Not that I mean to disrespect your picture, but I always felt that a giant robot weilding a handheld "gun" was just absurd.

But since Mecha isn't something that I get into, I'm probubly missing the point anyway.

As for the quote, I got it a lot in the millitary and it's very true.

D.O.P.R

Ah yes. But remember this is suppose to be an anime series so they go all big on the handweapon thing. The suit does have several other weapon systems built into the suit. The only advantage I can see that a handweapon like that could would give you, and this does show up a couple times in some of the dreams, is if you are using infantry-like tactics and are using cover. Then switching effectively shoulders to mimumize exposure when firing.That or if you need to set the weapon for some reason. Lifting, carrying stuff like that. The Gauss cannon is fully stabilzed so the bipod exists for rest the weapon on the gorund during field maintaince. But when it is all said this is just a nice piece of Type 3 tech. Don't squint too close you might just see the wire.

Dude! Is that a Lazer Tag rifle??

It adds +10 when attacking anything from the 1980s. :3

Ha Ha! Giant Lazer-Tag Rifle. No! Acutally it is a giant Steyr AUG or some other equally silly, to still cool looking, weapon to scale! Kind of like the four story tall Steyr ACRs in Evangelion. Actually the gauss cannon is not fully deployed so it doesn't look quite the same when armed.

Well, that "taking care of your gear" thing applies to pretty much everything but the AK-47, which seems to follow the "he beats me 'cause he loves me" approach instead. :D
Anyways, interesting piece. I myself have never really seen the practicality of a walking assault vehicle, being a bit of a robot nut myself the shear complexity would almost guarantee a mechanical failure at the least convenient time.
Still looks kick-ass though. :)

Generally I agreed with your premise that too many whirly things to get gunked up at unfortunate moments. As it is if look close at the sketch my subconscious apparently was bothered by that since most of the joints at least have rubber-like accordian covers or gloves/ booties to help keep the wort of the mud out. Still if you count on those to stay intact on a battlefield for any extended time period without repair then I have great bridge to sell you! Nah, in the end this is just a case of my brain just kicking around ideas in my head. At least the Bravo Strike dreams have a decent plot so far.

Not so much gunked-up (as hydraulics are generally more robust than that) but the stresses exhorted on a machine that weighs that much as it maneuvers the battlefield at any decent speed (unless you plan on shambling towards the enemy lines lol) due to all the weight of the armor present and the extra-bulky mechanisms involved are almost beyond my imagining. Plus trying to keep a heavy, bulky biped stable at charging speeds across a possibly unstable land-scape (woods, desert sands, etc.) is quite the task. The solution could be a quadrupedal design, but this would have it's own problems.

But like I said, it's still a fascinating concept, and it looks damn cool. :)

Very cool.

As the Cavalry put it, ' The horse, the saddle, the man."