Super Terrific Japanese Thing: Giant Robo-Beetle
In Japan, beetles are cool. Kids collect them as pets. There was a popular videogame/toy series about making fake beetles fight, like Pok?mon. But this… this is about 18 steps further. From Japan Sugoi:
You’d have to be a little bit eccentric to spend 11 years of your
life designing and building an 11m long, 15 ton robot beetle in your
garage. But that’s exactly what this Ibaraki otaku man has done in building the “Kabutom RX-03 ???? RX-03 ? which is an actual working vehicle.Shown on Japanese TV show “Nanikore Chin Hakkei” the robot is shaped
like a kabuto-mushi (rhinocerous beetle) and can move by remote control
or be driven from the cockpit. The robot has enough space inside its
shell to also carry passengers inside. The robot “shuffles” rather
than walks — the legs pull it along the ground, while the weight is
supported by wheels.
In related news, WE ARE ALL TOTALLY FUCKED.
About The Author
Robert Bricken is one of the original co-founders of the site formerly known as Topless Robot, and its first editor-in-chief, serving from 2008-12. He brought the site to prominence with “nerd news, humor and self-loathing” as its motto, raising it from total internet obscurity to a readership in the millions, with help from his savage “FAQ” movie reviews and Fan Fiction Fridays. Under his tenure Topless Robot was covered by Gawker, Wired, Defamer, New York magazine, ABC News, and others, and his articles have been praised by Roger Ebert, Avengers actor Clark Gregg, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax, and others. He is currently the managing editor of io9.com. Despite decades as both an amateur and professional nerd, he continues to be completely unprepared for either the zombie apocalypse or the robot uprising.