There’s one thing I can encourage: people in giant fighting robots. It sounds like I might finally get my wish as two companies have decided to battle it out.
Giant robots have been a part of gaming and movies for as long as I can remember. I loved classic games like MechWarrior and heading down to Virtual World in Pasadena when it was still open. At Virtual World you were able to climb into a pod and pilot your very own 70 Ton robot. For a while we were hoping to see a fighting robot out of Alaska with Neogentronyx. It was a project to develop a 20 foot robot that’s been in construction for some time. It would be great to see these teams work together, if more countries join in the battle. Back when BattleBots first came on the air we were hoping for a classic battle between two bipeds, but as time went on it turned out the best design was to have a wedge to flip the other robot. So the fights lost character and excitement. I really feel this time around, fights will be epic and deserving of their own pay per view.
The competition
Suidobashi Heavy Industry “Kuratas”
Japan’s Suidobashi Heavy Industry has developed a single pilot robot called Kuratas. This robot is already for sale! Karatas features four legs with four-wheel steering and twin BB rotary cannons. The arms are replaceable for different weapon layouts and it feels as though it stepped right out of some anime.
This time around it’s USA vs Japan and the designs are definitely showing the best each country has to offer.
Team America
The Megabots team has an amazing robot, too. However, in order to make it a fair fight, and entertaining, they will be losing the air cannons the robot now has, in exchange for more awesome weapons like flamethrower or chainsaw. Nothing sells America better than those two weapons. And the best way to get funding for an amazing project like this is another kickstarter.
While money is always good, an awesome team is needed to make it happen, so they put together what sounds like the dream team for this challenge. This includes a celebrity cast including Grant Imahara, the co-founders of BattleBots as well as Howe & Howe tech. Even Robocraft has kicked in their own Kickstarter level with a custom robot that you can use in the game.
So far they have raised about $359k, which means they are more than half way to their $500k goal. But in order to include all the team members they will need a cool $1.5million. While that sounds like a lot, it’s really just what our country needs.
Your Megabot
Let’s hope they raise the money, so we can watch these two juggernauts fight it out. What features would you put on your fighting robot? Who do you think will win? Let us know in the comments below.
