History Main / AmbiguousRobots

* In ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', the [[spoiler:HumongousMecha turn out to be not only [[UnroboticReveal organic]] but also forcibly trapped in the mech suits, in order to limit their power]]. It's very difficult to tell where the technology ends and the organic bits begin.

* In ''Anime/ArmitageIII'' "Thirds" are frequently said to be robots and we know they are artificially created and but [[spoiler:they are capable of bearing children]] so who knows how you're supposed to classify them.
* Section 9's cyborg police from ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell''. Are they humans with cybernetic implants or robots with organic parts? [[ContemplateOurNavels They even wonder themselves.]]
* ''Anime/DoraemonNobitaAndTheGalaxySuperExpress'' have the titular Super-Express' conductor, a cuddly alien who appears to be organic, but is mentioned [[AllThereInTheManual in magazines, promotional materials and the wiki]] as a robot. It's never confirmed within the film (or manga), so whether said character is a robot or not is still unknown.
* A lot of ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' are like this. Some are Cyborgs by classification but apparently lack any organic parts (like Kendo Garurumon and Jager Loweemon) whereas others are never specifically referred to as robotic at all, yet for all intents and purposes appear to be mecha (most of the Royal Knights are like this, as well as a good majority of other mega level Digimon).
* The "Bird Human" from ''Anime/MacrossZero''. It's been dormant for thousands of years, and it reattaches its head without issue using metallic clamps, but it moves like a living creature, and its "cockpit" interface is clearly organic. [[spoiler:The Protoculture built it as an attempt to imitate the biotechnology of the [[Anime/MacrossFrontier Vajra]], perhaps explaining its living characteristics.]]
* The "boomers" from ''[[Anime/BubblegumCrisis Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040]]'', when they are functioning normally they look like normal metallic humanoid robots, but when they go berserk their features "melt" and gain teeth and/or combat tentacles, there was even one episode dealing with an engineered creature that preyed and devoured rogue boomers.
* The Klaxosaurs from ''Anime/DarlingInTheFranxx'' are never outright described by the cast as biological or mechanical. While they have blood and pursue food in the form of the titular mechs' "Magma Energy" fuel, they also seem to be [[SiliconBasedLife made of some kind of living metal]], sport TronLines, and feature mechanical bits like drills, thrusters, laser cannons, and tank treads. They also have a nasty habit of transforming mid-fight, which would either make them TransformingMecha or [[VoluntaryShapeshifting Voluntary Shapeshifters.]]

* In ''Webcomic/{{Overside}}'', the Machine Men are this. It's eventually (in the second full-length story) established that they're the metal descendants of rock {{golem}}s.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'', Victor Mancha was created by Ultron to pass for a human, with a blend of organic and mechanical parts that was supposed to skew towards organic as he reached maturity, so that he would be indistinguishable from a human by the time he became an adult. This has led to some debate in-universe about his status, as demonstrated during ''ComicBook/CivilWar2006'', when ComicBook/{{SHIELD}} declared that he was a machine and thus they could use lethal ordinance against him.

[[folder:Films - Animated]]

[[folder:Films - Live-Action]]
* Creator/RidleyScott loves this trope:
** The Replicants in ''Film/BladeRunner''. [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots They appear to be organic]], but are they robots or genetically engineered humans? We never really get a look at their insides.
** ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' has several examples:
*** The Xenomorphs. Are they organic? Who knows? They are shiny metallic, with wires and tubes and acid instead of blood. The ambiguity in this example adds to the mystery and haunting power of the films.
*** The androids ([[spoiler:Science Officer Ash]] in the [[Film/{{Alien}} first movie]], Bishop in the [[Film/{{Aliens}} second movie]], and [[spoiler:Analee Call]] in [[Film/AlienResurrection the fourth]]) seem to tend toward robot, but any time they're wounded, we see some inhuman-but-possibly-organic guts. Even the actor Lance Henrikson, who played Bishop, can't decide whether his character is a human or a robot, depending on when you ask him.
* The Chitauri as they appear in ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}''. They appear to be mostly organic with a few cybernetic enhancements, [[spoiler:yet the entire army is killed when their mothership is blown up, shutting them down like robots]].
* The alien in ''Film/{{Virus}}'' appears to be [[EnergyBeing a creature made of electrical energy]], but can interface with computers and directly control them. It then creates bizarre robots that incorporate the bodies and organs of the crew of the ship it has taken over. Moreover, it's never really stated ''why'' these machines use organic components.

* ''Film/TheSuperInframan'' have the last two monsters, the Twin Iron Robots, who seems to be mechanical but has a humanoid appearance. They could be either robots or MechanicalLifeforms (since the villainess has an array of monsters of various types) but the film doesn't confirm if they're actual robots or not.
* Arguably the entire visual point of ''Film/TetsuoTheIronMan'' and its sequels.
* In the commentary for ''Film/StarTrek2009'', Creator/JJAbrams can't decide if the police officer chasing young Kirk is an android or a human wearing armour.

** A short story concerning a hunt for a lost planet that functioned as a psychology experiment. Robots, "with much simpler bodies than our own," were implanted with the laws of psychology and were unknowing of their status as robots. Right up until it is mentioned that [[spoiler: [[EarlyAllAlong New York is one of the cities on the planet]]]].
** "{{Literature/Evidence}}": Steven Byerley is running for mayor, but his opponents claim that he's a robot made after the original was paralyzed in a car crash. He publicly proves his humanity by punching a heckler which the [[ThreeLawsCompliant Three Laws of Robotics]] wouldn't allow him to do. The end of the story points out that [[spoiler:the heckler may have also been a robot, and injuring other robots is not forbidden by the Three Laws]].

* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' raises similar questions about [[spoiler:Earth]], since it was [[spoiler:part of a computer designed to find the ultimate question of Life, The Universe and everything.]] Considering that [[spoiler:humanity is revealed in the second book to be descended from aliens tricked into leaving their own planet]], concerns are lessened somewhat.
* The Spiders from the ''Literature/QuadrailSeries''.

** Bioloids: Bio-robots or artificially constructed cyborgs? It's hard to tell. Similar to the example of the Androids in ''Alien'', in that they are clearly artificial, but their inner workings appear to be at least partially organic and their name only reinforces this ambiguity.

* The Cylons in ''Series/BattlestarGalactica1978'' started out like this: the original idea was that they were reptilian beings in armored robot-like suits, but that idea got nixed when they were established as the robotic descendants of a reptilian race.
* The Cylons in ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' ended up like this: various examples run the gamut from straight-up robots to bio-mechanical hybrids of various flavors to RidiculouslyHumanRobots.
* On ''Series/TheGoodPlace'', Janets are type of supernatural entity with robot-like traits -- such as a desire to serve, a limited emotional range, and AmbiguousGenderIdentity. Janets, and especially the series's main Janet, are quick to correct people that they are "not a robot" and "not a girl", but they never get around to saying what exactly they *are*.
* In ''Series/HisDarkMaterials'' we have the Spyflies. They resemble mechanical beetles that are programmed to hunt targets and sting them with sleeping venom. However, they are completely outside the realm of technology seen within the series, and act more like insects than mechanical drones. In the books they're what can only be described as ClockPunk MagiTek devices said to have [[OurSpiritsAreDifferent bad spirits]] inside them.
* The mirror monsters in ''Series/KamenRiderRyuki'' all have a mechanical appearance, yet they display [[ImAHumanitarian an instinctual compulsion to prey upon humans]] and dissapate into energy when killed.

** For the first few years, it seemed that most of the characters were MechanicalLifeforms, but they were later revealed to have some organic components such as muscle and lung tissue (meaning they're technically {{cyborg}}s). Just to highlight this trope, there's another setting where the ratio is reversed: characters are mostly organic with some cybernetic enhancements. Yet, thanks in part to [[TwentyFourHourArmor always wearing heavy armor]], the mostly-organic characters don't look much different from the mostly-robotic ones.
*** The stories and novels imply this might not be the case in-universe: when a Bara-Magna native (mostly organic) sees the Matoran for the first time, he initially mistakes them for robots, except that their movements are too smooth for them to be purely mechanical. By contrast, when the Toa first encounter Gresh, they mistake him for some kind of monster created by Makuta. This despite the fact that the only noticable difference between their ''sets'' is their heads. In another story, Gelu, another Bara-Magnan, comments on the fact that the Toa's eyes are essentially just machines (yet still capable of reflecting emotion), suggesting that organic beings have more "normal" eyes than what their figures and visual mediums would've suggested.

* DependingOnTheWriter and the continuity, ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' can sometimes fall under this trope: Some versions of their origin story say they're a constructed race of robots that might or might not have been slaves who TurnedAgainstTheirMasters, others portray them as MechanicalLifeForms that [[MechanicalEvolution somehow evolved naturally]]. Whichever version is true, their creation happened so far into the past that it's not just ancient history but ''paleontology'' to the Cybertronians themselves.

* Music/{{Vocaloid}}s: RidiculouslyHumanRobots, ArtificialHumans, clones or just teenagers with a number tattooed on one shoulder because it looks cool? [[ShrugOfGod Not even their creators know.]]

* TabletopGame/YuGiOh: Number 6: Chronomaly Atlandis and its evolution Number C6: Chronomaly Chaos Atlandis are both Machine-Type monsters. However, both have no apparent mechanical parts, save for the ring around Chronomaly Atlandis' chest, with both of them being massive golems made of magma and earth.

* ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'' has the Songbird, a giant seemingly robotic bird. Jeremiah Fink's laboratory suggest that there is a living creature inside, possibly human, but it is never explained how much of a living person and how much of a mechanical bird it is. [[spoiler:Songbird dies by drowning but then, he may simply not be waterproof]]. Very little of its backstory is given, but its technology is [[AlternateSelf equivalent to]] the cyborg Big Daddies of ''VideoGame/BioShock1'' and it has a "personality". On the other hand, it's far larger than a human being can be, exists in a setting where crude [=AIs=] are commonplace as turrets and floating gun platforms, and it can be controlled via a flute.
* ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}'': The Vex have mechanical bodies and are linked by a network, but their "brains" are a soup of microbes called radiolaria. Microbes that evolved to be capable of computation and constructing mechanical bodies.
* The titular villain's foot soldiers from ''VideoGame/ShadowMaster'' are either aliens, or robots, which isn't explained in-game. They ''appear'' robotic, but their mechanical parts could be armour and when you close in on them you can vaguely see organic facial features. The game running on BloodlessCarnage where organic enemies have death animations like the foot soldiers doesn't help.
* ''VideoGame/ShadowOfTheColossus'': The Colossi are either gigantic robots of stone, or huge hairy monsters. The mechanical faces of the Colossi are clearly artificial, but parts of their bodies are quite biological.

** In one of the endings of ''Mass Effect 3'', [[spoiler:all life in the galaxy becomes this, as organic and synthetic life are joined to become some new sort of hybrid with characteristics of both.]]
** In-universe, nobody is sure if the Citadel's Keepers are genetically engineered creatures, aliens that are incapable or refuse to speak to the new inhabitants, or are bio-mechanical constructs built by the station. The second game implies they were one of the first races harvested by the Reapers and repurposed as a slave workforce for the Citadel, much like [[spoiler:the Protheans]] were later converted into the Collectors. As Mordin so aptly noted about the latter;
--->'''Mordin''': No glands, replaced by tech. No digestive system, replaced by tech. No ''soul'', [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul replaced by tech!]]

* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'': Pretty much ''all'' the Synths used by the Combine. Especially the Strider, which looks like a giant insect, moves around very fluidly, has internal organs (shown when Dog rips out one's brain), and appears to shriek in pain when it dies. It also has a gun growing out of it. In general, Synths are implied to be living creatures forcibly converted into cyborgs by the Combine, much like what they're doing to humans, but often it's hard to tell where organic flesh ends and machinery begins.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'': This is pretty much the dominant design aesthetic. We know that the military 'militarizes' wild animals, making them more robotic, but it's unclear how far this process extends. The wild animals often have a somewhat robotic appearance to begin with, and the 'robots' that don't have wild counterparts generally still have animalistic designs. And the [[PhysicalGod fal'Cie]] look like impossible creatures of living stone and metal.
* ''VideoGame/MegaManLegends'':
** Pretty much everyone. Cybernetics are so widespread in this world that it's impossible to tell for sure who is a robot and who is a human.
** Its later revealed, [[spoiler:all the humans are actually "carbons" or "decoys" in Japan, which are human beings descended from [[ArtificialHuman Artificially created]] humans. Exactly what separates carbons from regular humans is never revealed, though it has been revealed they are biologically more related to humans than robots such as reploids.]]
** There ''used'' to be a species of humans of ambiguous mechanical-biological ratio in ''VideoGame/MegaManZX'', after they combined into one species with Reploids (they were called "humans" for short, as far as we can tell in the Legends backstory), but those went extinct long ago, [[spoiler: leaving behind artificial creations and [[AIIsACrapshoot several superpowered killer robots designed to wipe out all the Carbons]] [[CrapsackWorld periodically to keep them at a low level of development and presumably to make them better servants for the now-extinct human-reploid hybrids]]]].
** Bon Bonne is treated as the brother of the obviously human/carbon, Tiesel and Tron, but appears to be a MiniMecha. Is he a baby in a mech suit, a cyborg with a baby brain or a robot with the AI of a baby?
** [[spoiler:Mega Man Trigger himself]]. On one hand he's referred to as a purifier unit, and treated as a robot. Yet it's also said that he regressed into an infant form at one point, and is physically indistinguishable from a carbon.

** In ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear Solid 2|SonsOfLiberty}}'' the automated Metal Gear [=RAY=]s in the Arsenal Gear bleed out red "lubrication fluid" when shot.
** The Geckos in ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear Solid 4|GunsOfThePatriots}}'' appear to be giant organic legs with an [[Franchise/StarWars AT-ST]] head on top. They bellow like cattle when entering combat and spew black fluid when "killed". The background establishes that a Gekko's legs are produced from ungulate stem cells grown into legs, and the fluid they leak when hit between the legs, particularly in ''[[VideoGame/{{Metal Gear Rising|Revengeance}} Revengence]]'', is the lactic acid that builds up in the muscles.
** In ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear Rising|Revengeance}}'' both automated [=RAYs=] and Gekkos are types of UG (Unmanned [Metal] Gear) piloted by an AI, but instead of a computer they use an "optical-neuro" brain structurally similar to human brains. Most [=UGs=] are almost animals (Raptors briefly go "feral" when one of their own is killed for example) while the far more complicated Bladewolf (whose brain has 90 billion neural connections, more than a human brain) arguably has a more human mind than some of the supposed humans, who all have nanomachines modifying their thoughts and emotions.
*** The FinalBoss looks human on the outside despite a mechanical nature that he can turn on and off at will, and unlike the cyborg characters there's no clue or hint of where his body ends and where the cybernetics begin, or if there's even a distinction at all. Calling Doktor has him talk about theories regarding a centrally controlled "colony" of nanomachines molded into a human shape, but it's clear that's only speculation. This is even invoked to an extent, as said boss [[spoiler:is a senator running for president]] and thus couldn't have any manner of visible augments; what he got instead had even Raiden's intel providers completely fooled until the [[SuperStrength mecha-wrecking fists]] start flying.

* Cyrax, Sektor, and Cyborg Smoke from ''Franchise/MortalKombat''.
** Triborg from ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'' is even more confusing. Hypothetically he's a robot running copies of the three above cyborgs as software, but he still has a human skeleton and organs visible when "X-Ray" moves and fatalities are performed on him, suggesting a human body of some sort was used in his creation.
* ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'':
** The debates over whether the Starmen are robots or aliens in space suits have been going on ''forever''. The actual in-game mechanics mostly make no difference, [[BottledHeroicResolve sudden guts pills]] and refuels both work on robots and humans alike.[[note]]Starmen can use pills on other robots, and Poo's "mirror" ability allows him to copy an Atomic Power Robot and refuel allies.[[/note]] The Starmen, however, are unaffected by the Rust Promoter, which is effective against mechanical enemies. Worth noting in this context is the visual resemblance of Starmen to Gort, the robot from ''Film/TheDayTheEarthStoodStill1951''.
** The underwater "oxygen machines" used by the Pigmask army in ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER 3}}'' outwardly appear to be typical mermen (Though there's also a land-based centaur model). The fact that they're later shown conversing with one another only makes things more confusing.
* ''VideoGame/SpiralKnights'', the main species of the game were mistaken for MechanicalLifeforms for the longest time due to the energy system.
* The [[AlienInvasion Scrin]] from ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberiumWars'' appear to be attack drones in the form of various insects, whose weaponry and technological parts are not so much added to them as to be part of their body in the first place. At the same time, they appear to have blood, and various [[AllThereInTheManual in game sources]] mention selective breeding.
* In ''Videogame/{{Warframe}}'', it's not clear how much of a Warframe is organic, how much of it is the Tenno operator, and how much of it is mechanical. Vauban has obvious mechanical bits and looks like a dude wearing a heavy coat and a hat, while frames like Saryn or Zephyr look more like they're grown from the Technocyte virus. [[BodyHorror And then there's Nidus.]] [[spoiler:The story quest [[WhamEpisode The Second Dream]] reveals that the Tenno is not even present in the Warframe, but instead pilots it remotely from a distance through a process known as 'Transference'. However, the climax of the same quest also sees a Warframe apparently acting on its own accord to save its Tenno, which just raises the question of what ''is'' inside it.]] The various Infested Mutalist enemies are grown from robots infected by the technocyte virus, leading to mechanical monstrosities that spew out bile yet short out when killed.
** It's revealed in the quest ''The Sacrifice'' that [[spoiler:Warframes are humans infested with a strain of Technocyte called "Helminth," which renders a body unrecognizable and devoid of will, though not personality. The Warframe is then built onto this mutant body, which the Tenno takes control of and channels void abilities though Transference. The [[MatterReplicator Foundry]] can synthesize a Warframe on the molecular level, recreating it in precise detail - even, if given a complete enough blueprint (like an Orokin Vitruvian device), down to the memories and thoughts it had at the time of scanning.]]

* The Karmakeeper, the main character of ''VideoGame/KarmaflowTheRockOperaVideoGame'' is a sort of floating rhombus shaped thing with TronLines and HotWings, has no other visible limbs, [[HeroicMute doesn't make a sound]] and a horned head. The only other character that looks like that is the resident tutorial and ability giver, while the rest appear much more but still vaguely humanoid and organic. [[spoiler:At the end, it is at least confirmed the Karmakeeper is a constructed being]].
* The Engi of ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight'' are sentient clusters of {{nanomachines}}, but whether they were artificially created or are simply MechanicalLifeforms is unclear.
* ''[[VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet Pokémon Violet]]'' has [[spoiler:its version-specific "Paradox Pokémon", offshoots of contemporary Pokémon hailing from the distant future that look robotic in nature. The game's cover Legendary, Miraidon, looks like a robotic offshoot of Cyclizar, for instance. Further obfuscating things is the fact that, except for Iron Treads, none of the Future Pokémon are Steel-type.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'': Zenyatta, Bastion, and Orisa are clearly robots and Genji is frequently mentioned as being a cyborg, but for much of the other cast it's unclear which body parts, if any, are artificial and not just covered by armor. Examples include any of Pharah's arms and legs, [=McCree=]'s left arm, Hanzo's right forearm and feet, Torbjörn's left arm, Reinhardt's entire armor-clad body, Symmetra's left arm, and Lúcio's body below the waist.
* With the way Caldarius from ''VideoGame/{{Battleborn}}'' constantly wears his suit, many characters through various lines think he's actually some sort of robot or possibly a mech piloted by [[{{Lilliputians}} something small]]. While it's just a suit he wears as far as anyone can tell, it's interesting to note that he is according to various parts of his lore and even from [[http://www.gamespot.com/articles/meet-the-villain-of-ps4-xbox-one-pc-shooter-battle/1100-6430814/ the devs themselves]], Caldarius is not a pure blood Jennerit. He is actually a Kemessian, a species which is not exactly fully specified in detail other than some ambiguous hints.
* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'': The three cores of the Trinity Processor, Ontos, Logos, and Pneuma (AKA [[spoiler: Alvis, Malos, and Pyra/Mythra]]) undoubtedly were machines initially, but whether they remained that way or ascended into something more by the time the first two games took place is unclear. In particular, Pneuma, [[spoiler: both forms of her,]] is capable of bearing biological children.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Evolve}}'', several of the monsters that appear only in background stories and concept art have mechanical parts. [[spoiler: This is result of the monsters creating their physical forms out of anything they understand enough to make. Once they assimilated a human mind in the form of Kala they were fully capable of growing AI cores and energy weapons just as easily as flesh and bone.]]
* ''VideoGame/IllWill2023'' has the "Spider" enemies, who, despite their names, are not actual spiders but mechanical eyeballs on robotic spider-legs. However, they spill red blood when killed like several organic enemies. The fact that there's ''another'' unnamed MechaMook-type enemy that explodes in sludge doesn't help either.
* The Metal Heads of ''VideoGame/JakAndDaxter'' are an even split of biological and mechanical. They have rather bestial forms ranging from gorillas to scorpions and are born via egg clusters, but they have clear mechanical elements in their bodies. Many of these elements are used for weapons and in some cases, flight, meaning that they don't require vehicles at all and instead have specialized units to fulfill those roles.
* ''Videogame/TheSecretWorld:'' The Pyramidion, the Illuminati leader. You never see him, but his near-omniscient SinisterSurveillance, excellent planning capacity, his CreepyMonotone and [[CloudCuckoolander his proclivity for slightly old memes and weird intercom announcements mixed in with his advice and nonchalant memories and recommendations]] make it a little difficult to decide what he is; he's either [[TheWonka an extremely competent, very relaxed and fairly loopy man]] or [[AIIsACrapshoot a bizarre AI construct using a Text-to-speech program]].
* Some of ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'''s more mechanical Octarian enemies fall under this. While it’s explained that the bosses are mechanical weapons, each controlled by a sentient tentacle, there are times when it’s unclear how much of them is truly inorganic. For example, the Octostomp is carried by a realistic pair of legs attached to the bottom, the Octonozzle has tentacle suckers sticking out from the sides, and the Octo Oven contains loaves of bread with faces -- apparently, Octarians ''baked into'' the bread.
* Steel Soul Jinn from ''VideoGame/HollowKnight'' is fully covered in metal and act very robotic, but little about her true nature is revealed.
* Mimi from ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'' certainly looks and acts like a person, but her [[OneWingedAngel spider form]] has gears coming out of the side of her head. In general, Mimi is an ambiguous figure due to her MultipleChoicePast, and the game doesn't exactly confirm which of the theories surrounding her true nature is correct.

* Lisa Basil, the head of the programming company Blue Screens, Inc. in ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyTrialsAndTribulations'' looks and acts like a RobotGirl and is described as [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial "most definitely not a robot"]] in the Court Record.

[[folder:Web Original]]

* ''WebVideo/DrGlaucomflecken'': Ophthalmologist's Scribes, called Jonathans, need to be recharged every night, don't speak, are able to do massive amounts of work within seconds, and can be packed in suitcases when traveling . However, they look human, and WordOfGod says that they can be fed.

* The creators of ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' deliberately blurred the line between organic and mechanical with Jack's enemies in order to get around the censors, because killing a living thing is deemed not okay, but destroying a robot is, even if it's clearly sentient. As such, any part that Jack actually cuts will turn out to be cybernetic, and anything he kills will be a robot.
* In ''WesternAnimation/GadgetBoyAndHeather'', the writers apparently can't make up their mind on whether Gadget Boy is a fully artificial robot designed after WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget, or a cyborg. RobotDog G9 has the same problem, although it's less pronounced.
* [[spoiler:Sari Sumdac]] in ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'', being the end result of a Cybertronian protoform scanning a human being as its alt-mode.
* Quite a few creatures in the original ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'': The Quintessons, the Morphobot plants, and the giant egg creature from "The Secret of Omega Supreme." And many of the alien races from Season 3 look vaguely robotic.
* In ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' both the Maximals and Predacons acquire "Beast Modes" that allow them to endure exposure to energon radiation. It is unclear how organic they are this point, but Rhinox is seen eating at one point, and Tarantulus devours rats and mice on more than one occasion. In ''WesternAnimation/BeastMachines'' the Maximals get "reformatted" into what the show explicitly refers to as techno-organic beings. The Maximals are all based on animals, though Botanica the robot PlantPerson, joins later.
* The Gems of ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' look [[RubberForeheadAliens pretty human]] but were quickly revealed to be *[[TechnoBabble deep breath]]* pseudo-organic HardLight bodies projected by a pseudo-magic rock. Later, they were revealed to not only use [[HeartDrive cores]] based on the same principles as their technology, but to actually manufacture those bodies for specific purposes and have specific product lines, putting the gems somewhere between StarfishAliens and StarfishRobots, depending on how you define robot. The show's own creator, perhaps jokingly, [[https://www.cbr.com/rebecca-sugar-interview-on-the-end-of-steven-universe referred to them as]] "solar-powered robots".

* Tecna of ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'' looks totally human, or at least as HumanAlien as the rest of the girls do, but WordOfGod has called her a 'fairy cyborg', implying that she might be part robot. It's never stated outright either way, and WordOfGod is being translated from Italian, sometimes worse than others, so it's possible it's even a case of misunderstanding that she's a 'technology fairy'.
* ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGalaxyRangers'': The Crown Agent {{Mooks}} look like the standard MechaMooks expected from cartoons of the era; full, concealing armor, voices that sounded like they were run through a synthesizer...but they never ''acted'' like robots. They took bribes, panicked when appropriate, and one of them went renegade (becoming leader of a lost tribe of human colonists in "Lord of the Sands"), It was also telling that the team's hacker could pull a HackYourEnemy on computers and more obviously mechanical enemies, he never even tried it on the Agents.
* No-one's truly sure ''what'' Prime Evil from ''WesternAnimation/FilmationsGhostbusters'' is supposed to be. He's got this Terminator look about him, but then he has seemingly-organic arms and hands. Since parts of his head are the same color as his hands, one could assume that he has (very expressive) machine parts attached to his skull! And then he's a ''warlock'' on top of all that. Android? Cyborg? Ghost? Warlock? The only thing that's certain is that he is one bad dude.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Chuggington}}'' Vee is either a human who only communicates through the PA system or -- in this world of living machines -- is actually the PA system.

* Most of the foes in ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' are usually this. The creators deliberately blurred the line between organic and mechanical in order to get around the censors, because killing a living thing is deemed not okay, but destroying a robot is, even if it's clearly sentient. As such, any part that Jack actually cuts will turn out to be cybernetic, and anything he kills will be a robot.

** The "carbons". The best anyone has been able to tell, they're robots that reproduce sexually or something.
** There ''used'' to be a species of humans of ambiguous mechanical-biological ratio in ''VideoGame/MegaManZX'', after they combined into one species with Reploids (they were called "humans" for short, as far as we can tell in the Legends backstory), but those went extinct long ago, leaving behind artificial creations and [[AIIsACrapshoot several superpowered killer robots designed to wipe out all the Carbons]] [[CrapsackWorld periodically to keep them at a low level of development and presumably to make them better servants for the now-extinct human-reploid hybrids]].
** Bon Bonne. Is he a baby in a mech suit, a cyborg with a baby brain or a robot with the AI of a baby?

** Amarinth's pet canary, Juju, is either a [[CuteMachines cute robot]] or a cyborg-bird. It resembles a canary with organic features, is clearly sentient and capable of obeying it's master, but it has a battery power source on it's back that needs to be recharged or it lose consciousness entirely.

* ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' has natural biologicals, genetically engineered creatures, cyborgs, fully mechanical people, AI, and every possible combination thereof, but generally you can make a guess as to whether something is primarily a "biont" (biological creature), a "vec" (machine), or an AI. That is, until you get to the [[DeusEstMachina Archailects]], who are colloquially called "AI Gods" but do not consider themselves either biological or mechanical in nature. Most are a fusion of the two, and consider such distinctions to be unimportant.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'', Victor Mancha was created by Ultron to pass for a human, with a blend of organic and mechanical parts that was supposed to skew towards organic as he reached maturity, so that he would be indistinguishable from a human by the time he became an adult. This has led to some debate in-universe about his status, as demonstrated during ''ComicBook/CivilWar'', when ComicBook/{{SHIELD}} declared that he was a machine and thus they could use lethal ordinance against him.

** A short story concerning a hunt for a lost planet that functioned as a psychology experiment. Robots, "with much simpler bodies than our own," were implanted with the laws of psychology and were unknowing of their status as robots. Right up until it is mentioned that [[spoiler: New York is one of the cities on the planet]].

* ''VideoGame/PokemonViolet'' has [[spoiler:its version-specific "Paradox Pokémon", offshoots of contemporary Pokémon hailing from the distant future that look robotic in nature. The game's cover Legendary, Miraidon, looks like a robotic offshoot of Cyclizar, for instance. Further obfuscating things is the fact that, except for Iron Treads, none of the Future Pokémon are Steel-type.]]

* ''VideoGame/PokemonViolet'' has [[spoiler:its version-specific "Paradox Pokémon", offshoots of contemporary Pokémon that look robotic in nature. The game's cover Legendary, Miraidon, looks like a robotic offshoot of Cyclizar, for instance.]]

* The Cyberdiscs in ''VideoGame/XComEnemyUnknown'' are so strange and so different from most other mechanical enemies in the game your researchers begin to speculate if it is some form of silicon-based life-form rather than a machine.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': The Adeptus Mechanicus invoke this, due to their penchant for extensive cybernetic enhancements. The lower-ranked in the Mechanicus still mostly read as human, but the higher up you go in the tech-priesthood, the more robotic they become. Naturally, [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul this extends to their mindsets as well.]]

* The villain Baramanda have his own legion of PraetorianGuard mooks, who looks humanoid, but their skin is clearly mechanical (evidenced by the clanging sounds when being shot at by Rogan and Jallak), their joints and movements emits machine noises, their faces resembles a CyberCyclops and they are incapable of speech, only bleeping.

[[folder:Film]]

* The Humanoid Data User Interfaces from ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'' are stated as being something akin to robots but have flesh and blood, and appear to possess regular bodily functions.

* ''WebVideo/DrGlaucomflecken'':Ophthalmologist's Scribes, called Jonathans, need to be recharged every night, don't speak, are able to do massive amounts of work within seconds, and can be packed in suitcases when traveling . However, they look human, and WordOfGod says that they can be fed.

* ''WebVideo/DrGlaucomflecken'':Ophthalmologist's Scribes, called Jonathans, need to be recharged every night, don't speak, and are able to do massive amounts of work within seconds. However, they look human, and WordOfGod says that they can be fed.

* Some of ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'''s more mechanical Octarian enemies fall under this. While it’s explained that the bosses are mechanical weapons, each controlled by a sentient tentacle, there are times when it’s unclear how much of them is truly inorganic. For example, the Octostomp is carried by a realistic pair of legs attached to the bottom, the Octonozzle has tentacle suckers sticking out from the sides, and the Octo Oven contains loaves of bread with faces -- apparently, Octarians ''baked into'' the bread.

* In ''Videogame/{{Warframe}}'', it's not clear how much of a Warframe is organic, how much of it is the Tenno operator, and how much of it is mechanical. Vauban has obvious mechanical bits and looks like a dude wearing a heavy coat and a NiceHat, while frames like Saryn or Zephyr look more like they're grown from the Technocyte virus. [[BodyHorror And then there's Nidus.]] [[spoiler:The story quest [[WhamEpisode The Second Dream]] reveals that the Tenno is not even present in the Warframe, but instead pilots it remotely from a distance through a process known as 'Transference'. However, the climax of the same quest also sees a Warframe apparently acting on its own accord to save its Tenno, which just raises the question of what ''is'' inside it.]] The various Infested Mutalist enemies are grown from robots infected by the technocyte virus, leading to mechanical monstrosities that spew out bile yet short out when killed.

** For the first few years, it seemed that most of the characters were MechanicalLifeforms, but they were later revealed to have some organic components such as muscle and lung tissue (meaning they're technically {{cyborg}}s).Just to highlight this trope, there's another setting where the ratio is reversed: characters are mostly organic with some cybernetic enhancements. Yet, thanks in part to [[TwentyFourHourArmor always wearing heavy armor]], the mostly-organic characters don't look much different from the mostly-robotic ones.
*** The stories and novels imply this might not be the case in-universe: when a Bara-Magna native (mostly organic) sees the matoran for the first time, he initially mistakes them for robots, except that they're movements are too smooth for them to be purely mechanical. By contrast, when the Toa first encounter Gresh, they mistake him for some kind of monster created by Makuta. This despite the fact that the only noticable difference between their ''sets'' is their heads. In another story, Gelu, another Bara-Magnan, comments on the fact that the Toa's eyes are essentially just machines (yet still capable of reflecting emotion), suggesting that organic beings have more "normal" eyes than what their figures and visual mediums would've suggested.

* Arguably the entire visual point of [[Film/TetsuoTheIronMan Tetsuo: The Iron Man]] and its sequels.

* The Spiders from the Literature/QuadrailSeries.

* ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'' has the Songbird, a giant seemingly robotic bird. Jeremiah Fink's laboratory suggest that there is a living creature inside, possibly human, but it is never explained how much of a living person and how much of a mechanical bird it is. [[spoiler:Songbird dies by drowning but then, he may simply not be waterproof]].

* The Songbird in ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite''. Very little of its backstory is given, but its technology is [[AlternateSelf equivalent to]] the cyborg Big Daddies of ''VideoGame/BioShock1'' and it has a "personality". On the other hand, it's far larger than a human being can be, exists in a setting where crude [=AIs=] are commonplace as turrets and floating gun platforms, and it can be controlled via a flute.

* ''Anime/DoraemonNobitaAndTheGalaxySuperExpress'' have the titular Super-Express' conductor, a cuddly alien who appears to be organic, but is mentioned [[AllThereInTheManual in magazines, promotional materials and the wiki]] as a robot. It's never confirmed within the film (or manga), so whether said character is a robot or not isn't really confirmed.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': Especially early in the series, some viewers were confused about whether or not Darth Vader and the Stormtroopers were humans or robots. ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' deliberately included a glimpse of Vader's scarred, unmasked head, and later movies have emphasized that the stormtroopers (and their clone trooper predecessors) are human as well.