"What is your preferred "Mech" aesthetic?" Topic

Like it says, what's your favorite mech style and why? By Mech I mean anything that moves on legs that is larger than a 40k Dreadnaught. Or put differently, is piloted rather than "worn"

If you've got pics from your collection, that's great also.

For myself, I tend to look to Battletech and other designs that are bulky, and look visually as though they stride or lumber rather than run or fly. This probably is because Battletech was one of the first games I dabbled in when I started wargaming. Also, Exo-Squad -though both flying and "worn", had a similar chunky asthetic and was one of my favorite cartoons as a child.

A few examples would be:

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Having spent many an hour playing mechwarrior and mechwarrior2, on the pc. I have no real preference.
I like both the humanoid and the more "machine" type mechs.
I liked the mecks from those games.

I also enjoyed the gundam series, to watch, but the mecka are probably a bit too stylaised for my personal taste. I like the "function" feel of mechwarriors designs.

Apart from MW/BT, I also like the mix-n-match aspect of the Armored Core series (and more on maneuverability for missions, arena/Pvp battles are another matter entirely :/ )

Cheers!

Macross mechs. Followed by Heavy Gear mechs.

My favourite was the old rifleman. That thing had style.

Walking tank for heavies.

I'm heavily influenced by the old BattleTech Technical Readout 3025, the gold standard for mecha.

The BT Rifleman had it. The BT Warhammer had it.

For lighter mecha, I expect more flair and less tank-like qualities…Locust, Wasp, Stinger, Commando, Jenner, and the Hatchetman.

I agree in that I'm influenced more by Battletech than anything, especially TRO 3025. This is despite liking Anime before I liked Battletech (which is ironic, since the core 12 mechs in TRO 3025 were taken from anime shows -- Dougram, Macross, and Crusher Joe). 2nd up would be mechs that look like they have practical military application (lots of post 3025 mechs don't make this cut unfortunately), so Heavy Gear, etc are good. Try to stay away from Gundams, and other similar style-over-function mechs…

Damon.

Well, I don't like anything really big, so that means VOTOMs,

Patlabor,

and Gasaraki.

Landmates are technically worn.

Rifleman fan here, too.

I love the chunky, clunky "mobile gun platform" aesthetic. This seems to be represented by about half of most BattleTech models.

I dislike anything that's too obviously humanoid…arms, heads, hands (especially hands holding weapons). Along these same lines, I hate anime stylings.

For me its the Retro Raygun look (no surprises there). I like them to have a functional look but still be cool looking. The Daleks of course, Robbie the Robot, or otherwise just big and clanky. Lots of twinkly lights as well.

Some of the modern ones just look souless to me.

The Dust Tactics Walkers are really cool- I definitely like the 'gearkrieg' WWII on steriods look.

that said, I'm also an old Mechwarrior fan.

This is the kind of thing I like.

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I got 3 of the VOTOMs for a song from HLJ for use as mechs with my 15mm troops. Ideal.

G.

I always liked the chicken walkers. Vulture, Madcat, Locust, etc.

All giant walkers make no sense. Therefore, the decision becomes one of relative 'kewlness'and purely subjective.
Chicken walkers seem to give a nod to realism, but upon closer inspection that 'realism' is betrayed, thus I tend toward 'big stompy humanoid death machines'-- the 'flying samuri robotoon' look is TOO over the top for me, however.
I guess that BattleTech is my primary influence, but the actual (new) battletech sculpts are not warlike enough… where are the giant ineffective arrays of weapons?
I love a good game of mecha combat, but one has to approach it as a sort of comedy… I think of it as televised gladitorial entertainment for the bored masses of a corporate-run post-apocalyptic Earth… Huge irrational humanoid designs for the masses to identify with, loud colors, and lots of ineffective weapons and randomly spewing missle salvos.

A vote for the mecha from Macross – love those mecha/models.

That's easy. Just google Mamoru Nagano's The Five Star Stories.

Almost anything other than Battletech mechs god I hate those bland looking things. The Miniatures tend to make them look even worse.

Heavy Gear Jaguar

But used out of context scale/size for them to be larger than men bots or driven mecha.

How about 28mm Daleks used within a 15mm game profile?

I probably run in a wide variety of mech styles, meaning I have no preference. Just a love of mechs smashing everything in sight. Everything from Bubblegum Crisis hardsuits and Starship Troopers powered armor to Gundams and martian war machines.

Shirow's Landmates, which are in size with Dreadnuaghts, Votoms and Heavy Gears, Mecha that can hide in normal sized terrain.

I prefer a semblance of plausibility in mechanical design, once you discount the power to weight ratio and mechanical complexity issues….

Again, just for the looks…in miniature take out of context scale/size 28-32mm miniature used within 15mm game setting

Incursion Grunt Ape miniature…very well done IMO.

The Grindhouse Junk Robots…yes again taken out of scale context, would make great piloted mecha

Personally, I dislike the Patlabor and Gundam styles of mecha, and especially the newer Battletech designs. I prefer the older Macross mecha and the Reaper CAV mechs, with their more angular, business-like builds.

Old BT and tanks with legs. Love the clunk look.There's more stuff, like comparing a PzII on campaign to a T34. Doodads, clunk and stuff, that's what I like.

Macross, Gundam O.Y.W., VOTOMS for Science Fiction, Panzer World Galient and Escaflowne for mecha fantasy.

Al | ravenfeastsmeadhall.blogspot.com

If it's anything bigger than a Landmate suit of armor then I'll opt for the really huge and silly stuff of 5 Star Stories and Mazinger Z.
Battletech never appealed to me because they didn't go with the wackness of the idea.

Those Grindhouse Junk robots snapped me back to 1982.

Get the humanoid! Intruder alert, intruder alert!

Let's see, a dozen of those things plus a smiley faced super bounce ball…

A dozen of them with painted smiley faces, the eye being one eye of the face…maybe the other face eye winking :)

for me, the classic mech is the original warhammer from classic battletech, even just the silouette.

Quality.

Phil

I like all kinds of mecha, but favor Gundam mechs…but only the "worn" looking Grizzled Gundams & GMs, Eastfront Zakus and Doms, and Battered Titanic NeoGeos…like in various manga from Mokoto Kobayoshi and Kazuhisa Kondo. No bright colors, no pretty boys, no idol singers…just hard core mecha sporting gear, Zimmeritt paste, and giant Panzerfausts.

The mecha from M. Kobayoshi's other projects like "Dragon's Heaven" and "AS Wars" have a style I really like. Sadly, I have really dirty up and mod my 6mm mecha(I turned some of my Heavy Gear mechs into Zaku-like machines) to get the look I like…I really got to learn how to sculpt.

Power-to-weight issues for a Landmate? I could build a landmate today (at least the walking part of it) and it will weigh less than 8000lbs, armored to bounce 14.5mm. Human power-to-weight is roughly 60lb/hp at adrenaline-dump levels, so that 8000lb Landmate would need 150ish horsepower for Olympic-athlete comparable performance. That's a single 1000cc motorcycle engine (or a 2 liter car engine).

Or you can do some SERIOUS overpowering, but then you need to worry about injuring the pilot. The USMC's EFV/Advanced AAV had an engine that could push 2500 horsepower for about 10 minutes, but was only rated for about 250 sustained. Having a 150hp landmate with the capability to push 1500 horsepower for short periods of time would be about right, since humans normally run at .25hp unless they are in fight-or-flight. Olympic athletes have been measured at 2.5hp for a sprint or single weight-lift.

Doesn't sound so bad now, does it. Keep in mind, I'm talking about the little mechs, not 100-ton monsters.

I love the Japanese version of the battletech ostsol (and I hate the normal ostsol!)

or any of the studio nue battlemechs really
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Even though I know that they would have to have Stupid Huge amounts of power (and be built out of incredibly light and strong materials – materials that would make carbon fiber or nano-tubes look whimpy) to be able to move the way they do (such as dancing around on the decks of ships), these are still some of my favorite mecha.

The Rebuild of Evangelion scene with the second or third angel (the reflective one) where Shinji has to shoot the Angel with the Gigantic gun while Asuka shields him is just freaking cool.

Macross, Crusher Joe, Votoms and Fang of the sun:Dougram designs. Nothing else (Heavy gears are closer to Votoms than to battlemechs).

Didn't like macross II's designs, or evangelion or anything newer.

Chicken walkers with weapons in place of arms.

I strongly dislike humanoid mechs and any mech with arms.

I go for the BT Warhammer & Rifleman types.

Then do you dislike this guy???

YouTube link

Admittedly, he (or it) is still a long way from human identity, but Petman is still the currently most advanced autonomous humanoid robot around (in terms of pure skeleto-musculature).

Eventually, we will need to replace the hydraulics with something a little more fluid and capable of withstanding blows (hydraulics suck for that). There are two very good systems that are being developed that use a combination of Electro-Reactive Polymers and motorized actuators (the polymers give an elasticity that varies depending upon their rigidity, and the motors/actuators provide the strength).

But as I have said elsewhere, Petman (and associated humanoid robots) are basically in the Apple][+ stage of their development. Give them 20 years and people will be doing all sorts of things with them:

• Making Mecha
• Having sex (with them – actually, they already do this)
• Using them for dangerous jobs that people tend to be better at doing

And so on…

Warhammer, rifleman (battle tech)and Heavy gear works for me.

Yep, Warhammer, Rifleman, Shadow Hawk/Wolverine/Griffon and of course the Heavy Gear stuff. I liked the first wave of ClanTech Omnimechs (esp. Timberwolf and Vulture), but they were quite similar to the "unseen" designs in many ways.

I like a number of Jovian Chronicles designs too, but most Gundam stuff is too "toy like" for my tastes. Strangely, I really like Patlabors, but I don't know how much of that is tied up in my fondness for the series.

I do like my Mechs to have closed hulls though. The mechs from that Matrix movie didn't do it for me at all.

The "Avatar" Pandora mechs were not bad, but they mostly made me want a Heavy Gear movie really badly. (Though I fear it would turn out like the TV show, not like the RPG fiction.)

Trebuchet
First mech I fell in love with

While I have a particular softspot for infantry walkers like VOTOMS and Full Metal Panic's Armslaves, the humble Geshpents are the greatest of the military mechs.

The contrast between the stylings of the anime-inspired Unseen mechs and stuff like the Javelin or Locust are pretty stark. Kind of odd that some of the best walking tanks and humanoid mechs are all Japanese.

Full Metal Panic's ArmSlaves are pretty decent.

I can't recall the name of the Manga, but there are some other Mecha that are more slender, like in Evangelion that I also have a thing for.

I guess that I should also point out any Mecha that Masamune Shirow has done.

Slender Mecha? RahXephon, Dead Aggressor Fafner, Lelouch of the Rebellion, Genesis of Aquarion, and several of the newer Gundam series (00's Union Flags in particular). Just off the top of my head.

I still prefer my mecha smaller, not more than 6m tall.

I have a distinct preference for giant, Super Robots over their smaller cousins, but if I'm doing military sci-fi (even at a 1 on the Hardness scale) I tend to stick to infantry walkers and robots of the several floor high variety.

As much as I love the likes of the Mazingers, Getter Robo, Dygenguard, and similar, I maintain that Godlike firepower, armor, and speed really have no place on a miniature games table. Well, maybe it'd be ok if I was playing a giant robot version of Herohammer…

'Even though I know that they would have to have Stupid Huge amounts of power (and be built out of incredibly light and strong materials – materials that would make carbon fiber or nano-tubes look whimpy) to be able to move the way they do (such as dancing around on the decks of ships), these are still some of my favorite mecha.

The Rebuild of Evangelion scene with the second or third angel (the reflective one) where Shinji has to shoot the Angel with the Gigantic gun while Asuka shields him is just freaking cool.'

I'm not sure I'd classify Eva as mecha. I know I know, everyone thinks they're giant robots. Getting down to it, they're really more like a human in battle armour with cybernetic implants. The pilot acts like a program to make it run as those cybernetic components and the armour act together to enslave the creature itself, limiting or utterly stopping it's ability to act on it's own. In the second rebuild movie in fact, you see them putting an eva through a giant CAT scan machine.

That said. I love mass-produced, practical types. Easily, the MS-06 series of the Zakus are my favourite mecha Just about all variants of it too. I liked alot of the Gundam 00 designs too. Very low-tech and plausible looking.

Technically speaking, the EVAs are eldritch abominations in armor, capable of bending local reality via their Absolute Territory (Terror) fields. So yeah, they're not mecha, but appear to have Real Robot trappings.

Shoot, in the second rebuild movie Maria releases the limiters to activate 'beast' mode (and still gets her butt kicked, but it takes Shinji kicking off Third Impact to put that Angel down).

Evangelions are enslaved angels. Nothing more, nothing less. When your world demands that kind of power for continued survival, you're screwed.