History Main / SpiderTank

* ''TabletopGame/{{Lancer}}'': The [=SSC=] Death's Head and Swallowtail frames fit this trope, each having several pairs of legs and an upper body that resembles a turret more than a humanoid torso. They both even feature small manipulator arms that resemble pedipalps.

%%* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rollbots}}'': Vertex and Vett are sentient versions.

* ''VideoGame/TimeCrisis'': The UsefulNotes/PlayStation port features an infantry fighting vehicle modified with legs instead of wheels on its 'Kantaris Deal' side story, as the boss of the slowest possible route.

* ''VideoGame/{{Resistance}}'': The Chimera have two classes of spider tank: Stalkers and Goliaths. The former are about the size and strength of a real-life tank, appear often in the series, and can actually be piloted by humans if they get the chance. Goliaths, however, are serious business. They're the Chimera's siege engines, the size of skyscrapers, and you're only in a position to destroy two in the whole series; far more often you're avoiding them or dealing with damage they've caused.* ''VideoGame/RingOfRed'': 4-Leg [[AMechByAnyOtherName AFWs]], which are dedicated (they're one of the two units - the other being the Light AFW - with no close-quarters weaponry) artillery platforms. They take inspiration from self-propelled howitzers (in keeping with the game's WalkingTank RealRobotGenre aesthetic), and must lock down into an AnchoredAttackStance to fire their huge cannons.

* ''VideoGame/{{Resistance}}'': The Chimera have two classes of spider tank: Stalkers and Goliaths. The former are about the size and strength of a real-life tank, appear often in the series, and can actually be piloted by humans if they get the chance. Goliaths, however, are serious business. They're the Chimera's siege engines, the size of skyscrapers, and you're only in a position to destroy two in the whole series; far more often you're avoiding them or dealing with damage they've caused.* ''VideoGame/RingOfRed'': 4-Leg [[AMechByAnyOtherName AFWs]], which are dedicated (they're one of the two units - the other being the Light AFW - with no close-quarters weaponry) artillery platforms. They take inspiration from self-propelled howitzers, and must lock down into an AnchoredAttackStance to fire their huge cannons.

* ''VideoGame/{{Resistance}}'': The Chimera have two classes of spider tank: Stalkers and Goliaths. The former are about the size and strength of a real-life tank, appear often in the series, and can actually be piloted by humans if they get the chance. Goliaths, however, are serious business. They're the Chimera's siege engines, the size of skyscrapers, and you're only in a position to destroy two in the whole series; far more often you're avoiding them or dealing with damage they've caused.
%%* ''VideoGame/RingOfRed'': 4-Leg [[AMechByAnyOtherName AFWs]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':

* ''Manga/{{Akira}}'': Small, four-legged spider tanks appear in the manga to enforce martial law after Tetsuo releases Akira.

* ''Manga/Cyborg009'' had MonsterOfTheWeek Cyborg 0011, whose body was basically one such tank, with lasers, a cannon that shot a sticky substance [[spoiler:and a missile that, when exploded, unleashed a neurotoxic rain]].

* In ''Anime/FangOfTheSunDougram'', the spider tanks are improved model of WalkingTank ''Crab Gunner'' and ''Tequila Gunner''. They have lower profile and more mobile than their predecessor and come in two form. A six legs ''Desert Gunner'' and smaller four legs ''Blizzard Gunner''.

'''Tachikoma 2:''' Hmmm... Mister Batou, can we go home? [[INeedtoGoIronMyDog We have upset stomachs]].\\

** Although the Adzam Mobile Armor in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam'' is more like a hovering gun platform with four landing gear, the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny Zamza-Zah]] actually has fully-jointed legs (with retractable crab claws and {{BFG}}s in the feet), though it also spends most of it's appearances flying. ''Destiny'' also has the Ghells-Ghe, which is an insect-like armor with the upper body of a mobile suit mounted centaur-like on the front.
** A brief scene of a heavily modified Ball known as [[https://gundam.fandom.com/wiki/RB-79PP_Polypodball Polypodball]] appears in ''Anime/GundamBuildDivers''. This Ball variant is somewhat octopoid, with a round central hull and four legs at the corners in place of the thruster packs that would normally be mounted. However, it also retains the the Ball' manipulator pinchers pointing forward, giving it a look rather similar to a crab.

* ''Franchise/{{Patlabor}}'': A couple of spider mechs appear, including one for traffic police, one that's supposed to be a luxury civilian vehicle and a third one being a mobile command post used by United Nations forces. All three of them had wheels on the ends of their "legs".

* ''Literature/RebuildWorld'': This is one of the most common monster designs, ranging from small enough to crawl over Akira's CoolCar, to {{Kaiju}}. Like the other monsters, all of which are TheRemnant of NeglectfulPrecursors called the Old World, they devour metal to resupply, grow, and reproduce. Additionally, the SuperSoldier Haruka is able to use VoluntaryShapeshifting to split herself into many of these, with spiders being her {{Animal Motif|s}}. [[PhlebotinumDuJour All of the above fantastic abilities]] come from {{Nanomachines}}.
* In ''Anime/SoundOfTheSky'' the 1121st Platoon has a Takemikazuchi dating to [[JustBeforeTheEnd the Old Era]]. It's an impressive machine, able to scale buildings. It spends most of the series in pieces, but [[WrenchWench Noël]] manages to fix it in time to save the day. To put that feat in perspective, it's a [[{{Cyberpunk}} supermodern]] piece of precision machinery, and she repairs it with the equivalent of a mix of 19th Century and 1930s technology. GadgeteerGenius indeed.

* ''Manga/SoulEater'': This is what Baba Yaga Castle (no actual relationship to Literature/BabaYaga, it's the headquarters of the witch [[SpidersAreScary Arachne]]) can become. A giant spider ''castle'' tank.

* Done literally in the ''Literature/BurtonAndSwinburneSeries'' 3rd book ''Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon''. During the World War, British scientists raised [[GiantSpider giant daddy longlegs]] and had them killed. They then motorized and armored the corpses before finally adding gun emplacements to make a powerful tank out of them.

* ''Creator/KurdLasswitz'': A civilian version, more properly described as an Insect Car, occurs in ''Die entflohene Blume'' ("The Escapee Flower", 1910). Here the Martian girl Ha and her brother Hei reach a remote desert valley by using a six-legged ''Kletter-Auto'' ("climbing-car") which by the use of suction-devices in its feet can even climb up sheer cliffs "like a wasp".

* In [[Literature/ThePolity Neal Asher]]'s ''The Owner'' trilogy, Spiderguns are the ultimate in squad suppression. This agile 8-legged armored arsenal has a dual-barreled machine gun turret on each leg for the basic model (other weapons can be added on). While the guns are small caliber, they fire at 1000 rounds per minute at 4000 meters per second and all 8 guns can fix on the same target for MoreDakka AlphaStrike. And the ammo it uses is [[AbnormalAmmo Depleted Uranium beads]] and every spidergun leg magazine has 2000 of these. One spidergun can easily wipe out dozens of enemy infantry in seconds.

* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': In ''Literature/JediAcademyTrilogy'', a group of Imperial loyalists breaks out the MT-AT (Mountainous Terrain Armored Transport), an eight-legged spider-tank designed for high and rough terrain. [[MoreDakka Each leg has its own laser cannon.]]

* ''Literature/{{Valhalla}}'': Sasha's entire fleet is made up of walking tanks with four legs and a walking aircraft carrier with eight. These are given purpose in the novel, they need legs to tiptoe across forests that wheeled vehicles couldn't enter. One tank is modified to have eight legs partly in reference to Sleipnir, Odin's eight legged horse.
* ''Literature/TheWarAgainstTheChtorr'' sci-fi novels has four meter high Vigilante-class military spiders. Unfortunately they're not that smart, which causes the hero [[AIIsACrapshoot any number of problems]].
* ''Literature/TheHourOfTheBull'' by Ivan Efremov features the nine-legged SDF robots utilized by the main cast. These multipods can do basically whatever the plot needs them to do, probably justified by the fact this is an expedition to an unknown and possibly hostile world, coupled with the ablility of the Earth's mighty scientific-industry complex to actully load a small robot with every feature the designers could imagine. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, their lack of an anti-naivete warning system still left half of the Dark Flame's crew outright dead, and the rest traumatiuzed for the comparatively short rest of their lives. Not that the impregnable encounter suits or the commander's dreaded Inferno training helped much, either.]]