--- title: MegaBots Launches Kickstarter Campaign For Japan Robot Fight description: But the American company behind the duel needs your help on Kickstarter canonical: https://time.com/4003407/giant-robot-fight-megabots-japan/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-19T17:39:54.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:23:37.308Z og:title: An American Team Is Making a Giant Robot to Challenge Japan og:description: And the fight is going to be hand to hand combat og:url: https://time.com/4003407/giant-robot-fight-megabots-japan/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf609bf9939552e3/6988600ee53aba499a4df2ae/megabots-kickstarter.jpg?branch=production&width=640&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 640 og:image:height: 360 og:image:alt: megabots kickstarter og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: An American Team Is Making a Giant Robot to Challenge Japan twitter:description: And the fight is going to be hand to hand combat twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf609bf9939552e3/6988600ee53aba499a4df2ae/megabots-kickstarter.jpg?branch=production&width=640&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Team of Americans Is Building a Giant Robot to Challenge Japan In Hand to Hand Combat > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=59daa94a-e16e-4dd6-ad9f-445b0ad862da&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Aug 19, 2015 5:39 PM UTC  Megabots  by [Nolan Feeney](https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Aug 19, 2015 5:39 PM UTC Maybe you grew up watching _Power Rangers_ and wished that [Zords were real](http://powerrangers.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Zords). Maybe you’re an anime fan who has long daydreamed of a world inhabited by [_Gundam_ mobile suits](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gundam). We’re not there yet, but we’re getting closer now that two giant robots are set for a hand-to-hand, East-meets-West battle to determine the fate of the world (or at least international bragging rights). Earlier this summer, American robots company MegaBots challenged a Japanese company, Suidobashi Heavy Industry, to a robot duel. Suidobashi raised the stakes, however, when they suggested their machines fight hand-to-hand. MegaBots has a long way to go before their prized machine, Mk.II, is ready to throw down instead of fire paintballs, so the company [launched a Kickstarter campaign](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/megabots/support-team-usa-in-the-giant-robot-duel) Tuesday to raise the necessary funds to make Mk.II faster, self-balancing, better armored and way, way better looking. It isn’t just the general public who is pitching in, however. Along with Kickstarter donations, MegaBots has rounded up a group of robotics luminaries, including _Mythbusters_‘ Grant Imahara, to make the sure the robot has everything it needs to succeed—and look good doing it. They’re looking to raise $500,000, and with more than $195,000 already raised in a day, MegaBots appears on track to meet that goal. But if merely watching robots fight isn’t enough, a hefty donation can get you strapped in to experience it all yourself. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4003407/giant-robot-fight-megabots-japan/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4003407/giant-robot-fight-megabots-japan/"},"headline":"A Team of Americans Is Building a Giant Robot to Challenge Japan In Hand to Hand Combat","datePublished":"2015-08-19T17:39:54.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:23:37.308Z","description":"But the American company behind the duel needs your help on Kickstarter","url":"https://time.com/4003407/giant-robot-fight-megabots-japan/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Technology","robots"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf609bf9939552e3/6988600ee53aba499a4df2ae/megabots-kickstarter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf609bf9939552e3/6988600ee53aba499a4df2ae/megabots-kickstarter.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"megabots kickstarter","caption":"megabots kickstarter","creditText":"Megabots","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4003407/giant-robot-fight-megabots-japan/","name":"A Team of Americans Is Building a Giant Robot to Challenge Japan In Hand to Hand Combat"}}]}] ```