i like real robots but most examples aren't 'real' enough for me, i appreciate the original gundam show's ww2 movie style fight scenes and cinematography, but the robots are way too huge to seem even a little bit practical. i don't like how the mobile suits basically supersede every other form of combat vehicle, it makes the world seem gimmicky and one-note. I also don't like the protagonist mobile suit designs in basically any gundam show, i hate the red-white-blue color scheme and i especially hate the samurai mask aesthetic. barbatos from IBO is the closest to a good design imo and its still mid, overdone ninja shit. I want to see like smoke projectors and camera pods and persicope visors and ERA/up-armor kits, not nonsense sci fi greebles and spikes and curves with no function. Zakus look kinda like tanks but they are space nazis so my enjoyment is conflicted. the federation GM suits are better than the protagonist Gundam but still look too much like they are wearing cheer-leading outfits with skirts and vests. the zaku waist armor skirt looks more like a bronze age warrior or something and is much cooler.
so far the best mecha designs imo are in titanfall (mech designs better than the mech gameplay tbh), hawken (i wish they had hands though), obsolete (mini series by bandai), lancer ttrpg (amazing art and writing, idk about the rules since i can't manage to find IRL players willing to read a rulebook), honorable mentions to AC6 and MGSV: the NPC mechs in armored core 6 are all beautiful and amazing and i wish i could pilot them instead of the generic spindly ACs, and Walker Gear in MGSV is like 1 or 2 design revisions away (i would add a seat/straps/armor and 1 more arm to D-walker) from being the greatest mini-mech of all time. also as far as media-less figures and models, JOYTOY makes some great though expensive titanfall-style mecha figures, Hexa Gear has a few good designs like the Bulkarm Alpha and Bulkarm Jackal, and RIHIO Multiabyss V-Link mecha models have great simple lines, flat surfaces good for painting/kitbashing, and very modular parts if slightly simplistic in terms of realistic details, while also being 1/60 or ~28mm scale which is convenient for tabletop purposes.
