Giant Mechanical Spiders Invade Yokohama

Written By: Ken Hulsey
Source: Wink News

Okay, now when you read a title like, "Giant Mechanical Spiders Invade Yokohama", you would automatically assume that I'm talking about some new Japanese monster film, but I'm not, there really are giant mechanical spiders in Yokohama!

Only the Japanese could come up with a publicity stunt like this. Now normally when a city wants to mark an anniversary, like the 150th anniversary of a port, they do things like have a parade or some other public celebration. Apparently that sort of thing wasn't good enough for Yokohama. Instead of doing the ordinary, the city hired a pair of 40ft tall robot spiders, built by the French company, La Machine, to creep around the town.

Try to visualize this:

Steered by humans perched high on their heads, the mechanical arachnids made their debut last weekend on the Yokohama waterfront, accompanied by piano music and clouds of steam blowing from their fanged mouths.

Giant 40ft tall mechanical spiders with steam coming out of their mouths........I love it!

La Machine's art director Francois Delaroziere said the spider image fits well with the history of the port, "The spider is a representation of the foreigner. She arouses phobias. Our idea is to provoke emotions among the spectators: the spider is a repulsive animal, but it's also a creature that weaves ties."

Apparently, from the above photo, the things can actually climb up buildings, and reportedly they even have taken a trip into the water.

Yokohama residents have been really impressed by the pair of robot arachnids. Local resident, Takuya Yamane, explains, "In the beginning, it's scary. It's exciting because it really looks like a spider when it moves."

Okay, I'm really starting to get scared that we Americans are really falling behind the other nations in technology. The Japanese have human robots, and now the French have giant robot spiders.......not that they would be a threat to us.....they're French.....but still scary to look at anyway.

What if one day the Japanese and the French join forces to form an army of robot soldiers riding giant robot spiders? We would be doomed.

Isn't it about time we started making robots of our own? How about a giant robot T-Rex? That would show everyone wouldn't it?

See Also: The Japanese Now Have Human Robots - How Long Will It Be Until We Are Replaced!