Meta Mecha: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

There is a school of thought that supposes that part of the appeal of [[Humongous Mecha]] is... well, being humongous. A giant robot fight in the middle of a city or far above the earth allows for martial arts action coupled with lots of [[Rocket Punch|crazy]] [[Macross Missile Massacre|weaponry]], and [[Hero Insurance|plenty of property damage]]. However, now that the show's winding down and all the opponents are either dead or [[Defeat Means Friendship|good]], the [[Big Bad]] [[Eldritch Abomination]] or [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]] of the day has shown up, and... well, it's kind of ''extra'' humongous. What's the solution?

 

Compare with [[Combining Mecha]] and the [[Mecha Expansion Pack]].

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

 

* The [[Ur Example]] is the Gordian, from the show of the same name, a dude inside a [[Motion Capture Mecha]] inside a [[Motion Capture Mecha]] inside ''another'' [[Motion Capture Mecha]]. The design was later reused with some modifications as Vi-Kungfu from ''[[Machine Robo]]: Revenge of Chronos'', but with one less mecha.

* ''[[Gundam SEED Astray]]'', as well. Initially, when Lowe makes the 150 Gabera Straight (which, by the way, ''re''-redefines the [[BFS]] - it's an orbital [[Katanas Are Just Better|katana]] ''150 meters long''), he has to put his Astray Red Frame into a Junk Guild Power Loader (pictured above) just to swing it.

* ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]] '' has the Space Ganmen, which are essentially up-scaled Ganmen capable of fighting and moving in space and piloted by regular Ganmen, which are then piloted by humans.

** The show practically runs on this trope (In addition to the standard [[Hot-Blooded]] fare and universe-powering [[Rule of Cool]]) as it's essentially the major signature power of the Lagann - a smaller head-shaped robot compared to the standard Ganmen, it can drill itself into larger robots and take command of them. So, really. In the end, we have a human piloting a robot about the size of a human co-piloting a mech the size of a building {{spoiler|piloting a robot the size of an entire city, piloting a robot the size of the MOON, co-piloting a robot who is measured in ''light-years''.}}

*** [[Memetic Mutation|Yo dawg, I heard you like Mechs, so I put a mech in your mech in your mech in your mech, so you can pilot a mech while you pilot a mech while you pilot a mech while you pilot a mech]].

*** [[Overly Long Gag|We need a Bigger Drill!]].

* ''[[Getter Robo]]'' has the [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|awesome]]-slash-[[Nightmare Fuel]] ability to crash into any material, including organic masses and then reform them around itself into a larger Getter with the original buried in the center.

* ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]'' has the Black Selena, a mecha inside a mecha inside a ship.

* Many of [[Iron Man]]'s special suits are designed to be piloted by Tony while wearing his regular suit, like the Hulkbuster suits.

 

 

 

== Live Action TV ==

 

* The ''[[Mekton]] Plus'' expansion from ''Mekton Zeta'' has this as one of many, many options for its mecha. Of course, that expansion is basically rules for every giant robot trope in history, from [[Transforming Mecha|transforming]], to [[Combining Mecha|gattai-ing]], to [[Organic Technology|organic ones]], so this should hardly be seen as a surprise.

 

== Video Games ==

 

* The Huckebein Mk III from ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' is able to equip a suit of [[Powered Armor]] called the Boxer Frame. The frame can also detach and transform into a ''flying surfboard'', just [[Rule of Cool|for the hell of it]].

** Surf''sword'', actually. It was constructed from an incomplete mech intended to become a sword for the [[Combining Mecha|SRX]].

* Fortress Maximus, of ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]''. A Headmaster, he was too big for a human to transform into his head. So an intermediate robot was made, called Cerebros. His partner, Spike, turned into Cerebros's head, and Cerebros then turned into Fort Max's head.

** Headmasters in general are this, being small robots that [[Transforming Mecha|transform]] into the heads for bigger ones. Some of them appear in later toylines.

* ''[[Transformers Victory]]'' features the Brainmasters, which are small robots that turn into the faces of larger robots. [[The Hero|Saber]] then gets extra stuff on him to become Star Saber, and [[Mid-Season Upgrade|later]] combines with Victory Leo to become Victory Saber.

* ''[[Transformers Animated]]'', the Autobots' ship transforms in to a huge mecha called Omega Supreme. He has a mind of his own and an interior control console, so it's hard to say how much control the pilot has.

** To elaborate: he's programming is pretty much "kill everything that you are told". So {{spoiler|second Autobot is needed to identify targets...}}

** This seems to be series tradition for Omega Supreme, the toy of the ''[[Transformers Energon|Energon]]'' has a head that can turn into a small robot itself. (The plug for it doubles as a spare, comically tiny head.)

* The first episode of ''[[Megas XLR]]'' presents the ultimate weapon of the Glorft: the UMD, a [[Combining Mecha]] made up of [[Combining Mecha]] that were already made up of full-sized [[Humongous Mecha]]. In short, [[Finger-Poke of Doom|it flicks Megas away with its finger]].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Mecha Tropes]]