When the American based company Megabots (company names don’t get anymore creative than that) challenged Japan’s Suidobashi Heavy Industries to an ultimate showdown between the two robots each company had built, I had to do my best to not implode with excitement.
These aren’t your run-of-the-mill, built-in-three-minutes robots the size of your house cat. The killing machine from Megabots clocks in at six tonnes, is piloted by team of two and even features a cannon capable of shooting out paint cannonballs at over a hundred miles an hour. Yikes. It’s been christened the Megabot Mark 2, or Mark as it’s known to close friends. If that doesn’t make you take a step back, Suidobashi’s “Kuratas” is the sort of thing you want to bring along to a warzone. It weighs four and a half tonnes making it more agile of the two. It sports not one, but TWO gatling guns which comes along with an sophisticated targeting system and a heads-up display. Ninjas and Samurais come to mind when thinking of the Kuratas.
The challenge was issued by Megabots through the medium of video (emails are so overrated) and in it MegaBots co-founder Matt Oehrlein says, “Suidobashi, we have a giant robot, you have a giant robot; you know what needs to happen, we challenge you to a duel.” All while wearing an American flag as a cape.
The response was not long in the coming.
“My reaction? Come on, guys, make it cooler,” Suidobashi founder and CEO Kogoro Kurata said in a YouTube video posted to the site on Sunday. “Just building something huge and sticking guns on it — it’s…Super American.” Ladies and Gentlemen, the pre-fight smack talk is one to behold and I think this one goes to Japan. The announcement is sure to create a buzz in Japan where nationals are looking for blood after the USA’s win over Japan in the women’s FIFA World Cup Final. “We can’t let another country win this,” Kurata said in the YouTube video. “Giant robots are Japanese culture.”
All we need now is for both companies to prepare their mechs for battle, for Suidobashi to name the battleground (please let it be Dubai, I don’t mind sitting on the judging panel) and to wait for a year as both teams polish their mechs to perfection. Maybe the Kuratas can be piloted by Hugh Jackman? After “Real Steel” this should be a walk in the park for him. Charlie Hunnam and Rinko Kikuchi come to mind when thinking of pilots for the Mark 2, they are after all, drift compatible and honestly, who needs Pacific Rim 2 when you have this to look forward to?
One last request was made by Kurata: The robots should be able to engage in hand-to-hand combat. I’m just going to go ahead and predict that the Kuratas is going to appear with a massive Samurai Sword strapped to it’s back. Time to place your bets people, I personally am rooting for the Kuratas.
