--- 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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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement.  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"}}]}] ```