Charm from the barrel of a gun
Only the Japanese would try to make tanks cute.
Robot demiurge Tomotaka Takahashi has unveiled his latest creation: a four-legged, four-eyed lapis lazuli tank/walker with a squeaky voice and fawning manner. Oh, and it has machine guns.
Well, plastic ones.
Fans of Japanese anime will recognize the bot from the Ghost in the Shell franchise, specifically the "Stand Alone Complex" series. They're called Tachikoma and are car-sized roving droids controlled by artificial intelligences. They have rocket launchers and other arms. Basically the equivalent of "mobile, sentient Swiss Army knives."
I always knew knives that think were a must-have. But what I really want is an emotional can opener.
Takahashi's carbon-fiber Tachikoma doesn't have a brain and was made to promote the Ghost in the Shell DVD "Solid State Society" coming out in November from Bandai Visual. But check out its obsequious self-introduction in the videos here and here. Admit it -- it's the cutest robot spider thingy you've ever seen...outside of a nightmare.
posted by Tim at 9:33 PM
5 Comments:
Seeing it in motion period was impressive, but all the eye-domes move as well? Not bad!
The only thing that would make a Tachikoma cuter would be if it were painted white and pink, in the style of Hello Kitty. Awww, so cuuute!
Image: the future dystopia sequence from Terminator, human skulls being crushed under steel feet, etc, but all the robots have the faces of Sanrio characters!
http://www.sanrio.co.jp/characters/characters.html
"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face." -- George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-four
This is utterly cute! Would be great if there is one that can remote control :)
Yeah, I'd love to see the commercial version up close. It's adorable in a bizarre way.
Their rocket/grenade launcher is not in the other arm, but in the "beak" between arms. It reqires removing the cover first.
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