanguards; while the spacefighters that the women use are Dreads. When the two combine...
  • Innocent Venus has Gladiators.
  • Utawarerumono has the (Eva-like) Avu Kamuu or whatever it's spelled.
  • Eidoron Shadow calls them Shadows.
  • Patlabor calls them Labors since they're mostly used for industrial work. The series name refers specifically to police Labors, being a shorthand for Patrol Labor.
  • Overman King Gainer has two different type of mechas, the mass produced Silhouette Machine which are a type of Real Robot, and the Overman which are rarer (usually only one type) and can use the Overskill.
  • Sky Girls has the Sonic Divers.
  • Armored Trooper VOTOMS has Armored Troopers. And VOTOMS actually stands for Vertical One-man Tank for Offense and ManueverS. Or not.
  • Aura Battler Dunbine has Aura Battlers which is humanoid type Aura Machine. It also has non-humanoid Aura Bomb and Aura Fighter.
  • Combat Mecha Xabungle has Walker Machines. The titular WM gets the Combat Mecha due to the fact that dedicated combat W Ms are rare.
  • Pluto by Urasawa Tezuka has Brando using a Combat Suit in a war and a Pankration for championship fighting.
  • GaoGaiGar is a Mechanoid, its component vehicles are Gao-Machines. The related Betterman mecha are called Neuronoids because their power relays and controls are affected by their pilot's nervous systems.
  • Normal mechs in Gad Guard are called Heavy Metals while the entities created from the titular Gads are called Gadrians. This is futher divided into the living Super Robots the protagonists use which are Techodes, and the a giant monsters called A-Techodes that are created if a Gad falls into unworthy hands,
  • Gaiking: Legend of Daiku-Maryu refers to its mechs as Giants of Flame, owing to the fact that their powered by the flames of the pilot's heart.
  • Heavy Metal L-Gaim also call them Heavy Metal.
  • Fang of the Sun Dougram has Combat Armor.
  • Blue Comet SPT Layzner has two terms. A pilot model call Super Powered Tracer and unmanned model call Terror Striker.
  • In Panzer World Galient, each mech line are classified with word Panzer prefix. For example, Galient is Panzer Blade, centaur mech like Promaxis is Panzer Trampler while flyable Wingal is Panzer Gust. Collectively, they're call Armored Soldier (Kikouhei).
  • Space Castaway Vifam call them Round Vernien. While Earthling use the term to classified all mech, the alien actually call them as "machine".
  • In Space Runaway Ideon, the Buff Clan actaully use the term Heavy Mecha.
  • Metal Armor from Metal Armor Dragonar.
  • Megazone 23 has transformable Maneuver Slave.
  • The titular Machine Robos of the Machine Robo franchise.
  • Star Driver gives us Cybodies.
  • Blue Gender has Armored Shrike.
  • Gunbuster has the Real Robot Machine Weapons, and the Super Robot Buster Machines.
  • Gigantic Formula has Gigantic Figures.
  • Kiddy Grade has Guard Robots (which double as vehicles), and the (non-pilotable) Genetech Beasts which range from dog-sized to humongous. The Kiddy Girl-AND Pure manga also has a variety of unnamed piloted mecha and a humanoid Humanic Frame.
  • In the Getter Robo metaseries, the airplane components are known as Getter Machines, while the actual combined unit is known as a Getter Robo.


Comic Books

  • Spitfire and the Troubleshooters, from Marvel's original New Universe series, revolved around the team's escapades with the M.A.X. (Man-Assisted eXperimental) Armor.
    • Warren Ellis' rebooted newuniversal series reimagined this with the H.E.X. (Human Enhancement eXperimental) Initiative, a project to create a robotic battle suit and hunt metahumans.
  • For DC Comics, there's the Rocket Red Armor, Soviet-based Powered Armor built by Green Lantern Kilowog.
  • Doesn't matter how tall they are or if they're piloted or not, those mutant-hunting robots that give the X-Men hell are all known as Sentinels


Film

  • Star Wars usually calls them Walkers or ATs (Armored Transports).
  • The Matrix series has APUs, standing for Armoured Personnel Units. Though looking at them, 'armoured' is somewhat less than accurate.
    • A more heavily armored version is seen during "The Second Renaissance: Part 2" in The Animatrix. However, the armor did it little good as it was cut open by a robot's laser and the pilot was forcibly torn out, screaming for help as his arms and legs were still trapped in the suit.
  • In Avatar they are known as Amplified Mobility Platforms, or simply AMP suits.


Literature

  • Going a fair ways back, H. G. Wells simply called his Fighting Machines. They're also frequently refered to as Tripods, although the original book rarely used the name.
  • There was also the novel named Warstrider that called its, guess what...
  • Dale Brown's Act of War duology had CID or Cybernetic Infantry Device. Other books had a skinsuit colloquially called Tin Man, or officially BERP (Ballistic Electro-Reactive Process), because its inventor has a juvenile sense of humor.
  • Mechs in The History of the Galaxy series by Andrey Livadny are officially called serv-machines. Alternatively, they are often referred to as "walking machines".
    • Oftentimes, they are simply referred to by their class, with the two most famous ones being the "Phalanxer" (heavy, long-range mech) and the "Hoplite" (lighter, scout mech). Others are sometimes mentioned, such as the "Raven" (between a "Phalanxer" and a "Hoplite") and the "Cheetah" (a discontinued model).


Live Action TV

  • Power Rangers has Zords, named for the sage Zordon from the early seasons (though seasons with no connection to Zordon and company also call their Humongous Mecha "zords," and even seasons that don't still call the combined forms "Megazords.") Since Bruce Kalish came along, villain-used mecha are just called 'giant robots'. More specifically, "Zord" was originally a shortening of "Dinozord", a play both on the sage who had created them and the ancient animals on which he had modeled several of his designs.
    • The Super Sentai source material doesn't have a standardized name for all the mecha (and some seasons even neglect to add that name), but in some amusing Mythology Gags, Mirai Sentai Timeranger featured a villain mecha called the G-Zord, and Tokumei Sentai Gobusters classifies all of their villainous giant robots as "Megazords".
    • However, The Super Sentai Battle Dice-O card game classifies all forms as Mecha, while the individual forms are called Machines and the combined forms are called Robos.
      • Not for ALL the mecha, but each season tends to use a different one. Vehicular mecha are sometimes called 'Machines', bestial ones are 'Animals' or '-Ju' (meaning animals), and combined mecha are sometimes called 'Robo' (usully tech-themed seasons) 'King', or the Japanese '-Oh' (meaning 'king') or 'Jin' ('god', both in the mystically-aligned seasons). There's lots of single-season terms sometimes lampshaded in the season title, like 'Kidenjuu' (Gosei Sentai Dairanger), 'Bakuryu' (Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger) 'Majin' (Mahou Sentai Magiranger), and 'Origami' (Samurai Sentai Shinkenger). Sometimes it gets rather inconsistent ('Vehicles' referred to the regular vehicles in Dekaranger and the mecha of Boukenger.)
      • In an aversion of the usual naming system, the celestially-derived mecha of Tensou Sentai Goseiger are called GoseiMachines.


Tabletop Games

  • BattleTech often actually does call them 'Mechs, short for a variety of giant robot applications, but usually meaning Battlemechs or Omnimechs. Civilian 'Mechs for agriculture, Agromechs, and industrial, no canonical name ever given, versions also known to exist.
    • They actually hold the trademark for the term "mech", which is why one runs into "mecha" frequently.
    • The very first edition was called BattleDroids, but someone else held the trademark for that term.
    • Actually, IndustrialMechs exist. It's just that they are so varied that there really is no one "category" of IndustrialMechs. You have LoggerMechs, LifterMechs, I mean the list is pretty long (They even have CattleMechs). They have a partial list in one of the older Tech Manuals.
    • In addition to various sorts of Mechs, both sides also use Battle Armor, and the Clans field Mini-Mecha called Protomechs.
  • The title of Mekton is also the default name for mecha in it, though plenty of others exist on a 'verse by 'verse basis.
  • Warhammer 40,000 has tons:
    • The Imperium has its Dreadnoughts (piloted by crippled veteran Space Marines), Sentinels (Imperial Guard scout vehicles), and of course Titans (very Humongous Mecha, the size of which varies from the 15-meter-tall Warhound through to the colossal Emperor-class Titan, which houses an entire company of Space Marines and whose upper body is a gothic cathedral.)
    • The various Eldar mecha are known as War Walkers (piloted scout vehicles), Wraithlords (mid-sized mecha controlled by the souls of dead warriors) and their own Titans.
    • Orks have Killa Kans, Deff Dreads, and Stompas. Their Titan-sized vehicles are called Gargants.
    • The Tau have the Battlesuits, which are all more or less powered armor, though they get rather big for the type. They have no Titan-class mecha, using full-up combat starships instead.
    • Chaos has Dreadnoughts and titans, which are merely Chaosified versions of their imperial counterparts, and they also have the Defiler (a very big daemonically possessed Spider Tank).
  • Exalted calls their mecha Warstriders.
  • In Dream Pod Nine's series of mecha games:
    • Jovian Chronicles had Exo-Armors (battlesuits are referred to as Exo-Suits)
    • Heavy Gear and Gear Krieg had Gears. In HG the bigger mecha and many non-humanoid walkers are called Striders - it used to reflect greater durability. The smaller Caprician Spider Tanks are also called "mounts" (they are Striders, except the lightest Acco, which counts as Gear). Heavy Power Armour suits are called "golems", for that matter.
  • Engels from Cthulhu Tech, which have more in common with Evangelions than they do anything else on this list.
  • Bliss Stage has the ANIMa, or A lien N umina I nversion Ma chine. It's not literally a giant robot, though.
  • Warmachine gets its name from its big, steam powered robots called Warjacks. The predecessors to modern warjacks were the much-larger Colossals, though these are obsolete and no longer produced in "modern" times.
  • Rifts typically uses the term Robots to refer to piloted humanoid combat machines, though the lines between them and Powered Armor are frequently blurred. The training skills are referred to as "robot combat" and the most prominent series of designs is the IAR; Infantry Assault Robot.

Video Games

  • Custom Robo
  • City of Heroes have the Malta's Titans (Hercules, Zeus and Cronos class) Vanguard has their HVAS (Heavy Vanguard Assault Suit) and the Longbow have their Cataphract (it's equivalent, the Arachnos Heavy Blaster, is a Spider Tank instead)
  • Zone of the Enders has two names, Laborious Extra-Orbital Vehicle (or LEVs for short) and Orbital Frame. The differences are the construction and the level of technology used.
  • Virtuaroids in Virtual On.
  • Wanzers (Short for the German: Wanderung Panzer, which means "Walking Tank") in the Front Mission series.
    • Which would be a really bad translation, as "Wanderung" is the word for the group activity. "Wanderpanzer" would be gramatically correct, though "Laufpanzer" would be the actual german term, as it's unlike to be supposed to be a tank that is "going for a walk".
  • Armored Core has... well, Armored Cores. They're subdivided further into MT ("Muscle Tracer") which are precursors to Armoured Cores, Normals, which are the average Armored Core until Armored Core 4, and Nexts which use the series' newest Phlebotinum Kojima Particles to make them vastly more powerful.
    • Interestingly, the term Armored Core is actually a nickname-turned-regular term for the AC. Originally, the units were called Armored Muscle Tracers, or AMT's.
  • The Gungriffon series has the AWGS which stands for Armoured Walking Gun System.
  • The Earthsiege series has HERCs.
    • That's just what they're called for short. The full name is HERCULAN, which stands for Humaniform-Emulation Roboticized Combat Unit with Leg-Articulated Navigation.
  • Xenogears has Gears, while Xenosaga refers to them as A.G.W.S. (Anti-Gnosis Weapon System), A.W.M.S., E.S.' and such.
  • Metal Gear
    • Metal Gear?!
    • Early Kojima nomenclature (Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2 and Snatcher) made Metal Gears a subgroup of mechs as a whole, which were referred to as Heavy Walkers. The presence of Metal Gear Gustavs, a rejected boss from Metal Gear 2, suggested that the term "Metal Gear" was just an affectionate nickname for Heavy Walkers. Metal Gear Solid 4 clarified the issue by saying that the difference between a Metal Gear and a Walking Tank is that the Metal Gears are useful in terms of the global nuclear map, and Walking Tanks (like the Gekkos) are simply weapons. This was probably brought into the canon because the main Metal Gear of Metal Gear Solid 2 was more of a submarine.
  • Policenauts, another Kojima game, referred to its mechas as Extravehicular Mobility Police Suits or EMPS, which are named as such because they're piloted by members of the Advanced Police unit of the Beyond Coast Police.
  • Ring of Red (An early Playstation 2 game, not that problem with your Xbox 360) called them AFW's (Armored Fighting Walkers).
  • In addition to most of the above (i.e.: you may have Mobile Suits, Variable Fighters, and Arm Slaves in the same universe), Super Robot Wars also gives you Personal Troopers and Armored Modules.
    • SRW is pretty much the king of this. They also have Dynamic General Guardians, Elemental Lords, Supermechanical Gods, War machine Dolls, Assault Dragoons, Assault Scouters, Valkyries, Multi Walker and more that we've definitely missed. They invented the terms Super Robot and Real Robot to provide a more general term for the units, and when they need an all-encompassing name they just go ahead and call them mechs.
    • Although justified in that these names are assigned to them by their manufacturers. Personal Troopers were developed by Mao Industries, the Lion series are manufactured by Isurugi Heavy Industries, the Grungust super robot-types originated from the Tesla Leicht Institute, Fremont Industries built Assault Dragoons while Z&R Company develop Valkyries.
    • And in Endless Frontier, denizen of Kagura Amahara use term Karakuri to call all mechs.
  • GOLIATHS IN StarCraft.
    • Starcraft II has introduced the transforming Viking, effectively replacing both Goliaths and Valkyries with a single unit.
    • It also introduced Thor, which is a significantly more humongous mecha.
    • And the Protoss get Dragoons (I), Stalkers (II), Immortals (II) and Colossi (II).
      • Subverted in that StarCraft players call all ground Human mechanical units, mech - there's no in-game generic term for these different models.
    • Checklist completed... SOB.
  • In Total Annihilation, the infantry units (which are essentially mechs) are called KBOTs.
    • Which stands for Kinetic Bio Organic Technology
    • Its spiritual sequel, Supreme Commander, features numerous variations of mechs, all called Bots.
      • Except for the one who actually have human pilots. Those are called ACU and sACU. It stands for (support) Armored Command Unit.
  • The One Must Fall series of robot fighting games called 'em H.A.Rs (Humanoid Assisted Robots), though most characters in-game still referred to them as just robots or "'bots."
  • The SNES game Battle Clash called their mechas Standing Tanks (or S.T.'s for short)
  • The PlayStation game Vanguard Bandits had All-Terrain Armoured Combatants (A.T.A.C.s).
  • Steel Battalion has the Vertical Tanks (VT). This includes Heavy Armor, which otherwise has a very different setting, down to computer-less VTs that actually look more like Walking Tanks.
    • Arguably the most-real Mech video game ever released. (Though it has been called more of a simulator then a video game sometimes) Which comes with a huge custom controller for Mecha interfacing.
  • Exteel has Mechanaughts.
  • Although largely forgotten later on in the series, Mega Man X had the Ride Armors.
  • The old BioWare game Shattered Steel had Planet Runners.
  • Battlefield2142 has Battlewalkers, or just Walkers for short.
  • PlanetSide has the BFRs, fully known as Big F-- err, I mean, Battle Frame Robotics, and nicknamed Biffers by players.
    • And the Mechanized Armored Exo-Suit Powered Armor, abbreviated as MAX
  • Pox's Big Willy.
  • Shogo Mobile Armored Division has MCA, Mobile Combat Armours.
  • Robot Alchemic Drive gives us Meganites for the human controlled robots. The enemy aliens are all called Volgara, but this is more a species name than a type of mech.
  • HOUNDS of Chrome Hounds. Doesn't actually stand for anything, it's a reference to the way squads act like a pack of hounds.
  • Power Loaders in Power Dolls, because these vehicles were built upon, well, heavy loader's chassis.
  • The mechas in Armored Warriors and Cyberbots are called Variant Armors (also misromanized "Valiant Armors").
  • Lost Planet: Extreme Condition has the Vital Suit, or VS. Models range from simple open-cockpit machines to advanced quadrupedal models that can turn into tanks and ones with arms (with hands and mounted chainsaws) and hover jets. Lost Planet 2 adds multi-seaters, tamed Akrid, and even one that can combine with another!
  • Golems in the Wild ARMs series, which have much more in common with Humongous Mecha than, well, Golems.
  • Senko no Ronde has Rounder.
  • Bumpy Trot aka. Steambot Chronicles has Trotmobiles.
  • Metal Fatigue has Combots.
  • Heroes of Might and Magic IV has Dragon Golems as one of the two top tier units of the Order faction. A huge mechanical dragon piloted by dwarves may be called a Golem, but it is a Humongous Mecha.
  • Half-Life 2 and the Episodes have classic HG Wells tripods known as Striders. However, seeing as Dog ripped the brain out of one in Episode 2 they might not be mecha so much as an engineered organic weapon.
    • Bingo. Nearly all Combine forces are species that have been previously enslaved, surgically implanted with weapon systems, and forcibly evolved around them. These various types of semi-organic enemies are collectively referred to as "synth."
  • Final Fantasy VI has Magitek Armor as the most recognizable, but others exist as well.
  • Anise Tatlin of Tales of the Abyss carries a small doll ("Tokunaga") on her back which transforms to mecha-sized proportions when deployed and is controlled by Anise for fighting. Interestingly, there's a wide variety of dolls to be found and equipped for different effect, but Anise will ride Tokunaga even when stripped of all equipment. This is because she cannot otherwise fight (even though she can be equipped with a melee weapon).
  • Demonbane has two types. A mundane Destroyer Robot and Magitek-based Deus Machina.
  • The security robots in Mass Effect 2 are simply referred to as mechs (although only some of them are humongous). The geth in both games use humanoid troopers, four-legged Armature support, scaled-up-humanoid Destroyer units for melee combat, and lizard-like Stalkers for ECM support.
  • In Jak II Renegade, we have the Titan Suit.
  • Metal Warriors for the SNES has Battledroids.


Western Animation

  • Exo Squad calls theirs E-Frames. This was originally short for Exo-Frames, but then the writers found out that Centurions used the name first, and compromises were made. The fact that the pilots are visible from outside is somehwat of a rarity.
  • Transformers has quite a few...
    • First up, Transformers are generally sentient robots that can transform into vehicles and animals, although in the films and Transformers Animated they're not referred in such words (save for the second film, when the former Sector 7 guy calls them that).
    • Vehicons are soulless, mass-produced models controlled by a single commander.
      • Autroopers are similar, but are each partnered with a girl who can kiss it to merge with it and increase its power. Seriously.
    • Targetmasters are a type of Powered Armor that can transform into a Transformer-scale gun.
    • Transtectors are (generally) lifeless bodies that must combine with a smaller being, often of the organic variety, to function.
    • Headmasters in the American continuity are much the same as standard piloted mechs, with the exception that the mech itself has its own mind and soul, which can cause trouble if the body and the pilot don't get along. In the Japanese continuity, it is simply the fusion a (generally) human-sized robot which forms the head of a Transformer-sized Transtector.
      • The Headmasters in the Japan-only Transformers Masterforce manga plays like the American version above: the robots' bodies are Transtectors, and the Headmasters are the humans who transforms into their heads.
      • In Animated the Headmaster unit is something else entirely: namely, a robotic head that cuts off other robots' heads to take over their bodies (and can turn into a small full robot in emergencies).
    • Powermasters (Western name) and Godmasters (Japanese name) are similar to the Masterforce Headmasters, but instead of heads, they transforms into the Transtectors' engines.
    • Similarly, the Japanese Transformers Victory series has Brainmasters, where the smaller driver/pilot becomes the face (and brain) of the larger robot.
  • Beyond the Powered Armor in the Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles, there exist the Marauders, relatively small mechs in two forms - ape or chicken. More of a Mini-Mecha though.
  • The giant robots in Robotix were called, well, robotix. It's a non-pluralizing word, so you'd have one robotix or two robotix.
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