Toku Toku Maru Brings Joy for Christmas (Video)
Azusa Amino, the creator of Toku Toku Maru and one of the top ROBO-ONE humanoid designers since his college days, has a wonderful sense of humor and unbridled creativity. His talents extend far beyond robotics. It seems like he is constantly exploring new technology applications and building leading edge devices, like multi-prop autonomous helicopters.
Since the recent Robot Pro Wrestling Dekinnoka 10! event was held on Christmas Day, and he knew that there would be lots of robot loving children in the audience, he came up with a surprising, and surprisingly cute, fusion of robots, technology, and the spirit of the season.
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Looking Back – ROBO-ONE 10 Nagai, Japan (Photo Gallery)
It's the end of the year, so I've been reviewing, organizing, and cleaning up old files. Some of the images, like the shot of Toku Toku Maru taken at the ROBO-ONE 10 competition in 2006 in Nagai, Japan, brought back great memories that I wanted to share them with you.
2006 ROBO-ONE 10 Nagai - a set on Flickr
Robot Pro Wrestling Dekinnoka 10! – Nagare Gold vs. Thunderbolt (Video)
It isn't an accident that Nagare Gold bears a distinct resemblance to Godzilla in robot form. In fact, it even roars like Godzilla. But Thunderbolt, the latest creation of ROBO-ONE humanoid robot designer Yoshihiro Shibata, doesn't get intimidated easily. And, he's got a few tricks up his sleeve - or, more accurately, mounted on the top of his head. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but you would be well advised to watch the video of their Robot Pro Wrestling match below very closely around the 5:50 mark.
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Robot Pro Wrestling Dekinnoka 10! Main Event
As I mentioned before, Christmas Day for me here in Japan involved one of the most over-the-top robot events in the world, Robot Pro Wrestling Dekinnoka 10!
The competition is pure robot entertainment, a robotized version of professional wrestling that includes all of the fun, excitement, thrills, and laughs of its human counterpart. The major difference is that no blood is spilled and no brains are scrambled.
Luckily, I had a ringside seat for the Main Event, pitting MONSTER against SAAGA, and am able to share the video with you below.
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Saturday Afternoon Robot Chat (Photos)
I spent a great afternoon down in Kanagawa learning all about the DARwin-OP humanoid robot from Sugiura-san and Shibata-san. Sugiura, one of the top independent design engineers responsible for leading-edge wind turbine equipment, is most well known to robot fans as the creator of the Dynamizer series of ROBO-ONE championship robots.
Shibata, who recently joined the Sugiura Machine Design Office, is a ROBO-ONE humanoid robot designer in his own right as well as having managed the design of several Kondo KHR-series robot kits. Earlier this year he expanded his activities internationally by winning top honors at RoboGames 2011.
I'll post the details of our afternoon discussion, including a lot of their insights and experience with DARwin-OP, in the next day or two. In the meantime, here are some of the photos we took:
(Via Sugiura Machine Design Office.)
After The Battle – Maru-san (King Kizer)
Maru-san (King Kizer) rushing to catch the Shinkansen after the IREX 2011 ROBO-ONE event.
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