(I give cool points for the film understanding there’s no sound in space) One scene that makes me think of the Quad Vees of modern BattleTech is the scene where Graham’s robot has its foot blown off and he converts it into kind of a tank mode.Ĭonfederation vs Market: another Cold War reference, but fought with giant freaking robots! The other aspect that definitely doesn’t fit is the facts these robots don’t just have jump jets, but can jump clear up to orbit. You actually see systems like this now in commercial and military powered exo-suits, but in a sixty foot tall robot, any impact is going to be transferred to the pilot, jostle him, and create a feedback loop that would probably kill the robot and the pilot. The robots are controlled by their pilots from full-body force feedback systems, every movement made by the pilot is mimicked by the robot itself. With recessed, cockpit style heads, slab-like angular armor, multiple clusters of modular autocannons, lasers and missile launchers mimicking Clan omni tech, one of only things that doesn’t fit is their control system. With the exception of some of the melee weapons, like the Bolo Saw, Rocket Punch, and the laughably absurd chainsaw crotch (it’s as crazy as you might think), the overall design of at least the bipedal robots look very BattleTech-ish to me. They’re roughly classic Gundam size- perhaps sixty to eighty feet tall. I have to say, I really like the overall design of the robots. You might recognize a few of the actors, like Gary Graham from Alien Nation and Star Trek: Voyager and Enterprise, and Jeffery Combs, also of Star Trek: Enterprise as well as the voice of Ratchet from TransFormers Prime. The characters also seem flat and stereotypical. The film itself is written with uncharacteristically non-PC dialogue for the 1990s. I can see the Matsumoto 14 appearing in a TRO as a resized heavy or assault ‘mech.