History Main / PoweredArmor

* Big Guy of ''TheBigGuyAndRustyTheBoyRobot'' has a huge suit of armor that can be driven like a tank that is actually supposed to be a self aware robot.

*** Resilience and independence, presumably. That, and the titular avatars did not appear to have conventional communication interfaces, which might have suffered from interference in Pandora's unusual environment. Making the same 'magical' interfaces for the military would be hugely expensive.

** The third installment, despite Bethesda's tendency to feature unrealistic armor (such as the stripperiffic ChainmailBikini armor worn by Raiders), has a less exaggerated Powered Armor, even though they're still following the original design.

** Word of God has said this is because the Sentinals could easily tear through any armor they put up, making it more efficent to simply leave them unarmored. Itwas been shown in ''Animatrix'' that the armored suits go down just as easily as their descendants, but prolong the suffering of the pilot.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_diving_suit Atmospheric Diving Suits]], especially the more modern ones, could be seen as a type of Powered Armour.

* As above may suggest, most of the technology for power armour is actually availaible and possible, but the big problem is finding a ''power source'' that is small enough to fit on a suit of armour and powerful enough to power it for a worthwhile length of time. Most of the above have to be plugged into a generator to be used for very long.

* ''{{Guyver}}: Bio-Boosted Armour'', a manga from the late 80's, along with a one shot OVA from '86, a twelve part mini-series released by studio L.A. Heroes released from 89 to about 92-93 and also a twenty six episode series that expanded more on the manga than the twelve episode one, that was released in 2005 by {{FUNimation}} Studios. This series uses this concept to its fullest extent. It starts out with a high schooler named Sho Fukamchi walking in the woods near the school with his friend Tetsuro Segawa. There they hear and see the aftermath of a huge explosion and see something hurdling through the sky towards them. Sho picks it up to and points put that it's alien looking, when he all of sudden trips and smacks his face against it and it starts to encompass him. Later when Tetsuro is in immediate danger from a secret world goevernment style organization known as Chronos, Sho clad in this "bio" metal armor and destroys the ones troubling Tetsuro. Afterwards he seemingly regains consciousness while still in the armor and notes that it is DEFINITELY alien.

** Thankfully, the third film ''does'' include prototype/early run suits of Marauder PoweredArmor, although almost as a b-plot, and they only get 5, maybe 10 minutes of action on screen. It was, however, [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome awesome]], [[AndThereWasMuchRejoicing and long overdue]]. Sadly, that short period at the ''end'' of the [[{{Narm}} film was pretty much it's one redeeming feature]].

** Debatable, considering it's built-in ammunition management system.

* The Bear Armor, a mostly-one man project that has been edited dozens of times. It can withstand bullets, fists, baseball bats, cars, and even it's initial purpose: bears. It's also technically fire proof, but the person inside would be cooked alive. All of this started when a bear attacked a man.

* {{MANTIS}}. Being paraplegic, the suit allowed the dude to ''walk'', let alone be a superhero.

* {{Batman}} in certain incarnations, most notably when Jean Paul Valley took on the role of Batman, he beefed the suit into a virtual war machine not unlike IronMan. (This was a sort of "Be careful what you wish for" to fans who wanted Batman to become more Punisher-like during the DarkAge). BatmanBeyond had the same general concept, but the suit was [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman more slender and less clunky looking]] than most.

* [[Comicbook/FantasticFour Dr. Doom]]. Contrary to its almost medieval-come-industrial revolution aesthetic, being covered in visible rivets and displaying no apparent electronics, it is actually a nuclear-powered, ultra-sophisticated walking tank that stands up next to Tony Stark's best designs. It makes him strong and tough enough to go toe-to-toe with the Thing, discharge an array of devastating energy attacks, enables him to fly and control his vast arsenal of external technological devices. (Some versions even have a device that renders him immune to direct assault by mutant powers, so Magneto's victory over him in a fight isn't as assured as it would be against Tony.) He can basically beat the tar out of any non-"cosmic" character short of the Hulk and SquirrelGirl.

* The Daleks from ''DoctorWho'' are basically evil lumps of flesh encased in salt-shaker-shaped personal tanks that function the same way PoweredArmor does for humanoids. Constant improvements in [[strike:special effects technology]] the armor's tech even allows newer designs to overcome the original suits' greatest weakness: [[WeaksauceWeakness stairs]].

** For being a veteran, Heinlein [[DidNotDoTheResearch didn't so much research either]] into anti-tank and armor-piercing weaponry, since only ''one'' Maurader was killed by an armor-piercing shell despite being an abundance of armed Skinnies-- and Rico was shocked at this, saying that "there was actually a ''hole'' in his armor and blood pouring out of it,'' indicating that this was something new and unheard-of for powered armor.

* ''StarshipTroopers'' [[TropeCodifier codified the concept]] (which TheFilmOfTheBook sadly [[AdaptationDecay removed]] [[MissedMomentOfAwesoe entirely]]), building off E.E. "Doc" Smith's ''{{Lensman}}'' series, which [[UrExample did it first]] in a less dramatic fashion.

** Spyers are ordinary humans who use PoweredArmor to achieve ClothesMakeTheSuperMan, and it's hinted that their ancient, possibly alien suits are actually TheSymbiote, as they literally grow stronger and more powerful as the wearer gets more used to them. These are unusual artefacts belonging to noble families rather than standard military gear, however.

** Spryers are ordinary humans who use PoweredArmor to achieve ClothesMakeTheSuperMan, and it's hinted that their ancient, possibly alien suits are actually TheSymbiote, as they literally grow stronger and more powerful as the wearer gets more used to them.

** Meanwhile, in ''NightmareOfNunnally'', the other spinoff manga: ''Lelouch, of all people'', gets this treatment. Although, in his case, it's not tech-based but a special type of wired Geass which allows him to fight in a similar manner to Suzaku's suit. By the end of the manga, he had faced off against hordes of [[HumongousMecha Knightmare Frames]] and other Geass-related pheomena, and always came out on top.