"Hair" in Mechas

[Henyo]

some have in universe functions while some just have it to look cool/ badass. my question is which mechas belong to the former?

soem of the units i recall upon posting:

Gauron's Venom(correct me if i'm wrong!) in FMP's fisrt season.
Genesic GaoGaiGar
Tauburn

the last easily fits in the "look cool" category. unless, there's material that says it has an actual functioN!

[ShadowCell]

as i recall, the Gundam Nadleeh from Gundam 00 uses its hair as a variety of connections to the armor that constitutes the Gundam Virtue

also it makes the Nadleeh look like a pretty Gundam princess which is way more important

[balofo]

Codarl's is a heat sink for Lambda Drive
Genesic's are batteries

[Henyo]

Codarl's is a heat sink for Lambda Drive
Genesic's are batteries

batteries? for its weapons? ?_? haven't gotten to watching GGG. and the Yuusha expert in our group said it was just for coolness.

what about King Gainer's dreadlocks?

[Raikoh]

Genesic's are an extension of tech already seen in GGG. In one of the on-foot fights with Pizza, Guy uses a Hyper Mode by unloading the energy in sideburn things, which look identical to Genesic's hair.

Most of the time the hair is just to look cool and/or unique, though. King Gainer's, I'm not sure, they're used in Overheat but I think a lot of them have to do with the general organic look of Overmen (all the way down to the muscles).

[Arsarcana]

Valsione's hair allegedly serves as a heat sink.

[Kuruni]

IIRC, Naked from Linebarrels's hair is similar to Nadleeh's, they're conenctors to Glain Neidr.

[Den]

todoh's knightmare frame from code geass has hair. as for nadleeh i recall that it is some kind of exposed wire

[MythSearcher]

I guess heat sink is one of the more plausible usage for mecha hair.(as I recall, even some robot girls use their hair as heat sink)
The hair provides a large surface area that is good for radiation heat transfer(and in case under the sun, one can simply decrease the area by tying them up)
Also, convection is possible in atmosphere and wind cooling can be easier with such large area.(should install a fan in the back of the neck to increase rate of air flow and look cooler, in both meanings)

[Mimeblade]

Renders in Genesic's hair (that I've seen anyway) look like chain-link fibers, so I always thought they were a Heat Sink, rather than just a power supply.

Pretty sure Nobel Gundam's are Heat Sink, though they aren't single fibers but more like a "plate shaped like hair" that splits up in large strands.

[Henyo]

what about the Diebuster's? and Buster Machine 7 for that matter. Sousuke's ARX-8 also has something like the tauburn's on the head. although it only appears during some attacks in its SRW appearance. is it connected to the Lambda Driver?

[Wingnut]

Sousuke's ARX-8 also has something like the tauburn's on the head. although it only appears during some attacks in its SRW appearance. is it connected to the Lambda Driver?

Yes, it is. Saying exactly what is a bit of a spoiler though.

[Raikoh]

what about the Diebuster's? and Buster Machine 7 for that matter?

Aesthetic. Diebuster has a lot of tidbits that are there just to look neat, like the face on Dix-Neuf or the tennis player motif of Chico's unit. The idea I found was that they drove up the "coming of age" aspect of the story by designing the machines to be juvenile (Dix-Neuf looks like a delinquent, then once it gets an Engine back after Lal'c's character development, it looks more mature).

It's mostly just because Nono has hair, and the reveal that she's a Buster Machine was a twist. The closest thing to an in-universe justification might have something to do with the ahoge controlling the Buster Machine Corps.

[MythSearcher]

what about the Diebuster's? and Buster Machine 7 for that matter?

Aesthetic. Diebuster has a lot of tidbits that are there just to look neat, like the face on Dix-Neuf or the tennis player motif of Chico's unit. The idea I found was that they drove up the "coming of age" aspect of the story by designing the machines to be juvenile (Dix-Neuf looks like a delinquent, then once it gets an Engine back after Lal'c's character development, it looks more mature).

It's mostly just because Nono has hair, and the reveal that she's a Buster Machine was a twist. The closest thing to an in-universe justification might have something to do with the ahoge controlling the Buster Machine Corps.

Buster Machine 7 is made to look like humans, so the hair can be completely useless other than aesthetic. The Diebuster is only her controlling a bunch of buster machines to get a larger form of herself, so that might also be completely useless other than aesthetic.

Of course, it can still be use for other functions, like the ahoge.

[Henyo]

this got me thinking...anyone knows what mecha has the honor of being first? to have hair in its design that is.

[MythSearcher]

this got me thinking...anyone knows what mecha has the honor of being first? to have hair in its design that is.

If you do not count the human sized androids, I would guess some monster of the week in those super robot shows will be the first.

[Henyo]

i should've put in Titular mecha or on the protagonist side. XD my bad!

[MythSearcher]

i should've put in Titular mecha or on the protagonist side. XD my bad!

Nah, I am just joking since I don't know the answer. :9

Not quite sure as well.

As I recall, the female protagonist mecha of Great Mazinger, Venus A, has at least hair looking parts.(not the soft silk like kind though)
Can't be sure if there are any earlier examples, or if you want the more realistic hair type, which is the earliest.
I am not a super robot fan, but most of the haired mecha are likely from super robots.(since its pretty hard to rationalize in real robots, it only appeared more recently)

[hitokirigarou]

Sousuke's ARX-8 also has something like the tauburn's on the head. although it only appears during some attacks in its SRW appearance. is it connected to the Lambda Driver?

When it uses its Lambda Driver, hair-like cooling fibers come out from behind its head.

[Seto Kaiba]

Junchoon from the Five Star Stories series has a mane of "hair" that falls out when the armor around the fatima cockpit is destroyed... which is probably part of a shock absorbent layer under the main armor.

The A-Toll Scritti has "hair" of a kind too, though that appears to be flaps of armor plating to protect the neck joint since the Scritti sacrifices heavy armor for mobility.

The Bang Doll also has "hair", but that's a rigid mane of spikes that protect the mecha from attacks from behind.