Here we see the Robeast in the wild competing with its only natural predator, the Super Robot.
The standard
Monster of the Week for
Super Robots and
Super Sentai/
Power Rangers.
A Robeast is a
Kaiju-sized monster, more often than not the same size as the Super Robot that battles it, though Robeasts in Sentai and
Toku may also start in human size, so as to be a threat on a personal scale, then
grows through some form of
Applied Phlebotinum.
Robeasts are rarely capable of human-level intelligence or communication, and even when they
are, they usually prefer to just roar instead.
Robeasts are usually built with both biological and mechanical construction (though some are also completely mechanical, magical constructs, giant demons, and the like). They come in a dizzying variety of shapes, abilities, and weapons, and very rarely will any two robeasts look alike, even between robeasts deployed by the same villain(s). Many of them avoid humanoid designs and mook status, becoming a
Mechanical Monster.
They are almost always
Made of Explodium. Not to be confused with
Ambiguous Robots, though their design may sometimes imply they are this.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Mazinger:
- Voltron is the Trope Namer, after the monsters in GoLion and Dairugger XV.
- GoLion calls them Deathblack Beastmen, and then later Mechablack Beastmen, While Dairugger XV used Combat Machines.
- Zonders and later Primevals from GaoGaiGar (EI-13 pictured above).
- Zeravire from Gravion.
- The Angels from Neon Genesis Evangelion are an interesting example. At first, they're made out to be gigantic monsters. Then we find out that they are humans as humans could have been had they evolved differently.
- The standard Monster of the Week in Tadao Nagahama's Robot Romance Trilogy
- The bio-mechanical Slave Monsters and Magma Beasts from Combattler V
- The Beast Fighters and later Super Beast Fighters from Voltes V
- The Battle Robots and Mecha Warriors from Daimos
- The Mecha Boosts from Zambot 3
- The Megaborg from Daitarn 3
- The Haniwa Phantom Gods from Kotetsu Jeeg
- The Mimetic Beasts from Shinkon Gattai Godannar!!
- The Beastmen Ganmen / Gunmen and the Anti-Spiral Mugann from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
- Gunmen are also an inversion, because the heroes use the exact same kinds of robots they stole from the beastmen.
- Mechasauruses and Mecha Oni from the Getter Robo series
- Slightly inverted in that the Mechasauruses, like much of the Reptilians, are a highly intelligent race.
- S-1 machines of the Aldebaren Army in Space Warrior Baldios.
- Renegade Units in Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs.
- Cosmosauruses in God Sigma
- Numerous monomakia from Brigadoon: Marin and Melan fit this trope.
- Various mechs and creatures from The Big O
- The minions of the Shadow Angels, usually cherubim, in Genesis of Aquarion.
- Kyoshin in Neo Ranga, although somewhat subverted as they stay in two episodes at a time and do not start showing up until episode 17.
- At first the UE in Gundam AGE looked like this, then Sunrise decided to just make them Dragon-shaped Mobile Suits.
Film
- The original form of Mechagodzilla from Godzilla franchise. The second version was a human piloted mecha. The third version was a human piloted mecha built on the bones of the original Godzilla, dubbed Kiryu. Kiryu went berserk in its first confrontation with (a second) Godzilla, playing with the trope.
Live-Action TV
Tabletop Games
- Pretty much everything in Monsterpocalypse. For extra fun, the same company has released completely-compatible Voltron units, so the game has actual Robeasts.
Toys
Videogames
Western Animation
- South Park — In the Sentai parody episode, Barbara Streisand turned into a Mechagodzilla.
- And returned in "201" with full sentience.
- Parodied in one episode of 'The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy'' where Grim takes Billy (who has been transformed into a 50-foot superhero) to Tokyo to meet a spoof of Gidora. An angry Mandy pilotes a giant gorilla robot called Mega-gorillasaur to bring them back.
- The mecha-Stock Ness Monster in the Inspector Gadget episode "Monster Lake".