American Robot

This robot was made In America!

"...Just remember that you and I are made from the same stuff: taxpayer dollars, American pride and the sweat of an honest day's work."

— Big Guy, Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot

Welcome to Eagleland, bitches! We're rich, industrious, militarily powerful and burningly patriotic! How to show that in fiction? Why with Giant Robots of course. An American Robot, in short, is any super fighting machine that hams up the USA to the power of eleven. Expect them to be decked out in the stars and stripes, packing the heavy artillery, and burning with sheer American pride.

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Examples

Advertising

• Cleatus, the NFL robot. A mascot for a game widely considered to be one of America's national pasttimes, hosted by a very patriotic American channel, and it's a humungous ball-loving robot.

Anime & Manga

• Heroman. "AMERICA BANZAI!" aside, Heroman's giant red, white, and blue motif, complete with the hot-blooded IN AMERICA style (with a Phenotype Stereotype controller) is this trope to a T.
• Mobile Fighter G Gundam has Chibodee Crockett's mech Gundam Maxter, which is a surfing cowboy American Football-player Giant Robot boxer. Most countries have equally stereotypical Gundams, but they usually don't have quite that many different stereotypes combined. Also, his crew is a bunch of Wrench Wenches. Its manga-exclusive upgrade Max Revolver ditches everything except the cowboy theme, however.
• In the early design phases for Gundam Wing, the original plan was to follow the National Stereotypes motif started by G. However, in an interesting twist, Gundam Heavyarms, originally designed as this by painting it in bright colors and stacking on tons of missiles and a huge gatling gun was eventually given to the European member of the core cast. The American of the bunch instead got the Gundam Deathscythe, the stealthy, bat-winged Gundam with a gigantic beam scythe (which the American fanbase immediately nicknamed "The Bat-Gundam").
• Getter Robo: Texas Mack, the revolver-toting, lasso-throwing giant robot cowboy guardian of the USA, piloted by an Engrish-spouting cowboy and his sister. Also has its own giant robot horse, piloted by Jack King's ranch dog. The version in Shin Getter Robo vs. Neo Getter Robo is slightly more awesome than stereotypical, especially the high-powered cannon it keeps stored inside a giant coffin in the White House lawn (with a duplicate inside the US Embassy in Japan).
  • The American robots in the manga tend to be pretty normal looking, at least until Hien where the Statue of Liberty itself is a giant cannon/jet piloted by a Humongous Mecha.

Comic Books

• The Big Guy, of The Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, which is justified, as the whole program was an over-glorified publicity stunt. He's partnered with an Expy of Astro Boy, though. And also, he's not actually a robot; he's a suit of armor piloted by a jet fighter pilot.
• Atomic Robo reeks of the trope, especially with his classical 20th-century American values. His inventor is the immigrant Serbian Nikola Tesla.
• The DCU's G.I. Robot (aka J.A.K.E.).
• The Iron Patriot armor, built and worn by Norman Osborn during Dark Reign, is meant to be a mixture of Iron Man and Captain America. He liberally uses Tony Stark's blueprints to fashion his suit(s).
  • The Detroit Steel armor, developed by Hammer Industries. Huge, loud, with ridiculous amounts of guns and weaponry (including chainsaws) and painted with the colors of the American flag (though he's first and foremost a corporate tool and other "Steelmech" models can be painted to whatever the buyer wants, namely corporate logos). Matt Fraction conceived him as a mix between the jingoism of Team America: World Police and Tony Stark's worst nightmares about his tech being completely corrupted by the military industrial complex.
• Batman: Sergent Thomas "Tommy" Tinker is either a robot or a nearly entirely mechanical cyborg that works alongside the living spirit of America and shows up to help Robin when Penguin's bounty on him and Batgirl draws well over fifty killers to town looking to collect.

Films — Live-Action

• Short Circuit 2: Johnny Five, as of the epilogue of the movie.
• In the Iron Man movies:
  • Subverted in Iron Man 2: Justin Hammer tries to pass off his Hammer Droids as this. They come in Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine models no less. Every model has a specialist weapon or device attached to it - an anti-armor cannon for the Army, missile launchers for the Navy, high-speed flight systems for the Air Force, and close-range machine guns for the Marines. Too bad the Renegade Russian in charge of AI sets them on rampage...
  • In Iron Man 3, War Machine gets Norman Osborn's paint job on his armor to become the Iron Patriot, the top dog of US defense. But Rhodey makes sure to note he still prefers the name War Machine (especially since the name "Iron Patriot" is the product of focus groups).
• In Pacific Rim, all the jaegers are designed to reflect some aspect of their nation's character. Gipsy Danger, the American jaeger, is therefore a big blue thing with a boxer's physique and a couple of strategically-placed stars. The plating of the jaeger is also designed to resemble that of an aircraft carrier.

Live-Action TV

• The Super Sentai Shuriken Sentai Ninninger has its core group of heroes piloting a series of Giant Mecha that have Japanese designs and themes. Their Sixth Ranger is StarNinger, an American ninja with a cowboy theme. His mecha is named Rodeomaru and it rides a giant ATV named Bison King Buggy with which it combines to become the Bison King.
  • Bonus points for the Bison King formation using English translation of the core team's Mecha Formation Jingle.
• In BattleBots, this is the theme of Team LOGICOM's robots. It began when they represented the United States in Robot Wars with The Revolutionist, decorated with the Stars and Stripes, and they've stuck with that theme since when they moved back to ''BattleBots." Their current robot, Captain Shrederator, resembles Captain America's shield.
• Stargirl (2020): The S.T.R.I.P.E. armor is a mech suit that stands about two stories tall, built by Pat Dugan out of parts from classic American cars. He even proudly affixed the "Made in Detroit" badge from one of the cars onto the back of its left leg.

Video Games

• The title Metal Wolf of Metal Wolf Chaos is the red, blue, and gun-filled personal ride of Michael Wilson, main character of the game and President Action extraordinaire. Its alt forms are even more patriotic.
• Robo-47 from War of the Monsters. He sports U.S. Air Force symbols, is loaded with appropriate chain guns and nuclear missiles, and comes with a Hammer of Justice. He even leads a U.S. Army battalion against the player's monster in adventure mission 2.
• Fallout 3 has LIBERTY PRIME, the anti-Chinese, anti-Communist giant robot. It might not be flag-themed (although it leaves Statue-of-Liberty-shaped footprints), but he throws nukes like they were footballs, and is constantly spouting anti-Communist, pro-America propaganda, such as "DEMOCRACY IS THE SOVEREIGN RIGHT OF EVERY AMERICAN" and "AMERICA WILL NEVER FALL TO COMMUNIST INVASION". Though he gets destroyed by an Enclave orbital strike in the Broken Steel DLC, he does makes a comeback in Fallout 4, helping the Brotherhood storm the Institute's Elaborate Underground Base by blowing a hole in its roof. Alternately, the Institute may hack into him to make him think the Brotherhood is communist, causing him to shoot down the Prydwen.
• BioShock Infinite feature Motorized Patriots, animatronic bots designed to look like previous US presidents armed with pepper mills.
• Codename STEAM features a steampunk strike force led by President Abraham Lincoln. Their strongest weapon is the Anthropomorphic Battle Engine or A.B.E., a Humongous Mecha modeled on and piloted by Lincoln himself. And a miniaturized version of A.B.E., called S.T.O.V.E.P.I.P.E., is unlockable as a secret character.
• While not explicitly American, Santa Death Parade from No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle does embody the classic American sport of football (complete with football projectile attacks,) and contrasts with Travis' more Japanese-inspired Humongous Mecha.
• M1-4X from Star Wars: The Old Republic was clearly designed this way. He's a highly advanced prototype combat droid with very hammy Patriotic Fervor and a strong drive to eradicate all enemies of the Republic in glorious battle. (And the Republic is basically the U.S. of the Star Wars universe)
• Geppy-X has Wild John, an Expy of Texas Mack to go along with the main robot's resemblance to Getter Robo. Played with by the extra mode "Star Geppys", imagined as an American adaptation of Geppy-X with a big American flag behind it on the mode select screen. It's actually just a Palette Swap of the regular version.
• Showbonyan/Robonyan USA from Yo Kai Watch 3 is the 'Merican version of Robonyan, complete with the colors of the American flag and stars all over.

Web Animation

• Code Guardian, a web-original video production of a giant American Robot defeating a giant Japanese Samurai Robot and a Giant Nazi Robot in an Alternate (mech-based) Pearl Harbor.

Web Comics

• In Sinfest, being the President of the United States apparently involves piloting one of these.
• In The Adventures of Dr. McNinja one of these was planned, in the form of a giant mechanical George Washington, but was never completed.
• U.N.C.A. S.A.M. from the EGO story arc in Heroes Unite.

Web Original

• The SCP Foundation has SCP-2776, an automaton resembling and believing himself to be George Washington. As it turns out, he is George Washington, or at least the unstoppable and patriotic murder machine that replaced him.

Western Animation

• A robot introduced in the last few episodes of Sym-Bionic Titan was the Homeland Mobile Emergency Robot or HMER (pronounced hammer). Commanded by General Steel. Commanded, not piloted, because it has a crew as large as that of a battleship. Not patriotically colored, instead it goes for a traditional army green. It also is more of a Real Robot than a Super Robot, it is very slow and resource intensive. There are multiple shots of all of the tank shells it expends when it fires its machine guns.
• Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot: the BGY-11 in this version is just really patriotic because it's his job to defend the country, rather than as a publicity stunt. He's also not really a robot.
• One episode of Dexter's Laboratory has Dexter and Mandark give robot bodies to the heads of Washington and Lincoln at Mount Rushmore and have them fight each other. Neither side wins, as they realize they're too evenly matched and end up making peace and walking away together.

Real Life

• While no patriotic American mechs were built until 2015 (see below), that doesn't stop American companies and individuals from dressing up their cars and other equipment in red, white, and blue. The American Motors Corporation made several outlandishly patriotic paint jobs for their high-end cars; The Rebel Machine◊ and Rambler Scrambler◊ both came out of the factory with fluorescent red and blue stripes and decals on a white body, and both had 6.4 liter V8 engines. The AMX and Javelin AMX raced with red-white-and-blue liveries in the SCCA.
• While America is leading the way in terms of unmanned and robotic weapon systems such as bomb disposal robots and UAV's like the predator and Global Hawk UAV's, they are a downplayed of this trope rather than a straight example since this trope is about an American "super robot".
• In 2015, Megabots Inc. introduced the Megabot Mk-II which they have billed as "America's first fully functional giant piloted fighting robot." In a very hammy unveiling of the giant robot (which also challenged Suidobashi Heavy Industries to a duel), Megabots Inc. heavily played up the "'Merica" stereotype by wearing American flags for capes, playing "Stars and Stripes Forever" in the background, boasting that the robot was "born in the fires of American innovation" (as a gout of flame singed an unfortunate lab worker off-screen), and stating that because they were American, their robot has really, really big guns. (Korogo Kurata, founder of Suidobashi Heavy Industries, agreed in his response to their challenge that the design is "Super American.")
  • Megabots upgraded mech, the Mk-III hams up the "Super American" look even more. Among other things, it features stars and stripes armor, a chrome grill with floodlights, tank tread feet, and a bald eagle head on its shoulder. Gundam Maxter would be proud.

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