Robot fights have evolved beyond the crudely-built spectacles from the turn of the century. A group of tinkerers are looking to host Battletech-style “robotic combat competitions” with guns and flamethrowers. Eat your heart out Constrictor.
Now, these aren’t just some souped up lawnmower chassis armed with pneumatic-axes. The robots of the Mech-Warfare league are two-legged, 1/24th scale, and “armed with airsoft, nerf, and even more powerful weapons such as micro-rockets, custom co2 powered bb rifles, and flame throwers,” according to the group’s site. Mech-Warfare has been running its events — which are a mix of engineering challenges and old-fashioned robo-destruction — for three years in San Francisco though teams come from as far as Japan to compete.
The league is currently asking the Kickstarter community for funding to build an improved safety cage that would house the model city through which the robots battle. This cage would be “a lexan [and] aluminium armoured arena to keep the robots safely confined within the arena, and keep the spectators on the outside safe from stray micro-rockets and BBs,” according to the Kickstarter page.
Since there is nothing to physically give in return for donations — ie a product — the group hopes to entice businesses to buy ad space on the various miniature billboards and park benches throughout the city. They’ve raised $US1700 towards a $US6000 goal with 23 days left. Did I mention the flame throwers? [Mech-Warfare via Kickstarter via PC World]