Gunma's Mecha Maker Is Back With A New Giant Robot

It's been 13 years since Masaaki Nagumo and Sakakibara Machinery Works unveiled the Gundam-inspired 3.4 meter tall land-walker mecha. It retailed for 36 million yen (US$334,000) at the time and was able to walk and fire soft foam bullets.


This would only be the beginning, and Sakakibara Machinery followed up its first mecha for a pint-sized, kid-friendly version in 2015 called the Kid's Walker Cyclops for US$20,000.


Now the company has something new for real robot fans, the 28-foot tall LW-Mononofu.

The 16,000-pound bi-pedal behemoth spent six years in development and is currently available for rent at Sakakibara Machinery's facilities.


The newest robot is equipped with an airgun like the one seen on the original Landwalker, a glowing headlight, and a head piece inspired by Samurai armor.


Giant robots, like Suidobashi Heavy Industry's million-dollar Kuratas, helped get international attention after MegaBots creators Matt Oehrlein and Gui Cavalcanti completed a successful Kickstarter campaign to create their become Eagle Prime battlebot. Eagle Prime and Kuratas duked it out in October in hopes to usher in a Giant Fighting Robot League. Is the LW-Mononofu up to snuff to compete?