Gundam Walks

Tuckerfan · Jul 21, 2020

Or, raises a foot, but that's not as sexy of a title.

Watch Engineers Take Their 60-Foot-Tall Gundam for a Walk

Since January, construction has been underway on a huge Gundam robot—a popular fictional robot that appears in some 50 TV series and movies since 1979, not to mention a slew of video games and manga. Coming in at about 60 feet tall, the Gundam will be impossible to miss from the Port of Yokohama, just south of Tokyo, where it will call home for a full year.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has halted progress on various construction projects, worldwide, the Gundam perseveres. You can check out the progress for yourself in this YouTube video, uploaded by Michael Overstreet.

In the video, you can observe workers touching up the robot on a crane as the giant Gundam picks up and puts down its legs and rotates its massive torso. From the looks of it, the only thing that's missing at the moment is the head.

Once finished, the robot will feature an incredible 24 degrees of freedom, meaning this thing will be able to walk. When everything is said and done, the whole thing will weigh in at about 25 tons, and that's actually pretty lightweight, considering how heavy it could have been.

Those weight efficiencies are thanks to careful engineering and design work, as outlined in a series of YouTube videos from Gundam Factory Yokohama. In one installment, we get a tour of where the workers designed, built, and assembled Gundam. From the metal fingertip to where the wrist will connect, the hand is about 6.5 feet.

Jun Narita, head of design, explains that special considerations about the types of material and motors had been taken into account because otherwise one hand could weigh as much as 1,300 pounds.

"This weight restriction is like a curse," he says.

Gundam Factory Yokohama has updated its website to note that the special preview event, which was supposed to take place this month, has been cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns.

But thanks to the internet, fans near and far get a chance to see a real-life Gundam take one of its first steps.
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TheBurgerKing · Aug 18, 2020

Oh man, give them about a decade and there will probably be a dozen or more variants running around. Let me know when they get around to building some of the designs from the wacky timeline. That wacky Napoelon gundam, or the Epyon.

Tuckerfan · Aug 27, 2020

Canada has a mecha.

Learn to Pilot a 9,000-pound Mecha Through This Kickstarter

For over ten years, Canadian mechanical engineer Jonathan Tippett has dreamt of a future where mecha/mechs--giant, human-controlled exoskeletons--are a reality. Now he and his company, Furrion Exo-Bionics, have put a start date on that future, and it's right now.

Their creation, the Prosthesis, is a gigantic, 9,000-pound quadruped with linebacker proportions up top but surprisingly dainty ankles down below.

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More, including video of it in action, at the link.

Tuckerfan · Sep 23, 2020

We Are Borg · Sep 23, 2020

Honestly, what the hell is the point of that?

(Also, you can clearly see the Gundam is not actually independently in contact with the ground so I don't think it's "walking" per se).

Tuckerfan · Apr 2, 2024

Japan Has Said Goodbye to Its Life-Sized Gundam
There was music, there was sadness, there was sparkling lesbians in the sky—a fitting farewell to the Yokohama Gundam

We Are Borg · Apr 2, 2024

We Are Borg said: ↑

Honestly, what the hell is the point of that?
Click to expand...

This question remains valid, almost four years later.

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