Mecha Mania
ISBN: 0-8230-3056-3
Publisher: Watson-Guptill Publications
Author: Christopher Hart and Art Studio LLC
Publication Date in English: 2002
Series: "<blank> Mania" books, such as Manga Mania and Anime Mania
Price: $19.95
Pagecount: 128
Color: Yes, most pages.
Breasts: No.
Short Impression: Very broad, very shallow.  A good survey of designs of both 
     robots and other non-robot mecha, as well as cyborgs.  More for those
     looking for inspiration than guiding.

     This book takes the term "mecha" in a much broader sense, not just
robots (as it has come to mean in the U.S.).  While there's plenty of giant
robots, there's also vehicles, cyborgs and aliens (which are chara, not
mecha, but he drifts).  There's a few pages of basics on design elements and
pose, and then it's into a bunch of sample designs (which are good for
swiping from, but the "how to draw" sketch bits are less useful).  There's a
page devoted to designs over the decades, which is a good idea.
     Mecha Mania is actually a very useful book for mid-level artists, I
think.  The points it makes on the basics are few, but important.  And while
the "three steps of drawing" pages are the epitome of "drawing as exercise",
there's a lot of representative-of-breed designs to work from.  And if you
already have some of the basics of using fundamental shapes to design the
basic body, this book gives a lot of examples beyond the simple human form
for "ball and stick" construction.  Also, it's in full color, so you get more
of a feel for how color works on a robot.
     On the down side, the detail level is very low, which is going to
disappoint those who are ready to go into highly detailed tech-art.  And the
few pages on transforming robots are pathetic in their designs...we're
talking "lie down and use the wheels on your arms and legs" transformations.
There's an awful lot of pages devoted to stuff other than robots, so if
you're looking for just giant robots that's wasted space.  And the interview
with the Mechwarrior computer game designer at the end doesn't fit too well,
since Battletech-style mecha are really not covered in the book otherwise.
     The table of contents is very sparse, just giving chapter heads.
However, there is a one page index at the back, which helps.