History Main / MetaMecha

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* ''TengenToppaGurrenLagann '' has the Space Ganmen, which are essentially up-scaled Ganmen capable of fighting and moving in space and piloted by regular Ganmen, which are then piloted by humans.

* ''BubblegumCrisis'' had the Motoslaves, {{Cool Bike}}s that transformed into PoweredArmor for the Knight Sabers' PoweredArmor.

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* In the ''SuperSentai'' series ''NinpuuSentaiHurricaneger'', Sargain turns out to be [[MobileSuitHuman an antlike being piloting a human-sized suit of armor]]... so when Sargain pilots HumongousMecha, that means he's controlling a suit that's controlling a bigger suit. Not quite the same, though, perhaps.

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* the new grey knight Nemesis Dreadknight from {{Warhammer40000}} uses this, a power armoured super soldier in a even bigger suit of power armour.

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* Fortress Maximus, of ''{{Transformers Generation 1}}''. A Headmaster, he was too big for a human to transform into his head. So an intermediate robot was made, called Cerebros. His partner, Spike, turned into Cerebros's head, and Cerebros then turned into Fort Max's head.

* ''TransformersAnimated'', the Autobots' ship transforms in to a huge mecha called Omega Supreme. He has a mind of his own and an interior control console, so it's hard to say how much control the pilot has.

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* The UrExample is the Gordian, from the show of the same name, a dude inside a MoCapMecha inside a MoCapMecha inside ''another'' MoCapMecha. The design was later reused with some modifications as Vi-Kungfu from ''MachineRobo: Revenge of Chronos'', but with one less mecha.

* ''{{Gundam 00}}'' has a surprise somewhere in the middle season: the MightyGlacier ''GN-005 Virtue'' is revealed to be just a PoweredArmor of a smaller FragileSpeedster, ''GN-004 Nadleeh''. Dropping ''Virtue'''s armor off enables ''Nadleeh''[='s=] pilot to play JudgeJuryAndExecutioner on his teammates if he's dissatisfied with them.
** Season 2 has the same in the form of ''GN-008 Seravee'' carrying the smaller ''GN-009 Seraphim'' folded up on it's back. Or to be more exact, the two have the same cockpit but ''Seraphim'' is facing backwards (though it doesn't need the cockpit to operate; ''Seravee'' can launch and remote-control it). Unlike ''Nadleeh'', ''Seraphim'' doesn't need to drop ''Seravee'' off piece by piece; it can simply eject and unfold.

** And then they [[BeyondTheImpossible proceeded to break the barrier AGAIN]] in the BigDamnMovie, by giving every member of the Dai-Gurren a Tengen Toppa mecha of their own, which combine into '''Super''' Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, which is the ''size of the universe'' and ''looks a lot like Kamina.''

* the new grey knight Nemasis Dreadnight from {{Warhammer40000}} uses this, a power armoured super solider in a even bigger suit of power armour.

*** [[OverlyLongGag We need to Drill Bigger!]].

[[GundamSEEDAstray http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/AstrayRedPowerLoader.jpg]]
[[caption-width:200:[[MemeticMutation Yo dawg...]]]]

* The Meteor system for the Freedom and Justice Gundams in ''GundamSEED''.

* Gundam Unit 3 from ''{{Gundam 0083}}'' was the plug in unit for a massive mobile armor designed to be a crowd breaker. Considering Mobile Armors in the UC Gundam Universe are about the only thing to rival a Gundam in destructive power, the idea of a Gundam based mobile armor was probably too good to pass up.
** Earlier designs added a transformable core fighter into the central Dendrobium Stamen mecha. This was included in the model kit, but removed for the series because the Stamen is not intended for fighting on its own, merely for escape; the core fighter would just be a secondary escape pod.

** This seems to be series tradition for Omega Supreme, the toy of the ''[[TransformersEnergon Energon]]'' has a head that can turn into a small robot itself. (the plug for it doubles as a spare comically tiny head) His spritual ancestor, Fortress Maximus from ''[[TransformersRobotsInDisguise Robots In Disguise]]'' works similarly, with the head being a supercomputer robot known as 'Cerebro'... who was also a Headmaster ''himself''.

*** Yo dawg, I heard you like Mechs, so I put a mech in your mech in your mech in your mech, so you can pilot a mech while you pilot a mech while you pilot a mech while you pilot a mech.

[[caption-width:200:Yo dawg...]]

[[caption-width:200:It's a mecha-manned mecha.]]

** This seems to be series tradition for Omega Supreme, the toy of the ''[[TransformersEnergon Energon]]'' has a head that can turn into a small robot itself. (the plug for it doubles as a spare comically tiny head) His spritual ancestor, Fortress Maximus from ''[[TransformersRobotsInDisguise Robots In Disguise]]'' works similarly, with the head being a supercomputer robot known as 'Cerebro'.

* ''{{Guyver}}'' has the Guyver Gigantic, which is this trope applied to OrganicTechnology PoweredArmour.

* [[CodeGeass So, your]] [[EnsembleDarkhorse resident Orange]] has just [[HeelFaceTurn pledged his allegiance to your cause]] out of [[FailureKnight LOYALTY to your family]]? Now, we just need to give him a good [[AceCustom custom mech]], hmm... Hey, I've got it! Let's take the [[RedShirt original]] [[http://codegeass.wikia.com/wiki/Sutherland Sutherland]] frame he piloted in the early series, and make it into the central core unit of the [[MidSeasonUpgrade rebuilt]] [[http://codegeass.wikia.com/wiki/Siegfried Siegfried]] he became [[MemeticMutation famous for]] [[SeasonFinale at the end of the last season]]! Ladies and Gentlemen, I present - for your humble consideration - the [[strike:[[MacrossMissileMassacre STORM OF LOYALTY]]]] [[http://codegeass.wikia.com/wiki/Sutherland_Sieg Sutherland Sieg]]! Basically, Jeremiah controlled the Siegfried through the core Sutherland Unit, which was itself outfitted with the Siegfried's telepathic controls (Rakshata is mentioned as being "disappointed" that the system isn't feasible for mass-production). When the Siegfried is destroyed, the Sutherland unit activates and comes into play. [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome And it. Is. AWESOME.]]

* So, you're [[EnsembleDarkhorse resident Orange]] has just [[HeelFaceTurn pledged his allegiance to your cause]] out of [[FailureKnight LOYALTY to your family]]? Now, we just need to give him a good [[AceCustom custom mech]], hmm... Hey, I've got it! Let's take the [[RedShirt original]] [[http://codegeass.wikia.com/wiki/Sutherland Sutherland]] frame he piloted in the early series, and make it into the central core unit of the [[MidSeasonUpgrade rebuilt]] [[http://codegeass.wikia.com/wiki/Siegfried Siegfried]] he became [[MemeticMutation famous for]] [[SeasonFinale at the end of the last season]]! Ladies and Gentlemen, I present - for your humble consideration - the [[strike:[[MacrossMissileMassacre STORM OF LOYALTY]]]] [[http://codegeass.wikia.com/wiki/Sutherland_Sieg Sutherland Sieg]]!

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** And then they [[BeyondTheImpossible proceeded to break the barrier AGAIN]] in the BigDamnMovie, by giving every member of the Dai-Gurren a Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, which combine into '''Super''' Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, which is the ''size of the universe'' and ''looks a lot like Kamina.''