Japan's Impress Watch had the good fortune to attend this year's Robo-one tournament with a Casio EX-F1 in hand. The result is vise-to-vise combat captured at 300 frames per second. See a perfectly executed German suplex performed after the break. Makes us almost feel sorry for the little guy... almost.

Sure, this may be the twelfth time that the Robo-One Grand Championship has taken place, but each year it seems to get even zanier. This go 'round, Tokyo was home to 25 finalists built by amateurs lusting for a little piece of the limelight, and the whole lot apparently put on quite the show. Hundreds of onlookers watched as "Arichyon," decked out in Christmas lights, belted out carols, only to get pelted by a penguin-headed bot who wasn't exactly feelin' the holiday cheer. If you missed out on this year's event, you've got over 360 days to prep for the next one -- just make sure your creation speaks, er, sings softly and carries a big stick, okay?

[Via I4U News, image courtesy of ITN]

At a recent ROBO-ONE 11 event, which sees hapless robots performing various demeaning tasks to the delight of the onlookers and honor of their builders, OmniZero.4 from Takeshi Maeda took the top prize, with a demonstration score of 453. Of course, it doesn't really take a whole lot to delight the judges -- OmniZero.4 managed to climb some steps, perform a somersault, jump some rope and crack a couple of eggs without making a fool of himself, hardly worthy of a machine whose descendants will one day rule the earth. At least it makes for some decent entertainment, so peep the video after the break, and then get to working on your own very ninja-bot to whip up on next year's domesticated competition.

[Via Robots Dreams]

Long before the NXT kits hit the mainstream, humanoid guru and robot designer Jin Sato was crafting a mechanical pet of his very own from original LEGO Mindstorm pieces -- not to mention the motors, motherboards, and gear trains to get MIBO movin'. Sure, Sato's rendition isn't nearly as smooth and sexy as Sony's AIBO, but we all know beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right? Going on six years (that's human years, by the way) now, MIBO and his five motors are still making out alright, and although a bit of expected arthritis takes its toll every now and then, it still manages to keep its owner company. So if you're interested in seeing just how MIBO was given life, or if hearing the voice of a renowned robotic genius simply makes you weep, click on through for a world-class lesson in fun.

[Via Robots]

You'll have to forgive us for indulging ourselves in a moment of fanboyish wonderment here, but about the only thing we can think of that's better than Bandai's life-sized Gundam replica is that very replica being built from the ground up by Robo-One 10 Championship winners, the Maru family. There isn't any exact parallel here, but we'd vaguely liken this to watching Miyamoto-san assemble a Wii -- except still somehow better, perhaps due to the looks on those childrens' faces that manages to warm even our cold, metallic heart-pump devices. Trust us, your inner-child / fanboy will be sated.

[Via Robots Dreams]

Sure, that crazy idea of soccer bots besting the human World Cup champs by 2050 will be plenty fun 44 years from now, but how about a bit of entertainment in the here and now? Robo-One has just the thing with their new Robot Battle Ball competition, which mixes the tried and true dynamics of soccer, but throws out all the lame rules like "no hands" and "no head-butting." The result is a rather entertaining game, and though the contestants are currently remote-controlled, we're sure these little bots will figure out the necessary maliciousness on their own before long. So peep the read link, watch the related video of Robot Battle Ball action and get ready for the next big thing in sports. At least until NFL starts back up again. Oh wait, nevermind.

In celebration of Children's Day (which is also the day we celebrate Cinco de Mayo), our pals running the Robo-One competition announced a prizefight for what they've apparently dubbed Robo-One GP 2006 (Season 1) to take place in Bucheon Robo Park. The fighters: Japan's infamous Dynamizer on this side; Korea's Gadget on the other. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to see the fight (seems like they neglected to set up a Pay-Per-View feed), but surprisingly even despite the Dynamizer was hooked into a rig that mimicked its master's movements during the bout, the hand-controlled Gadget remained victorious. A severe blow was surely never dealt to Japan's national sense of pride. We understand the 13 year old boy controlling the Dynamizer was heard shouting "I'll get you next time, Gadget -- in space."

Besides the promised army of nanobots that will fulfill our every want and need, there hasn't been too much about the "future" to get really jazzed up about -- until, that is, we found out about a little event happening on October 10, 2010 called "ROBO-ONE in the Space" (actual title, not a machine translation). From the same enthusiastic folks who bring us the fascinating terrestrial robot battles and posedowns in Tokyo every year, ROBO-ONE in the Space is an ambitious project that was announced at this year's competition, in which the organizers plan to launch a 125,000-cubic centimeter "piggyback satellite" into polar orbit in conjunction with a larger payload-- all for the purpose of robot grudge matches in zero gravity. Although the 10/10/10 date of the premier competition is purely tentative (pending certain non-trivial steps as international approval for the launch and use of certain radio frequencies), the rules already seem to be set in stone: to simulate the sumo-style ring (or sphere, as it were) of play, the four bots sent up as cargo will each be attached to 5-meter long tethers, which will signal that the competitor has been tossed when they become fully taut .Since our brief write-up can in no way do this topic justice, you should definitely check out this animated "artist's conception" of what the battles will look like; we don't use the phrase lightly, but it really is the greatest thing ever.

[Via Pink Tentacle]