"Labor. A robot designed specifically for heavy industrial work. The rise of Labors therefore propagated a revolution in industry, but also in criminal activity. The police therefore created a special unit: the Patrol Labor. And thus, the birth of Patlabor."
When it comes to Mecha, whether they are humongous or small, Super Robots or Real Robots, mass-produced or one-of-a-kind, stories usually have them being built for the purposes of combat. However, just as regular robots can serve purposes other than combat, mecha can also be used for things other than fighting. Sometimes these types of mecha might be modified to or from a mechs that is meant for combat.
Part of the reason for this trope is that mecha, if they existed in real life, would mainly be just another type of tool that humans use. Examples of areas where these types of mecha might be used include construction and demolition work, firefighting, and mining. In works where mecha are common, these types of machines might be treated as just another piece of equipment, while in other works they might be new type of technology that is being tested or is only used by a few people.
In an action work, don't expect it to stay a non-action mecha for long. While these types of mecha aren't meant for combat, it doesn't mean that they can't be involved in it. In militaries, mecha that don't perform any direct fighting might serve other purposes such as logistics, repair work, or searching. If said mecha are used for actual fighting, then they will either be given a weapon to use or be essentially an Improvised Weapon that use their non-combat tools and functions for fighting, with a Construction Vehicle Rampage occurring in that case. If a civilian character somehow knows how to pilot a combat mecha without having training in combat, it's probably because they possess experience with this kind of mecha.
If a combat-based mecha is used for non-combat purposes, that's a case of Mundane Utility. Compare Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Active Raid: Morgan and Drew are a pair of Humongous Mecha used as tourist attractions, but initially as construction and rescue vehicles. They ended up being decommissioned for being too costly to operate thanks to their size compared to Willwears. Until Morgan is hijacked by its washed-up former pilot, and Funasaka, a fanboy of Mecha, uses the opportunity to use Drew in order to combat it.
- Appleseed: In the second OVA, Deunnan has to arrest a disgruntled ex-construction worker who's hijacked his site's Landmate (the in-universe name for "Mini-Mecha"). The construction Landmate is equipped with a shoulder-mounted crane and is painted in Caterpillar's distinctive day-glo yellow. The pilot also raves over the loudspeaker and throws H-beams around like a kid with Lincoln Logs.
- Gundam:
- Mobile Workers are a type of Mecha that shows up throughout the franchise, typically being used for civilian work such as construction or carrying large objects.
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Mobile Suit Variation is an official design series that focuses on variants of Mobile Suits during the One Year War period, with some machines that were even intended to be shown on-screen in the original anime and/or compilation movies but were cut for time and story-flow reasons. Besides variants of machines like the Gelgoog and several Ace Custom machines, a number of non-combat machines are included.
- The SP-W03 Space Pod, a civilian-use mobile pod used for colony construction. Its profile states it was used as the basis of the RB-79 Ball that would appear in the Gundam anime, mostly by equipping it with armor and arming it with a devastatingly powerful 180mm recoilless cannon.
- Zigzagged with the MS-06V Zaku Tank (the V stands for "Vehicle"), which was basically a Zaku (either I or II) torso on the Magella attack tank's frame. While mostly utilized as a support machine for construction and the like, thanks to the jury-rigged nature of the machine it could be utilized in combat when properly equipped. In such cases, it could make for reasonably powerful fire support (e.g. with a Zaku Cannon's backpack). They first appear on-screen in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam, where they're completely unable to put up a fight against AEUG's forces, while a variant in Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team uses a Zaku I's torso and only has winches in place of arms, making it unsuited for any sort of combat role.
- The MS-06W Zaku Worker is a Zaku I or II that is considered no longer suitable for combat due to damage, and so is converted into a labor machine. Its entire cockpit is replaced with one from a standard construction vehicle, so nearly anyone trained to use construction vehicles without Mobile Suit training can utilise it. It has no armaments, and it's equipped with a winch on the left forearm and a shovel on the right. It is described as being discontinued because Zeon's logistics became so dire even a badly-damaged intact Zaku was useful on the front line, and its role as labor machine was taken over by the Zaku Tank above. Zaku Workers make a brief appearance in the manga version of Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, helping to load cargo onto warships.
- The GM Trainer is a variant of the GM meant to help with pilot training. It is a two-seater, one for the trainee and one for the instructor. While it is otherwise built to the same specs as a regular GM (enough that it can actually wield most of the same weapons as the normal GM such as the beam spray gun or even the Gundam's beam rifle) it also lacks proper built-in weapons such as the head vulcans. Even its beam saber is simply a dummy. In addition, its armor is weaker and cheaper than that of the regular GM, making it even less suited for actual combat. In games such as Gundam Battle Operation or Gihren's Greed it is possible to deploy the GM Trainer into combat, but suiting the source material it isn't much use in the field.
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack: After both the One Year War and the Gryps War, mass-produced mobile suits started becoming common enough that they were no longer needed for military purposes. Certain mobile suits like the RMS-116H "Hobby Hizack"
were stripped of their armaments and sold to civilians as "sports" machines.
- Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn: Banagher commandeers a "Torohachi" construction mech to rescue Audrey Byrne from falling to her death inside space colony Industrial 7.
- Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin: Exploited. The Mobile Worker MW-01 is a Humongous Mecha that Zeon claimed was designed with construction purposes in mind, acting as a humanoid bulldozer. Despite promising results, the Zeon engineers decided that the design would be too slow and ineffective for real combat, and began the mobile suit development project based on the MW-01, with the MS-06 Zaku as the design would with the MS-06 Zaku as the eventual endpoint.
- Mobile Fighter G Gundam: The Big Bad of the series is the incredibly ominously-named Devil Gundam, an autonomous unit that exists to expand and grow with its nanotechnology. However, it was originally designed as the wholly benign Ultimate Gundam, whose sole purpose was to use its nanotechnology to heal the Earth, which was so damaged by many Gundam battles that it's rendered inhospitable in many places and those with the ability to do so fled to space.
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Astray: The Junk Guild is an organization that deals with scavenging and salvaging materials and help in reconstruction purposes. As such, the Mobile Suits and Mobile Armors they use tend to be unarmed and equipped for their work. Initially they use Mobile Pods such as the Mistral and Kimera; the advent of Mobile Suits saw them use Works GINN, Civilian Astrays and Raystas.
- Mobile Suit Gundam SEED CE.73: Stargazer: The Stargazer Gundam is designed as a deep space exploration vessel, just one that happens to be shaped like a human. It's designed without any weapons, and its unique advanced systems are to be used for extended autonomous exploration without being able to return home for long periods. To this end it's designed to be piloted by an AI and has nanomachines to perform limited repair functions, as well as a revolutionary form of propulsion.
- Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX:
- The Zaku-II is so obsolete that it is openly sold to construction companies and police forces, and even a small unprofitable gladiatorial team is able to get their hands on one. The key issue is a vital component that is needed to reactivate any combat functions, which is naturally removed before sale.
- Discussed with the Gelgoog. By the time of the series, newer machines have been developed that are more advanced and so the Gelgoog is slowly being phased out similar to what befell the Zaku-II. However, the Gelgoog is still advanced enough that a gladiatorial team being able to field two is treated as something unusual, such that several characters comment that someone important must be backing said team.
- Macross Delta: The main character, Hayate Immelman, begins the series not as a military pilot of the Battroid transforming mecha, but instead a dock worker moving crates in a civilian Workroid. The skills he's developed coupled with his incredible sense of rhythm lead to him quickly Falling into the Cockpit and becoming a combat pilot with a unique Dance Battler style.
- In Outlaw Star, grappler arms were originally added to starships for cargo handling, but pirates figured out how to weaponize them and the space forces were forced to design their own grappler ships to counter. Now starships regularly engage in high-speed wrestling matches.
- Patlabor:
- The franchise takes place in a world where Mecha called Labors are just another piece of equipment used for various purposes including but not limited to construction work, underwater work, and firefighting. The franchise's title is a contraction of "Patrol Labor", i.e. Labors employed by the police to combat the use of Labors in criminal activity, but experience showed Labors to be mostly Awesome, but Impractical for military purposes (they're big targets and too difficult to armor due to the Square-Cube Law).
- Mobile Police Patlabor: There are stories where Labor companies are looking into using Labors for space work. The use of Labors in construction work are debated in the Patlabor world that construction companies can justify cutting down manpower to save on costs.
- Stellvia of the Universe: Halcyon and, later, Infinity are humanoid-shaped single-seat spaceships that are functionally and visually mecha, but they have never been intended for combat: instead, they were designed as mobile force shield generators to protect Earth from asteroids during the Great Mission. It is even lampshaded that the only reason for giving them arms and legs was the sheer symbolism of having a giant humanoid robot being the linchpin of humanity's greatest engineering achievement (as well as a vague possibility of them representing humanity during an eventual First Contact).
- Transformers:
- Transformers: Super-God Masterforce: When Shuta, Cab and Minerva are given Masterbraces by Hawk, they are made Headmaster Juniors and granted Transtectors that allow them to transform into full robot modes. However, they are explicitly entrusted with non-combat roles such as search-and-rescue, fire-fighting and first aid, driven home by their alternate modes of a police car, a fire engine and an ambulance car respectively. They perform this role for most of the series, though they are forced to take up arms to actively engage in combat on a few occasions.
- Transformers Victory: The Micromaster team known as the Rescue Team are made up of Holi, Pipo, Fire and Boater, who transform into a police car, an ambulance, a fire engine and a boat respectively. As the name suggests, their role is to perform rescue operations while the other Autobots actively engage in combat. In an early episode where the Decepticons attack a coastal facility, each member has a chance to shine with Boater carrying evacuees while towing more boats behind him, Fire keeping flames at bay, Pipo providing first aid while evacuating the worst wounded, and Holi directs the team while also assisting people either onto the boats or into Pipo.
Comic Books
- Amulet: Silas Charnon's mansion is capable of transforming into a walking mecha, but Cogsley states it was only built for travel, not combat. In Book 2, when faced with a transformed giant Luger, Navin resorts to piloting it to fight back, only for Luger to tear off both arms easily until Emily uses her magic to strengthen its offense and defeat him.
- Lilo & Stitch (Dynamite): In issue #5, when Lilo is tasked by the Grand Councilwoman to stop a rampaging monster, Nani insists that she is given some form of protection. So she is given a mecha, though one that is clearly without any weapons or combat abilities (not that Lilo would have used them if it had, as she had no intention to harm the creature). The mech is wrecked by the creature, but lasts long enough for Lilo to figure out the creature is only angry because it has an electro tag attached to its tail, and removes it.
- Iron Man: Tony once built Pepper Potts her own suit of armor, called Rescue. Knowing that she'd object to being a weapon, he made the suit entirely unarmed (aside from it being a Flying Brick just like all his armors were) but included equipment to help respond to a variety of emergency situations.
- Transformers:
- The Transformers (IDW), in the past Cybertron was controlled by Functionists, a religious sect who believed that a Transformer's alt mode as a divine gift from their creator god Primus and sacred, and determined that Transformer's position in their Fantastic Caste System by dictating their purpose. Transformers who became appliances or devices were at the bottom of the pecking order (like Rewind, who transformed into a memory storage stick) and were considered as disposable as their alt modes. And only Transformers with military alt modes could join the military. Most Transformers had non-combat oriented alt modes, and where therefore confined to civilian duties. This caste system and the associated corruption led to the rise of the Decepticons and the ensuing civil war.
- Transformers (2019): Due to the policies of previous Autobot leaders like Nominus Prime and Sentinel Prime, most war-capable Cybertronians were either exiled or "convinced" to leave, and so happily joined the nascent Decepticon movement. One of the biggest issues the Autobots face once the Decepticons launch their coup is the fact that most of their members have neither the temperament, the aptitude, nor the bodyframes for warfare. note
Fan Works
- The Deep and the Dark: Meredith and her AI copilot Logan work together piloting a Tyrant-class construction frame, a twelve-ton machine with which she is currently digging foundations for a new hydroponics array. She recalls videos the Rongo colonists brought along from Earth of "walking cranes and construction mechs", which was why she became a mech pilot in the first place.''
Film — Animated
- Ark: The titular giant robots are city-sized Motion-Capture Mecha(s) meant to be piloted by the descendants of High Priestess Amiel, as The Chosen One to carry the inhabitants of Planet Alcyeon to another world when it's unstable core eventually implodes generations into the future.
- Promare:
- The Mini-Mecha used by Burning Rescue are built for firefighting and search-and-rescue in burning buildings. It just happens that the same equipment used to put out fires is useful against the fire-conjuring mutants who started them, too.
- The Krazor X was built to terraform an alien planet for human habitation following a Homeworld Evacuation. Every weapon it deploys against the heroes is followed up with a description of its intended purpose, such as a Freeze Ray designed to stop volcanic eruptions or battle solar flares, or a beam designed to transform matter into fertile soil.
- WALL•E: WALL•A (Waste Allocation Load Lifter: Axiom class) units are robots built by the BnL Corporation. Essentially mega-sized versions of the titular WALL•E units, they are charged with packing and removing garbage in a garbage disposal that is delivered there by the garbage truck bots. Like their smaller brethren, WALL•A units compact garbage into cubes before disposing them.
Film — Live-Action
- Aliens: The Sulaco carries the Power Lifter, a frame used by the Colonial Marines to lift heavy loads such as crates and ammunition around the ship. While it's not designed for combat, that doesn't stop Ripley fighting the xenomorph queen in it.
- Avatar:
- Zigzagged with the RDA's Amplified Mobility Platform (or AMP Suit), a human-operated walking machine that magnifies the strength and agility of its driver. While the RDA and its mercenaries have developed weaponized versions of the AMP Suit, they are seen aiding the RDA in construction and in moving heavy materials.
- Zigzagged with the Skel Suits, which are built to help humans in making the moon of Pandora develop a home for themselves. With them, a human can be as tall, strong and fast as a na'vi. However, as is with most things with the RDA, the Skel Suit was made for both industrial and military capabilities.
- Zigzagged with the SMP-2 (Submersible Mobility Platform), or Crab Suit. Named for its crab-like appearance, the Crab Suits are capable of rapid traversal on land and sea, they are an essential component of the RDA's construction and Tulkun processing operations, allowing a single pilot to easily perform tasks that require strength and dexterity above or below the waves. However, they are armed enough to combat the ocean-dwelling na'vi tribes who take umbrage with the RDA's Tulkun hunting.
- Pacific Rim: Uprising: Scrapper is a Giant Scrap Robot Mini-Mecha that requires only a single pilot, compared to proper Jaegers which require two to handle the neural load. Its size makes useless in direct fight against the Kaiju, but with a retrofit it's turned into a Support Party Member, capable of performing emergency field repairs and providing pilots with a means of escape in the event of an escape pod failure.
- Ultraman Saga: Team U, being a civilian-based defense squad, pilots Mini-Mechas meant for construction and transportation, but never for combat. The closest their mechas get to battle is by placing Exploding Barrels on strategic choke-points for them to remotely detonate when Kaiju approaches.
Literature
- 86 -EIGHTY SIX-: In Volume 12, Spearhead Squadron encounters a Legion model designated as "Aranea," a massive towering mech used by the Legion to rapidly construct platforms and bridges as it is operating in a forested river area. The Aranea tries to fight back using its cutting shears and swinging crane, but it is no match for an enemy combat squad.
- Bullbuster has the Bullbuster and Bullrover used by Namidome Industries for manual labor, which were later pressed into service to take down mutated creatures prowling around Ryugan Island.
- Ciaphas Cain: Zigzagged in "Death or Glory" with a Sentinel, a Chicken Walker whose combat versions are usually mounted with lasers, which is instead seen outfitted with grabbing claws to serve as a power loader, greatly helping the refugee caravan when they find supplies. However, it's also later jury-rigged with a flamethrower by the tech-priest piloting it so it can serve a combat role.
- Full Metal Panic! Another: Ten years after the original series, Power Slaves are Mini-Mecha used for civilian purposes, derived from the technology used in military Arm Slaves. The protagonist Ichinose learned how to pilot mechs by helping out at his father's construction firm. He still needs lessons for piloting proper Arm Slaves due to the differing purposes of the machines.
- Star Wars Legends: Construction droids are skyscraper-sized crewed robots that contain their own internal factories to process raw materials into components for buildings, and then can place and secure them. They get heavy use on City Planets like Coruscant.
- The Jedi Academy Trilogy: A construction droid is featured in the prologue of Jedi Search as part of crews cleaning up damage from the events of the Imperial occupation in Dark Empire, leading to the discovery of an Imperial technology cache including a device to detect Force-sensitives, which is used to find candidates for Luke Skywalker's new Jedi Praxeum.
- X-Wing Series: In Wedge's Gamble, Rogue Squadron hijacks a construction droid as part of their Zany Scheme to bring down Imperial-held Coruscant's planetary Deflector Shield ahead of a New Republic invasion.
Live-Action TV
- Chōjinki Metalder: Brought up in an early episode when Metalder defeats a member of the Robot Division. The furious God Neros orders the defeated warrior destroyed, but the Robot Division commander Balksy pleads for his subordinate's life. He points out the soldier was not only instrumental to a number of off-screen successes, he was also designed to be a scout and so simply wasn't designed to engage in direct combat (even in the episode itself, the soldier hovered above the field and reported on Metalder's movements to his comrades, only flying down to fight when he was the only one left). God Neros accepts Balksy's reasoning and rescinds his command, but orders the soldier be rebuilt into a more powerful form with the understanding there will be no further chances.
- Super Sentai/Power Rangers:
- Gekisou Sentai Carranger / Power Rangers Turbo: The VRV Master/The Phantom Ranger pilots Victorailer/Artillatron a three-trailer vehicle transport that holds the VRV Machines/Rescue Zords and gives VRV Robo/Rescue Megazord its arms to use as cannons for it’s finishing move.
- Mirai Sentai Timeranger / Power Rangers Time Force: Providus (aka the Transwarp Megazord) is a giant robot from the distant future, whose only purpose is to send ships into the past by hitting them through a time portal. The only time it was brought to the past to fight was because of the script of Glokun/Cinecon, a movie director themed Monster of the Week.
- Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger and Power Rangers: Dino Thunder: The Brachiosaurus mech merely carries the other Zords into the field, and never directly participates in battle. In Abaranger, Brachio is depicted as a Gentle Giant that hates fighting.
Tabletop Games
- BattleTech: IndustrialMechs are Mechs used for industrial purposes, with there being difficult types for different industries. Some examples include AgroMechs for agriculture, LoggerMechs for logging, and AquaMechs for underwater work. And then there's the Diomede. Marketed as a ConstructionMech, it nevertheless packs military-grade armor, a pair of missile pods with military-grade targeting systems, and an ejection system. It's not enough to function as an actual combat machine but rather is able to act as a deterrence against light raiding forces. It's also got a variant that was built after Gray Monday in 3132 for use by militia forces that can't get their hands on real BattleMechs.
- Iron Kingdoms:
- Owing to the limited resources of the Protectorate of Menoth and their need to conceal their rebellion against Cygnar, many of their warjacks are actually laborjacks, worker robots, that have been armored and given weapons. To represent this, their earlier 'jacks tend to have similar armor values to the ones in other factions at the cost of lower speed. As it turns out, their engines are being forced to move more weight than what they were designed for. Later ones are purpose built for warfare and thus have more powerful engines, giving them greater speed at the same armor value.
- The Talion Charter is an organization of Pirates and Privateers and all of their 'jacks are laborjacks designed for use at sea, meant for handling tasks on the ship that require large amounts of physical strength, along with featuring a stabilization system that keeps balanced while the ship rocks back and foward. Its just that those charateristics also makes them very good in combat, both at sea and on land.
- Lancer: There isn't a great deal of background lore on industrial mecha in the game, but a few of the playable frames started out that way:
- The HORUS Kobold pattern frame licence is explicitly stated to be code that quietly weaponises mechs that were designed for mining when they're printed (Lancer being a partially post-capitalist future where 3D printers can produce an entire mech frame for anyone allowed to have one). Notably the ramshackle way it does so can make them as dangerous to the pilot as an enemy, but it's a favourite of "Ungratefuls" rebelling against the Trade Baronies.
- IPS-N's entire schtick is a massive shipping company that tries to retain a blue collar image. As such, a lot of its mechs are derived from weaponised non-combat ones: The Lancaster and The Kidd are sibling frames derived from the same four legged pre-mech legged utility vehicle. The former being an officially weaponised version made by IPS-N, and the latter one they bought the licence off from a "mining collective" (who made a variety of pirate themed adjustments). The Kidd is even stated to still see a lot of use for engineering and transport, outside of mech combat. The Vlad licence is a distant descendent of frames that were designed for orbital asteroid mining, equipped with weaponised mining gear.
- Warhammer 40,000:
- Terminator Armour is the most protective suit of armour, short of a Dreadnought, available to Space Marines. They were initialy created as an absurdly durable suit for working inside of plasma reactors during the Dark Age of Technology.
- Ambots are robots made with the nervous system of a Ambull, an alien creature expert at tunneling, to bypass the Imperium's ban on AI. They're commonly used in mining but in worlds like Necromunda, gangers sometimes reprogram them to use as extra muscle in their clashes.
- The massive bipedal war machines known as Knights were originally designed to help construct human colonies on hostile worlds as well as protect them from indigenous lifeforms. Over the years, the massive reaper chainswords have proven just as good at cutting down the enemy as they were at cutting down trees, while thunderstrike gauntlets can throw armoured vehicles as easily as they can carry heavy building materials.
Video Games
- Armored Core: Muscle Tracers (MTs, the mechs that served as the basis for Armored Core technology) started as labour and construction mechs, though they (obviously) are also used for combat applications.
- Fallout: Played with. Several of the robots in the game such as General Atomics' Mister Handies and Miss Nannies or RobCo's Protectron were designed specifically for civilian purposes, with Protectrons used for law enforcement, firefighting or factory work and Mister Handies/Miss Nannies used for household chores, childcare, and medical assistance. That being said, given how No OSHA Compliance was in play for the pre-War world, as well as both companies being part of the sprawling military-industrial complex at the time, it doesn't take much to turn these robots into combat-ready mechs.
- Final Fantasy XIV:
- The primal Alexander was summoned into the ruins of a Sharlayan mecha designed to be a mobile safe haven for researchers exploring the star. Alexander itself is modeled after an enormous steampunk robot based on the Illuminati's dreams of creating its ideal utopia, resulting in it being Bigger on the Inside with the goal of being able to travel through time and reshape history. While combat isn't its primary purpose, Alexander has numerous security measures and a vast array of magical weaponry to defend itself with. Garlond Ironworks would later adapt use the data it has on Alexander to create The Tycoon, a magitek-equivalent to the time-travelling primal with the space-rending capabilities of Omega and the Crystal Tower as a power source, as part of its efforts to Set Right What Once Went Wrong in the Bad Future.
- The Big Cheese is a giant construction robot designed by the Loporrits as part of their efforts to make the moon a comfortable place to live for the people of Hydaelyn. Unfortunately, the Loporrits overloaded the machine with too many goals and ideas for the residential district of Smileton, resulting in the robot going haywire and converting Smileton into something resembling a M.C. Escher painting. The Warrior of Light is then dispatched to forcibly decommission this robot before it drills its way to the moon's core and destroys it.
- The Cosmic Exploration Initiative sees the creation of vacuum suits, bipedal mecha designed for construction purposes to aid in the initiative's goal of exploring other worlds and rendering them inhabitable for research and potential colonization. While some models have potential for military purposes (i.e. a cannon used to blast apart dense deposits of crystallized aether), the vacuum suits as whole are meant for moving cargo, retrieving deposits of usable materials, and clearing debris.
- Gears of War:
- In 3, as the surviving Gears try to find supplies and navigate the war torn world, Delta Squad comes across of number of small mechs, called Mechanical Loaders, to help them move supplies and remove debris. Though they are not meant for combat, they nonetheless possess a stomp attack that sends shockwaves strong enough to kill enemies who are close enough.
- In 4, as the Coalition of Ordered Governments work to rebuild human civilization, they make use of large mechs to build new Settlements in record time. Aptly named Construction Mechs and developed by DB Industries, these mechs are armed with an Industrial Staple Gun to connect and reinforce buildings but are also equipped with four forked clamp arms, like those found on Mechanical Loaders. Further, though Construction Mechs included a cabin for a driver, they could operate fully autonomously.
- Halo:
- Played With. The Scarab and Locust of the Covenant military are quadrupedal mining platforms that use concentrated streams of plasma to mine through rock or brute forcing their way into Forerunner ruins. That being said, concentrated streams of plasma happen to also be very, very good at devastating battlefields. The Scarab platforms in particular are modular enough to support a complement of armed crew members, point defenses, and AA capabilities by way of a heavy plasma cannon mounted on its backside.
- The Cyclops is a bipedal exoskeleton that predominately was used in logistical and non-combat military roles such as construction, matériel transportation, and other heavy labor. In the rare instances they were deployed in combat it was mostly for anti-fortification, though they could hold their own in melee combat given its strength and surprisingly high speed. Post Human-Covenant war models would serve in civilian roles such as firefighting, rescue, and excavation, though some would be redesigned to serve as multi-purpose assault platforms.
- Honkai: Star Rail: In Jarilo-VI, the Engine of Creation was originally constructed as an instrument to restore the lands after the war against the Antimatter Legion. It gets weaponized in the story by the Arc Villain Cocolia, and then by the Trailblazer after they've awakened their power of Preservation. Some time after Cocolia is defeated, her adopted daughter Bronya mobilizes the people of Belobog to repair the mech so that they can begin to restore their lands from past disasters.
- Lost Planet: Lost Planet 3 introduces Rigs, predecessors to the Vital Suits found in the other titles. They are not weaponized, as they are meant for mining materials above all else, altought they can be given plenty of Improvised Weapons (such as an acetylene torch, a Power Fist, a drill, among others). They are very important as well for exploring E.D.N. III, as the game's HUD is tied into the Rig; the farther you are from it, the more transparent your HUD is.
- Machine Hunter is set in a futuristic world where mechas — most of them larger than humans — are repurposed for civilian purposes, like extermination of insects, cleaning, construction, and even robotic clowns, although there are combat-based mechs used by the military or law enforcement. Until an invading alien force decides to implant some sort of Computer Virus and make them run amok and assist the alien invaders into hunting down humans, and it's up to the titular Machine Hunters (one of them being the player character) to save humanity.
- Mass Effect 3: The Triton mech in the Leviathan DLC is an old Atlas model that has been converted for deep-sea exploration. and Shepard needs to recharge its energy cells to be able to dive to the bottom of the ocean, where the Leviathans live. However, for gameplay reasons, the Triton is just as capable of kicking Reaper ass as the combat-ready Atlas mech.
- StarCraft: Terran SCVs (Space Construction Vehicles) are powered exoskeletons designed for construction, mining, and repair work. They have a weak melee attack but will get slaughtered by any dedicated combat units.
- Star Wars: The Force Unleashed: The AT-CT is a variant of the AT-ST Chicken Walker designed for construction, forgoing any armaments for tractor beam generators. They can throw large things at you either way.
- Total Annihilation:
- The various construction and advanced construction Kbots of both factions count as this. Their purpose is to build structure and assist factories in building units, as well as going around reclaiming the metal from the wrecks of destroyed units. Their only offensive ability is their ability to slowly capture units or structures by reprogramming them, though as they are vulnerable this is nearly unusable in combat and more used to take over an enemy's infrastructure once the defenses are cleared out.
- The CORE Necro resurrection Kbot is an unarmed Kbot whose sole purpose is to go around finding wrecks of units, ally and enemy, and re-activating them and converting them to the player's side.
- The CORE Voyeur and the ARM Marky are Radar Kbots whose sole purpose is to provide mobile radar coverage.
- The ARM FARK (Fast Assist and Repair Kbot) is a Kbot whose purpose is to do quick repairs on units and buildings, basically a robotic medic who moves around really fast.
- Wuthering Waves: While the Exostrider is armed with weapons, it actually isn’t a combat mech. Rather it was designed to transport the Sentinels to Solaris-3. Despite that, it is still extremely powerful. Powerful enough to banish Aleph-1 to the other side of the universe.
Webcomics
- Unsounded: Uaid is a giant construct made from a hollowed-out Mountain Ogre body. Despite the danger posed by his sheer size, he has a cheerful, childlike personality that hates violence; his most important feature is an Anti-Magic field that protects his occupants. His inventor meant for him to shield the leaders of the Aldish resistance movement from government Sympathetic Magic attacks.
Western Animation
- Batman Beyond: In "Golem", the Galvanic Lifting Machine or GLM (pronounced Golem) is a huge, humanoid robot used in construction and operated by remote control. All very well and good until a teenage nerd hijacks it to [[ Construction Vehicle Rampage take revenge on his bullies and his abusive dad]].
- Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: In his introductory episode "XL", the titular villainous robot tries to get revenge on Star Command, Commander Nebula specifically, for deactivating him. To fulfill this revenge plan, XL steals various parts from numerous different robotics and mechanics. One such part was the reinforced leg belonging to a mech that conducted heavy loading lifting.
- Dexter's Laboratory: Dexter has made a few of this type of machine, but they aren't as notable as those he created that were made specifically for a form of combat, like the Robo-Dexo 2000. Said mechas include the hovering pincer mech Dexter used to reclaim his activator remote control seen in the show's intro and the safety robot suit Dexter built for DeeDee in the "Safety Lesson" short to help protect his sister when she was seen running around with a pair of scissors.
- DuckTales (1987): In "Robot Robbers", Gyro sells four Humongous Mecha to Glomgold that are meant to be meant for construction purposes. Trouble ensues when Ma Beagle and the Beagle Boys steal them and use them to commit robberies.
- One of the Autobots' origins in The Transformers is that the Autobots were consumer robots, compared to the Decepticons who were military robots, built by the Quintessons. This is used to justify why most of them turn into civilian vehicles, while most of the Decepticons favor military alt-modes, though there are exceptions.
Real Life
- Virtually all exoskeletons in development are intended for non-combat uses such as increasing lifting strength for construction or warehouse workers or assisting people with limited mobility. Some have been marketed to the military but to enable soldiers to carry more gear rather than as Powered Armor.