Ever since I was a child, I always had a fascination over Mech Bots, those big bad (or good) robots that fight each other. Almost as tall as buildings, they carry with them an arsenal of swords, missiles, laser rifles, flame throwers, and whatever projectile they can lob at each other. I gobbled up Japanese Mecha, Transformers, Gundam, Voltron; played video games such as Mech Warrior and Titan Fall; and watched Real Steel and Pacific Rim.

I wondered if big fighting robots will happen in my lifetime. It can be if Megabots will be able to raise its required funding on Kickstarter. They want to raise funds to the tune of US$1.8 Million to start the first the Fighting Robot Sports League.

And the kick here is that these are not remote controlled robots. The robots will have human pilots inside and determine the outcome of any match between two piloted robots.  Now, that sounds really fun:

The mad scientists at MegaBots, Inc. have been zealously working on the prototypes and final design of 15-foot-tall, 15,000-pound, walking humanoid combat robots with giant, modular pneumatic cannons for arms. A driver-and-gunner team pilot each MegaBot in a battle against other MegaBots, vehicles, and a variety of other defenses and obstacles in live-action combat – the likes of which the world has only dreamed of through video games and movies.

MegaBots are covered in customizable, breakaway armor plating and fire large, paint-filled projectiles at each other at speeds topping 120 miles per hour. As projectiles hit their targets, armor plates shatter and explode, and computers tally critical hits to the robot’s limbs and torso. As more and more hits are taken, robots start to limp, joints start to seize, weapons start to jam, and after enough damage, limbs are completely blown off. The last MegaBot standing wins!

There you go, a plan to have an arena full of fighting robots, each manned by a gunner and a pilot. Too bad they didn't choose airsoft weapons for the armaments, but we can live with paintballs if these will help in the entertainment value of the MegaBots.

So far, the MegaBots idea has received pledges of over US$19,000 with 29 days to go. But I am curious if they tried to approach the U.S. Military, perhaps DARPA, for funding. US$1.8 million is a very small drop in the bucket of the military budget, and building and watching human-piloted robots fight in an arena can be provided some valuable lessons on further mechanizing warfare.

If you belong to the 1%, then perhaps you can help the people of MegaBots by ordering one of the bots. One would cost US$999,999.99 or you can pay in four installments of US$249,999.99. But of course, if you have that money, you can hire a MegaBot team to be the pilot and gunner too. Still, it would be fun seated inside the robot's cockpit either as a gunner or a pilot.