Japanese engineer makes a gigantic ‘Gundam’ robot, and it’s spectacular

Not sure if youve ever seen the anime series Mobile Suit Gundam, but it’s essentially about people who get inside absolutely giant robots and fight each other in them – top stuff, I think you’ll agree. Clearly though, it is fully cemented in the world of the make-believe.

Or it was until now, because a Japanese engineer by the name of Masaaki Nagumo has created his very own gargantuan robot that he can actually pilot from inside. It’s a feat of technological genius, and I am impressed. Doesn’t take much for me to be impressed, but I am all the same.

A fan of the show as a kid, it was always his dream to build a ‘large robot’, and seeing as his company Sakakibara Machinery Works Co makes giant industrial machinery, he had the tools available to let him have a pop.

The company have also made other bigg’uns in the past, but this latest creation is by far the largest yet, at 8.5 meters tall and weighing 7.3 tons – we’re certainly not messing around with any C-3PO nonsense here. Just look at this behemoth:

It’s a pretty exciting bit of tech, this – its fingers can be moved, it can turn its upper body to change direction and it’s even got a big old cannon on one arm which shoots foam balls.

It’s not exactly battle ready though – that gun won’t do much and it, erm, only walks at 1km. Also, it’s now too big to leave the warehouse it was built in, so if we ever find ourselves in a Pacific Rim-type situation, we’re not exactly in good hands here.