As for me, i never thought of the Wily Machine as being humanoid in any way. Fascinating take on it… I wonder if anyone’s ever done anything with that line of thought, art-wise…

Which strikes me as odd, since in the original Mega Man I think a case can be made that Guts Man is by far the least interesting Robot Master, and about all he’s got going for him is having the funniest name of any of the original 6 bosses. He has the shortest level with the least to do in it, he’s one of those bosses that isn’t really hard, but is just kind of annoying and time-consuming to fight, and he gives you a weapon that you flat-out can’t use most of the time.

(The gameplay mechanic of the Super Arm was quite innovative for a game released in 1987, but it doesn’t work very well without having a steady supply of bricks to throw. Perhaps it’s not coincidental that a couple of years after the original Mega Man, Capcom made Chip ‘n’ Dale Rescue Rangers, with gameplay that mainly involves picking up boxes and throwing them at stuff, just like the Super Arm, but you don’t ever have to worry about not having any boxes handy, because there are absolute loads of them everywhere.)