For almost four decades, the Super Sentai franchise — the original Japanese title of the series better known as the Power Rangers — have featured massive mecha blowing up monsters. It should be no surprise that there have been bizarre 'bots over the years. Here's 15 of the weirdest — and the most wonderful.
15) Goggle Robo
Series: Dai Sentai Goggle V (1982)
Goggle Robo in and of itself isn't actually that weird of a Super Sentai mecha — it's one of the many very traditional Mechs in the series that's essentially just a humanoid mecha carrying a sword and shield. But it's on here for the mechs it's made up of: Goggle Jet, Goggle Tank... and Goggle Dump. Pity poor Goggle Yellow, the team member forced to pilot Goggle Dump. His partners get a Jet and a Tank, while has to sit there driving a vehicle that does little other than be the legs of Goggle Robo, in something named after a euphemism for pooping. That can't be professionally satisfying.
14) Zyutei Daizyuzin
Series: Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger (1992)
Hang on, this might look a bit familiar to you. Yes, it's the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers Mega Dragonzord! The Zyutei Daizyuzin was a combination of two Mecha from Zyuranger: the Daizyuzin (or Megazord, to us) and the Dragon Caesar (Dragon Zord). It's kind of a cool idea to mush two big mecha together into one, but the Zyutei Daizyuzin just ends up looking like the original Daizyuzin is wearing Dragon Caesar as a funny hat.
13) Muteki Shogun
Series: Ninja Sentai Kakuranger (1994)
There have been many different themes for each Super Sentai teams over the years — pirates, ninjas, mages, dinosaurs, it goes on — and as you can guess by the name, this team had a ninja theme. So did they have a ninja-style mecha? No. They had one that combined into a giant walking feudal Japanese castle. It's even got roofs and everything!
12) Jet Icarus/Icarus Haken
Series: Choujin Sentai Jetman (1991)
Once again, Jet Icarus itself isn't that weird a mecha; it's Icarus Haken that takes the cake. An alternate form of the combined robot, Icarus Haken was a vaguely-bird-shaped triangular wedge of mechs remade as a flying vehicle that defeated foes by turning into a flaming phoenix and flying straight through their chests. Why would you use the robot form when you could just do that all the time?
11) Turborobo
Series: Kousoku Sentai Turboranger (1989)
Upon first glance, Turborobo seems fairly ordinary, until you realize... it can't actually walk. Fitting in with the car theme of the show, Turborobo's feet are made up of Blue Turbo and Yellow Turbo's Jeep and Buggy, essentially turning it into a giant skating robot. One of its finishing moves was to literally hold its sword out and drive straight at its enemy, while standing perfectly stationary. That's fantastic.
10) Magical Train Travelion Express
Series: Mahou Sentai Magiranger (2005)
Ah, Super Sentai trains. They were bound to show up at some point. The Travelion Express was just one of several team mechs in Magiranger, but it was pretty crazy. The train could transform into the AMAZINGLY named Magical Iron God Travelion, a mecha that could shoot a giant cannon from its chest, fire steam bazookas from its head, and also release smaller trains out of its legs. Trainception!
9) AbarenOh
Series: Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger (2003)
How does AbarenOh manipulate objects? One of its hands is a giant drill, the other, the head of a triceratops. Don't get me wrong, this is extremely awesome, but it's also ridiculously absurd.
8) GaoKing
Series: Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger (2001)
The same goes for the slightly earlier Gaoking, who was arguably even more extreme than a mecha with a drill and a dinosaur for hands, because it has a shark's head for one hand, and a white tiger for the other. Gaoking was pretty big on having multiple faces all over its body, considering it also had its actual head and then a giant lion face for a torso.
7) Kaizoku Gattai GokaiOh
Series: Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger (2011)
You know how I said earlier Super Sentai teams have unifying themes? Sometimes, they lean into those themes a bit. Sometimes, as they did with Gokaiger's pirate theme, they lean hard. GokaiOh not only had a jaunty pirate's hat (robots wearing hats is and always will be the best), but one of its finishing moves was to whip out a giant deck cannon from its chest that would proceed to fire infinite cannonballs at its enemies until they exploded. I'm surprised it didn't go around singing sea shanties and occasionally yelling 'Yarrrrr!' while they were at it.
6) Beast-Fist Giant GekiTohja
Series: Juken Sentai Gekiranger (2007)
Once again, on the surface, GekiTohja looks quite normal, but when it attacks, it suddenly becomes very weird. Casting its usual bo-staff aside, GekiTohja attacked by spinning either its upper half or its legs a lightning speed, basically either drilling its foes with its legs or furiously slapping them to death. The thing is, the spinning attacks were activated by the Gekirangers themselves spinning in circles inside the Mech, which in itself would start spinning around at high speeds. If they didn't have some sort of inertial dampener, I sure hope they had a Gekibucket on hand for the mess afterwards.
5) Mythical Chi Warrior RyuseiOh
Series: Gosei Sentai Dairanger (1993)
Ryuuranger's Dragon Chi Beast mecha could also transform into a humanoid robot form, which in and of itself is fairly plain. But again, what makes Warrior RyuseiOh weird is the fact that it's very secret super special ability was... that it could rotate its hand. Armed with a staff, Warrior RyuseiOh would spin its hand at the wrist furiously to turn the staff into a spinning stick of death. I mean its super attack was called the "Super Certain Kill: Heavenly Great Windmill," for Christ's sake.
4) Heavy Armor Chi Palace
Series: Gosei Sentai Dairanger (1993)
But wait! There's more Dairanger madness. Warrior RyuseiOh and the other transformed Chi Beasts could combine with the turtle-esque Daimugen to form a giant, Robo-turtle Litter. The combined form was so monstrously heavy that it defeated enemies by flying up high — using RyuseiOh's spinning staff as a surprisingly effective propeller — and then dropping itself on top of its opponent, crushing them to death. Ouch.
3) Grand Liner
Series: Kyukyu Sentai GoGoFive (1999)
Another train mecha! But unlike Travelion, Grand Liner had train carriages for feet, which meant it largely had to operate on train tracks to be effective. At least Turborobo could go anywhere with its car feet! On top of that, Grand Liner was so huge that the power it generated emitted electromagnetic waves that seriously harmed the GoGoFive without training to resist the effects. Who makes a mecha that actively harms its pilots when they use it!?
2) Magi Fairy
Series: Mahou Sentai Magiranger (2005)
Magi Fairy, the personal mecha of MagiPink, seems ordinary at first. But when the Magiranger's team performs its "Magi Shoot" attack, it could be transformed into a giant ball, which the rest of the team would proceed to bounce around between each other before hurling at the enemy. While Magi Pink was still inside. Seems like kind of a dick move.
1) Ressha Gattai ToQ-Oh
Series: Ressha Sentai ToQger (2014)
Oh Jeez.
Last year's Sentai series was once again train-themed. Like Grand Liner, ToQ-Oh had trains for its feet again (some Sentai teams don't learn from their predecessor's mistakes in mecha design), but aside from the fact that it kind of looks bad — it's less of a combination that it is the team's individual trains smooshed together with a head on top — there was also the case of this... ahem, rather naughty-looking attack. It's meant to be a gun, basically, but yeah. That's a straight-up giant robot boner.
Honorable Mention: Leopardon
Series: Supaidaman (1978)
You can't have a list about Super Sentai mechs and not include the one that literally started it all. Although Sentai shows were already popular in Japan, when Toei teamed up with Marvel to create the Japanese Spider-Man series, little did they know it the deal would ultimately transform Sentai shows into "Super Sentai" beginning with Battle Fever J — thanks to the addition of a team mech, much like Takuya Yamashiro's own Mech, Leopardon.
So what's weird about Leopardon? Well, a) did I mention it's Spider-Man's personal mech and b) despite being the aforementioned mech of Spider-Man, Leopardon's not particularly spider-y. It shot ropes to entangle foes as opposed to than spider-webbing, and promo pictures for the series showed a web-like shield weapon that was never actually used in the show. The only real thing to remind you that it was Spider-Man's mech was a webbing design on the chest and the fact that Spider-Man would pilot it. Still, it's a fantastically weird bit of Marvel history. Plus, it's now Spidey-canon!