Team USA launches Kickstarter campaign for robot battle versus Japan

MegaBots, a U.S. robotics firm dedicated to creating giant fighting robots, has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a battle versus Japan's own mega creations. The American firm challenged Suidobashi Heavy Industry to a duel in July through a YouTube video, to which the Japanese accepted.

Now, MegaBots has to raise at least US$500,000 (AU$680,000) to finance its project, according to its official Kickstarter page. As of this writing, the campaign "Support Team USA in the Giant Robot Duel!" has raised over $3,000 (AU$4,079) with nearly a month to go until the pledged Sept. 18 delivery. The smallest pledge is at US$5 (AU$6.80), where the backer gets to have his or her name listed on the website as a supporter, while the largest is at US$10,000 (AU$13,600), which includes a backstage pass and a chance to join the pit crew, among other limited edition items.

It is still not known when the actual giant robot battle will happen and where, The Verge writes. Suidobashi founder Kogoro Kurata also reportedly asked if the duel can be done physically instead of the paintball guns MegaBot models are usually designed with.

"Come on guys, make it cooler. Just building something huge and sticking guns on it. It's... Super American," Kurata said in The Verge report.

According to the MegaBots website, actual MegaBots, called Mark II, are 15 feet tall, can move at more than 120 miles per hour, fire cannonball-sized paintballs and are internally piloted.

This not the U.S. firm's first foray into robot fighting. In November 2014, it launched a Kickstarter campaign hoping to raise a much larger US$1.8 million (AU$2.4 million) to create a new sport that pits gigantic piloted humanoid robots against each other in an arena. Unfortunately, the project received only US$65,319 (AU$89,000) in financial backing from its 420 supporters. Meanwhile, Suidobashi's robot model, called Kuratas, has been functional since 2012. This gargantuan four-ton mech robot reportedly stands 13 feet and costs US$1.35 million (AU$1.8 million).

MegaBots co-founders Gui Cavalcanti, Matt Oehrlein and Brinkley Warren told The Verge that they are not interested in getting funding from corporate investors, because they don't want to be dictated by brands.

"We want to build the most patriotic robot ever and we're going to be silly with it in ways that make investors a little uncomfortable," they said in another report from The Verge.

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