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Pirate3D to bring its Buccaneer 3D Printer to Japan

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We have written about a number of fun Japan-based 3D printing projects. In a country like this one known for creative product design, 3D fabrication already off to a promising start. But in order for this space to thrive on a large scale, printers need to be accessible and affordable. We’ve previously written about a number of shared workspaces, including CUBE and FabCafe, which are helping in this regard. We’re also pleased to see more printers going on sale here in Japan, including the Buccaneer 3D printer, whose parent company, Singapore-based Pirate3D, has just signed a distribution deal for Japan with Keienu Trading Company. Its printers are set to go on sale in the country in late May or early June. It’s a little surprising to me to see that Pirate3D really didn’t waste any time moving in on the Japan market, seeing as how they are still just in the pre-order phase elsewhere. So I asked the company’s management engineer Evgeny Lazarenko why Japan represented such an important market for them. He explained: Japan is arguably the most developed consumer market in Asia in terms of purchasing power. […] The nation is quick to experiment with new products, and…

We have written about a number of fun Japan-based 3D printing projects. In a country like this one known for creative product design, 3D fabrication already off to a promising start. But in order for this space to thrive on a large scale, printers need to be accessible and affordable. We’ve previously written about a number of shared workspaces, including CUBE and FabCafe, which are helping in this regard.

Buccaneer_Render_01-06-14_v2.598_new

We’re also pleased to see more printers going on sale here in Japan, including the Buccaneer 3D printer, whose parent company, Singapore-based Pirate3D, has just signed a distribution deal for Japan with Keienu Trading Company. Its printers are set to go on sale in the country in late May or early June.

It’s a little surprising to me to see that Pirate3D really didn’t waste any time moving in on the Japan market, seeing as how they are still just in the pre-order phase elsewhere. So I asked the company’s management engineer Evgeny Lazarenko why Japan represented such an important market for them. He explained:

Japan is arguably the most developed consumer market in Asia in terms of purchasing power. […] The nation is quick to experiment with new products, and 3D printing is all about experimentation. The ‘monozukuri’ philosophy is deeply ingrained into Japanese mentality. This nationwide maker spirit is exactly what Pirate3D is looking for. We believe that 3D printing market in Japan is going to explode very soon, and cultural element will be one of the major contributing factors to this.

He adds that because Japan cares about inspired product design, that the Buccaneer 3D printer will “resonate with tastes” in Japan.

For those not familiar with Pirate3D and its Buccaneer 3D printer, we should point out that the product is still pretty young, having launched a very successful Kickstarter campaign last summer that raised $1.4 million. The product itself focuses on ease-of-use, sporting a minimalist design without any buttons, just a light indicator. It can print continuously for over 200 hours, and can even function as a server through wireless connection with PCs, tablets, and smartphones.

While the they hesitate to make any sales projections, Evgeny says maybe they can move hundreds of units per month by September. A representative from their Japanese distributor, Keienu Trading, says that they have seen “explosive growth” in Japanese demand for 3D printers in the past year, and so far their distribution partners have all shown a “significant and promising” reaction to the Buccaneer 3D printer and its potential.

Check out the video above for an overview of the Buccaneer 3D. Pirate3D was backed by Red Dot Ventures and incubated by the Institution of Engineers, Singapore (IES).

Pirate3D_Logo_notagline

Office toilet woes solved: Japanese company’s amazing system checks if stall is free

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Our readers may remember reading about TeamLab and its creative initiatives many times here on The Bridge, and even more of their past work can be found on their website. TeamLab does interior office designs as well, and recently we came across some interesting work they’ve completed. The project is called the Heaven’s Door, a witty name given to a system that lets office workers see the availability of office bathrooms. Who needs such a system? Well apparently TeamLab did, with its over 100 employees and only two toilets available at that time. Trips to the bathroom often resulted in long waits or even several visits, so some engineers decided to do something about it. Heaven’s Door requires that a device be installed for a view of the entire bathroom, and then a smaller device added for each stall. These smaller devices have sensors enabled, detecting whether a stall is occupied or vacant. Office workers can then install a dedicated Chrome extension, which gives you a real time update of the bathroom availability with a single click. Heaven’s Door was first shown to public at O’Reilly Japan’s Make: Japan Summit back in 2011. If anyone is interested in making their…

toilet

Our readers may remember reading about TeamLab and its creative initiatives many times here on The Bridge, and even more of their past work can be found on their website. TeamLab does interior office designs as well, and recently we came across some interesting work they’ve completed.

The project is called the Heaven’s Door, a witty name given to a system that lets office workers see the availability of office bathrooms. Who needs such a system? Well apparently TeamLab did, with its over 100 employees and only two toilets available at that time.

Trips to the bathroom often resulted in long waits or even several visits, so some engineers decided to do something about it.

Heaven’s Door requires that a device be installed for a view of the entire bathroom, and then a smaller device added for each stall. These smaller devices have sensors enabled, detecting whether a stall is occupied or vacant. Office workers can then install a dedicated Chrome extension, which gives you a real time update of the bathroom availability with a single click.

Heaven’s Door was first shown to public at O’Reilly Japan’s Make: Japan Summit back in 2011. If anyone is interested in making their employee’s bathroom life a little less worrisome, prototypes of Heaven’s Door devices are available for 2,000 yen and 3,000 yen (about $20 and $30) on this website.

TeamLab_HeavensDoor

Photo Credit: Anne Worner via Compfight cc

9 Japanese robotics startups to watch in 2014

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As you may have read recently, Google has acquired seven robotics startups from the world, as the company looks ahead to new business opportunities. One of these startups is Tokyo-based Shaft, which won the DARPA robotics challenge trials back in December. Japan is an advanced country in this space, so I’d like to highlight a few of the important players in this sector. Read on to learn more! 1. Kiluck Kiluck has developed Rapiro, a humanoid robot compatible with the popular Raspberry Pi computer kit. The company succeeded in raising over $75,000 on Kickstarter last year, compared to its original target of $20,000. In partnership with fellow startups TeamLab and Yukai Engineering, they have developed the famous Necomimi device, a wearable pair of cat-ears that moves in accordance with your brainwave activity. 2. Extrun Since it launched back in 2009, Extrun has been in the system integration business. But they recently started developing a mobile camera called Ilbo, a device which keeps watch inside your home while you’re out. You will be able to control the device using an iOS app, and view what’s happening in your room through your mobile in real time. It will transmit a real-time image,…

sketronics_featuredimage
Skeletonics

As you may have read recently, Google has acquired seven robotics startups from the world, as the company looks ahead to new business opportunities. One of these startups is Tokyo-based Shaft, which won the DARPA robotics challenge trials back in December. Japan is an advanced country in this space, so I’d like to highlight a few of the important players in this sector. Read on to learn more!

1. Kiluck

Kiluck has developed Rapiro, a humanoid robot compatible with the popular Raspberry Pi computer kit. The company succeeded in raising over $75,000 on Kickstarter last year, compared to its original target of $20,000. In partnership with fellow startups TeamLab and Yukai Engineering, they have developed the famous Necomimi device, a wearable pair of cat-ears that moves in accordance with your brainwave activity.

2. Extrun

Since it launched back in 2009, Extrun has been in the system integration business. But they recently started developing a mobile camera called Ilbo, a device which keeps watch inside your home while you’re out. You will be able to control the device using an iOS app, and view what’s happening in your room through your mobile in real time. It will transmit a real-time image, but in the future they also plan to roll out additional features like remote controls for air conditioners and lights. They expected to introduce the product this spring for about $100.

3. Liferobotics

Liferobotics is a company that develops commercial products based on technologies from Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Science and Technology, or AIST. They’re developing robotic arm products that can be used in various manufacturing industries, or in assisting seniors or those with physically disabilities.

4. Orylab

Orylab is a hardware manufacturing company backed by Waseda University’s startup incubator. For people with mobility issues, their robot OriHime can be used as a sort of avatar, allowing you to watch and listen to what’s happening in a remote location. You can talk with remote individuals using a live video chat as well. It can carried anywhere as a sort of stand-in on your behalf.

In this way, you could go on picnic with your family virtually, or even attend a lecture virtually with your classmates.

orihime_photo

5. Mujin

Mujin was founded by robotics scientist Rosen Diankov and grew out of the University of Tokyo. His team has developed OpenRAVE, a motion planning software for real-world robotics applications, as well as Mujin Controller, software that allows you simulate various robotic motion patterns and optimize performance before you move to full-scale operation. The company raised 75 million yen (about $75,000) from the university’s venture fund in a series A funding back in 2012.

6. Yukai Engineering

Yukai Engineering was founded back in 2007 (and incorporated in 2011) by Teamlab’s co-founder Shunsuke Aoki. The startup is known to have introduced many interesting hardware devices like computing kit Konashi and smart baby camera Paby, and even helping Japanese smart glass startup Telepathy create their prototypes as well. Our readers may recall we interviewed Aoki back in November.

7. Doog

Doog was grew out of Tsukuba University, and has introduced a wheeled mobile robot (WMR) for purposes like advertising or baggage assistance. Some of their robots can follow you around wherever you go. The company wants to help people evolve their business and life further using robotics technology.

8. Asratec

Asratec was launched by Mitou [1] super-creator Wataru Yoshizaki back in 2009. He has been developing a humanoid robot called V-sido. The robot’s primary advantage is that it’s easy to control, even for non-technicians. For most types of humanoid robots, if you make an arm movement, it is likely to fall down if you don’t keep other body parts balanced. This robot’s software calculates how much he needs to stoop or stretch other body parts to maintain balance, so all you need to do is focus on the arm movement. A Softbank executive is leading the company as their president, and several news sources say the Japanese telco plans to launch artificial intelligence and humanoid robotics projects through them.

9. Skeletonics

Skeletonics was created by several Japanese college students who came together to win a robotics contest back in 2008. Their robot moves in sync with the user’s arms and legs, and works and looks like an armored suit, like that in the popular Japanese animation series Ghost in the Shell. It doesn’t use an electric motor-based servo-mechanism but rather mechanical linkage to reduce the robot’s weight as well as possible chances of technical difficulties. As the team recently won the top prize at the ‘Todai to Texas’ Demo Day, they are expected to exhibit their robots at SXSW 2014 taking place in Austin this coming March.


  1. Mitou is a bi-annual software engineering promotion program run by a governmental IT promotional agency in Japan. In 2009, Yoshizaki’s humanoid project was chosen as one of 18 innovative projects out of 124 applicants.  ↩

HALOband: The wrist band that helps you control your smartphone

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See the original story in Japanese. How much time is needed to launch a function on our smartphone? You will typically need to unlock it with a password or fingerprint, and then tap the screen two or three times. That takes five to 10 seconds at least. But now there’s a wearable device that proposes to cut this time significantly using NFC technology. It is called HALOband, and it was invented by the Shanghai-based startup of the same name. The wrist band is made of silicone and has three NFC chips. Two chips can read patterns of how you touch your smartphone to the band, for example, touch once to chip A, and then twice to chip B. In this way, it provides an alternative to actions like unlocking your phone, instead of the conventional identification methods using a password or fingerprint. You can also set other actions to launch other function, using different patterns. On Kickstarter, the company has already raised $1 million, reaching their first goal, but they’re still trying to raise another $1 million to add new functions. The video below shows you how it works. This would be especially useful for daily joggers and cyclists who…

haloband-tapping

See the original story in Japanese.

How much time is needed to launch a function on our smartphone? You will typically need to unlock it with a password or fingerprint, and then tap the screen two or three times. That takes five to 10 seconds at least. But now there’s a wearable device that proposes to cut this time significantly using NFC technology. It is called HALOband, and it was invented by the Shanghai-based startup of the same name.

The wrist band is made of silicone and has three NFC chips. Two chips can read patterns of how you touch your smartphone to the band, for example, touch once to chip A, and then twice to chip B. In this way, it provides an alternative to actions like unlocking your phone, instead of the conventional identification methods using a password or fingerprint. You can also set other actions to launch other function, using different patterns.

haloband-app

On Kickstarter, the company has already raised $1 million, reaching their first goal, but they’re still trying to raise another $1 million to add new functions. The video below shows you how it works. This would be especially useful for daily joggers and cyclists who have difficulty controlling a smartphone when on move.

Japanese app cleverly sneaks snapshot of girls in a kissing pose

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Japan is often known for its unusual products, and we have written a little about them in the past. One app that is pretty ridiculous, but also very sneaky and smart at the same time, is Yahoo’s ‘Kiss-Shiyo!’ Android app. Its name when translated means “let’s kiss.” Think of a girl that you find attractive, for example. You’re not dating her and you probably won’t in the future, but you still find her attractive. You wonder what she would look like when she’s trying to kiss someone. That’s when the Kiss-Shiyo app comes in handy. The app will produce a picture showing you how she’d look when she’s about to kiss someone — all without revealing your ulterior motive. The brilliance of the app lies in how it produces this picture. Kiss-Shiyo is camouflaged to look like a fortune telling app. It displays a candle displayed on the screen, and if you ask her to blow it out and make a wish, the app takes her photo. That’s it. It’s super simple. If the girl has some sense of humor, you will not only get a cute photo of her, but hopefully also a good laugh. Kiss-Shiyo is a creation…

Kiss-Shiyo-Yahoo

Japan is often known for its unusual products, and we have written a little about them in the past. One app that is pretty ridiculous, but also very sneaky and smart at the same time, is Yahoo’s ‘Kiss-Shiyo!’ Android app. Its name when translated means “let’s kiss.”

Think of a girl that you find attractive, for example. You’re not dating her and you probably won’t in the future, but you still find her attractive. You wonder what she would look like when she’s trying to kiss someone. That’s when the Kiss-Shiyo app comes in handy.

Kiss-Shiyo-candleThe app will produce a picture showing you how she’d look when she’s about to kiss someone — all without revealing your ulterior motive. The brilliance of the app lies in how it produces this picture. Kiss-Shiyo is camouflaged to look like a fortune telling app. It displays a candle displayed on the screen, and if you ask her to blow it out and make a wish, the app takes her photo. That’s it. It’s super simple.

If the girl has some sense of humor, you will not only get a cute photo of her, but hopefully also a good laugh.

Kiss-Shiyo is a creation that came out of Yahoo Japan’s Lab, an experimental initiave from the internet giant. On its website, the Lab showcases different projects, including Yubichizu and FashionNavi. Yubichizu is an intuitive web app for tablets that lets users draw on a map to find the distance to nearby stores for example. FashionNavi, meanwhile, is an color-focused image search designed specifically for fashion.

You can download Kiss-Shiyo app on Google Play.

Traditional Japanese pottery decoration now comes as a DIY kit

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We all have those moments when we want to do something out of the ordinary, something creative. If you don’t know where to start, Kutani Seal might be a great option if you’re into decorating tableware and pottery. Kutani Choemon is a pottery manufacturer founded in Ishikawa prefecture all the way back in 1897. They have brought beautiful tableware and tea ceremony utensils to the people of Japan for over 130 years. Kutani Seal began back in 2009 as a workshop to design and create Kutani pottery by using seal transfers. Besides these workshops, Kutani Seal is available as a make-it-yourself kit which is sold over on its website. There are different utencils available, such as coffee cups, flower-shaped plates, and rice bowls. All you have to do is layout the accompanying stickers on the utensil of your choice, and send back the plate to the manufacturer. The finished pottery will then be delivered to your door. This kit is a very smart and fun way to encourage people to be creative, bringing the traditional Kutani pottery closer to the masses. You can follow Kutani Seal on Twitter to get their most recent updates. Or check out the video below…

Kutani-Seal

We all have those moments when we want to do something out of the ordinary, something creative. If you don’t know where to start, Kutani Seal might be a great option if you’re into decorating tableware and pottery. Kutani Choemon is a pottery manufacturer founded in Ishikawa prefecture all the way back in 1897. They have brought beautiful tableware and tea ceremony utensils to the people of Japan for over 130 years.

Kutani Seal began back in 2009 as a workshop to design and create Kutani pottery by using seal transfers. Besides these workshops, Kutani Seal is available as a make-it-yourself kit which is sold over on its website.

Kutani-Seal-kit

There are different utencils available, such as coffee cups, flower-shaped plates, and rice bowls. All you have to do is layout the accompanying stickers on the utensil of your choice, and send back the plate to the manufacturer. The finished pottery will then be delivered to your door.

This kit is a very smart and fun way to encourage people to be creative, bringing the traditional Kutani pottery closer to the masses. You can follow Kutani Seal on Twitter to get their most recent updates. Or check out the video below to learn more about how it works.

Calligraphy goes high tech in Japan: Draw in the air, laser burn to wood

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If you’re even remotely interested in the up-and-coming field of 3D printing and digital fabrication, chances are you’ve probably already seen some of the work done at FabCafe Tokyo. Operated by the folks at Loftworks, FabCafe hosts various community workshops, including a really fun one back on Valentine’s Day where participants could print 3D representations of their heads in chocolate. You may also recall this clever laser-etched 360-degree book we featured earlier in the year. And this week the cafe played host to an Air Shoudou event, where attendees could try doing traditional Japanese calligraphy in the air with their hands, and the characters would be shown on a big screen using a system equipped with a Kinect camera. As the user leans forward to write (as pictured below), the camera measures the distance between the hip and the hand. The bigger the distance, the stronger the weight of your brushstroke. So where does the fabrication come in? The system actually records the character you draw as well, and it can then be printed in various forms. The folks at FabCafe made the activity into a fun competition, posting the characters on a wall and then voting on a winner….

If you’re even remotely interested in the up-and-coming field of 3D printing and digital fabrication, chances are you’ve probably already seen some of the work done at FabCafe Tokyo.

Operated by the folks at Loftworks, FabCafe hosts various community workshops, including a really fun one back on Valentine’s Day where participants could print 3D representations of their heads in chocolate. You may also recall this clever laser-etched 360-degree book we featured earlier in the year.

And this week the cafe played host to an Air Shoudou event, where attendees could try doing traditional Japanese calligraphy in the air with their hands, and the characters would be shown on a big screen using a system equipped with a Kinect camera. As the user leans forward to write (as pictured below), the camera measures the distance between the hip and the hand. The bigger the distance, the stronger the weight of your brushstroke.

character_fabcafe_sm

So where does the fabrication come in? The system actually records the character you draw as well, and it can then be printed in various forms. The folks at FabCafe made the activity into a fun competition, posting the characters on a wall and then voting on a winner. And then in true FabCafe fashion, they printed prizes for the winners, including one on a sake bottle using a laser etching system they have on site. I had mine printed on a masu box (see right) [1].

This is one of those really great creative projects that beautifully illustrates how Japan can fuse tradition and technology to do something entirely new and wonderful. We look forward to lots more fun stuff like this from FabCafe (see their 3D Snap & Touch workshops for starters), and we hope if you’re in the neighborhood that you check them out as well.


  1. It’s missing a few strokes as the 60-second time limit ran out before I could finish. It was still lots of fun!  ↩

In Japan, sticky notes have gone high tech

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I primarily use Google Calendar for my daily planning and task management, but when it comes to weekly or monthly plans, I still use a regular paper planner. But I recently came across a fun product called Picotto Fusen, comprised of a small sticky with a QR code printed on it. The code lets you conveniently attach or embed photos from your mobile phone to that particular sticky. Just add the sticky somewhere in your notebook. Then, by using the dedicated smartphone app (available for both iOS and Android) to read the QR code printed on the sticky, you can choose photos from your photo library to associate with it. In fact, the sticky can record as many photos as you want, giving you instant access to those photos. In work meetings with white boards, I usually take photos of what has been written on the board for later reference. But finding these photos in a cluttered photo library can be very time consuming. But now I can add a sticky in my planner to find the information I need. Picotto Fusen was a standout product at ISOT, a large annual stationary products fair held in Japan. It is available…

Picotto-Fusen

I primarily use Google Calendar for my daily planning and task management, but when it comes to weekly or monthly plans, I still use a regular paper planner. But I recently came across a fun product called Picotto Fusen, comprised of a small sticky with a QR code printed on it. The code lets you conveniently attach or embed photos from your mobile phone to that particular sticky.

Just add the sticky somewhere in your notebook. Then, by using the dedicated smartphone app (available for both iOS and Android) to read the QR code printed on the sticky, you can choose photos from your photo library to associate with it. In fact, the sticky can record as many photos as you want, giving you instant access to those photos.

In work meetings with white boards, I usually take photos of what has been written on the board for later reference. But finding these photos in a cluttered photo library can be very time consuming. But now I can add a sticky in my planner to find the information I need.

Picotto-Fusen-stickies

Picotto Fusen was a standout product at ISOT, a large annual stationary products fair held in Japan. It is available in three different color variations (classic pink, chocolate beige, and charcoal grey) and comes with 24 stickies. The product can be purchased for 420 yen (or about $4.25) over on the company’s online shop or on Amazon.

Bicycle safety made pretty: LED guide lights keep cars at bay

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Japanese gadget vendor Thanko has a really fun bicycle tail light up for sale right now. The device users five LED lights to project a pair of guidelines behind you to keep tailgating cars at bay. There’s also a fun bicycle image projected too, just in case drivers aren’t clear that these strange lights are coming from a bicycle. The light system is powered by two AAA batteries, and can be used for up to 30 hours, which should be plenty of time for most cyclists. The lights power off on their own as well when the bike has been stopped for more then 5 minutes. If you’re in Japan, you can pick one up over on Thanko’s website for 1980 yen, or a very affordable $20. For those outside Japan, you can order via Thanko’s newly launched Raremono shop, although you’ll have to wait a little while as it’s currently out of stock. There have been other systems similar to this one, including this one from Korea, so it’s not an entirely unique idea. But it’s a really interesting solution that encourages bicycle safety in a fun way, so I thought I’d share it. Have a look at their…

laser-bike-taillight

Japanese gadget vendor Thanko has a really fun bicycle tail light up for sale right now. The device users five LED lights to project a pair of guidelines behind you to keep tailgating cars at bay. There’s also a fun bicycle image projected too, just in case drivers aren’t clear that these strange lights are coming from a bicycle.

The light system is powered by two AAA batteries, and can be used for up to 30 hours, which should be plenty of time for most cyclists. The lights power off on their own as well when the bike has been stopped for more then 5 minutes.

If you’re in Japan, you can pick one up over on Thanko’s website for 1980 yen, or a very affordable $20. For those outside Japan, you can order via Thanko’s newly launched Raremono shop, although you’ll have to wait a little while as it’s currently out of stock.

There have been other systems similar to this one, including this one from Korea, so it’s not an entirely unique idea. But it’s a really interesting solution that encourages bicycle safety in a fun way, so I thought I’d share it. Have a look at their demo of how it works in the video below.

It’s still not as cool as a fun animated wheel LED system that I saw here in Japan a few years back. I’m glad to see that project is still going, and you can check it out over on Anipov.jp.

Pacific Rim director pays tribute to Tokyo’s iconic Gundam statue

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I haven’t yet had a chance to see Guillermo del Toro’s latest film, Pacific Rim, but from the clips I’ve seen so far of the epic robot and monster battles, it looks like it’s going to be great. Of course a film like this obviously owes much to early Godzilla monster movies, but also to the country’s tradition of giant mechanized robots and suits. Recently del Toro visited Odaiba here in Tokyo to check out the iconic Gundam statue erected there, according to Japanese media (via ANN). The director explains that one of his characters, Cherno Alpha, was actually inspired by Gundam’s Zaku [1]. del Toro is clearly in awe, almost as if he has made a pilgrimage to see it. Here’s the entire clip below: But of course Japan has lots more to offer in the giant robot department, for anyone who wants to see. Suidobashi Heavy Industries’ Kuratas mecha is perhaps the most awesome example, standing 3.8 meters high, able to be piloted by a human passenger (pictured bottom left). If you’d like something a little on the lighter side, Sakajibara Machinery Works has a mecha suit that can be piloted by kids, appropriately called Kid’s Walker. That…

I haven’t yet had a chance to see Guillermo del Toro’s latest film, Pacific Rim, but from the clips I’ve seen so far of the epic robot and monster battles, it looks like it’s going to be great. Of course a film like this obviously owes much to early Godzilla monster movies, but also to the country’s tradition of giant mechanized robots and suits.

Recently del Toro visited Odaiba here in Tokyo to check out the iconic Gundam statue erected there, according to Japanese media (via ANN). The director explains that one of his characters, Cherno Alpha, was actually inspired by Gundam’s Zaku [1]. del Toro is clearly in awe, almost as if he has made a pilgrimage to see it. Here’s the entire clip below:

But of course Japan has lots more to offer in the giant robot department, for anyone who wants to see. Suidobashi Heavy Industries’ Kuratas mecha is perhaps the most awesome example, standing 3.8 meters high, able to be piloted by a human passenger (pictured bottom left).

If you’d like something a little on the lighter side, Sakajibara Machinery Works has a mecha suit that can be piloted by kids, appropriately called Kid’s Walker. That suit is much smaller but is still a pretty great real-life example (bottom right).

And of course, we can’t forget the (in)famous Robot Restaurant, a must-see for any robo-tourist coming to Japan.

kuratas kids-walker

Photos: Design you trust, Isstek.


  1. del Toro has also cited Tetsujin 28 as an inspiration as well.  ↩