In a series of events that can honestly be filed under the heading of “Why the hell not?” and “This is so awesome,” American robotics company MegaBotsย Inc.ย has issued a challenge to Suidobashi Heavy Industries, its Japanese counterpart, and of course the challenge is as epic as the behemoths these companies produce (and I don’t use the term epic lightly).
Giant. Robot. Battle. Think something like Mechwarrior or Gundam, but actually happening in the real world.
MegaBots issued the challenge back on June 30 via their YouTube channel. It took Suidobashi until July 5 to respond to the challenge, and CEO Kogoro Kurata did so by taking a few pot shots at American culture. He said that giant robots were part of Japanese culture, so if anyone was going to win this battle, it would definitely be Japan.
MegaBots’ Mark II robot will face off against Suidobashi’s Karatas in a melee battle one year from now. Both teams seem confident in victory. Via FoxNews:
โWe are really excited that our challenge has been accepted by the Kuratas team and even more excited by the public’s response,โ said MegaBots co-founder Brinkley Warren, in an email. โIt’s clear that the people of the world are hungry for giant human-piloted robots as the future of sports.โ
At 15 feet tall and 12,000 pounds, the Mark II definitely has a size advantage over the 13 foot tall 9,000 pound Kuratas. The Mark II won’t be able to use it’s mounted cannon, which can fire 3 pound paint balls at over 100 miles per hour.
Kurata doesn’t think it will be much of a fight.
If weโre gonna win this, I want to punch them to scrap and knock them down to do it.
Hopefully, the battle won’t be too one-sided. I want this to be the start to something amazing. Maybe Real Steal wasn’t too far fetched. Giant robot battles may be the impact sport of the future. I can’t wait to see this match.
