A Team of Americans Is Building a Giant Robot to Challenge Japan In Hand to Hand Combat

Maybe you grew up watching Power Rangers and wished that Zords were real.

Maybe you’re an anime fan who has long daydreamed of a world inhabited by Gundam mobile suits.

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 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.

 

 

Write to Nolan Feeney at nolan.feeney@time.com.