From Voltron to the advanced the advanced mind-melded Jaegers of Pacific Rim, science fiction has regularly shown us that we humans love to daydream about piloting giant, humanoid mechs. But, while we might be a long way away from being able to pilot anything as advanced as the Legendary Defender, a team of engineers is cooking up something pretty special at a lab in South Korea.
We’ve known for some time now that Korean Tech group Hankook Mirae has been developing a 13ft tall, 1.3 ton mech, but at the end of 2016, the project took an exciting step forward….literally.
Last month, the Method-2 machine took its first steps with a human pilot onboard, and the resulting footage will make you feel like your wildest sci-fi dreams have come true. The video above shows the awesome scale of the machine as it lumbers cautiously through the lab. Unfortunately, Method-2’s awesome size has led to a number of development issues, not least the fact that engineers are yet to find a power source capable of fueling it without a tether. Once that particular hurdle has been overcome, it’s hoped that Method-2 can be used for emergency relief efforts in environments too dangerous for humans to operate in without protection.
Thanks to a helping hand from Hollywood SFX designer, Vitaly Bulgarov, Method-2’s design has captured the imaginations of sci-fi fans everywhere, with many suggesting this is the closest thing we’ll ever get to a real-life Gundam. Sure, it might not be as mobile as anything dreamed up in Hollywood, but we imagine that even Pacific Rim’s Jaeger program had to start somewhere.
It’s not just the machine’s legs that are fully mobile, either. You can see Bulgarov testing out Method-2’s arms in the video below. As a side note, those arms weigh a massive 286 pounds!
Though it’s still in the early stages of development, it’s clear from these videos that this is a project that could one day make a big impression on the world….and fulfill some serious childhood fantasies in the process.
