If that kid looks a tad uncomfortable, it's because he just schooled Vstone's new Tichno robot on the pitch. Hard not to, really. Although the four-and-a-quarter foot tall / 26-kg (57-pound) Tichno features 2- and 3-axis accelerometers, an aluminum / carbon frame covered in an ABS resin, and the same control board as the Robovie-X, it's slow, like old-man slow. However, with a price of just ¥10,000,000 (almost $100,000), we guess you get what you pay for. Video after the break.

Finally, after a scourge of sissy, beer serving robots we meet our maker. Vstone's Black Ox stands more than 7,000 feet tall and brings a Tokyo-sized lust for human meat sacks. Gigantor, you never had a chance. Ok, ok, he's only a foot and a half from the floor but those 20 movable axis points and fierce fighting skills should deliver hours of entertaining torment for your pet, kids, or pet kids. Check the video after the break while we wait for an official price and release date.

[Via Impress]

Remember the cock fighter we peeped back in August? He's far more deadly than we had imagined and now up for pre-order in Japan. At least his Robovie-X underpinnings are. The 13.5-inch / 2.86-pound bot manufactured by JR Robotics should start shipping in February for a pre-order price of ¥94,500 (about $856). This robot features the impressive pliability of his lessor RB2000 brother while including new voice response sensors and weaponry. In fact, the two can share parts in a mutant servo mashup only a mother robot could love. Oh did we mention this one can track targets and then blast it with missiles? Gulp, see for yourself in the video after the break.

[Via Impress]

Having already blown our entire travel budget attending CES, E3, and various other important events in sunny locations, we weren't able to scrape together the funds to hit up this year's annual RoboGames festival in San Francisco, but luckily Make magazine/blog has filled in the void by providing some excellent coverage. Formerly known as the ROBOlympics, the event has grown to over 20 categories and demonstrations, covering some of the same territory we saw at the Eastern Canadian Robot Games -- such as sumo wrestling, fire-fighting, and line-following -- but also throwing in a little RoboCup-style soccer football, a new 3-on-3 hockey tournament, and even a trio of so called Tetsujin events in which otherwise unathletic individuals sport hydraulic mech suits which enable them to perform amazing feats of speed, strength, and dexterity. Besides sponsoring a display table among the likes of Lego and NASA, Make also has its Media Maker Bre Pettis filing daily videocasts and flickr photosets from the scene, featuring such Engadget faves as Vstone's Robovie-M, Kondo's KHR-1, and HiTec's Robonova as well as several other non-competitive models like Mark Sherman's snakebot and a rig that can play and seemingly defeat children at Connect Four. You can follow the links below to get a feel for all the action, and stay tuned to Make because Day 3 coverage is only starting to trickle in.

Read- RoboGames site
Read- Make @ RoboGames
Read- RoboGames Day 1
Read- RoboGames Day 2

Our favorite consumer robotics firm has just announced a new addition to their lineup, but unlike their other multi-thousand dollar offerings, Vstone's new build-it-yourself Robovie-i will retail for a very affordable $270 when the pre-order period begins in July. You may remember the Japanese company as manufacturing such humanoid bots as the soccer-playing Manus-I and Robovie-V, or the Gigantor-like Tetsu-jin 28, although at less than 10% of the cost of its comrades, you can't expect the 2-foot tall Robovie-i to display the skills or freedom of movement found in other members of its family. In fact, a video of the new model-- which will come in your choice of red, white, blue, or gold -- shows that it does little more than wobble drunkenly back and forth in an amusing attempt at forward motion, although dumping two of them in a sumo ring together elicits a good 15 seconds worth of dizzying action (not exciting ROBO-ONE-type action, mind you, but more like ho-hum Rock'em Sock'em Robot-esque action).

[Via ployer]