Discussion Main / SpiderTank

Can we find a video of the Tachikomas from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex using their grappling lines to use as a video example?

Someone who knows more about mecha than I do should add the Alexanders from Code Geass: Akito the Exiled - humanoid mecha that transform into this, and are more agile in this form.

The page image isn't so great.

I was thinking a fuchikoma/tachikoma would probably be a better example, and more asthetically striking. Will put one up at some point unless someone else has a good image in mind.

Deleted most of this digression from the Star Craft example:

• The Protoss evidently never invented the wheel, since most of their ground mechanical units are some variation on the Spider Tank. Other examples include the Immortal and Stalker (upgraded dragoons), the Colossus. (The sole exception - the Reaver - moves like a mechanical caterpillar rather than a spider.)
  • That's an H.G. Wells thing right there. Can a species miss something as obvious as the wheel? Is it even possible to build technology without it?
  • Why not? Hydraulics (up to fluid amplifiers and maybe fluid cushions), pneumatics and decent metallurgy don't need it. This allows vibro-tools. Lever-based mechanics, chemistry, galvanics, welding... The question is—at which point it becomes Selective Obliviousness and eventually an Overlong Running Gag?
  • Partially explained through the backstory as the Protoss received all of their technology through the Xel'Naga. It's possible they were never introduced to the idea of using wheels as a method of transportation as they were immediately given warp and hover technology.
  • It's also possible there has been no consideration given to the fact that the Dragoon has a spinning set of supports on its underbody that grip the ground when it fires.