Suidobashi Heavy Industry: Kuratas Gunjap Ver. Do You Like it?
Big Size Images & Link. Customize yours!
Japan came up with Gundam, a huge robot that, along with his driver, protects the world from all sorts of evil, so it is likely that they would come up with KURATAS, a true to life robot that can be manipulated from a cockpit inside.
KURATAS is the creation of a blacksmith iron and steel artist Mr. Kogoro Kurata. And, the mech was opened to orders in October after two and a half years of tinkering around in the workshop.
So just how has demand for KURATAS, which carries a hefty $1.25 million price tag, been?
Mr. Kurata said that he first believed KURATAS would actually sell when he received a message from a wealthy Middle Eastern prince on how wonderful Japan is for making this robot. He believe that if he had a product cool enough for a prince to want, there had to be others out there willing to drop a small fortune on the world’s first purchasable mobile suit.
And he was right: regardless of the ridiculously high price, more than 3000 orders have been placed only a month after they announced the robot was on the market.
While we don’t have specific figures on where those orders are coming from, overall reaction from abroad has been impressive. Here are some comments from foreigners:
“This robot is filled with my dreams” (Brazil)
“Thank you Japan!” (Turkey)
“You can’t beat Japanese toys!” (America)
“I’ll try asking for KURATAS for Christmas!” (America)
The response continues to build from people all over the world, with requests for interviews pouring in as fast as the orders.
Part of the appeal is that you can even customize your KURATAS by choosing weapons and parts from Suidobashi Heavy Industry’s homepage. A handgun for your KURATAS costs $70,000 US, and a carbon shield costs $75,000. A drink holder for your cockpit costs $100 US. You can have fun customizing your very own KURATAS!
The basic specs include an iron made body with two arms and four ‘feet,’ with wheels which it stands on. It has a height of 4 meters and a width of 3 meters, and weighs in at 4.5 tons.
The body includes a cockpit area which allows one person to sit and control KURATAS. The robot can be manipulated by a transformer operation peripheral equipment device in the shape of the robot. It is also possible to control the robot with a touch panel device.
The head of the robot is equipped with a camera, giving the person in the cockpit a robot’s eye view from a monitor. The robot moves are powered by a hydraulically operated diesel engine.
The super specs of KURATAS without customization reached a cost of 1 million 353 thousand US dollars!