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 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.
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 boxer. Its twin BB Gatling guns can
fire up to 6,000 BBs per minute. 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.
