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Subject: 
Re: Define Mecha Types Por Moi...
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.build.mecha
Date: 
Sat, 12 Jan 2002 06:53:50 GMT
Viewed: 
386 times
  
In lugnet.build.mecha, Mark Sandlin writes:
In article <GpswMI.7yJ@lugnet.com>, "richard marchetti"
<blueofnoon@aol.com> wrote:

Could someone please explain the differences between light and heavy mecha
for me?  Does it describe function or appearance?

I guess it depends on the person defining, but as for my mecha, I have
Light, Medium, and Heavy. They generally refer to the size and armament of
the mecha. I don't have very strict rules for this. I usually just build a
mecha and then take a look at its size and armaments and make a judgment
call :^)

Here are my loose definitions:

"Light" mecha have only a few small guns, with perhaps a missile rack of
light missiles, and are generally small and quick, with light armor.

These are also well known as powersuits or power armor. These were a step up in
size from Iran Man's armor. Iron Monger would be a good example of the smallest
type of power armor. 12-14 feet tall at the highest. Chicken walkers like the
AT-ST might be considered light necha if you have apply loose definition to it.

"Medium" mecha would have more armor and perhaps both light and heavy
weapons in addition to missiles.

Yep. These would be the extra-bulky powersuits commonly shown to be 20-40 feet
tall. These are the ones that can withstand sustained automatic gunfire.

"Heavy" mecha would be fairly loaded-down with weapons, especially heavy
weapons, and would most likely have at least two missile racks (if it
carries missiles)

Think of a tank with legs. :) 60-150 feet tall depending on the source of the
info. These would cost more than the GNP of most countries to build (Japan
excluded, obviously) :)

I'd agree with your definitions, Mark. I do recall one additional element to the
definition but I don't recall where I read it. Light, medium, and heavy refer to
the 'weight class' of the mecha. Light was something like 15-30 tons, medium
weighed in at 40-60 tons, and heavy mecha were 75-100 tons. Anything larger was
too big to support it's own weight. I suspect this might have been part of the
FASA mech definition, but I really don't remember.

Not every mecha needs missiles, but it sure is cool to let fly with a
missile swarm of Macross proportions. :^)

No doubt!

Be advised that I haven't seen much material on the subject beyond Voltron,
Zoids, or some such thing -- all of which don't really qualify as mecha, or
so I assume.

Sure they do. They're just not Gundam-style mecha.

Voltron is one of the first "super sentai" mecha, where there is a
super-team of heros who pilot various mecha that combine (like Power
Rangers)

Zoids are animal-shaped mecha, but they still have little pilots in the
heads, so as far as I'm concerned, they're mecha. :^)

The only things I don't consider mecha are the big ugly square-looking
things that FASA came up with for their Battletech game. They then went on
to copyright the term "mech" and were very nasty about it for a while.
This is especially ironic because some of their "mechs" were direct
ripoffs of various mecha from Macross (Robotech)

I'd disagree with you here simply because these 'chicken walkers' owe more to
the AT-ST for their existence than they do traditional mecha. They too have
pilots and similar firepower to all other mecha. I do prefer to call these
mechs, though, as I consider them to be the predecessors of the more refined
versions of mecha we see today.

HTH

~Grand Admiral Muffin Head
--
Mark's Lego Creations
http://www.nwlink.com/~sandlin/lego/

-Dave 'Lego Mecha' Johann



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Define Mecha Types Por Moi...
 
(...) Incorrect. The Zentraedi mecha we see in Macross/Robotech were directly ripped off and used in Battletech and Mechwarrior. Case in point: (URL) Battle pod was used by FASA and renamed the Marauder. They stole the Veritech in Battroid mode and (...) (22 years ago, 12-Jan-02, to lugnet.build.mecha)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Define Mecha Types Por Moi...
 
(...) I guess it depends on the person defining, but as for my mecha, I have Light, Medium, and Heavy. They generally refer to the size and armament of the mecha. I don't have very strict rules for this. I usually just build a mecha and then take a (...) (22 years ago, 12-Jan-02, to lugnet.build.mecha)

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