Friday, December 05, 2014

Hebocon: The Robot Contest for Dummies



Hebocon is a robot battle in Japan that focuses on low-tech, crappy robots. In fact, entrants are penalized for any hi-tech features- and there’s a trophy for the lowest-tech robot in the competition! What remains are conglomerations of cheap toys and motors made for other purposes. The fun of the contest takes precedence over winning, and the entrants even help each other out. The resulting video is a joyous celebration of failure. 

For the English captions, the robots were introduced with descriptions: Pole Dancing as a Weapon, Sweeping Foes with a Dust Pan, Addressing the Stupidity of Fighting, Sushi-go-round of the Future, Speeds Up as the Cow is Lowered, and more. My favorite was the soup-packet-shaking robot we first see at about 2:10. (via Daily of the Day)

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