The only thing missing is a Rocket Punch!

[Logan Darklighter]

Most of you have seen this guy by now, since I've been having a lot of fun with him. But I thought I'd have a little official "Show-Off" post for him anyway. 

Robot Ronin is a character that I don't think I could ever have done proper justice to in City of Heroes, I believe. I might've been able to make a really tall "Huge" frame robotic character. But I don't think it would've had quite the same flair or sense of size. 

As for his inspiration - Anybody remember Shogun Warriors toys? 

If not, maybe you're at least passingly familiar with some of the Super Robot shows that graced Japan's airwaves (ex: Raideen, Danguard Ace, Combattler V, Gaiking) before Gundam turned the whole genre upside down. Then decades later, Evangelion deconstructed (rather brutally) the whole genre (son pilots robot designed by genius father who's a bit of a crackpot etc.) 

Well Marvel comics got the license to both Shogun Warriors and Godzilla in the mid-70s and set about making comics of them. 

Needless to say - as a wee tot I was in love with em. No matter how bad they actually were.

Anyway - appearing in the pages of the Earth 616 Godzilla was another piloted robot clearly inspired by the Shogun Warriors/Super Robot type - Red Ronin.

Around September/October of 2011 I was playing around with the CO character creator and came upon a combination of Robot face and "mecha wings" that sparked my memory of that old series and Red Ronin. So I made an homage.

I was rather pleased with the end result and decided to actually roll him up for real and see how he played. 



I use alt costumes to represent the pilot of Robot Ronin - Kenji.





The following is his bio as it appears in the game: 

Robot Ronin (originally designated Robotic Combat weapon SJ3RX) was developed with the assistance of  Harmon Industries by engineers and scientists Tamara Hashioka and Yuriko Takiguchi, and constructed in Detroit, Michigan. It was intended to be used by PRIMUS as a combat instrument against the monster Cazulon.  Takiguchi's twelve year old grandson Rob accidentally "imprinted" on the control interface and became the only pilot the robot would respond to.

After the Qulaar conflict was over, the Robot was put into storage "dry dock" and occasionally brought out to help control the "kaiju" sized monsters on Monster Island.

Present day - the 2009 Qulaar conflict. Rob's own son Kenji was exploring the old test facility when the Qulaar attacked. He decided to try piloting the robot, and it accepted him.

After subduing Cazulon (whom the Qulaar had expanded to full size again) the robot was restraining the monster when Microman's shrinking beam caught both of them.

The robot (and Kenji!) are now slightly 'out of phase' with the rest of the world in regards to their size. The Robot is now 1/10th the size it was before. So is Kenji when he pilots it! He can return to his regular size by disembarking. 

Why does the robot vary in size? I've been messing around actually with the idea that the powerplant may be based on something exotic that interacts with the scaler waveform that that Microman's shrinking tech works from As the power levels overcharge, the bleed-off spills over into the waveform that's keeping the robot shrunk down and suppresses it. 

Kinda like how Gryphon uses "Getter Rays" as an excuse for some of the wilder things he lets his super-powered mecha get away with in Undocumented Features, actually. 

As you might guess I take full advantage of the Supermagnifier device - 



 - As well as use the 0-Point Growth Advantage on Enrage He's got perma-stacks of 3 normally. Can max it to 8. At which point he's getting pretty huge even without using the magnifier! In combat he can range anywhere from 9 to what looks like almost 15 feet in height. 

And yes, that means that in concept, Kenji is action-figure sized when he's piloting. I also have the Shrinking device from the C-Store as well. I kinda wish it would make him even smaller. But it'll do. 

He's mainly a Devastator build, but with some power armor abilities mixed in. Invulnerability for Tanking, if I need to. The Energy Shield with the Laser Knight advantage. Mini-Missiles, Plasma Beam, and Fire all Weapons. He's not THE most efficient build out there. But he's DAMN fun to play! 







(Thanks Terry for helping me get these next shots outdoors of his ranged weapons firing.)







When I got him to level 35, I was initially stumped for what secondary travel power to take. But I decided to try out Rocket Jump, under the logic that - he's already got jets/rockets in his legs. If he just pulses them in overcharge mode, he can jump instead of fly. 

HAHAHA... I fell in LOVE. It's ridiculous! But it's AWESOME!. Giant Kaiju sized Robot BOUNDING over the rooftops and CRUNCHING into the pavement? WHAT'S NOT TO LOVE?  







Oh but the fun doesn't stop there. 

I couldn't think of a legitimate alternate "costume" for Robot Ronin. So I started fiddling around with OOC Robot Tributes to fill his alternate costume slots. I'll break them out for friends or just to show off. 

Optimus Prime and Bumblebee from Transformers.





The Big O megadeus.



Shin Getter Robo



Evangelion Unit 01



Jet Jaguar from Toho's "Godzilla Vs. Megalon" from the early 1970s. 



RR's been a blast to play, all around. ^_^