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USA and Japan's giant robot battle was a slow, brilliant mess
The oft-delayed giant robot fight has finally taken place. On Tuesday, Team USA's mechs scrapped it out with Japan's Kuratas in an abandoned steel mill for the world to watch. There could only be one victor, and it proved to be the red, white, and blue. Yes, the MegaBots team representing America came out on top, but not before three gruelling rounds of robopocalypse.
The Morning After: Thursday, April 6th 2017
This Thursday you might have missed Netflix's switch from star ratings to thumbs, giant robots committing to battle, and YouTube revealing its very own cord-cutting option.
Giant murderbots will fight for their countries in August
Who's ready for a robot rumble? Back in 2015, we told you about MegaBots, a team of American engineers building a piloted combat robot to battle Kuratas, a 13-foot mech built by Japanese company Suidobashi Heavy Industries. Two years later, it looks like the big fight is finally happening. The Giant Robot Duel will take place this August, MegaBots today announced.
Japan's top oil company is building an 'Aliens' power loader
This is turning out to be an awesome week for powered exoskeletons. First, America's MegaBot clears half of its initial $500,000 Kickstarter goal ahead of next year's fight against Japan's Kuratas in a little under 24 hours. Now, Mitsui, Japan's number one oil and ore mining outfit, has announced that it plans to develop real life versions of Ripley's power loader.
America's giant robot needs funding to fight Japanese rival
It turns out that giant robot duels are really expensive, as America's MegaBots team has just launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $500,000 in its fight against Japan's Kuratas. It was MegaBots group (aka Team USA) that demanded the battle in the first place, and Japan gladly accepted on one condition -- the fight must be "melee" hand-to-hand combat. However, that constraint has upped the costs for Team USA. To accommodate melee instead of robot paintball, they need to give their robot more speed and add heavy armor plating, more firepower, better hydraulics and a new power unit.
Giant Japanese robot will fistfight America's MegaBot
Get set for a live-action version of Transformers, as the company behind giant Japanese robot Kuratas has accepted a duel challenge from upstart US challenger MegaBot. However, it'll only fight on one condition: Combat must be hand-to-hand with no guns. Kuratas has been around for three years and even went on sale for $1.35 million at one point. Since MegaBot was only just completed, the Japanese company was taken aback by the offer to fight. Still, it couldn't resist needling its new rival. "My reaction? Come on guys, make it cooler. Just building something huge and sticking guns on it is... super American," said CEO Kogoro Kurata.
Giant American robot wants to lay the smackdown on Japanese rival
Two giant robots with blazing guns is what apocalyptic nightmares and Michael Bay films are made of. While those autonomous machines continue to live in the fictional world, a breed of towering rideable robots is becoming a reality. One such machine is the MegaBot, a 15-foot tall bot large enough to seat two pilots. Unlike Hollywood's gun-wielding destructive machines, this one is armed with a paintball gun and is now ready to use it. But, of course, the Megabot needs someone its own size to pick on. So the aviator-wearing co-creators of this behemoth, draped in American flags, have thrown down the gauntlet and challenged the 12-foot tall Japanese KURATAS robot to a duel.
You can buy a giant mech suit on Amazon Japan for $1 million
We've been tracking the Kuratas mech suit -- a 13-foot-tall tribute to anime fandom that you can actually ride -- for a few years, but now it looks it's finally ready up for order on Amazon Japan. That is, if you've got $1 million ... and live in the Kyoto region of Japan. Oh, and you better be comfortable assembling large machinery, because it's just a starter kit. And be prepared to pay extra for arms, because you can't leave home without those. When the Kuratas first appeared it just seemed like some geek's dream project, but surprisingly, its creator Suidobashi Heavy Industries has apparently stuck with it. Better move fast though, as there's only one unit on sale (and we're not sure if it really exists). Unfortunately, there's no sign of the smile-activated BB gatling guns we saw a few years ago -- but really, that would be asking for too much.
The mighty Kuratas gets assembled on video
It'll cost you $1.35 million to own one, but putting together a Kuratas isn't any easier. The latest video of the monstrous mech shows it being transported and assembled. That means flatbeds, cranes and a whole lot of socket wrenches. Of course, at the end of the day, you've got a 13-foot tall robot you can climb inside. Certainly puts that Ikea bookshelf project into perspective, huh?
The $1.35 million mech (and how to insure it)
Mechs aren't just for video games, anime and tabletop gaming anymore. Suidobashi Heavy Industries now has a mobile suit named Kuratas available for – and, let's be honest, you'd pay anything to have this – the reasonable asking price of $1.35 million. That doesn't include extras like cup holder, in-cockpit phone adapter or pleather interior.As you would expect, the robot does come with a weapons system – albeit a non-lethal one. Using "The Smile Shot," a smile-activated facial recognition weapons system, the mech can fire water bottle rockets or use its twin gatling guns to shoot 6,000 BB bullets a minute. That may not be lethal, but it sure sounds like it smarts.We contacted State Farm to find out how much the insurance on this bad boy would cost us, but it wasn't able to give us a quote over the phone, passing us on to the Insurance Information Institute (III).
Kuratas, the 13-foot mech: unleashes your inner Ripley, costs $1.35 million (video)
Suidobashi Heavy Industries has put the finishing touches to its latest project, the 4.4-ton Kuratas. Mobile suit obsessives around the world can thank artist Kogoro Kurata and robotics expert Wataru Yoshizaki for the robot frame, which has space to house a pilot inside. The mech's touchscreen UI even includes a Kinect-based movement interface and the shudder-inducing "smile-activated" twin BB gatling guns. You can customize your own diesel-powered beast in the dystopian gang colors of your choosing, but be advised: the $1.35 million price tag doesn't include further customization options like a faux leather interior, cup holder or phone cubby. The Kuratas does, however, come with the ability to make phone calls direct from the cockpit, so you can tell your enemies that you're coming for them.
