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Aaron Stack is full of very useful devices and still lacks beer.
"A cheese grater ? She has a gadget for everything! How can I ever beat her if I never know what insane gizmo she has up her sleeves?"
No matter what the situation, no matter who the foe, not only did the robot's creators think of it, but the robot has the counter already built in.
Whenever the robot runs into trouble, it has exactly the gadget it needs to get it out. No matter how strange or unlikely the situation, the robot simply has to retract an arm or open a panel, and out comes a gadget that seems to have been added for exactly that purpose. It also probably carries an Everything Sensor, to spot the problem in the first place ( "Danger, danger, Will Robinson!")
This trope is specific to the gadget-laden robots of movies and TV shows before and during the 1980s.
Justified in the case of robots that have access to some kind of Shapeshifting or a (usually internal) Matter Replicator. Not so justified when you are simply left to assume that the robot somehow has room for all those gadgets inside of them.
This trope doesn't apply just to robots, but it is most common among them.
See also Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids and Adaptive Armor. Compare to Crazy-Prepared, which is the human equivalent. When it has never been hinted at before it's New Powers as the Plot Demands.
Compare Robot Buddy. May overlap Swiss Army Weapon and Telescoping Robot.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Mazinger Z has weapons to solve nearly any situation it can find (although it helps Mazinger is piloted by a quick-thinking Genius Ditz is able of devising new strategies -or ways to get himself out of trouble- on the fly), and throughout the series it gets upgraded equiped to combat at any enviroment. His sucessors (Great Mazinger and UFO Robo Grendizer) are similarly well-equipped. Great Mazinger has drilling Rocket Fist, swords, boomerangs, heat rays, electric rays, a Freeze Ray, generators of hurricane winds and MORE, and is piloted by a Hot Blooded The Determinator. Grendizer is both a space ship and a Humongous Mecha, is equipped with all kind of beams, missiles and bladed weapons and it can get attached to devices let it fight at all enviroments.
- Even among Super Robots, Gurren-Lagann is legendary for this, being able to create unlimited amounts of matter and energy from MANLY SPIRIT.
- Shin Getter Robo rivals even Megas XLR in terms of do anything-ness, except it's rarely played for comedy. Need to stop a nuke from harming anything, destroy a bunch of truly humongous mecha, save Earth from an extinction-level event and completely terraform Mars, all in mere minutes? Shin Getter is your tool of choice! To be fair, it expended itself in the effort.
- Just the original one has three distinct forms with a variety of powerful weapons: Getter-1 has beam attacks, the axes, can fly and is the most maneuverable... and is piloted by Ryoma, who's so insanely awesome he can make it do things that surprise even Dr. Saotome, the Getter Machines' inventor; Getter-2 is the fastest, has a drill which it can actually shoot out, a claw-hand that crushes like a pneumatic vice, can fly(faster than 1, but less maneuverable) and can burrow underground... and is piloted by Hayato, a master of improvisation and cunning; Getter-3 had missiles, extending hands and was the best unit for ground and underwater combat... and was piloted by Musashi, a man fully dedicated to the cause and expert at keeping his more hotheaded teammates in line. Suffice it to say, if Getter Robo can't handle it, it's practically IMPOSSIBLE for ANY robot to manage it.
- And Combattler V has more weapons than probably any other Humongous Mecha.
- This was Doraemon's gimmick, though because it was partly a commentary at the time on people relying too much on technology, nearly every gadget ended up causing more problems.
- In one episode of Voltron (the Lion episodes), the team face off against a ro-beast that could become invisible and undetectable to seemingly any sensor. Eventually, the situation becomes critical when Princess Allura's lion is caught and the ro-beast was making its getaway. The team chases it while the leader frantically goes through all the possible sensor modes again to find something that can allow the team to target the enemy. Eventually, he finds that his lion somehow has a clairvoyance sensor mode that may be slow to create a clear image, but it still allows them to pinpoint the exact target on the enemy and hit it hard enough to not only make it let its prisoner go, but also knock out its stealth mode long enough for the team to unite into Voltron and take it down.
- Similarly, another episode had a robot that produced a sparkling light that hypnotized all the pilots, sending them into deep sleep. Princess Allura's helmet happened to have a visor that blocked that form of light, but let her see otherwise perfectly.
- If there's one Humongous Mecha that adheres to this trope, it's Aquarion. As a mechanical angel, the things it does are literally a form of divine intervention. Often it seems like the pilots just make attacks up in order to win the day.
- Franky from One Piece is a do anything cyborg, with an absurd variety of weapons systems built into his body. All powered by cola.
- In Gate Keepers, there's an episode where Reiko Asagiri, the gatekeeper whose powers are channeled through her music, uses the Gate Robo. The Robo's secret weapon, GRO5V (a giant piano), is revealed which enabled her to use her powers.
- There's a Hentai about a do-anything sex doll, able to shape-shift to suit whatever fetishes her owner happens to have, called "Cosplay Sex Machine" (the owner of the particular doll the story follows is an Otaku).
- Nano, from Nichijou: A Rocket Punch (and a rocket toe, which doubles as a USB drive), a machine gun (loaded with beans), a digital clock in her wrist (and a cuckoo clock in her head), food storage (and food dispensers), a toaster and a giant wind-up key in her back ("because it's cute!"). The Professor keeps installing weird stuff into Nano, without her consent, mostly for the lulz. ¿The latest addition? A reaction function. Nano is not amused.
- She has unexpected weird functions, but not ones which anticipate her needs, which is what this trope requires.
Comics
- Marvel superhero Aaron Stack, the Machine Man, was always sort of like this, but it was taken to its extreme and played for laughs in Nextwave. In the belly of the alien dragon Fin Fang Foom, Machine Man's chest opened up, causing improbably large swiss army knife components to pop out, including a giant corkscrew.
Aaron: "I could make you pregnant."
Elsa: "Not unless you could do it from over there, Clanky."
Aaron: "I am full of very useful devices."
- Many late-model Sentinels, Killer Robots made for hunting Mutants in the X-Men series, can alter themselves to produce any weapons needed to fight a particular power, especially those models from the Bad Future.
- Amazo from DC Comics is an android that can copy any superpower of any superpowered being it comes in contact with, and thus becomes incredibly versatile and capable of doing just about anything. Considering Superman himself can do an inordinate amount of things with his array of superpowers, Amazo is a nightmare.
- Same for Marvel's Amazing Android and Super-Adaptoid.
- Almost any highly-advanced comic book robot or character in Powered Armor can do this, given enough time. A great example is the latest version of Blue Beetle. His alien armor can sprout energy weapons out of his forearms, or turn his entire arms from the elbows down into energy weapons if he needs something of a higher caliber. Also saw blades, gripping claws, a giant drill, and smaller extra arms when he needs to grasp more than two things at a time. He can fly by wings, by a rocket mounted on his back, or, in a heavy storm, by a surfboard attached to his feet.
- The Engineer is this Up to Eleven.
- Both versions of X-O from the Valiant/Akklaim comics were effectively this. The original X-O was an sentient alien power armor that responded to the desires and needs of its wearer and could adapt defenses and weapons in response to his needs. The second version was referred to as a multi-purpose omni-tool (and was bonded to a scientific and engineering genius,) capable of producing pretty much anything required by its partner. It was only used as a weapon/power armor because the aliens who originally possessed it used it as such and everyone else since then simply thought that was all it was for until the end of the series.
Fan Fic
Film
- R2-D2 of Star Wars is the epitome of this trope, as he apparently has every tool in existence, and apparently can swim or fly (at least in his early years) as necessary.
- V.I.N.CENT. from The Black Hole is an Expy of R2-D2 with C-3PO's personality. The spheres that serve as his "feet" have both antigravity and magnetic capabilities, and he's equipped with two lasers, four arms, a magnetic grappling line, a drill, and an oscilloscope on his chest.
- Jet Jaguar in Godzilla Vs Megalon, which was mocked by MST3K for the line, "He's programming himself to grow bigger!"
- The T-1000 from Terminator 2 and the TX from Terminator 3 can do everything a human can, and a lot more, although that 'more' differs.
Live Action Television
- Kryten in Red Dwarf, to some extent. Described as "a robot designed purely to clean lavatories," he nevertheless has a translation mode, an egg whisk, a vaccuum cleaner, radio reception, the ability to display videos, eyes with split-screen, zoom and quantel modes and, in a deleted scene, a cigarette lighter. Sadly, much of this is attached to his groinal socket. This is before we've got on to abilities he's picked up as a result of breaking his programming. And it's stated in a few episodes that he's pretty clunky.
- Viki from Small Wonder
- Averted pretty hard by K-9 in Doctor Who, who had a do-anything scanner, a dinky blaster built into his nose and a printer output for a tongue, but other than that seemed pretty useless. Among his "features" were a keyboard on his back that nobody ever used, a screen on his side that never showed anything, let alone anything useful, and tiny, tiny wheels that required a perfectly smooth surface to work. Most of this was related to the cheapness and unreliability of the prop.
- Played straight by the ubiquitous sonic screwdriver, though... unless you're dealing with wood.
- Star Trek: Voyager. Although not a robot, Seven of Nine's nanoprobes or cyborg implants were often used to solve the crisis-of-the-week.
Literature
- In The Culture novels by Ian Banks, drones have a variety of forcefields that they can fold into all manner of shapes in order to accomplish different tasks. For example, they can make a field around themselves and others to operate as a protective shield, fold a field into a tube to channel liquid or produce an atom-thin shield that can be oscillated in order to cut through virtually any material like a knife through butter (plus lasers and a variety of surveillance abilities). They are so adaptable they can even perform emergency brain surgery in the field on short notice. Do not piss off a drone.
- The advanced combat/assassination droids are literally swarms of nanobots that have all the above abilities plus they can make themselves into any kind of physical weapon imaginable (and with a "brain" that extends into hyperspace for raw data storage, they can imagine quite a bit)
- Averted in one "Bill The Galactic Hero." His Swiss Army foot rarely worked right like when he wanted a laser and it shot a condom out.
- The fasrad in the Philip K Dick short story "Sales Pitch" is a literal Do-Anything Robot. It even serves as its own salesman. And it absolutely will not stop. Ever. Until you buy it.
Tabletop Games
- Paranoia has various kinds of "Do Anything Except What I Need At The Moment" robots. For example, a sentient Grappling Gun that likes to discuss philosophy and doesn't feel like grappling anything at the moment.
Video Games
- The Guilty Gear series has Robo-Ky, an android who flaunts his do-anything capacity with style. His body contains an endless supply of gadgets, such as: a sword, a gun, a table, a rocket launcher, two extra sets of arms, helicopter blades, a chair, a hammer, a unicycle, explosive mini-robo-Kys, and a throne for him to slouch on when he's bored.
- Some games also have Robo-Ky II, a Palette Swap of the original that can be configured to mimic most of the other character's attacks on his own toybox way.
- Huitzil (Phobos in Japan), of the Darkstalkers series.
- Mega Man's robo-canine Rush has had quite a few different modes since his debut in Mega Man 3. He initially started off with the Rush Jet, the Rush Marine, and the Rush Coil. When Mega Man 6 came around, he was able to turn into two different armor suits for Mega: a suit for powerful punches (Power), and the other (Jet), providing a jet-powered Double Jump. Mega Man 7 fused the two armors of its predecessor into one. The driving game spinoff Battle & Chase has Rush turn into a car so Mega Man can go go karting with Wily (or maybe it was just a car that looks Rush, I can't recall).
- Thursday, the multi-purpose robot from Disgaea, is shock full of weapons, sensors, and handy functions, plus a sassy personality and electronic voice. He was built by a kid genius, too. The Defenders of Earth are pretty much a 60's Raygun Gothic pastiche, so it fits.
- EDI in Mass Effect 2. Though, actually, she's a "Do-Anything AI". Try taking a drink every time Shepard says, "EDI, do something!" and she infallibly solves the current problem. ...Or better yet, don't. TV Tropes does not want to be responsible for homicides.
- T3-M4 in Knights Of The Old Republic is an obvious Artoo expy.
- Clank, the Robot Buddy of Ratchet & Clank. When Ratchet finds him, he's already equipped with a robotic ignition system, allowing him to start Ratchet's homemade ship for him, and he's capable of interfacing with Gadgebots, which are small but vicious attack robots (or Megacorp's equivalent model, the Microbot). By visiting a few vendors, Clank can be upgraded with a helipack that allows longer and higher jumps, a jetpack that functions much like the helipack with an added Ground Pound for smashing stubborn switches, and a hydropack that facilitates swimming much faster and against stronger currents. As of Ratchet And Clank Future A Crack In Time, he's also capable of communicating with Zoni. Not bad for a factory "mistake"!
Web Comics
- The various incarnations of Hob from Dresden Codak fit this trope, until eventually reaching Deus Est Machina levels.
- Ourox from Monsterful, Michelle's golem Bodyguard, he's a machine capable of shifting into almost anything and generating any kind of weapons, he even as the ability to fuse himself with Michelle for ultimate protection.
- He can even fuse entirely with Michelle to transform her into a Cyborg.
- Cirbozoids from Starslip Crisis are a Do Anything Species, with a biological function to suit any need. This includes, but is not limited to, secreting Ritalin, anaesthetic saliva, and the ability to spontaneously bud off any number of biological devices, or another Cirbozoid when they need a quick meal.
- This may not be all it's cracked up to be, however, because they have about seventy hojillion different waste elimination processes. This includes a "smelting cloaca" from which they excrete waste iron; this one process alone apparently has to be performed often enough to make wearing a uniform a serious hassle, and at least one other involves venting blood from gills in his back. So there are about a million different things Cirbozoids can do; one for every time they have to go to the bathroom every day.
- Ennesby from Schlock Mercenary, he doesn't have hands, instead having to rely on a sort of force-field manipulator that allows him to do everything from picking up a book to firing a Maser (and he doesn't need a gun to do that one).
- Girl Genius: Agatha builds what are best described as anthropomorphic pocket watches, which have hands and feet and seem to keep entire toolkits in Hammer Space. Anything you can do with a relatively common toolkit, these can do even if they have to climb on top of one another to reach. Oh, and they are self replicating.
- Subverted slightly in the fact that each generation is slightly less sophisticated than its parent generation.
Web Original
- Robotic supervillain Omega, from the Global Guardians PBEM Universe not only contains a vast array of built-in capabilities, he can redesign himself almost instantly when the need arises to cover a situation is standard settings don't cover.
- Something Awful Dungeons And Dragons: Kodrinscheiner becomes this more and more with each session, sporting rocket boots, extendable arms, a hollow shoulder where he keeps a corgi (named Corgischeiner), a roller index in his arm, a prison cell in his torso, millions of secret eyeballs under his helmet, an anti-Minerelle siren, and a radio. At one point, someone comments that he's essentially Bender, in the sense that he has whatever he needs as the plot demands.
Western Animation
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