History Main / MeatSackRobot

* ''Film/RoboCop1987'': [=RoboCop=] was designed to essentially be a robot [[MindReformatDeath using a critically injured cop's central nervous system as a]] WetwareCPU. They left enough of a digestive system to sustain the brain and spine, and grafted his face on for looks, but he's otherwise a robot meant to be subservient to programming. Him partially regaining his previous identity was an unexpected accident.
* In ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'', the Borg queen grafts living skin tissue onto Data's arm (Data being a purely artificial android), allowing him to feel human sensations, something he has longed to do but was not capable of. This was an attempt to lure him over to her side. (A more limited example than most others, in that we're talking about a small patch of skin, and Data was fully functional without it, but it still fits the "reverse cyborg" definition). [[spoiler: The tissue gets burned off when he vents the reactor onto the Borg.]]

* ''Videogame/{{Ultrakill}}:'' [[WordOfGod According to Hakita]], the machines you face in the game ''all'' have some fleshy organic components within them, which is part of why they spill precious blood everywhere; the other reason, and perhaps the explanation for ''why'' they need to be this way, is that they ''run'' on human blood in the first place. This is most easily seen with the Gutterman (where most organic components are tucked neatly into a backpack [[spoiler:and are also [[AndIMustScream a barely-alive human being used as a blood tank-slash-supply]]
]]) and [[spoiler:the 1000-THR ''Earthmover'', which is [[ColossusClimb so huge you get to crawl in its fleshy guts on your way to the core]]]].[[/folder]]

[[/folder]]

See also OrganicTechnology. Overlaps with certain variants of ArtificialHuman. Compare AmbiguousRobots, LivingBattery, WetwareBody, and WetwareCPU. For a magical/fantastical equivalent, see FleshGolem. Not to be confused with RidiculouslyHumanRobot, though Meat Sack Robots acting like Ridiculously Human Robots are not precluded.

* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'': [[spoiler:Sari Sumdac]] seems organic on the outside and robotic beneath her skin, though [[MechanicalLifeforms even the mechanical parts are alive]]. Website/TFWikiDotNet even calls her "The most adorable little [[Franchise/{{Terminator}} T-800]] you ever saw."

* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'': [[spoiler:Sari Sumdac]] seems organic on the outside and robotic beneath their skin, though [[MechanicalLifeforms even the mechanical parts are alive]]. Website/TFWikiDotNet even calls them "The most adorable little [[Franchise/{{Terminator}} T-800]] you ever saw."

** Triborg, introduced in ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'', is a robot, but X-ray attacks and Fatalities done on it, as well as at least one intro dialogue with Cassie Cage, reveal that it is built on some unknown person's body. [[spoiler: ts default form implies that it's Cyber Sub-Zero's former body, the one he had before he was killed and resurrected as a Revenant. Its Arcade ending has it do the same thing to the humans at the Special Forces base, and vows to do the same thing to other kombatants as well.]]

* A human with cybernetic implants that have a highly advanced AI (internal or external) that, upon its host's death or presumed lifelong incapacitation (e.g. a coma), takes over the biological mass of its host for its own purpose and continued independent existence. If this process is committed by an AI on a still living and conscious living host, this results in WetwareBody and/or UnwillingRoboticization.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'': The Borg [[TheAssimilator assimilate]] various species (via injecting {{Nanomachines}} into their victims) into its [[HiveMind AI's unifying conscious]] called "the Collective" [[UnwillingRoboticization whether their victims consent or not]].

* In ''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'', Victor Mancha is an ComicBook/{{Ultron}} construct whose body was designed so that over time, his organs would reconstruct themselves in ways that would enable them to mimic organic material, until his cybernetic nature became impossible to detect.
* ''Comicbook/XMen'': The storyline "Operation: Zero Tolerance" introduced the Prime Sentinels: ordinary humans who were [[UnwillingRoboticization roboticized]] and then released back into their normal lives as {{Manchurian Agent}}s unaware of the cybernetics under their flesh. Their bodies are constantly scanning for the X-Gene and when they come in contact with a mutant, their programming involuntarily activates, where they will attempt to eliminate them with extreme prejudice. They also carry the ability to roboticize ordinary people and thus create ''more'' Prime Sentinels.
* In ''[[Comicbook/{{Micronauts|MarvelComics}} Micronauts]],'' [[RobotBuddy Biotron's]] second incarnation, as the humanoid spaceship [[LivingShip Bioship,]] is a machine that incorporates bioengineered tissue in its workings, most notably an enormous living brain.

* The ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003''/''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'' crossover "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4960624/1/An-Angel-With-No-Fate An Angel With No Fate]]" introduces a new form of Terminator in the form of the T-666, which is essentially the "missing link" between the rubber-skinned T-600s and the living tissue grafted over the T-800s. Where the skin for the T-800s was specifically engineered for each individual Terminator model, the skin on the T-666s was formed from dead tissue taken from corpses. According to a reprogrammed Terminator, the T-666s were normally treated with various preservatives to keep the skin reasonably fresh when they were first created, but the scent of those drugs alone often gave away their true nature, which prevented Skynet deploying the T-666s on a large scale even if some of them are kept in certain bases for security even after the creation of the T-800s onwards.

* ''Film/BicentennialMan'': Andrew starts as an ordinary housekeeping android who develops artificial intelligence. After finding the son of the roboticist who designed him, he starts to add organic components to his body. First it's just his skin, but then he replaces much of his inner circuitry with artificial organs. Eventually, he becomes so human that he even starts to age and decay, as a deliberate choice so he can die with his human wife, who becomes a cyborg herself thanks to Andrew's inventions.
* The title character of Film/{{Daryl}}. He is a computer brain in an organic body.
* In ''Film/TheMatrixRevolutions'', the Ex-Agent Smith, a malicious program that formerly served the Matrix, [[WetwareBody took possession]] of one of Neo's fellow members of the Human resistance in an attempt to kill him in the real world. This trope applies in that the human has a technological implant, from which Smith (a thoroughly non-biological entity) was able to use to manifest himself in the real world via a human host.

* ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'': Even though the terminators through out the franchise have been referred to as cyborgs (which in the strictest sense of anything composed of biological material and robotic technology can be true), they are non-living machines with living tissue attached to themselves instead of being living beings with technological modifications grafted onto their bodies.

* ''Film/{{Virus}}'': The titular virus starts as an extra-terrestrial storm cloud that is transferred into a oceanic ship with advanced robotics--but not more advanced than the body parts that make up the pesky human crew. Cue BodyHorror.

* In "Literature/{{Evidence}}", a candidate for a political office is suspected of being a robot. The United States Robotics claim they did create an artificial body for a robot as an experiment, but it never had a brain. It's stated to be flesh grown upon a plastic skeleton.
* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': The Human-AI-Transports ([=HAITs=]) made by the AI known as The Palm, are human bodies modified with circuitry allowing copies of The Palm to inhabit and control those bodies.
* The ''Literature/DoctorWhoMissingAdventures'' novel ''System Shock'' features a race of alien cyborgs from a planet where an AI took over. When the Doctor attempts to appeal to their buried human natures, their leader explains that they don't have any: they're not people with robot bits grafted on to keep them in line, they're robots with people bits grafted on to gain advantages they couldn't get with fully mechanical bodies.

* In ''Literature/GirlsWithSharpSticks'', [[spoiler:the titular girls are all meat-sack robots taken to an extreme, with their brains being the ''only'' mechanical parts in what are otherwise biologically human bodies. Their creators originally tried using regular {{Robot Girl}}s, but they were created as personal servants, and their owners felt that artificial skin fell into the UncannyValley.]]
* Fyzen Gor, BigBad of ''Literature/StarWarsLastShot'', does this as his modus operandi. He believes mechanical life to be superior to organic life, and that organic beings using mechanical prosthetics to repair themselves is hypocritical. To wit, Fyzen has a legion of droids with organic limbs grafted onto them, and once they start to rot, they hunt and slaughter other organic life to harvest new limbs from.

* In ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'' Rommie's android avatar has realistic cloned human skin, presumably designed by Harper for his own benefit.

** The Cybermen. The backstories vary DependingOnTheWriter, but in all their incarnations, they're a race of robots that "[[FateWorseThanDeath assimilate]]" humans and other humanoid lifeforms transforming them into full robots like them, only maintain their brains (and sometimes [[BodyHorror other "parts"]]) to make them work.

* ''Series/{{Lexx}}'' has a few variants of these strewn throughout its BioPunk setting, including one of the main characters. 790 is robotic head crudely grafted onto a human body - or he would be, except he [[LosingYourHead lost the body]].
** More precisely, 790 and his fellow androids incorporate human brain tissue stripped of all identity and personality down to the naked neural circuitry necessary for controlling said body, which is then slaved to computer controls.

* ''TabletopGame/GammaWorld'' 1st Edition. In the adventure [=GW1=] ''Legion of Gold'', the {{PC}}s will explore an Ancient base that has been taken over by androids. They will discover some PeopleJars with androids growing inside of them. The androids consist of an underlying metallic framework with electronic wiring (the "robot" part) covered by a normal human body (flesh, muscles, etc.).
* In the GURPS setting ''TabletopGame/TranshumanSpace'' bioroids are largely biological entities assembled by nanites over a polymer-lattice skeleton. Bioshells are bioroids, or sometimes reanimated corpses, with computers in place of brains so that they may host an AI or VirtualGhost.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'':
** The Imperium of Man has a ban on true AI due to a RobotWar that helped destroy the previous human civilization, so to get around this, it uses servitors, "robots" made from lobotomised criminals or vat-grown clones implanted with cybernetics for various purposes.
** The Necrons are {{SkeleBot}}s housing the [[CameBackWrong damaged consciousnesses]] of once-living beings. The so-called Flayed Ones are ''trying'' to attain this trope -- these Necrons have had a mental breakdown from the resulting SenseLossSadness, and after butchering victims with their claws, the Flayed Ones drape their metal forms in bloody strips of skin in a desperate attempt to regain the sensation of having a flesh-and-blood body.

* The original "robots" in ''Theatre/{{RUR}}'' were simplified human bodies made from synthetic biological protoplasm.

* ''Franchise/TheTransformers'':
** G1 had Pretenders, which were Transformers who were robots that had a techno-organic outer shell that looked like a non-robot being, whether it was a human, a monster, or an animal.
** ''Beast Wars'' was about new Transformers that had alt-modes that were organic animals.

* ''VideoGame/Injustice2'': ComicBook/{{Brainiac}} has at his disposal robots known as "Betas". Several cutscenes in story mode show that they have some exposed bone and flesh, of which are presumably of some of the numerous billions of humanoid species he has collected for use in his robotic army.
* ''VideoGame/KillerInstinct'': Fulgore is a robot created by [[MegaCorp Ultratech]] with the intention of selling it as weapons of war to highest bidders. While it for most of the duration of the series has a human brain, that of [[spoiler: Chief Thunder's brother Eagle]], it's only used as part of its CPU, which operates on its own AI. It is subverted in the post season three release when it has developed a consciousness of its own from absorbing and recording the brain patterns of [[spoiler: Eagle]], who became freed from it due to work of [[spoiler: Chief Thunder and [[AnIcePerson Glacius]].]]
* ''Franchise/MassEffect'': [[BigBad The Reapers]] typically enslave organic species through [[MindControl indoctrination]]. However, indoctrinated slaves are limited in usefulness due to the fact that they still have the same physical needs and weaknesses as the rest of their species as well as the fact that indoctrination itself slowly erodes the affected mind until the person can literally do ''nothing'' for themselves. The way they try to circumvent this is through the UnwillingRoboticization of their slaves, starting with implants in the brain and nervous systems, which is frequently demonstrated (once you get past [[GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul the indoctrinated lies]]) as a FateWorseThanDeath for anyone [[AndIMustScream unfortunate enough to have undergone it]].

** Triborg, introduced in ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'', is a robot, but X-ray attacks and Fatalities done on it, as well as at least one intro dialogue with Cassie Cage reveal that it is built on some unknown person's body. [[spoiler: Its default form implies that it's Cyber Sub-Zero's former body, the one he had before he was killed and resurrected as a Revenant. Its Arcade ending has it do the same thing to the humans at the Special Forces base, and vows to do the same thing to other kombatants as well.]]
** The Cyber Lin Kuei under Sektor in the rebooted continuity were all slaved to the Lin Kuei network. This removed any individuality out of them and rendered them little more than robots with undying loyalty to the grand master, who was naturally Sektor himself.[[spoiler: Once Kuai Lang beat the crap out of Sektor, the network defaulted to the next sentient cyber ninja: Cyrax, which caused all of the cyber ninjas to stop attacking Kuai Lang. Later on during Kronika's plot, the factory would be restored, but this time the cyborgs would be slaved to Frost.]]
* The ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series, namely ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' and ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', featuring Synthetic Humanoids, AKA "Synths", created by The Institute. Early models were lanky, skeletal robots made of metal and plastic, but the latest Third-Generation Synths are indistinguishable from natural-born humans, built from the inside-out with lab-grown bones wrapped in synthetic muscles, skin, and organs. The only "artificial" part of their body is the "Synth Component", a small device hidden somewhere in their body that allows them to be programmed by the Institute.

* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', the character Doyt Gyo has an AI called Haban built into his cyborg implants; they do not fit this trope, and neither does their combined form Doythaban. However after a gate-clone[[note]]A clone created by jump gates [[ItMakesSenseInContext so the gatekeepers can torture it for information]][[/note]] of Doythaban [[spoiler:is shot in the head, medical intervention is only able to save the copy of Haban, [[WetwareBody leaving the AI in control of the clone body]].]]

* ''WesternAnimation/OKKOLetsBeHeroes:''
** Though the Box More robots are fundamentally mechanical, to the point that most are just using a RemoteBody, Darrell and Shannon have an organic brain and human feet, respectively. [[RuleOfFunny We're given no idea why.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'': [[spoiler:Sari Sumdac]] seems organic on the outside and robotic beneath their skin, though even the mechanical parts are [[MechanicalLifeforms alive]]. TF Wiki even calls them "The most adorable little T-800 you ever saw."

* In ''Literature/CityOfIllusions'', the Shing use mentally deficient people as computer controlled drones.
* E. Crimson Tally from Creator/CharlesSheffield's Heritage Universe, a computer brain inside a vat-grown human body.

* Creator/IsaacAsimov: In "Evidence", the penultimate story of the ''Literature/IRobot'' collection, a candidate for a political office is suspected of being a robot. The United States Robotics claim they did create an artificial body for a robot as an experiment, but it never had a brain. It was stated to be flesh grown upon a plastic skeleton.

* Fyzen Gor, BigBad of the ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' novel ''[[Literature/StarWarsLastShot Last Shot]]'' does this as his modus operandi. He believes mechanical life to be superior to organic life, and that organic beings using mechanical prosthetics to repair themselves is hypocritical. To wit, Fyzen has a legion of droids with organic limbs grafted onto them, and once they start to rot they hunt and slaughter other organic life to harvest new limbs from.