Kuratas
via Plastic Pals
This boxy guy is called Kuratas,
otherwise known as Vaudeville, and he stands 12 feet 5 inches tall. He
weighs about 4.5 tons and is diesel-powered. Do not smile at him. He
will shoot that grin right off your face.
Kuratas is a real-life mech from (where else?) Japan, and it's an art
project designed by Suidobashi Heavy Industry. Iron worker/artist
Kogoro Kurata, at right in the photo above, built his namesake robot and
debuted it at something called Wonder Fest 2012, which took place over
the weekend.
It has a ride-in cockpit, a master-slave joystick and a touchscreen
interface, and its arms can be controlled via Kinect, so it could be
trained as a champion boxer. Its twin BB Gatling guns can fire up to 6,000 BBs per minute, according to Plastic Pals.
And it fires when a small camera inside the robot detects when you
smile. This is just for fun, however — Kurata says he would never want
his creation to harm anyone. But it could be used for robot
competitions, he said.
You could pretend-order
one of your own, via a slick website Kurata and his colleagues at
Suidobashi designed. The mecha come in various color schemes and
customizable weapons. But the base model starts at $1,353,500, so better
start saving.
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