History Main / SuperPoweredRobotMeterMaids

Sometimes, the robot doesn't even need to be humanoid. Relatively simple non-human robots that perform mundane jobs also seem to be way overpowered and/or over-armed for their designed tasks. A robot designed to do nothing but wash windows will undoubtedly also have enough power to batter though a concrete wall, or use its water jet to [[ATorsoWithAView cut a hole straight through the nearest unfortunate human it finds]] if the situation calls for it.

Sometimes, the robot doesn't even need to be humanoid. Relatively simple non-human robots that perform mundane jobs also seem to be way overpowered and/or over-armed for their designed tasks. A robot designed to do nothing but wash windows will undoubtedly also have enough power to batter though a concrete wall if it has to.

* Orianna in ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' was the daughter of a MadScientist and died in an accident while training for a League tournament. She was [[DanceBattler rebuilt]] as the "perfect daughter" with [[UncannyValley spastic mechanical movements]] and an [[CreepyDoll emotionless voice]] but a perfectly functional "protector", a mechanical ball complete with EMP and gravity weapons. Although her powers are justified by firstly his desire to stop anything else happening to her, and secondly because ''not'' making her incredibly dangerous would have been a bit of an obstacle to joining the League.

* VideoGame/JoyMechFight: Dr. Emon built Sukapon to be a comedian, but after Dr. Walnut hijacked all of his other robots, leaving Sukapon as the last one left, it was either upgrade Sukapon into a warrior with the strength to stand up against a robot army, or let Dr. Walnut TakeOverTheWorld unopposed.

* JoyMechFight: Dr. Emon built Sukapon to be a comedian, but after Dr. Walnut hijacked all of his other robots, leaving Sukapon as the last one left, it was either upgrade Sukapon into a warrior with the strength to stand up against a robot army, or let Dr. Walnut TakeOverTheWorld unopposed.

* In the 2004 {{OVA}} ''Azusa Will Help'', a baseball team buys a secondhand maid robot to fill in for a ninth player. HilarityEnsues.

** The original {{OVA}} series featured android laborers built by the nefarious {{megacorp}}oration Genom, which occasionally went rogue and required attention by a special, heavily armed police unit (The "A.D. Police"). Worker models were rarely seen in the original series (which had only a few episodes, and focused on the combat models and prototypes), but they turned up frequently in the TV-series [[ReTool re-imagining]], ''Bubblegum Crisis 2040.''
** The ''A.D. Police'' OVA series has one of these: a waitress Boomer is modified for sex and goes insane, killing a crapload of civilians and causing massive property damage before [[NoKillLikeOverkill getting about 300 rounds of rifle fire pumped into it]].
* ''Manga/DoctorSlump'': Senbei only built Arale in order to see if he could. She splits Earth OnceAnEpisode and is stronger than both young Son Goku (in a crossover with ''Manga/DragonBall'') and '''''Vegeta''''' (in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper''). By this point, Vegeta is probably strong enough to destroy the whole universe if he wanted to, but Arale defeats him easily. (''Dragon Ball'' started as a comedy manga like ''Dr. Slump'', but it was much more serious by the time Vegeta was introduced, [[FridgeBrilliance which might explain why Goku fares better against Arale]].)

* The arms used by ComicBook/DoctorOctopus were originally [[PhlebotinumHandlingEquipment waldoes designed to allow him to safely handle radioactive material]]. For no obvious reason, even his original set of tentacles are fast enough to deflect bullets and strong enough to throw around forklifts.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{WALLE}}'':

* In ''Film/IRobot'', though we only see the latest, newly introduced NS-5 model of robots ([[spoiler:which given their secret purpose, would make a lot of sense for them be as agile and powerful as they are,]]) the implication seems to be that all the common household robots have ''always'' been very strong and fast regardless of whether [[spoiler:they were designed with world domination in mind or not.]] All robots are programmed to throw themselves into danger at the drop of a hat to aid any human in danger. And then there's the fact that they seems to use one general-purpose model for damn near ''everything'',which may potentially require heavy-lifting and/or ninja agility at some point or other.
* R2-D2 in ''Franchise/StarWars'' is essentially supposed to be a navigational computer and maintenance robot, yet he has a seemingly endless array of gadgets for every situation. This is justified both by the fact that he uses his existing tools creatively (ie using a fire extinguisher as a smoke screen), and the fact that he used to belong to [[MrFixit Anakin]] [[GadgeteerGenius Skywalker]].
* Averted in the movie ''Film/AIArtificialIntelligence''. In one scene the ReplacementGoldfish protagonist robot is asked by the real son of his adoptive mother what "cool tricks" he can do, such as fly or walk on walls. In fact, he has no powers at all, and behaves exactly as a normal human child would when placed in danger. That said, he locks onto Martin with a grip that takes several adults to pry free. He can also, [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway rather pointlessly]], interface with telephones to act as the speaker and receiver. Considering that all this does is frighten his "mother," it's questionable why he even has the ability.

* Marvin (aka the Paranoid Android) of ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'':

* In Creator/IsaacAsimov's short story ''Robbie'' the eponymous robot was a nursemaid for an eight-year-old girl named Gloria. Naturally, it's really strong and really fast [[spoiler: which turns out to be extremely useful when Gloria's life is in danger.]] When the story appears in ''I, Robot,'' Susan Calvin explains that Robbie was sold in a time before robots were specialized for certain functions.

** The Information droids (as in, ask a question, get an answer) in [[Recap/DoctorWho2007CSVoyageOfTheDamned "Voyage of the Damned"]] can fly, throw their halos (they're designed to look like angels) fast enough that it kills people, manage to ricochet them back to themselves ''perfectly'' and can build enough momentum to punch through a floor of the ship. It ''may'' be a JustifiedTrope [[spoiler:if you consider the ship was designed to crash-land, and there should be no survivors.]]

* Colosson from ''Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook'' is a robot designed to calculate whether or not a number is [[CalvinBall Numberwang]]. Being developed during World War II by scientists who rather belatedly wondered whether it could be used for the war effort, it was fitted with laser cannons despite not actually having any military purpose. This [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r6NY4Kl8Ms becomes a problem]] on the instances it tries to [[RobotWar take over the world]], but luckily there's a failsafe so that he can be deactivated whenever he's shown a picture of a chicken.

* ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'': The Clockwork of [[MirrorUniverse Praetoria]] were designed to clean the streets, wash windows, and help citizens in their day-to-day lives. However, their creator [[MadScientist Neuron]] decided they also needed plasma emitters, laser guns, and electric blasters built in. This is justified in story, as they are programmed to stop any criminal activity they see and help the police if needed. That being said, they are pretty much the ''only'' group of [=NPCs=] that will not attack you on sight in a world where EverythingIsTryingToKillYou.

* In ''VideoGame/EnchantedArms'', the MagiTek equivalent is omnipresent. The great majority of the Golems you encounter (and can recruit) were designed for non-combat purposes, ranging from maids and farmhands, to entertainers and guides. And yet, they all have some combat-capabilities, and few of them are even restrained to a support-role. Indeed, some of the bodyguard/soldier Golems you aquire early in the game, are soon outmatched in terms of offensive power by farm-tools and dancers...

* In the original ''VideoGame/{{Mega Man|Classic}}'' game, the eponymous Mega Man was designed as a lab assistant before becoming a super-powered hero. On a similar note, all the boss enemies he fought during the first game were designed for peaceful pursuits such as forestry, garbage disposal, arctic exploration, and so on. That doesn't keep [[http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/index.php?date=000411 some people]] from wondering, however.

* One of the villains in ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankUpYourArsenal'' is Courtney Gears, a robotic pop star. Nonetheless, she has enough weaponry to engage OneManArmy Ratchet in battle.
** She's also a DanceBattler, and is perfectly willing to send her [[SummonBackupDancers backup]] [[MechaMooks dancers]] out to kill you first. [[SpectacularSpinning Who pirouette into you.]]
** Before Courtney's debut, ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando Going Commando]]'' had ordinary street-sweeper drones as enemies. The large model has lasers for no apparent reason.

* On the silly side of things, Mike in ''VideoGame/WarioWare''. No idea why a cleaning robot by Dr. Crygor has full sentinence, flight abilities and is good at singing karaoke, but it makes for an [[RuleOfCool interesting]] story and a catchy theme song.

* ''VideoGame/TheOuterWorlds'' has SAM, a janitor robot that's been repurposed into having his nozzle spray acid instead of soap and water. He can still be seen on the ship cleaning up wherever he can.
* In ''{{VideoGame/Undertale}},'' Mettaton is an entertainment robot, but also has brutal combat capabilities. Lampshaded by Mettaton himself, who suggests that his creator Dr. Alphys did this in order to impress her crush Undyne, a powerful fighter who respects physical strength.

** Although, [[spoiler:Von Pinn's mind is actually that of [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20100517 Otilla, the Muse of Protection]], one of the 9-clank Magnum Opus of [[ShroudedInMyth the greatest spark of all time]].]]

* ''Webcomic/CommanderKitty'' normally seems to go with {{Ridiculously Human Robot}}s, what with them [[spoiler: being [[http://www.commanderkitty.com/2012/01/01/seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time/ clones that were converted into robots through nanomachines]]]]. Except for one isolated case where [[http://www.commanderkitty.com/2011/06/12/cleanup-in-aisle-3/ Olga single-handedly lifts up a goon roughly four times her size]].

* In the utterly disturbing episode of ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'', ''Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy'', due to temporal interference by Zim, Dib is left crippled, and then killed. However, this backfires when Dib's father, Professor Membrane instead puts his boy in the Mega Boy 3000 robot, which gives him the strength of ''ten-thousand little boys'' for no apparent reason. In fact, due to Zim's later attempts to kill him off with more time travel, to keep Dib from killing him, it just keeps on inexplicably giving the robot more weaponry.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': Bender was built [[SingleTaskRobot solely to bend steel girders]]. Apparently, this job required him to be a RidiculouslyHumanRobot with [[DoAnythingRobot countless]] auxiliary [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands abilities.]]
** This often handwaved by claiming that everything he does is essentially bending: "Like everything else, pumping is just a primitive, degenerate form of bending". He ''is'' property of [[MadScientist Hubert Farnsworth]], but this doesn't explain much because he's just one of many identical mass-produced "bending units" (though we rarely see any others).
** The super strength is explainable, since the girders Bender is designed to bend are enormous and (obviously) made of thick metal. The stretching arms and legs presumably assist in this. Though why a bending unit would require a hammerspace chest cavity is anybody's guess.
** Ironically, it turns out that he has very little [[{{Pun}} flexibility]] in his ''intended'' purpose; he claims he can bend girders to "any angle," as long as it's between 30 and 32 degrees.
** Much of Bender's inexplicability can be handwaved by Mom's secret ancillary intentions. She apparently builds every robot with the ability to perform her eventual Global Domination, and when the crew visits the Mom's Robot Museum the "see through the eyes of a bending unit" exhibit reveals that all bending units are programmed to identify targets for theft and exploitation.
** Another example from Futurama is the toy kitty-cat doll Farnsworth invented, QT [=McWhiskers=], which was then redesigned by Mom to be 16 feet tall and shoot lasers out of its eyes. She was turning it into a military robot, but she did the same with his previous one, turning it into a "colossal Tammy Tinkle doll". One cannot begin to hazard a guess as to the needs of that one.
* In ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand'' TV series, there is a character named Flint, who appears to be a heavily built human. However, he is actually a robot and an extremely strong one at that (In one memorable scene he brags, "I can lift 400 times my own weight and throw it too."). However, his great strength is {{justified|Trope}} because he is identified as a a "Gamma Series Construction Robot, designed for ultra-heavy lifting.". His original purpose was as a stockboy at a local supermarket, which should not require such immense strength. Though why would a construction robot even need to be sapient and capable of feeling hatred, jealousy and other negative feelings is left unanswered.
** The show's resident indestructible DoAnythingRobot main character is actually justified, as he was originally designed to be able to survive and be rebuilt from ridiculous amounts of damage, and later was reassembled with... ''many'' more parts than needed.
* ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'':
** One episode featured banjo-playing scorpion robots which were apparently intended as amusements at a children's theme park. They were armed to the teeth with missiles and machine guns.
** Subverted in "Total Re-Carl", where after many other attempts to replace Carl's body Frylock decides he'll put it on his super-powerful robot. Upon [[DumbassHasAPoint Shake's questioning]] he suddenly realizes how [[DidntThinkThisThrough unwise]] it would be to heavily arm someone ''whose body they destroyed'' and wonders what he was thinking. He then takes things to the opposite extreme, just sticking Carl's head on a RC car and calling it a day.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' had synthoids, and not only are the ones (illegally) made as [[SexBot "personal company"]] just as strong as ones made for combat (training), they're actually ''stronger''.

* On ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'', Dr. Jonas Venture, Sr. built [[FunWithAcronyms "H.E.L.P.eR."]] (Humanoid Electronic Lab Partner Robot) to assist around the Compound and raise Rusty Venture. H.E.L.P.eR. can fly with helicoptor blades that pop out of his head and has a Battle Mode, including a flamethrower on one arm, spinning blades on another, and guns that fold out of his chest.
* ''WesternAnimation/InsideJob2021'' has Bear-O, the robot bear built by Rand Ridley to make her daughter Reagan feel happy and safe... which doesn't explain why it is completely indestructible and filled to the brim with weapons. [[spoiler:It also turns out that Bear-O was the mysterious threat that wanted to destroy Cognito Inc., since working there is Reagan's major source of stress.]]

* ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'': Since the LostTechnology being scavenged by hunters comes from NeglectfulPrecursors, most monsters in the setting are TheRemnant of some kind of drones maintained by that civilization and the ArtificialIntelligence computers it left behind. A significant portion of these only have combat as a secondary function. Most of the robots Akira fights in Mihozono are construction or cleaning bots, while at one point he gets nearly killed by hyper-advanced mechanical butlers who politely warned him for a while to show his identification before attacking.

* ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'': Subverted and defied; K1-BO is an Android high school student whose body looks really cool and powerful, so when the ultimates need to lift up a heavy manhole cover they expect K1-BO to do it easily. When he fails they assume that the cover must be really heavy, but then he clarifies that he’s actually only as strong as an in-shape senior citizen. In fact, his creator limited his strength to make it harder for him to hurt a human by accident, and generally didn’t give him any functions that would be unnecessary to his mission of interacting with people peacefully. Fellow Ultimate student Kokichi often mocks K1-BO for lacking any action robot abilities such as rockets in his feet.

* Zig-zagged in ''Manga/{{Nichijou}}'' by Nano: she's more or less a personal attendant with has [[DoAnythingRobot countless special functions]]... all of which are completely inane and pointless (like storing cake in her arm or a USB port in her toe). Her general physical abilities aren't more than a human; if anything, she's somewhat frail and oversensitive.

* In ''{{VideoGame/Undertale}},'' Mettaton is an entertainment robot, but also has brutal combat capabilities. Lampshaded by Mettaton himself, who suggests that his creator Dr. Alphys did this in order to impress her crush Asgore, a powerful fighter who respects physical strength.

* Human-like robots are not common yet, but this still applies to industrial robots. It doesn't matter if all you need is robotic transporter which only needs to lift empty cardboard boxes, or cigarette blocks; this industrial robot is still designed strong enough to lift 2 elephants at once. There was a small accident in a cigarette factory when one robot smashed a whole stack of full boxes without even noticing.
** If you design a robot to lift things and make it only strong enough to lift empty boxes, then the only people that will buy it are people who need empty boxes lifted. If it can lift a couple of tons, then it has a lot more potential applications. Also, it's a general engineering practice to overdesign anything that might lift something over someone's head by a factor of ten or more as a safety margin.
** Also, the expensive part of a robot isn't the motors. Sensors, programming, and control electronics are expensive. A more powerful motor is cheap, especially if space isn't a critical issue. If making the box lifting robot strong enough to lift full boxes is only a couple of percent more expensive, it makes sense. It boosts resale value. It lowers maintenance complexity to have all your robots use the same parts and model. It reduces design costs to have the engineers only create one model. It lets you reassign it to replace a heavy lifting unit that's down. It lets you change your factory's procedures without having to worry about exceeding its specs. It doesn't even reduce safety much; a low-powered industrial robot would be much more dangerous.

* In "The Proud Robot" by Creator/HenryKuttner, an inventor gets hopelessly drunk and wakes up to discover that he's built a superpowered human robot with a wide variety of amazing functions that are all completely incidental to the robot's primary function (which, he eventually figures out, is [[spoiler:opening beer cans]]).

* Ur-example: ''Manga/AstroBoy'' was built to replace a grieving scientist's young son, and is equipped with a 100,000-horsepower engine, rocket feet, and ''[[AuthorAppeal a machine gun that comes out of his butt]]'', among other things. Either Dr. Tenma is very strange, or his son was even stranger. [[HandWave Hand-waved]] by having him simply retool an existing "ultimate robot" model to look like his son, or claim that he will not only make his son a robot, but the "best robot ever".
** The 1960s series explained it by saying he was originally a military robot that the Doctor was working on, and was altered at the last minute at great haste; Tenma had rather snapped after his son's death, and didn't care beyond annoyance that he was a death machine.
** In the anime series, this is explained away by Tenma giving Astro the ability to "evolve" himself. Instead of all his gadgets being built into him from the start, his body somehow creates them in response to danger. He gained his rocket boots after falling out the window of an office building & he got his ArmCannon in a fight to the death with his evil "brother" Atlas. In this version, however, he doesn't have, ahem, rear-end gunning capability (and it's disturbing to contemplate what situation might have called for him to "evolve" it). He does have finger lasers to compensate.
** Oddly enough, the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance game based on the 2003 series gives him the guns back (in addition to the laser), and they also appear in the 2009 movie, to Astro's [[LampshadeHanging incredulity]]. ("I have machineguns in my... ''butt?!''")
** This trope is justified in the 2009 film. Here, Tobio/Toby meets his end at the hands of a rogue military robot. Tenma later comments that the weapons and defense systems built into Astro are for self-defense, finally stating "I won't lose him again." Here, he's shown to be clearly overwhelmed by his son's death, and seeing that his son was killed by a lethal robot, he probably saw nothing wrong with going overboard on the self-defense systems.
* Creator/OsamuTezuka, the creator of Astro Boy, used the trope again in the full length movie ''Manga/{{Phoenix}} 2772'' (aka Space Firebird). Olga, the nanny robot, can transform into a car, a boat, and two forms of flying machine. She also performs decently in a battle in open space.
* In the 2004 OVA ''Azusa Will Help'', a baseball team buys a secondhand maid robot to fill in for a ninth player. HilarityEnsues.

* This was part of the entire plot of the {{anime}} series ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis''. The original {{OVA}} series featured android laborers built by the nefarious {{megacorp}}oration Genom, which occasionally went rogue and required attention by a special, heavily-armed police unit (The "A.D. Police"). Worker models were rarely seen in the original series (which had only a few episodes, and focused on the combat models and prototypes), but they turned up frequently in the TV-series [[ReTool re-imagining]], ''Bubblegum Crisis 2040.''

* ''Manga/DoctorSlump''. The only reason he built Arale was to see if he could. She splits Earth OnceAnEpisode and is stronger than young [[Manga/DragonBall Son Goku]] in a crossover.
** Actually, Arale is stronger than '''''Vegeta''''' in ''Anime/DragonBallSuper''. By this point, Vegeta is probably strong enough to destroy the whole universe if he wanted to. Arale defeats him easily. Goku fares better [[FridgeBrilliance because Dragon Ball started as a comedy manga like Dr. Slump, but it was much more serious by the time Vegeta was introduced.]]
* ''Manga/HayateTheCombatButler'' seems to always have to fight these things. "No, no, you're supposed to compete in cleaning the house with it." "Then why is it firing missiles at me!?" Lampshaded in that the designer of that robot is almost fired because of her over-powered designs.
* Everything in the world is [[EverythingIsOnline automated and Internet-capable]] in ''Anime/MegaManNTWarrior'', so the plot in many early episodes was how cleaning robots, animal/fish replicas, and yes, Meter Maids got infected by computer viruses, and then would terrorize the city with amazing powers. (For example, infected robot fish from an aquarium were able to fly through the air.) Fortunately, the premise of the series is fighting said viruses with programs. In the cartoon of the original series, the ultimate end result of battling robots against robots (that were originally for household chores) was the [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt apocalypse]].
** Ignoring the fact that [[ArmCannon busters]], [[PowerFist giant fists]], and arm-blades are standard equipment for an OS interface and web browser rolled up into an AI. It's a series that applies RuleOfCool to computer maintenance.
* Despite the prevalence of cybernetic enhancement in the world of ''Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex'', this is actually somewhat ''averted'' in a couple of episodes, late in the first season. [[spoiler:After the Tachikomas are retired from service in Section 9, most are dismantled. The only two that survive are sold off to a retirement home and a construction company as service robots, and all their specialized weaponry is removed when they're decommissioned. After all, when you're tending to a bunch of senile centenarians, you don't really need guns in your forearms, do you? Of course, it is still a walking tank tending to the elderly, which seems a bit impractical if nothing else.]]

* ''Anime/GhostInTheShell2Innocence'', on the other hand, features [[SexBot SexBots]] that are superhumanly fast and strong enough to punch a person's head off their shoulders. They are, however, fragile enough that such feats typically cause them to fall apart rather quickly.
* ''Anime/GhostInTheShellSAC2045'' has a variant of the trope: a 3D printer designed to print ''food'' is somehow hacked to print out a fully functional combat android, instead.
* [[spoiler:[=IR-S07=] aka Iris]] from the ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaReflection''[=/=]''[[Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaDetonation Detonation]]'' movie duology is an ArtificialHuman created for terraforming a dying planet, yet is capable of fighting on even grounds with some of the most powerful mages in the multiverse. It's justified, since the planet in question is a DeathWorld [[spoiler:and her "[[EvilAllAlong father]]" was secretly planning on using her as a SuperSoldier.]]
* [[InvertedTrope Conversely]], in ''Manga/{{Mahoromatic}}'', a combat android decides to become a maid. Naturally, she is superb as a chef as well as all things domestic.
** Possibly a semi-subversion, as she does remove most of her combat equipment before becoming a maid, and reacquires it later on.
* In ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'', while Chachamaru herself being the lead {{gynoid}} was built primarily for combat and serving tea, her "sisters" act as a constant work force in their master Evangeline's [[YearInsideHourOutside hidden resort]] from Chachamaru's [[SuperPrototype prototype]]. They can however act as a reserve army at their creator Chao or Hakase's orders.
** In chapter 253, Haruna uses [[GreenLanternRing her Artifact]] to make a MobileSuitHuman for [[OurGhostsAreDifferent Sayo]] so Sayo can kiss Negi for a Pactio, complete with {{flight}}, EyeBeams, a RocketPunch, a [[GatlingGood gatling gun]]...
* Averted in ''Manga/OutlawStar'' with Melfina and the numerous helper robots that Gilliam II uses around the ship. Melfina is very similar to humans with respect to her physical strength, and the helper robots can't even lift most objects unless the ship is in space. Gilliam II's helper robots are tiny; no bigger than a small rodent or so.
** Melfina is quite similar to humans in physical capability because she's a "bio-android" rather than a robot, which basically means "genetically engineered human built to a specific purpose with certain programming hardwired into their genes". Possibly her skeleton is inorganic as well but the point is her muscles are essentially human muscles.
** One episode actually shows a scan of her that outright confirms this. Later in the series it's revealed that other than the modifications that allow her to interface with the Outlaw Star she's pretty much as human as anyone else, though artificially created.
** Though she was immune to an alien plants mind control in one episode.
* It is never really clarified whether the "Humaritts" of ''Anime/NajicaBlitzTactics'' are robotic, cybernetic, genetically-altered, or a combination of those... but they still definitely fall under this. While some of them are stated to have been outright designed for combat -- and show appropriately impressive competency at this -- at least one of the humaritts encountered was designed to be a nursemaid/assistant type... capable of taking down an army of ninjas with a [[DoubleWeapon Double-Bladed Sword]]. Clearly, when she says "nappy-time", you NAP!

* ''Anime/DominionTankPolice'': It's odd that a pair of former {{sexbot}}s should have super strength and military-grade targeting computers, but Anna and Uni probably have the excuse that their boss bought them the upgrades.
* Yuki Nagato from ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'' is an ArtificialHuman built to observe. Fans describe her as the most powerful character ever made.
** Her backup is just as powerful. Makes some sense in universe as she was built to observe [[spoiler: the only thing powerful enough to wipe out her boss. ]]
* Subverted in ''Anime/ArmitageIII'': [[spoiler:we're led to believe Armitage is a Third, a highly advanced model of robot created to act as an incubator for human babies, but in fact she's a Third prototype created from the much more dangerous Assassinroid template -- the "missing link", if you will, between the two models.]] Which explains why she can deflect bullets just by holding her arms in front of her face, and survive a grenade blast aimed directly at her.
* From ''Anime/{{Ulysses 31}}'', Nono is a small toy robot offered to Telemachus for his birthday in the first episode. He's also shown to be strong enough to pin down a grown man, has some very useful functions like a telescopic head, and can pilot spaceships. Once again, he's supposed to be a ''toy''.
* ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'': Since the LostTechnology being scavenged by hunters comes from NeglectfulPrecursors, most monsters in the setting are TheRemnant of some kind of drones maintained by that civilization and the ArtificialIntelligence computers it left behind. A significant portion of these only have combat as a secondary function. Most of the robots Akira fights in Mihozono are construction or cleaning bots, while at one point he gets nearly killed by hyper-advanced mechanical butlers who politely warned him for a while to show his identification before attacking.
* In ''Manga/Yuria100Shiki'', both the Yuria and Lucy lines of {{sexbot}} are designed with superhuman strength and toughness. In this case, it's specifically so they can handle owners who like to play rough, and Yuria 100 is in fact a masochist.

[[folder:Film — Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/WallE'': The ActionGirl EVE is a essentially a biological collector, trying to find evidence of plant life on Earth. So naturally, she has a high-power plasma gun, enough power to make a micro-tornado by spinning, fast enough to break the sound barrier, and strong enough to hold back a huge sliding wall by herself. Those plants are apparently rough customers.
** There is also HAN-S, the haywire massage robot who more or less single-handedly scraps nearly every security bot on the Axiom - complete with GoryDiscretionShot, AtopAMountainOfCorpses and OffhandBackhand moments.
* Hiro turning his brother's Baymax healthcare robot (which can be best described as a giant vinyl balloon that can talk and walk) into a battle machine in ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6'' manifests as adding carbon fiber armor paneling and some rocket fists/thrusters. The robot's soft regular body is never modified. This makes him versatile while armored but weak otherwise (which manifests in the climax). Baymax's strength is justified, since a healthcare companion would need to be strong enough to carry people in case of emergencies. The vinyl balloon design is also intentional, since it ensures that Baymax won't accidentally hurt anyone even with his strength.

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]

** The Extraplanetary Multiform Mobile Identifiers, or [[FunWithAcronyms E.M.M.I.]], from ''VideoGame/MetroidDread'' were designed by the Galactic Federation to be research and surveillance drones for studying alien organisms. Uncharacteristically for such a role, they have sharp claws and a giant retractable DNA-extraction needle capable of piercing through battle armor, are surprisingly fast and [[AbnormalLimbRotationRange flexible]], have amazing pathfinding skills, and are NighInvulnerable to most of Samus's arsenal. When they go rogue, these traits make them one of the most dangerous foes Samus has ever faced. If that's not enough, many of the later-encountered models have abilities or weapons that go way beyond their intended function or the justification of extra mobility or self-defense from hostile fauna. E.M.M.I.-07PB, in particular, is armed with ''[[SmartBomb Power Bombs]]''. It's unknown if Exelion Star Corporation (the E.M.M.I.'s manufacturer) built them with these overpowered weapons [[spoiler:or if [[BigBad Raven Beak]] outfitted them with Chozo technology after reprogramming them to make them more efficient killers]].

** The Extraplanetary Multiform Mobile Identifiers, or [[FunWithAcronyms E.M.M.I.]], from ''VideoGame/MetroidDread'' were designed by the Galactic Federation to be research and surveillance drones. Uncharacteristically for such a role, they have sharp claws and a giant retractable DNA-extraction needle capable of piercing through battle armor, are surprisingly fast and [[AbnormalLimbRotationRange flexible]], have amazing pathfinding skills, and are NighInvulnerable to most of Samus's arsenal. When they go rogue, these traits make them one of the most dangerous foes Samus has ever faced. If that's not enough, many of the later-encountered models have abilities or weapons that go way beyond their intended function or the justification of extra mobility or self-defense from hostile fauna. E.M.M.I.-07PB, in particular, is armed with ''[[SmartBomb Power Bombs]]''. It's unknown if Exelion Star Corporation (the E.M.M.I.'s manufacturer) built them with these overpowered weapons [[spoiler:or if [[BigBad Raven Beak]] outfitted them with Chozo technology after reprogramming them to make them more efficient killers]].

** She's also a DanceBattler, and is perfectly willing to send her [[SummonBackupDancers backup]] [[MechaMooks dancers]] out to kill you first. [[EverythingsBetterWithSpinning Who pirouette into you.]]

* Occasionally double subverted in ''Space Fools'' (''Space Oafs''). There are 4 types of "cyborgs" ({{Artificial Human}}s): [[RobotMaid maids/nurses]], {{Sex Bot}}s, [[ExpendableClone fighters]] and [[ExpendableClone spies/infiltrators]]. Despite expectations, the former two aren't significantly better than trained humans in combat and lack advanced AI chips. However, old fighter cyborgs discarded for failing maintenance tests are plentiful and cheap,[[note]]Furthemore, army and police tended to sell old cyborgs when their reaction time increased, but this temporary slowdown turns out to be caused by them learning [[GrowBeyondTheirProgramming to think around their programming]]. Which is a latent form of [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters "breakdown"]] and grounds for [[DeadlyEuphemism recycling]].[[/note]] come in many shapes and most importantly, can learn and develop, allowing them to learn new profession without troublesome firmware replacement.[[note]]Due to partially incompatible hardware, maid/nurse firmware leaves fighters crippled, so most users install bodyguard firmware and [[HilarityEnsues try to teach]] the bodyguard to [[RaisedByDudes behave]] like a proper maid/butler/nurse/janitor/cook/etc.[[/note]] Normally, the buyer gets a servant with senses, strength and memory far surpassing any human's, but with a bit of LiteralGenie tendencies. In the best case, nonhostile [[GrowBeyondTheirProgramming breakdown]] results in a [[BenevolentAI genuinely friendly]] RobotBuddy, with a common sense of a teenager, whose breakdown has to be kept secret from the manufacturer. In the worst case, cyborgs PayEvilUntoEvil. One of the main characters is such a "broken" cyborg owned by a SpaceTrucker captain, allegedly for heavy lifting. There's also one scene of a [[MuggingTheMonster robbery attempt]] against a man in a wheelchair driven by a petite girl, who still has all her combat enhancements. Another side story has a bodyguard cyborg, whose owner used him as a chef[[note]]Sharp senses of smell and temperature as well as built-in timer and precision with knives surely came in handy.[[/note]], and who loved this profession, but still remained as deadly.

[[folder: Fan Works]]

* Human-like robots are not common yet, but this still applies to industrial robots. It doesn't matter if all you need is robotic transporter which only needs to lift empty cardboard boxes, or cigarette blocks; this industrial robot is still designed strong enough to lift 2 elephants at once. There was a small accident in a cigarette factory when one robot smashed entire stack of full boxes without even noticing.

** Also, the expensive part of a robot isn't the motors. Sensors, programming, and control electronics are expensive. A more powerful motor is cheap, especially if space isn't a critical issue. If making the box lifting robot strong enough to lift full boxes is only a couple of percent more expensive, it makes sense. It boosts resale value. It lowers maintenance complexity to have all your robots use the same parts and model. It reduces design costs to have the engineers only create one model. It lets you reassign it to replace a heavy lifting unit that's down. It lets you change your factory's procedures without having to worry about exceeding its specs. It doesn't even reduce safety much, since even a low-powered industrial robot is very dangerous. So use the more powerful motors.

* ''WesternAnimation/InsideJob'' has Bear-O, the robot bear built by Rand Ridley to make her daughter Reagan feel happy and safe... which doesn't explain why it is completely indestructible and filled to the brim with weapons. [[spoiler:It also turns out that Bear-O was the mysterious threat that wanted to destroy Cognito Inc., since working there is Reagan's major source of stress.]]