Four-Ton Japanese Mega Bot Fires BBs At Smiling Humans (Video)

By Rebecca Boyle

Kuratasvia Plastic Pals

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 (where else?) 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, which took place over the weekend.

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

Source: Popsci