There’s no other way to describe this website other than Giant Robot Porn! I speak, of course, of Robobox. Each post is like a giant robot pictoral with mechs in all sorts of mighty poses from all sorts of awesome angles. If you find that you life just doesn’t have enough giant robots in it, as I sometimes do, Robobox will certainly satisfy your needs again and again.

Excuse me while I change pants now.

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I’ve never seen a commercial for a novel quite as awesome as this! Screw OO! Make mine Unicorn! I really hope they animate this because this short thirty second commercial is quite crunchy pants inducing.

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There are two types of Gundam games, the games that suck and Dynasty Warriors: Gundam.

The major problem I’ve found with Gundam games in the past is that they’re overly complex. You’re generally put in a three Mobile Suit team and command your fellow pilots through a series of controls that never really make any sense. And you spend a lot of time walking around a city before your first battle. Realism is nice for the show. 08th MS Team is one of my favorite U.C. shows precisely because of the realistic combat. But it doesn’t necessarily make for a fun game.

Dynasty Warriors: Gundam dumps you right into the thick of things. No waiting around for your next battle. No idiots to command. No funky control schemes to get in the way. Just hardcore mobile suit on mobile suit action! There are two modes to play, Official Mode and Original Mode. Official Mode lets you fight through the Universal Century wars as Amuro Rey, Kamille Bidan, or Judau Ashita. Original Mode takes place on a mysterious planet and lets you choose from some of the alternate universe Gundam pilots, Domon Kasshu, Rolan Cehack, or Heero Yuy. You can unlock more pilots and more mobile suits including the Musha Gundam which never appeared in any show but is damn sexy. Took me all week but I fought through Amuro’s Official Mode and unlocked Char Aznable. Can’t wait to destroy Feddies as the Red Comet!

Though combat in the animated series usually relies on vulcan cannons and beam rifles leaving beam sabers as an absolute last resort, Dynasty Warriors: Gundam is all about beam saber action. Imagine giant robot Jedi. Fighting as God Gundam should be a real treat since G Fighter is all about hand-to-hand. Your Gundam is equipped with its beam cannon or beam rifle depending on the model, but most of your fights will end with a beam saber blade.

Dynasty Warriors: Gundam likes to throw a lot of enemy suits at you, but apparently, the AI pilots never graduated from the academy. More often then not, you’ll jump into the middle of a large pile of enemy suits and dispatch them without much resistance, especially if you’re pilot and suit are leveled up. General enemy suits are piloted by morons, but it’s still fun to mow through the and see all the cool combos your mobile suit can perform. You’ll actually have to start using strategy when it comes to fighting ace pilots. Anavel Gato and Johnny Ridden are both huge pains in the ass. And it took me ten tries to finally defeat Char in his Z’Gok. The nice thing about loosing in battle is that you retain all the levels or spare parts you acquired during the campaign.

This is such a fun game, certainly a must for Gundam fanatics such as myself. I really want a sequel and I have a number of suits that I’d love to see in action. I desperately need to pilot an MSA-0011 Ex-S Gundam, MSZ-006 Zeta Plus, RX-93 Nu and Hi Nu Gundams, MSN-04 Sazabi and Nightingale, and a MS-18 Kampfer for good measure. Here’s hoping for more! Until then, Dynasty Warriors: Gundam will have my undivided attention.

SIEG ZION!

[Via Bandai Namco Games]

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Gonna need a little help with this one. I don’t know what a Gackt is, but this video for his song “Returner” is absolutely epic. If he’s not voice acting some equally epic samurai anime, someone aught to fix that. He’s a pretty looking thing, ain’t he.

A quick Wikipedia investigation reveals that Gackt released an album entitle “0079-0088″ with eight tracks all dedicated to Mobile Suit Gundam. Gackt is now the most awesome musician in the entire universe and the unofficial rocker of Angry Zen Master! I must track this thing down and spread the rocking!!

[Via Justice Ace]

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A 12-pound, 32-inch monkey named Idoya in North Carolina made a 200-pound, 5-foot tall humanoid robot walk on a treadmill in Japan with the power of her mind. Electrodes were implanted into Idoya’s brain meats to record 250 neurons that fired when she walked. A camera was also set up to get some visual motion tracking of her walking. The neuron data and motion capture were then translated into a format that the computer could read and then spit out to the robot on the other side of the world. This the first time a robot has been controlled by brain signals.

Although jamming electrodes into my brain meats sounds quite painful, the idea of controlling large mechanical thingies with my mind sounds pretty fucking awesome. If this goes to human trials, it would be interesting to see just how hard you have to think about these processes in order for the system to work. You could almost see a practical application for driving if drivers didn’t get distracted so easily. Still, this mechanical telekinesis could have a lot of practical applications for those who are immobile.

The NYTimes article has some video footage of Idoya and the robot. Monkey pilot FTW!

[Via New York Times]

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Reader Calabris sent me this most awesome link. According to the Japan Science and Technology Agency, the real world cost of building a full-sale 1/1 Gundam would cost $750,000,000 just for the parts. The estimate prices out the costs for Aluminum alloy, an IBM super computer, seven GE gas turbine engines, thirty IHI superconductive motors, thirty motor drivers, thirty reducers, sensors, and a cockpit.

There’s no mention of a Core Fighter so I’m going to assume the estimate is based on building a giant bipedal robot. There’s also no mention of weapons systems or flight capability which I’m sure would bump the cost up quite a bit. Development of the beam saber alone would probably cost a few million. In the Universal Century, Gundanium (damn, got Wing on the mind for some reason) Luna Titanium alloy is used to surface the Mobile Suit, not aluminum as the pricing calls for. I wonder if Gundanium is supposed to be a more affordable material to work with. It’s supposed to be lighter and more durable than current real world metals. Maybe Anaheim Electronics prints its own money.

But the real question is, what is the Japan Science and Technology Agency and how can I sign up? If I get to spend my day coming up with cost estimates to build giant freaking robots, I’m there!

Update: Thanks to Cortharis for the correction on the Luna Titanium. Damn wingers and their damn Gundamimummy.

[Via Gizmodo]

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More robots, more of the time! Reader Dave Reimer sent me this:

Freaking sweet! Remember those robot fighters from a while back? This Shining Gundam is a custom fighter from the MARU Family Mobile Fighter Team. I don’t read Japanese, but if you look at Shining Gundam’s spec page, it looks like he’s powered by Bluetooth.

I can’t understand any of this site, but it looks to me that Team MARU has had quite a lot of success with their King Kizer series of robot fighters. They’ve also posted some tutorials on how to make vacuum form pieces for robot fighters and even have a build-up of the ever so sexy 1/12 scale RX-78 that will someday be mine! No, Audrey won’t notice the human sized Gundam standing in the corner.

[Via MARU Family]

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Reader Kevin Bahrt pointed me to this stub for the next Super Robot Wars game. The next SRW will hit the PS3 and XBOX 360 which is at the same time both quite awesome and quite sad. Awesome, of course, because seeing High Definition super deformed robots in a pan-franchise battle royal is always, ALWAYS, a good thing. I mean, just look at how cutie and deadly SD Crossbone Gundam is:

Can you imagine just how cutie and awesome he would be all shined up for HD?! Freaking awesome!

The sad part is that I have neither a PS3 nor a 360 so I will have to resign myself to watching shitty res videos of this on YouTube.

However, that does not take away the sheer awesomeness of this development. I can’t wait for this next gen SRW to come out. The preview videos alone will kick quite a lot of Super Robot Ass!

Thanks for the link Kevin.

[Via 1up]

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I picked up some really fun Haro Collection Gashapon at Sun Entertainment in Chinatown. I had to resist buying more stuff. San Francisco, why must you tempt me so! Oh, and Audrey stops by to say “Hi.”

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Sorry Hero Yui fans, but it turns out your Gundam Wing was all a sham! A SHAM I SAY! Gundam Wing director Masashi Ikeda revealed in an interview with GFan that Wing was made on a bet:

Masashi Ikeda: “Gundam Wing was a joke, we made it because we knew it would be popular with the public, the anime airing in that time period was all pretty bad, most of the same things seen over and over again in shows. I made a bet with a coworker that I could make a generic, bland, Shounen anime out of something popular like ‘Mobile Suit Gundam’ and it would become popular with the youth of today, just like all the other garbage.”

Gfan: “So what you’re saying is, Wing was never meant to be serious, and has basically been tricking fans for over a decade?”

Ikeda: Yes, although Wing turned out to be a fine anime when compared to other things at the time.

You know, I wonder if Seed was also done on a dare. Hell, seems like most of the recent Gundams were done on a dare. Jury’s still out on Double OO.

[Via Justice Ace]

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