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Holy heck, these Japanese hobbyists are building a 12-foot-tall pilotable mech

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Microsoft Kinect has been used for some novel hacks, but this is straight out of Ghost In The Shell. Meet Vaudeville, a twelve-foot-tall, five-ton mecha that’s manipulated using Kinect, or that XBox peripheral commonly known for its embarrassing dance party games.

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A group of Tokyo mecha enthusiasts are building this imposing machine with large mitts, but don’t expect heavy firepower here. Once completed, Vaudeville’s primary weapon will be an optional water gun, a far cry from a positron sniper rifle. (The engineers also offer to equip Vaudeville with a mop, as a comically impractical “home cleaning robot.”)

The designers are looking to sell Vaudeville once it’s complete, in hopes of attracting that untapped demographic of consumers who desperately crave their own dubiously street legal giant robots. Check out a concept model of Vaudeville below, along with some shots of this bonkers work-in-progress. It reminds me of the Tachikoma crossed with some old-school BattleTech designs.

[Suidobashi Heavy Industry via Plastic Pals]

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