Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 16 submissions in the queue.
posted by martyb on Friday August 21 2015, @08:37AM   Printer-friendly
from the Rock-'em-Sock-'em-Robots dept.

[translation mine] A US company wants to compete with the giant robot of a Japanese competitor. However, they're apparently lacking the money to complete their own battle machine. Now they're turning to patriots for help.

For the representatives of the company MegaBots, there is nothing more beautiful than robots that tear each other to pieces. "Your childhood dreams have come - can you hear them knocking?", asks the speaker in a video on Kickstarter. As though it were unthinkable, that someone could find a duel of nations in highly stylized robot battle dubious or completely superfluous. A battle advertised with slogans like "Together we can conquer Japan!"

In practice it's not about real declarations of war, but a robot duel between the US company MegaBots and the Japanese company Suidobashi Heavy Industry. At the end of July, MegaBots challenged its competitor from the Far East to pit their model named Kurata against MegaBots' Mk.II in the summer of 2016.

MegaBots is hoping to raise $500,000 on Kickstarter to fund their robot. Are they hoping for a Reality TV show?


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by mrchew1982 on Friday August 21 2015, @11:03PM

    by mrchew1982 (3565) on Friday August 21 2015, @11:03PM (#226085)

    As I understand the dialog between the two companies involved the Japanese company essentially saying, "you need to use something besides big guns in the battle." As I understand Japanese law firearms of any sort are inaccessible to the public.

    The exact wording was: “Just building something huge and sticking guns on it. It’s… super American.” and "Make it cooler."

    http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2015/07/07/japanese-company-accepts-robot-duel-challenge-from-u-s/ [wsj.com]

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2