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Giant Fighting Robot Being Built In Hayward Set For Battle In Japan

HAYWARD (KPIX 5) -- The next generation of giant fighting robots is being built in a Hayward warehouse.

"We want to bring everybody's childhood dreams that feature the robots of science fiction to reality," Matt Oehrlein with Megabots told KPIX 5.

The new robot called the Mark 3 is mostly under wraps. It will be slightly taller than the old robot - the 15-foot tall Mark 2.

The weaponry will be upgraded, as the team prepares for a mega fight against another giant robot in Japan.

"The Japan team accepted and but they wanted some amount of hand-to-hand weaponry. Originally we only had range weapons and so that's part of the reason why we're building a whole new robot," Oehrlein said.

The Megabot is operated by a human who sits in what is essentially the torso of the robot, in an area called the cockpit.

They're doing some testing to make sure the cockpit is safe.

The new Megabots YouTube series shows just how serious they are.

"We want to make it as destructive and entertaining to watch as possible, while still being safe," Oehrlein said.

Megabots has not yet revealed the date of the fight against Japan.  But, once that epic battle is complete, they hope it will become the future of sports.

"We want eight, 10, 16 of these robots to roll into a stadium, to battle each other in front of 60,000 people at a time," Oehrlein said.

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