Weirdest super robot weapon?

[False Prophet]

Which super robot weapon do you think is the weirdest? Feels like 90% of the time they just use the oversized version of whatever weapons human use.

[Kuruni]

You just ask at the right time!

Behold, PAC-80-5 Pac-Man Robo.

[Seto Kaiba]

Since G Gundam straddles the boundary between super and real robot, I'm inclined to point to any of several designs from that series that fought with things like a windmill's blades or a giant robot horse.

[Mafty]

Aldnoah Zero has some examples with the Vers Empire, wherein the Martain Kataphrakts are basically Super Robots in a Real Robot setting.

Nilokeras- A mech that has the power to basically dissolve anything it's giant hands touch.

Sirenum- It has gravity manipulation powers. This is best seen in the desert battle in Yemen; where the Sirenum is able to fight the Earth Forces , by basically causing a sandstorm.

Most of the rest of the Martain Kataphrakts are similarly powerful, but are equipped with the standard beam cannons, and swords.

The Machine Goodfellows from Captain Earth similarly have powerful units with standard abilities.

However the Siren does have a very unique ability. It can resurrect the other units after they are destroyed, making their team near indestructible.

Zeorymer a Seinen Super Robot OVA from the late 1980s has an elemental powered group of robots loosely based on the Ancient Chinese Divination text the I Ching.

Three of the more unique units are...

Omzack of Thunder: Unlike the other units it's barely humanoid, and resembles something like a Dragon and or a Snake. It can summon Thunder blasts that can decimate an entire naval fleet in an explosion as big and powerful as a nuclear blast.

Dinodilos of Earth- It can control the magma beneath the earth, and shift the plates beneath the surface. It can summon earthquakes that devastate entire cities.

Lanster of Wind- Obviously can control wind; and thus can use wind based attacks, such as summoning gales ,windstorm and Typhoon level attacks.

Buddy Complex is largely a typical Sunrise Real Robot Anime; however it does do something a bit different, it introduces time travel to the narrative. (SPOILERS ahead) at the end of the series the two main characters (Dio and Aoba) are able to combine both their power to actually go back in time and prevent a mega weapon firing.

[MythSearcher]

Gainax also have quite a few wacky ideas.
Not in show, but Gunbuster has a baseball bat, and we see in SRW, it was used to send beam baseballs out and the attack is called Buster Home Run, not for mauling the target. (Gunbuster is real robot though)
Gurren Laggan uses galaxies as weapons.(If you think harder, the density of those things aren't really that good on things that big.)

Omzack of Thunder: Unlike the other units it's barely humanoid, and resembles something like a Dragon and or a Snake. It can summon Thunder blasts

Sounds like Quetzalcoatl

[Underrated GM Custom]

More over the top than weird per se, but the Goldion Hammer from Gaogaigar involves a giant hand holding a giant hammer bigger than the operator which then drives a giant golden nail into the enemy which turns them into glorious sparkles.

Gainax also have quite a few wacky ideas.
Not in show, but Gunbuster has a baseball bat, and we see in SRW, it was used to send beam baseballs out and the attack is called Buster Home Run, not for mauling the target. (Gunbuster is real robot though)

Oh, I always would have pegged Gunbuster as a super robot style show over real robot, although the real/super distinction started with Sunrise's marketing department following Gundam's success. Don't they classify it as a Super Robot in SRW?

[MythSearcher]

Oh, I always would have pegged Gunbuster as a super robot style show over real robot, although the real/super distinction started with Sunrise's marketing department following Gundam's success. Don't they classify it as a Super Robot in SRW?

SRW stopped classifying them after F I believe.(Later SRW may let you choose Super or Real for the original main lead, but no longer distinguish other shows from being Real or Super. Where F's story will let you into different routes that give you plots for relative Super or Real units as a distinction.)

Actually, there are show elements that make them Super and/or Real, they aren't really exclusive to each other.

Real robots are supposedly used in a more realistic setting where they are used extensively all over the place, usually military but you can have labors like in Patlabor.
Super robots settings usually have robots as one off artefacts, like Superheroes, the term Super is basically directly from Superhero.(first used in Mazinger Z) Instead of machines, these are usually more like mechanical gods, or people with super power. Enemies also usually attack them for no reason at all, even when they have the power to just conquer the world without caring about this few delinquents. And like superheroes, they are always the one that win the battle and the war by themselves and no one else matters much.

If you think about it, Gunbuster is from a military setting, it is a prototype and has its own mass production units(Sizzler series) that are more effective.(only using 1 degeneracy engine instead of 2 and still retain 80% of its powers) While it is devastating in the beginning in one battle, it really isn't that overwhelming in the big picture. It cannot turn the tide of the war and at the end what matters is the super weapon(Buster Machine 3, which is essentially just a big bomb) and it only matters because it triggered the bomb.(It is also implied that other Sizzler units likely can do that as well, just that it will be a suicide mission) While all the hotblooded screaming and named moves do make it very Super-esque, the whole world building is much more realistic(you also get relativistic time dilation, Doppler effects, etc. that makes it much more Scientifically realistic. Enemy attacks look red when approaching, shifted to white to blue when glancing away.)
Diebuster, on the other hand, is completely Super. The Topless are all Superpowered humans, working pretty much as Superheroes, everything are artefacts, etc. It makes sense because you can see they intentionally make the work ceremonially the opposite of Gunbuster, the same clothing tearing scene was for putting the degeneracy engine into a Buster Machine(as oppose to Gunbuster's Noriko taking a degeneracy engine out), they are destroying a blackhole(as oppose to creating one with Buster machine 3), the new heroine is the one lighting up(one of the) lights welcoming back the old heroines(as oppose to the heroines are coming back to Earth and being greeted), the other heroine will be lost forever(as oppose to coming back after a long journey). There's also those smaller tidbits like showing the UN Space fleet being useless as they are in a relatively peaceful time (as oppose to the old one being heroic and determined because the enemies are at the door step.) Just the name of the elite team is Topless(as opposed to Top, though that one always made me laugh because topless has another naughty meaning which they did reflect in both of the shows when they tear off the chest clothing).

Got a friend who insisted Macross is Super because you get the Daedalus Attack, but if you look at the settings, it is Real and most people will say it is Real, so when applying the same standards, I consider Gunbuster Real as well.

[Kuruni]

There are Super military show like Dancouga. J-Decker also has lot of realistic elements despite undeniable being Super Robot show, fighting everything from simple criminal in robot to magic users and aliens. Ideon can be said to be Super Robot show in Real Robot setting as well.

To date, I still think a fanmade TRPG Super Robot Wars MG has the best classification system even if the author just use it as archetypes for building robot stats (and thus not really has hard and fast rule for classification).

[MythSearcher]

There are Super military show like Dancouga. J-Decker also has lot of realistic elements despite undeniable being Super Robot show, fighting everything from simple criminal in robot to magic users and aliens. Ideon can be said to be Super Robot show in Real Robot setting as well.

To date, I still think a fanmade TRPG Super Robot Wars MG has the best classification system even if the author just use it as archetypes for building robot stats (and thus not really has hard and fast rule for classification).

Well, those have the Super robot working as a military robot, but the military does not have other comparable robots that can do similar things to the super one unlike Gunbuster having Sizzler.
Just like in Superhero shows, you can have a Superhero being a police or military personnel(Captain America, for example) but you don't get everyone having Super powers.

This TRPG seems to be basically using the typical "Superheroes can take a beating and have super strength" as the distinction of Super vs Real, which is true in SRW 4 and F, but not really that much describing the actual relationship between the settings.

[Kuruni]

Well, those have the Super robot working as a military robot, but the military does not have other comparable robots that can do similar things to the super one unlike Gunbuster having Sizzler.

Might be true for Dancougar but not the case for J-Decker. The big twist in the middle is when they face a pair of powerful evil super AI robot, then a new brave police come out of nowhere and quickly dispatch one of them (and Deckard soon get a new body, implied to be upgraded but functionally the same). It's clear that building a super AI robot require advanced technique but ultimately nothing special. Of course, J-Decker is borderline genre (he initially equipped with just a stun baton and a dual mode gun/beam rifle, make him more or less a glorified Ingram).

This TRPG seems to be basically using the typical "Superheroes can take a beating and have super strength" as the distinction of Super vs Real, which is true in SRW 4 and F, but not really that much describing the actual relationship between the settings.

The real charm is that it actually has 6 subtypes for Super and 4 subtypes for Real. Something objectively better than just two. As noted, it's more of archetypes to build robot stats than proper classification. Still, it's nice to see them acknowledge how Super Robot can be used in military setting, and not all Real Robots are equally realistic.

[MythSearcher]

Might be true for Dancougar but not the case for J-Decker. The big twist in the middle is when they face a pair of powerful evil super AI robot, then a new brave police come out of nowhere and quickly dispatch one of them (and Deckard soon get a new body, implied to be upgraded but functionally the same). It's clear that building a super AI robot require advanced technique but ultimately nothing special. Of course, J-Decker is borderline genre (he initially equipped with just a stun baton and a dual mode gun/beam rifle, make him more or less a glorified Ingram).

But did they mass-produced those things? Maybe not completely the same spec but at least something like he type 96 as to Ingrams, and they actually do a lot more stuff in the background and at least implied to be useful in the big picture?

The real charm is that it actually has 6 subtypes for Super and 4 subtypes for Real. Something objectively better than just two. As noted, it's more of archetypes to build robot stats than proper classification. Still, it's nice to see them acknowledge how Super Robot can be used in military setting, and not all Real Robots are equally realistic.

Yes, that is my point, Real and Super isn't really opposite sets, they have their elements and those elements can be in the same show.
Gunbuster is actually much more similar in this to Macross as opposed to Dancougar.(where they are pretty much military in name only, and operate more like those labs in Mazinger Z and Getter Robo or a sports club in high school)

[Underrated GM Custom]

If you think about it, Gunbuster is from a military setting, it is a prototype and has its own mass production units(Sizzler series) that are more effective.

That's an intersting viewpoint I hadn't considered before with regards to Gunbuster. I will caution against using mass production as an indicator of real robots though. Otherwise we'd have Gurren Lagann checking the real robot box with the Grapearls, same with the Bigs from Big O and Getter Robo with the mass produced Getters from Arc, Moon Crater Battle, or the OVA Armageddon.

Also I agree with you, Macross is as real as it comes. To me the distinctions has always been more about tone of the show, and how realistic the technology in-universe appears to be.

[MythSearcher]

That's an intersting viewpoint I hadn't considered before with regards to Gunbuster. I will caution against using mass production as an indicator of real robots though. Otherwise we'd have Gurren Lagann checking the real robot box with the Grapearls, same with the Bigs from Big O and Getter Robo with the mass produced Getters from Arc, Moon Crater Battle, or the OVA Armageddon.

Also I agree with you, Macross is as real as it comes. To me the distinctions has always been more about tone of the show, and how realistic the technology in-universe appears to be.

Ah, I am not only using if it had mass production units, I am also using the fact that the mass production units being almost as powerful as it is AND is actually contributing a lot to the war and battles.
Also, I kinda like how the Gunbuster wasn't combined and they fight as Buster Machine 1 and 2 because each one with their own degeneracy engine is actually capable enough and having two units is more efficient than just one because they are facing such devastating numbers. They only combine when their numbers became too few and it is the final show down against the larger and more powerful units and they need the 2 engines to complete their final task.(one for triggering the bomb and the other for warping back home.)

[Kuruni]

But did they mass-produced those things? Maybe not completely the same spec but at least something like he type 96 as to Ingrams, and they actually do a lot more stuff in the background and at least implied to be useful in the big picture?

Well, not exactly mass produced. But in Shadowmaru's intro episodes, his prototype brother got captured and by the time Shadowmaru found his AI chip being used to control a submarine, the arc's antagonist already has two simplified robots based on them running (with implication that he can build many more should he manage to reach his employer) and Shadowmaru only beat them because he asked the engineers to modified him with extra firepower beyond his original plan.

Similar thing goes for the robots mentioned in the big twist. Both of Chieftein (the evil robots) were destroyed within three episodes, and the arc's villain just shpw up with two of their upgraded model (completed with combination super mode) two episodes afterward (and even more after he get out from jail). The new brave police (Duke) was transferred from their England's counterpart (and near the end of the series, we get to see them, albeit quickly wiped out by new alien threat). There is also another member, Gunmax, who was originally assigned to highway patrol department but transferred to the Brave Polices after his partner involved in scandal.

Ultimately, we never get to see full mass produced super AI robot, but with the series discuss about moral issue and responsibility of humans for making sentient AI (the series take a lot of inspiration from Blade Runner), it make sense.

[MythSearcher]

Well, not exactly mass produced. But in Shadowmaru's intro episodes, his prototype brother got captured and by the time Shadowmaru found his AI chip being used to control a submarine, the arc's antagonist already has two simplified robots based on them running (with implication that he can build many more should he manage to reach his employer) and Shadowmaru only beat them because he asked the engineers to modified him with extra firepower beyond his original plan.

Similar thing goes for the robots mentioned in the big twist. Both of Chieftein (the evil robots) were destroyed within three episodes, and the arc's villain just shpw up with two of their upgraded model (completed with combination super mode) two episodes afterward (and even more after he get out from jail). The new brave police (Duke) was transferred from their England's counterpart (and near the end of the series, we get to see them, albeit quickly wiped out by new alien threat). There is also another member, Gunmax, who was originally assigned to highway patrol department but transferred to the Brave Polices after his partner involved in scandal.

Ultimately, we never get to see full mass produced super AI robot, but with the series discuss about moral issue and responsibility of humans for making sentient AI (the series take a lot of inspiration from Blade Runner), it make sense.

Then that sounded more like a Real robot show to me.

[Kuruni]

On the mech side, true. But as noted, the antagonists including so many things from rogue robots, mad scientist's robots, aliens, ...and magic users (and at least one episode being pure rescue mission without antagonist).

[Mafty]

To be fair Super Robot series do see mass production from time to time. Evangelion has the mass produced Eva's in one of the movies; they mass produced the Aquarion toward the end of the first Aquarion series, the Vermillion Dolem in Rahxephon, etc. It also seems as though some of the series exist in the middle ground between Real and Super Robot, for instance SRW seems to borrow liberally from both versions to make up their mechs. Gundams are more flashy than most military equipment, and ultimately seem to be able to act in a way that goes beyond Sci-Fi into Fantasy, as seen in the increasing evolution of Newtype powers following the Axis Shock. This is something that can also be seen in other Sunrise Anime like Buddy Complex that gives real robots the Tardis like ability to time travel. Also there is Broken Blade wherein it mixes gritty mech combat, with a fantasy side by having the Golems powered by magic Quartz.

[MythSearcher]

On the mech side, true. But as noted, the antagonists including so many things from rogue robots, mad scientist's robots, aliens, ...and magic users (and at least one episode being pure rescue mission without antagonist).

If the antagonists are about world domination but still only attacked a police mecha, and the military aren't interfering with even more power robots when it became anything more serious(and damaging) then it is Super Robot.
If the antagonists are more like mafia and gangsters, well... it gets pretty hard to tell. I mean, other than magic users, Patlabour's antagonists aren't really that comformists.(Whoever built the Griffon or bred Waste XIII are definitely mad scientist enough)

Rescue missions can well be real robot category, I mean, IRL people are considering using robots as emergency rescues for much more complex landscapes.(So strangely, Skygirls is weirdly real)