Mini-Mecha

Kinda cramped in there, huh, Shogo?

Like any good sci-fi concept, mecha come in all shapes and sizes. Most audiences hear the word and immediately think of Humongous Mecha popularized by Japanese media; on the other end of the scale, is the human-sized Powered Armor, more commonly seen in Western works.

But what about the middle ground?

Mini-Mecha are machines too big or complex to be considered a Power Harness or Powered Armor, but not big or complex enough to be a Humongous Mecha, either. A telltale sign you have a Mini-Mecha instead of Powered Armor is the presence of a physical cockpit, typically small and exposed. Powered Armor is "worn", meaning that all or most limbs of it cover and move with the wearer's limbs. If the user has to use commands or controls to control the limbs or movement, they can be described as a "pilot" or "driver", and then you have a Mini-Mecha on your hands.

As the above comparison may suggest, these are about evenly distributed between Japanese and Western works, though becoming more popular in mainstream sci-fi.

Compare and contrast Mobile-Suit Human, where the mecha is relatively small simply due to having a really small pilot.

For the price of $1,300,000 USD, this is now Truth in Television.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• GitS's sister series Appleseed (set in the same continuity about a hundred years later) has the Landmates, which in the larger 'verse are used for industrial applications as well as combat (in Appleseed Ex Machina, an off-duty Deunan once has to disable one piloted by a construction worker who's gone berserk over being fired). They're generally humanoid and "worn" rather than ridden or driven, with systems that mirror the pilot's movement. The pilot's legs go into the mech's legs, and their arms jut out from the torso under the mech's arms, which mimic the wearer's. This is in opposition to "Protectors", which are more classic Powered Armor.
• Armored Trooper VOTOMS: The ubiquitous Scopedog is roughly 12.5' tall, but with its large head and compact body, it doesn't look it. It's still only just over twice the height of the average human, and when powered down, it can be scaled with a single pull-up. It's so cramped that pilots still have to duck down to get in and out of them◊.
• The B’ts in B't X are the Super Robot variant of mini mechas; with the average size as riding animals, they serve as war beasts in supporting their pilots in battle.
• Bubblegum Crisis has multiple powered armor types, a few borderline examples (the Motorslaves and Mackie's MADOX-type battlesuit), and two Mini-Mechas (the "D.D." and GD-42 "Genki" Battlemovers).
  • The AD police have the large K-11 and K-12s battlesuits with their own cockpits.
• Most of the Knightmare Frames used in Code Geass count more as Mini-Mecha than Humongous Mecha. After all, the cockpits take up a considerable amount of space, and jut out of the back of the devices quite noticeably, doubling as rocket-boosted escape pods. Those derived from Rakshata's Guren design feature smaller, more compact cockpits, though they still noticeably protrude. A few of the later Knightmare Frames — those derived from the Gawain (6.5m tall, as opposed to the 4m to 5m everything else) — dwarf most KMFs, but are still much smaller than most humongous mecha, and are the least common design.
• The Dark Queen and I Strike Back has Kriegers, large suits of armor used in combat.
• The obscure OVA Dragons Heaven features an odd example with SHEIAN/CHEYENNE, a robot that is both self-aware and capable of moving on his own, but also contains a cockpit for a human pilot. Exactly how "mini" he is also varies; in some scenes, he's big enough to go toe-to-toe with Humongous Mecha while in others he's small enough to sit at a table with other humans.
• All of the military robots used in Ergo Proxy.
• Ken Ishikawa's Freeder Bug features mecha smaller than the characters, which are controlled from a seat fixed to the back. They can also transform into neat little skimmers.
• Gall Force has the Bronze-D and Bronze-X versions of a mecha about 12-14 feet tall that the Solonoids use remote or piloted for ship to ship combat.
• The TA's and fakes in Gasaraki, the cockpit is so small that the user is cramped into a racing bike style position with no room to move, though this also means that in an emergency the head cowling on the TA's can open up allowing the pilot to see out.
• Ghost in the Shell: The Fuchikomas (in the original manga and film based on it) and Tachikomas (in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex) are sentient Spider Tanks that can be manned, but largely operate on their own (inexpressibly adorable) artificial intelligence. They are also incredibly fast and agile, often chasing helicopters by jumping over the roofs of buildings or climbing skyscrapers. There's also a sort of proto-Landmate (from the Appleseed series above) in Stand Alone Complex S1E21 ERASER, in the form of a Type 303 Armored Suit, and other examples later in the series.
• Gundam
  • While franchise overwhelming focuses on ~20 meter tall military mobile suits, several of the universes have smaller machines that are typically used for civilian (construction, building contests, races) or paramilitary use (police, riot control). Sometimes they're used against full-sized mobile suits, but this always ends badly for them as expected for construction equipment against actual military hardware. Every time it's been attempted has been out of sheer desperation. Examples include the Petite Mobile Suit in Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ and the Draken-E in Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray has the Powered Suit Guti. As the name suggests it's halfway in between a standard Mobile Suit and Powered Armor, with the pilot fitting entirely inside the torso.
• The HRUNTING/YGGDRASIL Mark I Prototype Armor Defense System from the Halo Legends short Prototype is a mix of this trope and Powered Armor. Though it was developed in the same facility as the non-combat-oriented Cyclops, this mech was definitely designed for combat, being equipped with a heavy machine gun, a grenade launcher, missile launchers, a recoilless rifle, Claymore mines, a jetpack, automatic bubble shielding, and a nuclear self-destruct device. It was too expensive to be mass-produced, and the UNSC had to ordered its destruction to prevent it from falling into Covenant hands; the guy assigned to do so took out a host of Covenant soldiers, aircraft, and tanks before he activated the self-destruct, which in itself resulted in a nuclear explosion visible from orbit.
• The titular Powered Armor of Infinite Stratos are probably closest to this, albeit edging closer to Powered Armor territory than Humongous Mecha.
• Innocent Venus has the Gladiators, which are about 15-20 feet tall.
• The PPORs in Key the Metal Idol could probably qualify as this, despite being controlled from a separate location.
• The Guard Robots in Kiddy Grade and Kiddy GiRL-AND, which also function as land vehicles for the ES pairs.
• Most Round Bucklers in Mars Daybreak are around 4-5 meters tall, Cordless (piloted, as opposed to the more conventional remotely controlled types) are a tad taller than that.
• MD Geist's setting featured the government using Powered Armor and the anti-Earth control Nexrum who used mini-mechas.
• The various Transforming Mecha in Megazone23, futuristic motorcycles with humanoid combat modes. Cutouts of the interior show that their combat mode is a motorcycle chassis surrounded by a bipedal shell.
• The walkers and snake-mechs from Now and Then, Here and There are exactly this. However, their hatch seems to close only to protect the pilot as both models rely on direct sight (ie, no cameras; if the hatch is closed, the pilots will be blind)
• Obsolete's Exoframes are a little over a couple of meters tall, with operators riding a saddle rather than wearing it as powered armor.
• The Masked Man/Mask of Ice a.k.a. Pryce, Mahogany Town Gym Leader, the Arc Villain in Pokémon Adventures' GSC chapter uses an ice construct as his main body, and he himself is seated on the head covered by his aforementioned mask. This explains his wildly-varying size throughout the story and how he can shrug off most attacks, at least not when directed at his "head".
• Rebuild World: These are used by the One Nation Under Copyright army and police forces, as well as by high level hunters who fight Kaiju daily on the super deadly front lines in the far east of the protagonist's nation. Fan Translation takes to calling them "Powered Suits", which is confusing because Powered Armor (called Augmented Suits) is very common in the setting. Mini mechs give Akira a great deal of trouble to fight, one of the most reliable ways of defeating them is to use a high volume of fire to make their Deflector Shields focus on the targeted area, creating a weak point somewhere else to exploit. A particular villain uses one that functions as an Attack Helicopter analogue.
• RideBack takes place in a universe featuring motorcycles that transform into humanoid robots with their riders still riding on their backs.
• The Sonic Divers from Sky Girls falls somewhere between Powered Armor and Mini-Mecha; the machine's legs move with the pilot's, but the arms are controlled with a pair of joysticks.
  • It is also Transforming Mecha (from "G" Flight Mode to "A" Walker Mode, so it makes a Transformable Mini-Mecha).
• In Super Dimension Fortress Macross and its sequels (as well as the adaptation-compilation Robotech), the Zentraedi battle pods and suits are this, albeit scaled up for a pilot who is at least about 30 feet tall, making them one of the few mecha that can arguably fall into BOTH categories, depending on your frame of reference.
  • Later spin offs also feature scaled down Variable Fighters ridden like flying motorcycles that are used for racing.
• Lagann from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is actually shorter than most of the adult characters in the series. Its purpose is to take control of and combine with larger mecha, though it can fight on its own.
• Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs: In this Science Fantasy setting, Lost Technology from Precursors has been reverse engineered for Armed Units that rely on the user's magical energy to activate, for a combination of melee and ranged attacks, with these prominently being used for Throwing Down the Gauntlet duels, as well as to be screens for Cool Airship Epic Ship-on-Ship Action. Fitting with the Magi Tech theme, Brad, the Squishy Wizard character, fights using a Flying Weapon spear like an Attack Drone to launch a Spam Attack. Abusive Precursors produced Organic Technology Living Weapon equivalents of the suits.

Asian Animation

• The Car Knights in Happy Heroes aren't that big, being no larger than a typical Planet Xing car even when transformed, but sometimes they can look pretty big.

Comic Book

• Amazingly, the first example of this trope can be found in "Bozo the Iron Man"◊, an old Quality Comics character debuting as early as 1939. Bozo was a super-strong, bomb-proof robot that could fly assisted by a helix at top of its head and could also operate underground and undersea at high rates of speed. It was controlled with a voice-operated RC. Hugh Hazzard◊, a sleuth was his handler and at times, since Bozo's torso was hollow, it allowed to be manned from the inside.
• Whether S.T.R.I.P.E. from the Justice Society of America is this or a suit of Powered Armor, it is Depending on the Writer and the situation, although it started out as Mini-Mecha in the Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. series.
• In American Flagg!, the deactivated body of robot deputy Luther Ironheart serves as this for talking housecat Raul, who "pilots" the body from where Luther's holographic head would ordinarily be.
• Batman has at least three of these in the New 52: One, the Hellbat, was made with the aid of the Justice League, and is capable of going toe-to-toe with powered combatants on par with Superman and was specifically made to allow Bruce to help the League combat Darkseid in a physical confrontation. The other one, which shows up in Batman: Endgame is a suit of armor specifically designed to allow it to work as a countermeasure for Batman to use if he ever has to fight the Justice League themselves. The last one was used by Jim Gordon during his Batman tenure, and grants super strength and a bunch of nifty gadgets to compensate for Jim not being in the greatest shape, not having the training of the Bat-family and for good PR given its police sirens and the like — however, Jim himself notes it looks idiotic and it resembles a bunny more than a bat.
• Even Superman got his own. The "Kryptonian Warsuit"◊ he wore during Dan Jurgens' Reign of the Supermen arc. Same case as in his "Super-Mobile" but this time it was a defense vehicle that could be manned or guided remotely by thought, complete with a vast array of high-powered Kryptonian weaponry.
• Iron Man's bulkier Hulkbuster armors have aspects of this, and occasionally may cross into Meta Mecha as well, since he's often wearing his standard Powered Armor inside them.
  • In Totally Awesome Hulk, Black Panther built his own Hulkbuster to counter Amadeus Cho, the new Hulk.
  • The War Machine armor is this in the Ultimate Marvel universe and Iron Man: Armored Adventures.
    • The Parnell Jacobs variant in the main universe is a weird variation of this, as it's a modified War Machine suit with a Mini Mecha attached to its back.
  • The Gremlin's Titanium Man armor worked like this, as Kondrati Topolov was a 4'8" Depraved Dwarf, while the armor itself was 8'9" (the same size as Husky Russkie Boris Bullski's original suit), and he operated it from a cockpit contained entirely within its torso.
  • It's implied through its training unit, a motion capture suit suspended on a rail, that the original Firepower armor developed by Corrupt Corporate Executive Edwin Cord during the original Armor Wars was a Motion-Capture Mecha. At 15 feet, its colossal size certainly had enough room in its massive torso for operator Jack Taggert to move around somewhat, though not as freely as the simulator would suggest, considering his head was still just under the suit's helmet. Later Firepower armors were of similar size as well.
• Paperinik uses one to fight in equals terms with Trauma (an alien Super-Soldier), and another against Morgoth. The US army has them also.
• Rocket Raccoon has one that's strong enough to stun Thanos.
• The largest member of the Covenant of Ka, a group of assassins for hire from Red Robin, seems to be a human piloted mech as it's just too big to be a suit of Powered Armor like the rest of the Covenant members wear.
• The Diggers from Spider-Man and Venom comics are obscure villains: mech-drivers who usually work for corrupt corporations in digging for resources in illegal areas.
• Marvel Comics Spitfire and the Troubleshooters (later Codename: Spitfire) featured a Mini-Mecha known as the MAX.

Fan Works

• Dyna the Fem Bot in Voyages of the Wild Sea Horse consists of the head of a more advanced Robot Girl that has been placed in a Steampunk Super Wheelchair patterned after a Spider Tank. She's easily around seven or eight feet tall, mostly to fit the steam engine she needs to fuel her disparate limbs and move, which makes her the second biggest member of the team after Miriam.

Film

• The power loader suit from Aliens. Many companies were very disappointed to learn that no such product existed yet.
• The Rhino's suit of armor in The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
• The AMP suit from Avatar also walks the line; the pilot's body is entirely within the torso cockpit, but he/she directly manipulates the legs with foot pedals and the arms with servo armatures, worn by the pilot so that the AMP's larger arms follow their exact movements.
• The mecha suit Wikus van de Merwe uses in the climax of District 9.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Obadiah Stane's powersuit in Iron Man, the Iron Monger, blurs the line between Mini-Mecha and Powered Armor. It is very humanoid but much too large for his limbs to extend far out from the cockpit inside the torso. In fact, because it has a literal helmet structure, it's not a stretch to say that Iron Monger is powered armor from the neck up, and the rest is mini-mecha.
  • The Hulkbuster Armor from Avengers: Age of Ultron takes a small cue from the Iron Monger, but appears to fit around Tony's base armor much like the piloting aspect of the TA's from Gasaraki. What puts it more into this trope than Powered Armor is the fact that its limbs are fully mechanical — the Hulk tore the suit's left arm off, but Tony wasn't maimed by that at all, and was able to easily attach a replacement arm.
  • Avengers: Infinity War makes it clear that the Hulkbuster is a definite mini-mecha, as Bruce operates it without further augmentation.
• The Matrix features mini-mechas which also have Guns Akimbo large caliber machineguns.
• Pacific Rim: Uprising has Scrapper, Amara's homemade jaeger built from scrap metal and parts taken off of older, decommissioned jaegers. While larger than most examples on this list, it's still absolutely tiny by the standards of a normal-sized jaeger, being barely larger than the hand of November Ajax, the jaeger that chases it in its introduction. It's small enough that, whereas a full-size jaeger needs two pilots to handle the neural load of interfacing with such a gigantic machine (and likewise, a kaiju needs two brains to coordinate itself), Amara can pilot Scrapper by herself.
• Peni Parker's SP//DR mech in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, consisting of a round cockpit and Floating Limbs, is compact enough that at one point the main characters sneak into a fancy dinner by draping a tablecloth over it and pretending they're waiters and it's a trolley. Admittedly, it looks larger in other scenes, but it's never huge by mech standards.
• The AT-STs ("chicken walkers") from Star Wars are a little too big to fit this trope, but their derivatives fit the bill:
  • Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith has the AT-RT, which amounts to a motorcycle with chicken legs.
  • The Expanded Universe also brings us the slightly heavier AT-PT - the PT standing for "Personal Transport". Basically, they look like a shorter and stockier AT-ST.
  • The Fan Film Star Wars Downunder spoofs this with the AT-BT (All Terrain Bouncing Transport, or "Roo-Bot").
• Team U, the Defense Force of Ultraman Saga, uses rather short, stumpy mechas roughly ten meters tall, which doesn't seem to carry any weapons save for excavation tools, as their default equipment. Justified that unlike the past defense team of the series, Team U is just a handful of amateur mechanics and technicians.

Literature

• In Dawn from Tim Lebbon, there's a Magitek example. Before The Magic Goes Away, the land of Noreela made use of Machines, which are relatively small mecha made of a fusion of stone, steel-based machinery and organic bits. Appearing in various shapes and sizes depending on their function, they were mostly used for agriculture but there are powerful combat versions which shoot ballista bolts and deadly discs in addition to having vents that pour out poison gas and streams of fire. With the magic gone, these Machines are inanimate and slowly rusting away in fields.
• Domina: The American echoes are small mechs, about eight feet tall, and function more like really big suits of Powered Armor than traditional mechs. Their flaws are pointed out several times; while they are powerful, they are far from invincible, and they serve as tempting targets for the enemy. They are described as "superheavy infantry," and are mostly used because tanks are a nightmare in urban environments. The Americans are shocked to discover that the Dominite warlords are capable of fighting them in hand-to-hand combat.
• Used for sexual purposes by the very rich in K. W. Jeter's Fiendish Schemes. During the steampunk technological revolution, "ferric sex" clubs have arisen for steam engine fetishists. In these clubs, patrons can have surgically installed mechanical enhancements. For the richest patrons, they can pay to be grafted into locomotive-sized mechanical bodies. One elderly couple had themselves placed into bodies similar to giant, steel inchworms. Their bodies don't have limbs because they're so rich they have staff to do all the work, they just have enough mobility to hump each other.
• The Four Horsemen Universe: Human mercenaries' weapons of choice is the CASPer, a motorized suit of armor seven to eight feet tall with a Jump Jet Pack, integrated arm blades, and hardpoints for weapons including chainguns, MAC guns, antipersonnel lasers, and anti-armor missile launchers. They were designed by engineers at Mitsubishi after only four mercenary companies out of a hundred survived Earth's first batch of contracts, and initially just evened the odds against more imposing mercenary races.
• In the Humanx Commonwealth novel Sentenced to Prism, Evan Orgell is sent to the planet Prism to find out why his company's outpost there has suddenly gone silent. To help him do his job, he's equipped with a Mobile Hostile Worlds (MHW) exo-suit which falls just on this side of the dividing line vs Powered Armor. It's about three meters tall and carries an assortment of weapons and other tools along with several days' supply of food concentrates and other essentials; it responds to voice commands; and it's actually operated by an extremely advanced AI. It's not good enough for Prism.
• The Wyvern mecha-suits from John Ringo and Travis S. Taylor's Into the Looking Glass series are more like this than they are Powered Armor, despite their (roughly) humanoid shape, especially in the first version, which relies on purely human technology.
• Legacy of the Dragokin: Rufus is building one near the start of the book. He plants to use it in construction but its first job is wiping out monsters that invaded the city.
• The Occupation Saga: Exos displaced both tanks and close air support aircraft in Shil'vati inventories a while back, and also have civilian applications (e.g. construction vehicles). Jason spends a subplot in Between Worlds Two helping his Wrench Wench friend Kernathu build a combat Exo as a personal project.
• The warden of the titular prison has a combat exoskeleton in The Omega Cage. Luckily for the people he's chasing, he's not very skilled with it.
• Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle has Drag-Rides. These leave much of the pilot's body exposed, with the upper body of the armor positioned behind the pilot (with the arms following the movement of the pilot's arms), and rely on barriers for protection. They are heavily dragon-themed — the three basic models are the Wyrm (heavily armed and armored, with wheels for ground combat), the Wyvern (lightly-armored and specialized for flight) and the Drake (less combat-oriented than the other two, with special functions such as camouflage and radar).

Live Action TV

• Kamen Rider:
  • Kaixa's Side Basshar from Kamen Rider 555 changes from a motorcycle into a bipedal, open-cockpit walker with tons of missiles.
  • Kamen Rider Fourze has the Power Dizer, which stands at 10 feet tall and can transform from a mecha into a tank-like vehicle or a launch tower that can propel Fourze's Cool Bike into space. Until the Meteor shows up, it often serves as Fourze's backup - especially once Jerk Jock Shun Daimonji reforms and joins the team, because the strength and constitution he developed to play American football lets him use it more effectively than anyone else.
  • And now we have Kamen Rider Gaim and his Suika Arms, which is as large as the Power Dizer and can switch between a giant watermelon form, a flight-equipped mode and its main humanoid fighting form that ressembles a cross between a giant samurai and a small Zaku.
  • Kamen Rider Ex-Aid's penultimate form, Maximum Mighty Gamer, is a Cephalothorax patterned after Ex-Aid's base form, with him riding inside.
  • Kamen Rider Zero-One has the Breaking Mammoth.
• Unsurprisingly, Power Rangers has tried this on for size, as with every other mecha trope. The unpiloted Minizord (in Power Rangers Ninja Storm) may or may not count: it seems to be intelligent-ish and basically controls the combining procedure. However, there is also the Transtech Armor (Power Rangers Operation Overdrive), an oversized-but-not-Zord-sized car that transforms into a robot mode. Similarly, the fake Sixth Ranger of Gekisou Sentai Carranger has a normal-sized car that can transform into a slightly bigger than human-sized robot that she commands by remote control, which is later upgraded to be able to grow to a full mech size. And in Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger the rangers use a normal-sized car that can transform into a small mech that can also grow to a full-sized one. This gets exaggerated further in the second season when the ranger's original mech gets destroyed and the only replacement that they can afford is a RC toy version of their original car, which turns into a Pint-Size Powerhouse version of their mech that is powerful enough to defeat a full-sized Humongous Mecha.
• Stargirl gives us the S.T.R.I.P.E. armor, a 15-foot-tall retro-looking robot made out of car parts and piloted by Pat Dugan, AKA Stripesy. The armor is tough enough to be able to stand up to several minutes of combat against Solomon Grundy before being overwhelmed. The armor is able to fly and has rocket fists.

Pinball

• Avatar has Colonel Quaritch's AMP Suit, which topples over when defeated, and marches in the Premium Limited Edition of the game.

Podcasts

• In the The Adventure Zone: Balance finale, Lucas Miller flies an Upsy elevator mini-mecha.

Tabletop Games

• In Age of Steel mini-mecha called 'Rigs' are used for both industry and warfare. They stand about 8 feet tall, and are controlled by a pilot who sits in the chest cavity of the Rig.
• The later eras of BattleTech include Clan Protomechs, which are two- to ten-ton vehicles intended to fill a tactical gap between battle armors and light 'Mechs. They deploy in the same manner as Clan Elementals, but are piloted by warriors of the short, slight-built aerospace fighter pilot phenotype.
  • After the Jihad, ten to fifteen (as opposed to two to nine) ton "Ultra protos" appeared, as well as alternate glider and quadrupedal chassis types. Their piloting systems are less cramped; according to the description of the Svartalfa, they can accommodate the extremely tall and bulky "Elemental" super-infantry phenotype. However, most pilots are still the fighter pilots.
  • At the same time that Ultra-class protomechs appeared, ten and fifteen ton Ultralight Battlemechs also made their debut. They're blindingly fast but mount practically no armor and have minimal weaponry.
  • Several notional battle armor designs also straddle the line due to their sheer size (an "assault" class suit masses two metric tons) or quadrupedal configuration which the pilots sit or lie in.
• In Exalted, Warstriders are either this or Humongous Mecha, depending on the exact type.
• As does Gear Krieg, albeit with armored car and small tanks that turn into walkers (still far smaller than the BattleTech style mecha).
• According to the informal mech-weight guide, Giant Guardian Generation's Eagle-class mechs.
• Heavy Gear focuses on the piloting of such mecha, due to its inspiration being Armored Trooper VOTOMS.
• Any Tactical Armoured Gear (TAG) in Infinity that isn't piloted remotely will have a fairly small cockpit. Most of them, like the Iguana, have the pilot's arms poking through the armour, using motion-capture to move the TAG's arms.
• Iron Kingdoms: Warjacks tend to be about this size, though being remote-controlled Magitek weapons, they lack the pilot.
• The typical (i.e. Size 1) mechanized chassis in Lancer fits this trope, with most of them standing between 15-25 feet tall. Smaller mechs (i.e. Size 1/2) are closer to Powered Armor, while larger ones (Size 2 and especially Size 3) either straddle or cross the line into Humongous Mecha territory.
• Mekton has these in the Roadstriker scale — while small Roadstrikers are worn as Powered Armor, larger ones (starting at about Medium Weight size) have enough room in their torsos to carry a full cockpit and have the limbs wholly mechanically actuated, though to get equipment in the torso other than the cockpit, it will either have to be built for a particularly small pilot, or else be a particularly large Roadstriker.
• Mobile Frame Zero tends to feature small mechs as its main units in play. Since everything in the game is built from LEGO bricks, the game allows players to choose the scale. One popular scale has what fans call '7p infantry,' which makes a human around seven studs tall. This makes Mobile Frames anywhere between 10 and 12 feet tall on average — Word of God indicates that the canonical designs come in at around six to nine tons when fully loaded.
• Rifts is the purveyor of countless examples, including many Triax half-and-halfs that seem inspired by Appleseed to the fully piloted Ultimax and Terror Trooper.
• The smaller war-walkers used by the Nazi Duetsche Marskorps in Rocket Age count.
• In Vor The Maelstrom refers to them as walkers and both human factions, the Union and the Neo-Soviets have these. The Union's Ares is lightly armored and has a built-in light autocannon. It can also add a One-Hit Kill drill and add highly advanced heavy weapons (but no tank cannons) such as a railgun or Plasma Cannon.The Neo-Soviet Ursa is 50% bigger than an Ares and almost as heavily armoured as some tanks, plus it has a built-in heavy autocannon and a chem sprayer. In most one on one fights between these two usually favors the Ursa as it's far tougher and it usually has more firepower as it typically adds a cannon that's normally found on Neo-Soviet tanks. However the Ursa also has an unstable fusion core which mqy xplode if the walker takes damage.
  • Nonhuman races have their own too. The sorcerous and hyper-advanced Pharon have the Scarab Walker while the crystalline Shard with their energy manipulation have the Eradicators. Both these walkers have energy weapons that put human weapon technology to shame and both excel at melee combat. The Scarab Walker can get a Rune which makes it as tough as the Ursa, meanwhile the Eradicator can transform from a flying cocoon state for quick transport into its normal walker form when it's ready for battle.
• Warhammer 40,000:
  • In term of size, heavy walkers of human factions can be roughly categorized into three tiers: dreadnought, knight, and titan. The size of course may vary greatly within each tier; the largest dreadnought (Telemon Heavy Dreadnought) is as big as the smallest knight (Armiger class), while the biggest knight (Acastus class) is nearly as big as the smallest titan (Warhound).
  • The term "Dreadnought" is used to refer to bipedal war machines larger than Powered Armor but smaller than Titans. Space Marine Dreadnoughts, standing between 15 and 25 feet tall, are walking tanks and venerated tombs, piloted by a mortally-wounded Space Marine in a life-sustaining sarcophagus.
  • Chaos Space Marines have their own dreadnoughts, the Ferrum Infernus, but are in worse shape as the means to make more, let alone repair the ones they have, have been long gone. That doesn't mean there isn't new ones as many Space Marines make parasitic sarcophagi to twist and torture the marine inside until he is rendered completely insane and turn into a Helbrute, a hideous mix of metal and flesh. For Marines who worship Slaanesh they have the Sonic Dreadnought variants of the Ferrum Infernus which gives them immense firepower but robs them of their senses and so only the most stable of the Noise Marines are allowed to be them. The last of these are the Chaos Contemptor Dreadnought, which hold revered Chaos Lords and are far less likely to succumb to madness (which is good because these are extremely difficult to make).
  • The Space Marines have several other toys that bring in Dreadnought-equivalent power to the battlefield without a half-dead pilot. The Invictor Tactical Warsuit is essentially a stripped-down Redemptor Dreadnought with the sarcophagus replaced with seating for a Space Marine pilot. The Nemesis Dreadknight is an exoskeleton that leaves the pilot quite exposed, thankfully his Terminator armor might protect him.
  • The Penitent Engine also leaves its pilot horribly exposed, but this is an intended design choice. It's not only a combat walker, it's also a means of punishing a grievous sinner by constantly torturing its pilot.
  • Knights aren't as big as Titans but much bigger than Dreadnoughts and Battlesuits. Imperial Knights are taken from Knight Worlds from the ruling classes who have an ingrained duty to protect others due to long term use of their Knight armor. Until they fall to Chaos of course.
  • Ork Deff Dreads and Killa Kans follow the Marines' example and have their Ork and Gretchin pilots crudely wired into the contraptions. Deff Dreads quickly learn that while being hooked up in a big-ass metal can was an awesome idea at the time they're still hooked up in a bag-ass metal can. Gretchins however love being in a Killa Kan as it now lets them maul and wail on the Orks that were beating him before as the Mekboy who shoved the gretchin in there looks on with pride and joy.
  • Eldar Wraithlords are graceful constructs "piloted" by the soulstone of a mighty warrior.
  • Similar to the Star Wars scout walker examples above are Imperial Sentinels and Eldar War Walkers, both of which are open-topped, though the former has an enclosed crew compartment in its heavier version while the latter's pilot is protected by a force field.
  • Tau Battlesuits are the smallest of 40k's Mini-Mecha, and range in size from just large enough to count as armor, to large enough to fit their pilots in the suits' chests. Since they are so much smaller compared to the other Dreadnoughts, the tabletop rules count Battlesuits as infantry rather than walker vehicles. Per the 8th edition rule, the smallest types (XV15 and XV25 stealth suits) are considered mere Powered Armor, the largest (Stormsurge and Ta'Unar) are walking weapon platforms, and anything in between is Mini-Mecha.

Toys

• LEGO Exo-Force contained two of these each year to complement the predominant Humongous Mecha, owing to the need to have sets available for a wide range of prices with these obviously fitting the "impulse" low-cost range.
• BIONICLE:
  • The Exo-Toa are the kind that are like oversized Powered Armor. They have an auto-pilot mode allowing them to function independently, leaning them more towards this trope than the former.
  • The Boxors, which were so compact that the small pilots have to sit at the very front, completely exposed.
• LEGO Power Miners: The first mech introduced in the line, the Mine Mech, is the second-smallest set of the initial wave, only beating out the Cool Bike.
• LEGO Ninjago has Samurai X's katana-wielding mech, which in spite of its imposing build is no larger than any of the ninja's vehicles.
• As of 2014, this also applies to the Invasion From Below series of Hero Factory, where the previously standard size models are minimechs, with minifigure-sized characters functioning as pilots.
• The Powered Guardian released by Kotobukiya is a mecha designed to be piloted by Frame Arms Girls or any other 1:12 figure (such as Figma and Revoltech). It is also compatible with M.S.G. weapons. On the other hand, it may cross Meta Mecha territory if the unit is piloted by Frame Arms themselves.
• Kotobukiya also released Vital Suit figures.
• Bandai once released the Ride Armor model kit for the Mega Armor Series, which can transform from Chimera Ride Armor into Hawk Ride Armor by swapping the parts. They planned to release the Ride Armor used by Vile for the D-Arts line. However, the latter was never released. Eventually, the concept is repurposed for the Super Minipla line, with both Chimera Ride Armor and Vile's Ride Armor available as model kits.
• The Acid Rain series has the SLA-1 Laurel and ST-1 Stronghold.
  • The ST-1 Laurel is a 10 feet tall humanoid military mech with various armaments. It is primarily used for infantry support. Unlike most of the vehicles in the Acid Rain series, it cannot transform.
  • The ST-1 Stronghold is a large military vehicle which double as a Transforming Mecha. In tank mode, it can cross through various difficult terrain with its tank treads, and the treads are protected by the armor formed by its arms and legs. In mech mode, its mobility is greatly improved and it can now utilise various deadly weapons previously concealed under their arms, ranging from missile launchers to pile bunkers.

Video Games

• Roughly human-sized mecha are a frequent appearance in the Epic Battle Fantasy series:
  • An unnamed mecha is the seventh opponent in Brawl Royale.
  • Epic Battle Fantasy 1's penultimate boss is the Mecha, a hulking Killer Robot armed with a wide variety of weapons.
  • Epic Battle Fantasy 2's second boss is the Guardian, a mech guarding one of Lance's facilities armed with a chainsaw sword, a shoulder-mounted missile launcher and a minigun mounted underneath its torso.
  • Epic Battle Fantasy 4 has the Praetorian, a top-secret military prototype developed within the Waste Disposal Plant armed with a katana and shield, with the capability to hijack other machinery, including Lance's Ion Cannon. Lance himself is impressed upon seeing it:
    "Let's see... Titanium armor, uranium shells, nanotube-enforced blades... and probably fusion-powered too. I can see where this plant's budget went!"
  • An upgraded version, the Praetorian MKII, appears in Battle Mountain, swapping the katana for a more cleaver-like blade. Its Bestiary description describes it as "infused with dark magic".
  • The Praetorian returns as part of the Data Bunker in Epic Battle Fantasy 5, as part of the EBF4 simulation and the final opponent of the 3-player Boss Rush.
• Advanced Strategic Command has "mech troopers" that counts as light tracked vehicles (immune to razor wire and snipers, but stopped by anti-tank obstacles). They got twice weight and time and half armor of heavy infantry, fit in APC, still can conquer buildings and sprites look like weaponized power loaders.^note Of the Aliens sort, not Power Dolls. Several variants are armed with miniguns, better Anti-Air missiles than infantry, etc. They are no good as main combat units: slow, much more expensive than infantry yet lack its concealment and need fuel, while remain much weaker than proper vehicles; but sometimes combination of infantry and tank features as such is very useful — e.g. quickly capture a building protected by snipers without having to deal with whatever protects them first while in full view of said building.
• Aliens: Extermination has the Power Loader from the movies showing up as the second boss, being piloted by a heavily armoured synthetic. It comes with the same armaments as seen in the movies, like the blowtorch and metal pincers, but it's also equipped with a powerful circular saw which it attempts to slice the players with.
• The Colossus from Anthem (2019) is this.
• The titular Armored Cores of Armored Core 5 are said to be only 5 meters tall.
  • In the trailer, the Cores seem to be only a bit taller than tanks. So either this is true or those are some big tanks.
• The mecha in Armored Warriors were heavily influenced by Armored Trooper VOTOMS, thus most of them have roughly the same size (twice/thrice the height of an average soldier) — except for a few bosses and enemies, who are considerably larger and use dual cockpit arrangements. Every mecha's crammed cockpit can be seen by splitting them in half, including the player's ones.
  • Averted in Cyberbots, which reuses the sprites from the previous game but with new backgrounds to make the mecha much more tall. It also redraws their interior to be shallow, probably to hold their Escape Pods. Lampshaded with main mecha Blodia's redesign, whose newfound use of a shield and bits brings Gundam to mind more than VOTOMS.
• In ARMS, Mechanica is the only playable character not to possess the eponymous power, instead piloting a mini-mecha that replicates their function.
• The Assault Suits of Assault Suits Valken.
• Azure Striker Gunvolt Series
  • Usually, the bosses put on Powered Armor in their combat forms. Aside from his own armor, Merak, one of the bosses in the first Azure Striker Gunvolt game, uses a floating Cool Chair to fight Gunvolt with, which actually has massive arms, missiles, lasers, and a grotesque face (he's too lazy to fight Gunvolt directly).
  • Azure Striker Gunvolt 2: Asroc plays with this in that his main weapon is the robot Gallette Krone, which is large enough for him to fit inside and pilot but he doesn't usually do so, instead fighting alongside and outside it. When he does get inside it, it's only because Gallette Krone in turn plugs into the Gran Torta.
  • Luminous Avenger iX 2: Brigade drives the "Heavy Basalt" for the first two-thirds of his boss fight, a massive tank with a physical cockpit covered in energy shielding that comes equipped with various machine-guns, missiles, lasers, and a swingable BFS. Once the tank is too badly damaged, he jumps out to fight on foot. Averted for his fight in the Boss Rush, where he fights on foot from the start.
• In Battleborn, Toby, a talking Badass Adorable penguin with a Napoleon complex fights aboard a war machine of his own making to show those who dismissed him as just being a Ridiculously Cute Critter that he's a psychotic force to be reckoned with on the battlefield.
• Bayonetta 2 introduces the Umbran Armor, large walking mech suits that Umbra Witches used 500 years ago to devastate their angelic enemies. Bayonetta (or Jeanne) get to use one freely when she gets sent back to the past, but can also use one as her Super Mode if she equips the Earrings of Ruin. Secret Character Rosa gets to use an Umbran Armor as her Super Mode automatically, without having to use the accessory.
• Hachi from Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 is a corgi who pilots a mech that looks like a locomotive with robot arms and legs in a setting where the technology is in the medieval era.
• Bio-Mechs from the Bionic Commando (2009) game are about twice as tall as a human, well armored, decently armed, and are considered a match for an entire squad of infantry... and no match for a bionic commando.
• Blast runner in Border Break are around 4 to 5 meter high, originally use for industrial use in hazard environment.
• Borderlands:
  • In the first game, the Crimson Lance has a number of these, including one piloted by General Knoxx in his final boss battle of the DLC.
  • In Borderlands 3, Moze operates a Vladof-engineered Iron Bear mech, which can mount railguns, rotary cannons, flamethrowers, grenade launchers, and close-combat claws. It can also equip an energy shield and a mounted turret that another player can hop into for additional firepower. With a later update Moze gains an additional skill tree which lets her deploy an Iron Cub, which is a mini-mini-mecha who can fight independently.
• Calculords has some alien-piloted mech suits, which are just under twice as tall as normal footsoldiers. They have high HP but little-to-no attack power; the Adamant Medsuit in particular is tied for the highest starting HP in the game. There's also the human-piloted Tinker Walker, which buffs all vehicles in the lane (itself included).
• Special mention must be made for Hoover/Baby Head from Captain Commando: A human-sized mecha being piloted by a hyper-intelligent baby.
  • Which, like the rest of the characters, can in turn pilot another types of mini-mecha sometimes found during the levels, Colour-Coded for Your Convenience depending of their type of attacks.
• The Heavy Guards in The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, which are basically walking tanks with a gatling gun and missile launchers. Riddick commandeers one at the end of the game.
• The Citadel has an enemy that pilots a mecha suit that possesses high-powered weapons, and in some levels the player can take control of one armed with powerful machine guns, a rocket launcher, and jump jets for partial flight to turn the tide against their enemies.
• The "Wolverine" units from Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun. They are described as "powered assault armor", but bulky as◊ they are◊, fit this trope instead. Interestingly enough, they use the infantry sound clips instead of the vehicle ones.
  • The Wolverine available to the Steel Talons in the Kane's Wrath expansion is an even better example of this, as there's no question whether or not it's a piloted vehicle instead of a suit of bulky power armor.
  • The Mecha Tengu and Striker VX in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, both can turn into aircrafts and back.
• The Custom Robo series. The highly destructive mecha are between eight to ten inches high, but are still piloted by humans — psychically.
• Steve from Dark Chronicle is essentially a barrel with limbs that Max controls from a seat on top of the barrel.
  • That you can upgrade to a levitating ancient-golem-robot-thing protected by armor empowered by the infinite dance of the cosmos that shoots beams of lethal, concentrated sunlight.
• In The Ancient Gods Part 2 DLC of Doom Eternal, The Dark One fights in a giant mechanized suit that resembles a Big Red Devil, fitting as he's the setting's equivalent to Satan.
• Word of God confirms that the titular beans from Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout are mech suits for pilots.
• First Encounter Assault Recon: Despite the name, the Powered Armor variants seen across the series are actually all Mini-Mechas.
• The Front Mission series has its fair share of Mecha. The civilian models are called Wanderwagen (WAW), and are used for Mundane Utility much like Patlabor, rarely being taller than about 4 meters. Their military equivalent, the Wanderpanzer (WAP) or "Wanzer," is roughly 5-6 meters tall and has a notoriously dark, hot and cramped cockpit. Wanzer's are more akin to a Walking IFV's than anything else. By Front Mission Evolved however, a new template has upsized them to 8 meters and given them spacious and shiny cockpits, making them borderline Humongous Mecha.
• You play as these in Gatling Gears, equipped with upgradeable gatling gun, cannon and grenade launcher. You also encounter enemy versions of these, and they are very difficult to kill due to having great firepower and more health than a tank despite being smaller.
• The Silverback in Gears of War 3, which doesn't actually have a back so that Gears can climb in and out easily. It's armed with a heavy machine gun and a rocket launcher and can plant itself to the ground to provide cover for teammates. There are also civilian versions, which lack the weaponry, but still have Super-Strength for close combat.
• Grey: An Alien Dream: In the alien Dream Land, Grey climbs into a mech taller than the trucks in the background to fight an alien queen.
• Halo:
  • Halo 4 introduces the Mantis, a 18-foot tall mech outfitted with rockets, a heavy machine gun, energy shielding, and an Shockwave Stomp that can destroy a Warthog with one hit. It can also pivot 360 degrees without moving its legs.
  • Halo Wars introduces the Cyclops, a logistical-support mech which is based off earlier powered exoskeleton prototypes. Despite being designed for non-combat military roles, it is surprisingly effective in battle due to its arms being powerful enough to tear through starship-grade armor, to say nothing of the devastation it can unleash on Covenant ground troops. To top it off, there are also Cyclops variants equipped with ranged weaponry, one of which replaces the melee Cyclops in Halo Wars 2.^note Originally, the Halo Wars 1 Cyclops was going to feature guns too, but Halo fans protested that mechs with machine guns weren't consistent with the feel of Halo.
  • Halo 5: Guardians's Firefight mode gives the Grunts/Unggoy their own Mini-Mecha in the Goblin, which is armed with a Needle/Focus Cannon, a grenade launcher, and a back-mounted Shardstorm/plasma launcher, and can disable nearby vehicles with an EMP pulse. It's also no slouch at close quarters combat, even if its pilot would typically prefer to stay as far away from the enemy as possible (which it can do with the aid of jump jets).
  • In addition to gun-equipped Cyclopses, Halo Wars 2 also introduces the Reaver (an anti-aircraft Chicken Walker used by the Banished) and the Skitterer (a Lekgolo-piloted Spider Tank exclusive to Colony's forces). Also, Sergeant Johnson in multiplayer gets his own version of the HRUNTING/YGGDRASIL Mark I Prototype Armor Defense System from Halo Legends (for more details, see the Anime and Manga section).
  • According to EU material, very early iterations of Mjolnir armor more closely resembled mini-mecha than powered armor.
• In Intrusion 2'', enemies as well as the player can ride in three kinds of mech suits, some with rifles and homing missile launchers, others with machine guns and giant knives, and ones with a harpoon arm allowing them to grab enemies or objects and throw them as weapons.
• Jak II: Renegade and Jak 3: Wastelander have a couple missions where Jak gets to pilot a Mini-Mecha.
• Kid Icarus: Uprising features a few different models, called "Cherubots". The Great Sacred Treasure is a transforming variant of this.
• A level in Killzone 2 lets you pilot a Helghan battle suit complete with arm-mounted chain gun and rocket launcher (curiously they never use anything like it against you).
• Kingdom Rush series:
  • The first game has Hacksaw, a gnome piloting one of these that he constructed by himself. It can throw a bouncing sawblade that ricochets on enemies, and also has a hidden drill in its chest compartment that instantly pulverizes even the toughest of enemies.
  • In Vengeance where you play as Vez'nan's Dark Army, the Dwarf Kingdom has the MechaDwarf MK.9 Giant Mooks. These have a lot of health and armor (which makes physical damage nearly useless), hit hard, and sport a powerful Shockwave Stomp attack. Fortunately, MechaDwarf MK.9s are very slow and vulnerable to armor-piercing magic attacks.
• Kirby: Planet Robobot features the Robobot Armor, a Kirby-like mecha with the ability to copy any power, just like the titular character himself. It is obtainable via defeating an Invader Armor or finding it docked in a certain area.
• The Meister class and its upgrades in La Tale all pilot mini-mechs as their main weapons. In addition to serving as offense, they also grant a bonus to maximum HP.
• In League of Legends, The champion Rumble pilots a machine like this, which he build himself using junk and scrap parts. It's a bit of a walking armory, equipped with a flamethrower, a harpoon launcher, a mace and a rocket launcher, but excessive use of its weaponry causes it to overheat. Interesting to note is that in this case it's a literal Mini-Mecha due to it being built to fit yordles, who are very small.
• Legend of Keepers from Goblinz Studio has one of the Dungeon keepers being Lira the Monkey Engineer (she was uplifted from monkey to Beast Man and also gained hyperintelligence. With that uplifted smarts she's created an army of Walking Tank varieties of small, open-topped mechs piloted by gnomes
• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom:
  • Link can build a Magitek mecha these out of Zonai parts at any time, although they are the epitome of Awesome, but Impractical since, although it looks real cool, they tend to be unwieldy, battery-heavy, and aren't good for taking down enemies stronger than gangs of Bokoblins.
  • Late in the story, Link builds a large humanoid Construct which is rideable, can be equipped with weapons, used in battle against enemies, and is inhabited by the spirit of the long-dead Zonai, Mineru. Master Kohga also pilots one of these in the last of his boss battles, allowing you to have a full on mech battle.
• Lie of Caelum: Frames are combat machines capable of firing missiles and magic attacks, and most are smaller than buildings.
• Wei Long from Loopmancer, in his penultimate boss fight, pilots a two-storey mecha to stomp you down.
• The majority of the Vital Suits from Lost Planet fall into this category, though as the game progresses, larger and more heavily-armored models appear.
• Mario Party:
  • Mario Party 5: In the minigame Mario Mechs, one character is piloting a medium-sized warlike machine, while the other three are piloting smaller ones. The objective for the solo player is to shoot at the other three characters to deplete their Life Meters, and viceversa. The solo player can charge an electromagnetic shockwave to unleash it and cause damage to nearby rivals. If, after 60 seconds, the solo player fails to defeat all three rivals and viceversa, the minigame ends in a tie.
  • Mario Party 6: The minigame Cannonball Fun has all the characters pilot war machines that shoot cannonballs from, well, cannons (one in each side). When a character manages to land a shot onto any other, they briefly incapacitate them and earn one point. The first character to score five points wins.
  • Mario Party 9: In Mecha March, Bowser Jr. attaches his Junior Clown Car to a pair of mechanical legs and runs tries to run away down a hallway, so two players must chase after him using their own two-legged machine. Both players control one of the mech's legs, and shake the Wii Remote to move their leg when it is in the back position. Occasionally, both players will need to shake simultaneously to jump over rubble that blocks their path. If the players can catch up to Jr. before he escapes to the end of the hallway, they win the minigame.
  • Mario Party 10: Team Mario rides a two-legged walker to navigate Chaos Castle.
• Cerberus ATLAS mechs in Mass Effect 3. Shepard can drive them either by finding an unmanned one or shooting out the cockpit and gundam-jacking it.
• Mega Man
  • The Ride Armor from the Mega Man X series, despite its name, is really a mech roughly twice the size of the average character with the entire upper torso serving as a cockpit and the pilot poking out from between its shoulders. Vile, a Recurring Boss, seems to have a thing for them.
  • An exaggerated example are Ride Armors used by Mettaurs (one of the franchise's Mascot Mook). In other words, mini-mecha that are even too small for a regular-sized Reploid to use.
  • The Gustaff from the Mega Man Legends series; its pilot, Tron Bonne, is notably seen piloting this machine, which is almost as famous as the Legends-era's Blue Bomber himself. In Namco × Capcom and Marvel vs. Capcom the Gustaff has an open cockpit to show Tron piloting it, whereas in the actual games the mech is larger, about the size of a minivan.
• In Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Blade Wolf DLC, Khamsin fights with a largish minimech equipped with a CHAINSAW AXE so large it has to have jets equipped to swing it. Unlike most examples, his cyborg body has been completely fused with it; everything below his waist is a mass of cords that hook up to the suit.
• In Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Dr. Madnar mentions the development of Metal Gear G, a small-scale, mass produced, and moderately armed walking tank designed to assist infantry by processing real-time combat data with advanced sensors and transmitting that info to the troops. Although they were cut from the game due to time constraints, its influence is seen it the unmanned Gekkos and the SOP system as well as:
  • Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, where at first you're introduced to them in the form of generic walker gear models that Snake fights and can hijack from enemies. After a specific story point Venom Snake gains the ability to specialize and customize a specific set of them which are dubbed D-Walker. D-Walker units can engage in a "Drive" mode that makes them more akin to the Guntank from Gundam as well as be customized for stealth, recon or heavy assault. All with options for a limited automated mode, where they will attack by themselves or come to Venom Snake's postion.
    • During a portion of the game Snake has Huey work with Diamond Dog staff to develop what can be only described as a mixture between a mini-mech & a small tank with the Battle Gear. It's never seen fully in action but appears to have similarities with the Shagohod from 3 and Pupa modules from Peace Walker, just now notably smaller.
• Some of the Metal Slug games feature small mecha the player can use: the light but still-armored (including a covered cockpit) LV-Armor, the Protogunner (it has functioning legs, but doesn't have any cover for its pilot), and the Slug Gunner, which, according to All There in the Manual, is a result of the research on the two previous mechs (the Protogunner is in fact, as its name suggests, the prototype for this model). The Slug Gunner is also a Transforming Mecha, since it has functioning treads that when it crouches down, it turns into a model similar to the franchise's eponymous tank-like mascot.
• Michael Wilson, the President of the United States has one in Metal Wolf Chaos. It even has the Presidential Seal on his Mobile Armor. The Vice President, Ricard Hawke, has his own version of Metal Wolf, and the President's former military comrades in the Phoenix stage pilot one.
• Metroid Prime: Federation Force reveals that the Galactic Federation has begun something called "Operation Golem", in which it gives its troops humanoid mini-mechs to use on top of their existing powered armor; your player character and their squad are among the first to use them. The mini-mechs allow them to use weaponry and shielding similar to Samus Aran's suit, but obviously makes them much bigger targets and it seems they are still inferior to her Chozo technology overall.
• No Man's Sky has the Minotaur Exomech, a bipedal exocraft that stands a little over twice as tall as the player of the "Anomaly" race and has a variety of advantageous features, including jumpjets for mobility, compatibility with terrain manipulators, and the ability to collect materials without having to disembark first.
• Overwatch has multiple examples:
  • D.Va's lovely pink ride, equipped with fusion cannons, a defense matrix, jump jets, and a self destruct button. Notably, she doesn't wear it or even drive it so much as ride it in a position similar to a motorcycle.
  • Wrecking Ball is a Spider Tank controlled by the super-intelligent hamster Hammond armed with twin machineguns and other weapons, including a grappling hook to let it become a true wrecking ball. It also comes with an on-board AI that mostly serves to speak for it's pilot.
• Ruckus from Paladins is a small goblin who fights in a repurposed mining mech named Bolt. Bolt is armed with miniguns, missiles, forcefields, thrusters, and is powered by the mind-stone of a war golem. Said mind-stone uses the mech as his new body and begrudgingly aids Ruckus in battle.
• Phantom Crash's Scoobees are only slightly larger than a car.
  • S.L.A.I.: Steel Lancer Arena International is a sequel to Phantom Crash and also features the same diminutive robots, now called SVs, short for "scoot-vehicles." Notably, these modern scoot-vehicles are remotely operated for safety reasons where the original Phantom Crash era machines ere directly manned (and pilots were at constant risk of fiery exploding death). This becomes a critical plot point in the course of S.L.A.I.
• Phineas and Ferb: Quest for Cool Stuff features the All-Terrain Transformable (A.T.T.), a walking machine that Phineas and Ferb build to explore the Temple of Cool. The machine is just big enough for the boys to fit inside, and can transform between two different modes at any time. Throughout the game, the A.T.T. is upgraded with new features such as wheels, more powerful drills, and a submarine mode.
• Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time introduces a boatload of these to the series. First we have Dr. Zomboss's various Zombots (the boss battle of each time period), most of which being noticeably smaller than his Humongous Mecha from the first game. The Far Future levels are where the rest can be found, being a class of Elite Mook piloted by normal zombies, with various designs and functions, most of which are based on classic enemies from the first game. The mini-est mecha of them all are the Bug Bots piloted by the little Imps. Garden Warfare 2 introduces a playable Imp class from the future, with each variant of the character being able to call down a different Mini-Mecha.
• The Makron's Jorg mecha (in between this and Powered Armor) in Quake II, and the SMC Combat Walker in Quake IV. The latter has flimsy shields, but its armor is every bit as heavy as the Hover Tank's.
• The goddamned Raptors in Razing Storm. They jump around like mad while firing out Beam Spam and rockets.
• The Battle Armor in Red Faction II.
• Rex Rocket: Rex can hop into mechas and use them to combat the Terra-Oozlings and rogue robots in the game.
• Giacomo's walker from Rise of Legends treads the line between this and Humongous Mecha.
• Elliana from Rivals of Aether is a snake who pilots a steam-powered mech that allows her to fly.
• In River City Ransom: Underground, Calvin of the Nerds terrorizes the Grotto Mall arcade with a Power Loader replica he ordered through the mail. He can't be hurt while he's inside the mecha, so you'll need to bust it up to force him out.
• Saints Row IV has a mech suit that the Boss rides in during a few missions. They also get to raise all kinds of hell in it during a chain of Mayhem missions in the simulation. And nobody agrees if it's a "robot" or "power armor".
  Keith David: "Not really, a robot is an automaton whereas power armor-"^note Since the player can never see how the Boss rides around in there and it's huge size, it possible that everyone is wrong in some regard as it's clearly not a robot and too big to be "worn" as armor.
• The steam-powered mecha from Sakura Wars average approximately 10 feet in height.
• Shantae (2002): Risky Boots' Island Base has several mini-Tinkerbots patrolling the grounds. Damage them enough, and the top of their heads will fall off, revealing the Tinkerbat piloting it.
• The final stage of Shadow Guardian has a steampunk miniature mecha (the size of a small building but by no means humungous) hidden inside some Antarctic ruins, which is somehow still functionable after being left dormant for centuries. You hijack it to take on the Big Bad's tank army, and at the end of the stage the Big Bad unveils another similar mecha to fight you as the boss.
• Sonic the Hedgehog got into the act in Sonic Adventure 2 with Mini-Mecha piloted by Tails and Eggman, and later allowed Shadow to use similar vehicles.
  • Also the series has GUN which uses robots like this with names like "Big Dog".
• Speed Power Gunbike is an obscure Japanese PS1 title featuring transforming motorcycles in the vein of the Megazone 23 example above.
• Splatoon 3's Crab Tank is a special weapon that lets the player pilot one of these for a few seconds. It has two different firing modes, moves sideways faster than it can walk forward and backward, and can roll into a ball to climb walls and protect its user.
• SpongeBob SquarePants: Lights, Camera, Pants! has Plankton pilot a fish-sized mech in the mini-games, since he'd be too small otherwise.
• StarCraft has the Terran Goliath and the Protoss Dragoon, a rare non-human example. StarCraft II brings the Goliath back as a single-player extra, featuring the new Terran Viking, Protoss Stalker, and Protoss Immortal mini-mecha in starring roles. The concept art depicts the SCV, the terran worker unit, like this as well.◊
• Voth "exosuits" in Star Trek Online are upper-level enemies generally used as minibosses in Season 8's Dyson Sphere Ground Battlezone. They're about three times the height of the average Player Character and stylized like fat dinosaurs, with Arm Cannons, back-mounted mortars, and force field generators.
• Steambot Chronicles is set in a world where Mini-Mecha called Trotmobiles have become as ubiquitous as cars.
• Subnautica has the Prawn Suit, which is meant for underwater use. It can go to 900m deep by default and features interchangable arms and jump jets. The player is informed upon building it that users are meant to go through intensive training just to avoid the false sense of invincibility that comes from wearing it.
  • Its fanfiction adaption Aurora Falls takes this entry and gives it an upgrade to make it more combat-capable with standardized stasis emitters and heavy repulsion cannons, among other things.
• Most of the mecha in Super Robot Wars Spin-Off OG Saga: Endless Frontier fall into this category. They're a fair bit larger than a person, and are generally remote-controlled or autonomous rather than worn or piloted.
  • They take it a little too literally too, seeing as they're really miniature versions of full-sized Humongous Mecha from the series.
• Waffle's Police Robo and Cyan's Knight Robo from Tail Concerto. In the spiritual sequel Solatorobo, just about everyone has a Mini-Mecha of their own, even the Non-Player Character that shows up in the occasional side quests.
• Titanfall and Titanfall 2 have the Titans, 24-foot tall mechs, manufactured by Hammond Robotics, the original founders of the Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation though it also seems that Frontier Militia can also make their own. While largely dependent on their pilots, some Titans such as BT-7274 can have an AI that acts as the mind of the mech. They're a common sight on the battlefield, but the majority of both IMC and Militia forces seem to be infantry (and droids, in the former's case), with the Titan Pilots being regarded as the cream of the crop.
• Trails Series features Orbal Gears, a three-arge (metre) tall walker with an open seat in front, developed in Liberl by the ZCF. It's equipped with guns and powerful arms, but is pretty slow. Unlike other piloted mecha in the series, it can be used in normal battles (larger Panzer Soldiers are only used in special storyline battles or as one-off summons), and, starting with Cold Steel III, Tita Russell always rides it in battles, to avoid not being able to catch up.
• The Bunyips from the Ty the Tasmanian Tiger sequels are larger than most, but small enough that the cockpit amounts to a seat where the head should be.
• World of Warcraft has the Goblin Shredders and Gnome Pounders, steam-powered walkers equipped with circular saws and pneumatic hammers. The player can control a shredder during several quests.
  • Patch 5.4 finally added a mount version that engineers can build. It's called the Sky Golem, and as the name implies, it also can fly. And pick flowers.
• X-COM
  • Sectopods, the aliens' most powerful unit in terms of firepower and toughness across the series, is a bulky bipedal mecha-like construct. Despite the name,^note given by in-universe speculation that there's a Sectoid pilot in there before you research the wreck it's an entirely autonomous Attack Drone.
  • In XCOM: Enemy Within, the MECs^note Mechanized Exoskeletal Cybersuits are partly this trope, and partly Powered Armor. The MEC rig itself is twelve to fifteen feet tall, with the cockpit module taking up most of the torso and the operator's head remaining outside of the suit. The player can equip helmets to match the cybersuit, but the effect is purely cosmetic. Also note that the MEC trooper can't just hop into the cockpit: the MEC Trooper is a torso with a head^note Their limbs are amputated during the conversion process. and the MEC is his/her Artificial Limbs, which explains why they're so agile despite their size.
  • XCOM 2: ADVENT has access to MECs, which are suspiciously similar to Enemy Within's MEC troopers but fully mechanical and autonomous. The "Shen's Last Gift" DLC introduces their origin: the SPARK, a Super Prototype created by Dr. Shen and crewed by an Artificial Intelligence.
• Xenoblade Chronicles 1: The "Face" Mechon are large enough that they tower above the Homs, but are still smaller than Gundam sized mecha. And, they can transform into various form of aircraft.
• Xenoblade Chronicles X: Mechs known as "Skells" form one of the game's key gameplay mechanics. They're just over twice the size of a human pilot and can transform from a humanoid combat form into land vehicles for faster travel. Eventually, you can unlock an upgrade that enables flight.
• The soldiers of Colony 0 in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 pilot machines called Ferrons, which function as miniaturised versions of the Ferronises from which other colonies operate. The Ferrons are equipped with twin energy axes and cloaking technology, and also house Flame Clocks that are synchronised with the Life Energy of their pilots. If ordered to override the limiters of these Flame Clocks by Consul F, the Ferrons' power output is increased at the cost of the soldiers' own flames.
• Xenosaga has a Mini-Mecha used by the players and some baddies known as A.G.W.S. They are amount 4-6 meters tall.
• Zecha Tactics, an indie strategy game with clear ancestry from media such as Heavy Gear or Armored Trooper VOTOMS, features fairly short, stubby robots of about 10-12 feet in height. This is small enough to preclude a cockpit contained in the head; pilots have to sit in the torso.
• Helldivers has the EXO-44 Walker and its variants, which are bipedal heavy weapon platforms. At roughly 3 meters tall, the operator enters through a rear hatch and sits in the torso.

Visual Novels

• In Marco & the Galaxy Dragon, diminutive aliens like Collection Joe—who is smaller than a baseball—sometimes ride around in heavily-armed exoskeletons taller than humans.

Web Animation

• RWBY:
  • The Black Trailer introduces the Spider Droid, a massive arachnid-shaped beast of a combat machine. Although it appears to function like the humanoid Atlesian Knights, the first manga reveals that it is actually a huge mecha that is powered by a tiny security robot.
  • The Atlesian Paladin is a vaguely humanoid robotic war-machine that can function as a remote-controlled battle drone. However, the torso is a cockpit that can fit an adult, who can control the Paladin directly from an internal console. While the Paladin is bigger than a human to be able to comfortably accommodate one in the cockpit, it's only approximately 2-3 times the height of a human, making it a relatively small mecha option.

Web Comics

• Several mechs found in Girl Genius, such as the one Dr. Silas Merlot used to try and kill Agatha in Castle Heterodyne.
  • The mantis walker built by Gil (when he was a kid) and piloted by Zoing. Inscribed with "Arthropodi rule!" and "Who's the lab rat now?"
  • This piece from Heterodynes Armor Museum, identified as "Ol' Vorthang's Sunday best armor" by Mamma Gkika and "two-ton mobile armored death knight suit" by Agatha. This thing even got a built-in crown.
• A mid-sized mech appears in Jayden And Crusader. It's about the size of a house.
• The LIMBS of My Lifeat War qualify as mini-mechs.
• The rank-and-file Armours used in World War I-esque Operator straddle the Mini-Mecha/Powered Armor line in much the same way as the Iron Monger — the pilot's head sticks out the top in a helmet structure, while the rest of their body sits in a cramped cockpit that takes up most of the [fairly bulky] torso.
• Tausennigan mini-tanks, found in Schlock Mercenary. Designed for O'Benn, small enough that only the shortest human crew members (or smaller non-humans) can effectively pilot them, and mounting a pair of arms that haven't yet been seen in action (plus the tank cannon), they seem to qualify. On the other hand, they fly instead of walk.
• 4mb3r, in Sequential Art, pilots one starting here.

Web Original

the SCP Foundation's frenemy organization, the Global Occult Coalition, has the "Ultra-Heavy Engagement Chassis", otherwise known as "Orange Suits". The suits designed to face off against giant monsters, energy manipulators, as well as conventional infantry. In order to survive in their role, each suit's protection include impact resistant polymers, ceramic plating, air filtration, a vaporizing liquid extinguisher, a device capable of anomalously reducing the suit's mass, and impact resistant polymer encased in carbon nanotubes (and this is just the stuff we're told about.)

Western Animation

• The Batman saw Batman build a mecha suit in order to fight a Venom'd up Bane and kept it around just in case. He later used another one against Superman when Supes was under Mind Control.
• In Batman: The Brave and the Bold, the Batmobile actually morphs into a Mini-Mecha (and a plane, and a boat, and a submarine...).
• In BattleTech (1994), the Inner Sphere develops "battle armors" to counter the Clan's Elemental suits. However, the two battle armors they develop, Infiltrator and Sloth, end up closer to this trope than to Powered Armor.
• C.O.P.S. (1988) features Mini-Mechas called boxoids; robots that are used in futuristic boxing.
• The Knights in The Deep (2015) are probably closer to this than Powered Armor — they have a clear cockpit, and have armoured "sleeves" and mech-arms (which are controlled by the sleeves, but it's still not the same as the pilot's arms going inside them).
• Dexter's backpack expands into one of these in Dexter's Laboratory.
• The Exo-frames from Exo Squad ranged in design and functionality from Powered Armor to small Chicken Walkers, but the majority were pretty much weaponized versions of the Power Loader from Aliens.
• The White Knight uses one in an episode of Generator Rex. While wearing Powered Armor under it.
• Infinity Train: The Conductor is revealed to actually be an elder human female inside one of these, complete with voice modulator.
• The Legend of Korra has mecha-tanks armed with electric claw and disc launchers. They were built by Hiroshi Sato for the Equalists. In Book 4, Varrick gives the ones in Kuvira's army a major design overhaul, complete with flamethrowers and fully-functional legs and hands instead of treads and claws (making them much more agile). They're also smaller, to the point of being on the border between an Mini-Mecha and Powered Armor. By the end, Asami and Varrick also design a two-man "hummingbird" variant capable of flying.
• Sheldon from My Life as a Teenage Robot uses one of these called the Silver Shell.
• The Marauder suits from Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles are one-man exoskeletons used to add further firepower and muscle beyond that provided by the standard Mobile Infantry Powered Armor.
• Lance and Ilana's armor, the Manus and Corus (respectively) in Sym-Bionic Titan.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) has several of these, the main one being Cody Jones' two Turtle X mecha. Others include the Foot's Shred-naught Units, and the core mecha used by Justice Force members Dr. Dome and Ananda. The Utrom Shredder himself uses what could be described as one in the episode, "Exodus", where after his main body is destroyed, he is placed into a much larger, more heavily armed (literally; he's got four of them in this thing) suit.
• Zak Storm: Being a little green alien, Caramba walks around in a mecha suit. While said mecha suit still makes him one of the smallest characters of the show, it is a lot bigger than he is.

Real Life (Combat)

• The Kantanka Glitz Walker is a bizarre bi-pedal armored vehicle made in Ghana, it is armed with two assault rifles on top of gatling guns. It remains ambiguous whether the legs are functional or merely props.
• The Kuratas has twin miniguns and can be piloted either directly, or remotely via a 3G connection. (Instructional Video available on Youtube.)
  • Its gatling guns are activated by the pilot smiling. Luckily, they're filled with BB gun pellets, so you won't kill anyone by laughing.
• The MegaBots team are currently trying to turn mini-mecha fighting into a sport, with the current prototype being piloted by two and having two paintball-shooting cannons. They even issued a challenge to the creator of the above Kuratas to fight it out, which was accepted. They developed a larger mech called Eagle Prime, an upgraded version of their prototype mech Iron Glory, to counter Kuratas in melee combat.
  • It should be noted that the match was more of a staged, Professional Wrestling-style affair, with more of an emphasis on visual spectacle and staged fight scenes. Whether later matches will follow this trend so that Professional Wrestling WITH MECHA becomes a thing remains to be scene.
  • And now, Chinese company, GREATMETAL is working on it's own mech, the vaguely Sun Wukong inspired Monkey King, with intentions to pit it against its American and Japanese equivalents.

Real Life (Other)

• The Beetle was an air force vehicle designed in the 60s to maintain nuclear bombers. While it used boring treads to get around, it had two mechanical arms capable of lifting thousands of pounds yet precise and delicate enough to move eggs. The Beetle was declared a huge success, the nuclear powered bombers it was built to service however were not.
• The quadripedal BigDog developed by Boston Dynamicsis capable of carrying 40 kilograms and withstanding significant force without falling over. It's a bit... unsettling.
• Carlos Owens, a former army mechanic, spent four years and $25,000 to build an 5 meters tall steel mecha.
• The Hitachi Astaco is a double-arm construction machine used for demolition and disaster relief. While it doesn't have legs, it makes up for it with a pair of surprisingly agile arms and mecha-esque controllers, to the point it's nicknamed as "Gundam Construction Machine" ^note "ガンダム建機" in Japanese in Japan.
• The METHOD-1, a humanoid walking mecha created by Korea Future Technology working with concept artist Vitaly Bulgarov. Looking like a cross between Aliens' Power Loader and the AMP Suits from Avatar it features a glass cockpit. The pilot can control the robot using a variety of buttons, joysticks, and motion capture. METHOD-1 was built to study the suitability of giant mecha in the real world with various utilitarian applications.
• The six-legged Timberjack Walking Machine.
• Amazingly, the Toyota i-foot.
• The "walking truck" by General Electric.
• California-based Mechanized Propulsion Systems is working on designing and building a humanoid bipedal mecha within the next 25 years.

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