Assembled Lifesize RX78 Gundam, oh gawd

You might have seen this somewhere but now they got it standing up. Impressive to say the least.

http://punynari.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/assembled-life-sized-rx78-gundam-part-1/

People have way too much time on their hands over there.

Mr. Chris said:

People have way too much time on their hands over there.

And that doesn't make it any less kick-ass.

Mr. Chris said:

People have way too much time on their hands over there.

Heh, I'll say.

One of my Weaboo friends had massive orgasms and joined his geek friends to speculate a date when a functional one could be constructed in the near future.

Oddly enough however the exact opposite would apply to a real life cat girl It would have to be small enough to slip into his urethra.

Mr. Chris said:

People have way too much time on their hands over there.

Idle hands make for really, really awesome novelties.

Even if it's incredibly useless.

seems they got it lit up now.

someone said:

People have way too much time on their hands over there.

That is one of stupidest things I hear people say. People are conditioned to respond negatively like by a boring dumbshit society that celebrates and enforces mediocrity. People actually accomplished something with what time they have free. Or maybe some were paid to work on it. It beats just working a job and sitting in front of the TV like a loser all the time.

Mr. Chris said:

People have way too much time on their hands over there.

And in Alaska, USA as it seems.

Again, in Japan, they made a working one. Sort of.



And there's an even more kickass one that actually walks on its legs without cheating, the Kabutom RX-03, that looks like a giant rhino beetle.

Technician said:

speculate a date when a functional one could be constructed in the near future

Never since a giant humanoid robot would be a waste of money/resources. As MechWarrior taught us, all you need is one well placed leg shot. Plus all the robots Maes posted would be tank bait, and tanks cost less.

Scet said:

Never since a giant humanoid robot would be a waste of money/resources. As MechWarrior taught us, all you need is one well placed leg shot.

A giant mechanical pogo stick or bouncing rubber ball would also be feasible, but utterly useless.

I had once thought of building an engineering vehicle featuring two large mechanical arms on a normal caterpillar/excavator frame with five or three-fingered "hands" which could be used for a wide variety of tasks such as digging, handling weights, construction and demolition without adaptations, and could be used by the operator "directly" by wearing two gloved controllers with feedback.

Scet said:

Never since a giant humanoid robot would be a waste of money/resources. As MechWarrior taught us, all you need is one well placed leg shot. Plus all the robots Maes posted would be tank bait, and tanks cost less.

If you watch ms igloo 2 there's a good detail talking about how mobile suits > tanks simply because of mobility and size. Also, when they are in flight things get really hairy.

BlackFish said:

If you watch ms igloo 2 there's a good detail talking about how mobile suits > tanks simply because of mobility and size. Also, when they are in flight things get really hairy.

You're not using examples from anime as your argument, are you? :p

For the time being, mechs and mobile suits are impractical. Everything they can do can be handled much better by tanks or other specialized vehicles, not to mention issues with balance, armor, and target size. A walking suit could easily be seen from a few kilometers away, and would present a nice, big target for tanks or artillery. Most of the real examples are also very slow and have none of the mobility shown in movies and anime.

Snarboo said:

You're not using examples from anime as your argument, are you? :p

For the time being, mechs and mobile suits are impractical. Everything they can do can be handled much better by tanks or other specialized vehicles, not to mention issues with balance, armor, and target size. A walking suit could easily be seen from a few kilometers away, and would present a nice, big target for tanks or artillery. Most of the real examples are also very slow and have none of the mobility shown in movies and anime.

i so did. yeah i know where you're coming from.

Even if technology advances to the point that an armoured, biped machine that can outrun a human special ops soldier on every terrain while carrying gunship-class weapons will be feasible at a cost comparable to e.g. a modern attack helicopter, the technology of tanks and attack helicopters will have also progressed.

Tanks will by then be able to outrun a modern SUV easily on any terrain, and any fancy defensive technology that applies to mecha will also apply to tanks. A tank will also, at weight parity with a mecha, always be able to carry more offensive and defensive gadgets since their drivetrains will be way more efficient than moving two huge trunk legs.

The role that mechas are shown to have in anime is either fighting other similar mecha or the roles that today are taken (with plenty of success, I must say) by helicopter gunships: heavy and versatile firepower, great agility, and a much more difficult target than any mecha will ever be. It's (really) comparing walking to flying here ;-)

And nobody dare suggesting rocket-assisted flying or hopping mecha here :-p

Even if technology advances to the point that an armoured, biped machine that can outrun a human special ops soldier on every terrain while carrying gunship-class weapons will be feasible at a cost comparable to e.g. a modern attack helicopter, the technology of tanks and attack helicopters will have also progressed.

Tanks will by then be able to outrun a modern SUV easily on any terrain, and any fancy defensive technology that applies to mecha will also apply to tanks. Since tanks have much more lightweight and compact drivetrains compared to a mecha's trunk-legs, they can, at weight parity, carry more offensive firepower or armor than a mech.

The role that mechas are shown to have in anime is either fighting other similar mecha or the roles that today are taken (with plenty of success, I must say) by helicopter gunships: heavy and versatile firepower, great agility, and a much more difficult target than any mecha will ever be. It's (really) comparing walking to flying here ;-)

Someone is living the dream.

I have no doubt that once the tech is up to it, they will build one. Just because they can. This whole thread is proof of that.

Waaaaait if a bunch of crazed otaku can pull this off... waht about the military?!?

WE'RE FUCKED

Walking mecha would be out of the question for military use, but they've already got walking robots...

The closest thing to a manned mecha they'd ever use would be powered armor.

Csonicgo said:

Waaaaait if a bunch of crazed otaku can pull this off... waht about the military?!?

WE'RE FUCKED

Are you kidding? Nothing that a bazooka or laser guided missiles couldn't fix. Pilot wouldn't survive the impact and if the missiles hit that jetpack the whole thing would go up in flames.

Danarchy said:

The closest thing to a manned mecha they'd ever use would be powered armor.

Devices that enhance the combat capability of a single soldier are already being tested -and some aspects of sci-fi powered armors like real-time C4I equipment for every single soldier are already used in the field, at least for the better equipped armies in the world, including the US Army.

These make a whole lot more sense than having to get over a fuckton of technical problems (walking/running on two feet with any semblance of balance and confort for the pilot being the first of them) for ending up with a vulnerable, albeit impressive device.

Mechas would suck in an open field (pwned by artillery, tanks and helicopters), they could have a definite advantage over tanks in rocky mountainous terrain (provided they could take advantage of available cover, something that large mechas would likely not be able to do) and maybe urban settings (again, provided they were able to take advantage of cover).

However, even in those scenarios powered armor would make more sense, and would have less trouble hiding and moving rapidly about. With the same money needed for a large mecha you could probably equip a platoon of soldiers with powered armors and give each of them the strength of a dozen men, while being impervious to direct small-arms fire one-on-one.

When biped mechs could actually move around as versatile and somewhat flexible as a human body with possibly some flight or jumping ability they could be useful, maybe moreso in an urban setting. There's no saying that things would ever progress that much though.

That big dog robot is hilarious.

Modern tanks are being designed to be LOWER, so they are harder to see in all but the flattest terrain and harder to hit at all but the closest ranges. The last thing any military run by a sane person would want to do is make some huge "SHOOT AT ME" thing tower over the battlefield. There's the issue of weight distribution too, a humanoid design will place a lot of weight on a small area of ground, not good for churned up battlefield mud, beaches, deserts, swamps, snow, cities with sewers... need i go on?

Srsly, tanks have worked since 1916, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!