Battlemech for sale, One careful owner

Written by Jason Cundall

July 12, 2005 | 13:47

Tags: #mech

Companies: #ebay

The nights are long and cold in Alaska. What better way to while away those dark hours than build your own, fully functional mecha? It's what Carlos Owens did, and now he's offering you the chance to buy it on eBay, if you can stump up at least $40,000 US plus the eight grand shipping fee:

The 18-foot-tall giant in steelworker Carlos Owens' Alaska backyard isn't quite up to smashing Volkswagens--or taking the kind of pounding footsteps that might strike fear into the heart of an enemy.

With a rumbling gasoline engine and creaking hydraulic joints (not to mention flame spouting from its fists), the red steel monster is limited to taking a young child's few tottering steps. That's not quite enough to sell the military on its worth. But it's a start.

Unfortunately for Owens, who has spent almost $25,000 and two years building this homebrewed "mech"--think giant robot, but controlled by a pilot inside--it's also an end, at least for this version. With little room left to improve it, he's shutting down work and selling it on eBay.


More from news.com here.

It's a little underpowered (more Locust than BattleMaster), and only sports flamethrowers for weaponry - but whoever buys it will be helping fund the next step in mecha evolution, as Carlos plans on building a second better machine. I vote for jump jets in the next one. Death from above!

Discuss the lamentable lack of large stompy robot R&D in our news forum here.
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