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How Tall Should Real Mecha/Robot Be?

Kanata.EXE

Kanata.EXE

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So I'm currently debating with myself how tall should a real mecha/robot be.

From what I've read from other real mecha stories, they're usually around 10 meters (32 feet) tall. Sure, there are smaller ones, but the cockpit will be smaller and it will make the pilot uncomfortable. Worse case, the pilots will suffer claustrophobia.

But my other side said that it's too small, so it wants to go 12.5 meters (41 feet) tall. Something that tall makes it looks so heroic.

I know that mobile suits in Gundam are over 17.5 meters tall, but I'm searching for the smaller sides, the down-to-earth version.
 
Speaking as a rank amateur in the subject, I'd say that any given design of mecha would be made what the designers perceive would be the optimal size for the role it is intended to fill (and, after live combat data is brought back, size and the like would be adjusted and refined for better future performance, naturally). As such, I'd expect that there'd be a variety of different sizes of mecha, ranging from what is essentially just powered armor a little bigger than its pilot, to whatever upper bound of mecha size your setting allows. Also, variety in mecha sizes and designs makes things more interesting.

Also, on the claustrophobia front, pilot selection would likely select for people with minimal claustrophobia.

On a side note, in my opinion, mecha pilots for mecha bigger than power armor (the kind with a cockpit and whatnot) would likely tend to be on the shorter side of people, since a smaller person allows for a smaller cockpit, which allows for more space to put the mecha's innards, and a pilot's physical, muscle-derived strength wouldn't really matter at all when they've got a big mecha suit to be strong for them.
 
In Real Robot you can either go for Votoms and Knightmare frames which go about 4-5 meters on average. These ones tend to rely more on their mobility to survive and the Knightmare frames, if I remember right, have their cockpits jut out from the back because they double as rocket-propelled escape pods.

Or you can go with larger robots like Gundams, Zaku II, etc. They tend to go 18 meters tall on average. In UC Gundam in particular, later mobile suits designs get about as high as 16 meters with miniaturized mobile suit technology. While in the era between early and late UC there was a period of massive mobile suits like the Xi Gundam which was a monstrous 26 meters tall. These mobile suits can get away with being massive due to Minovsky Particles rendering our forms of conventional combat of long-ranged missiles and radar useless.
 
Tall enough so that your underdeveloped Kurdish manlets can reach the controls, short enough so that some idiot won't be able to take a shit on the sensors from the second floor of a condo.
 
Yeah, the Scopedog is 3.8m tall. However the size will probably have a lot to do with your intended aesthetic: for what it's worth I think almost any size can be realistic depending on presentation, but I'd consider how it will look in comparison to other elements of your setting. While you don't always need to match, it can be useful. So if I were doing a robot story set in 'our' world or a modern or near modern military story, I would probably make the robots similar in size to other armoured vehicles like IFVs or MBTs.
 
I'm partial to around two stories tall, give or take half a story. Mostly just because that feels right to me, rather than any real deep thought on the matter. But that size does have the advantage of being around as big as you can get while still being small enough to move along a street and take cover behind a building.
 
Even inside of settings, there's inflation of sizes over time for no particular stated reason.
Like, BattleTech has big tall mechs, typically topping out at 100 tons.

There was some old art I stumbled across earlier today (and forgot to save) where a 55-ton Wolverine is depicted as smaller and shorter than most art depicts Mechs, this one helping hold up the front/rear of an Abrams-y sort of MBT... and it doesn't look bigger than the tank, just differently shaped.
 
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I find Titanfalls titans to be perfect as is. They're about 8 meters (20 feet) tall, so they mainly differ in their role. A Ronin mech is light with its armor with relatively thin legs, so it's not for direct frontline combat like the Legion is. So around 5-15 meters seems a good range with size and armament depending on what role the mech is meant to serve. Battletech mechs also range roughly in the same size category.
 
I thought the Tachikoma was a good take on the mech suit in an urban environment. They aren't even 2.5 meters tall because they're dedicated to the urban environment. Guess it really depends on what you want your mechs to accomplish in the story and what is opposing them.
 
Whilst not a law, it partly depends what they're made from.

Most Mecha over the 15 m size tend towards being built from advanced metals. This is true for Super Robots as well: Mazinger uses it's Super Alloys, Getter Robo's have a memory metal to explain their bullshit transformations, ect.

This is also common in gundam: UC ones use Lunar titanium, Wing goes a similar route with Gundanium, Cosmic Era relies on Phase Shift armour or foam metal for the Astrays to cut down on weight, 00 relies on GN particles that can manipulate mass and thus even allowing for flight, and IBO also uses super strong alloys, with several plot points about Mars being a major exporter of the metals required for it.

Basically, if you're making Mecha over a certain Size, you probably (though not necessarily) want at least a handwave for how they're capable of moving like they do. It can even be a fun way to create new tech concepts for your setting. But as others have mentioned, this should absolutely be secondary to establishing the precise scale you want your setting to operate on: A VOTOMS and a Mobile Suit aren't going to see the same kind of combat or be deployed in the same way.
 
It entirely depends on what the purpose of the mecha is. If the mecha is used for construction work, then it is probably as tall as your average forklift. If it is used for military purposes, I don't think mechas in general are viable in the modern battlefield so size isn't really a sticking point.
 
Others put it well. It depends on the setting and purpose. Your stated desired setting is our reality. The challenge is that modern combat relies on intelligence gathering, intelligence processing, stealth, speed. The best combat viable mecha should be able to either pretend to be a tree or a hill. Launch missiles, and leave quickly. However it has few advantages over the ability of people to hide in a hill, launch missiles and leave quietly. One of which is carry capacity. Probably base the size off cars and tanks, with a focus on super stealth tech and power tech.
 
If you want a mech height that feels grounded and accurate, the first thing to do is answer "why are we using mechs?" There's a lot of answers, from something about how it's intuitive for pilots to use to the flexibility of the human body being a good thing to copy to it being repurposed construction/farm/etc equipment. Most of these will then begin to answer themselves: if your mecha is a repurposed construction crane with the crane removed and a missile launcher added, well, figure out how big it would need to be in order to have been a good crane. If the answer for why mechs are in use is something closer related to them matching human form flexibility, then they should be on the smaller side, because the whole point was that they could hide and crouch and seek cover like an infantryman, while holding a gun that could be off an armored ground vehicle.

You're not limited to the first answer you had. Dan Olson put it best: "Fictional worlds aren't real, and are eternally mutable by creators". If you don't like the first answer you found, change it! If you know you want mecha that are 3 meters tall, or 30, or 1000, but your idea as to why you're using them gave you some other number, you can fix that. You go back to the answer of "why are we using mechs" and give a different reason that supports the size you want or you change the details to adjust the size.

Whether the mecha are real or super, this still holds true. Even the hardest of hard science fiction is still the result of its creators choosing what and how they're deciding future tech and society will go, and none of the good ones will shy away from "that isn't an idea I like, so I'm going to change it".

You'll probably get more specific help with more specific setting details or planned height, too.
 
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