Carlos Owens had a girlfriend, but a robot stole his heart. It was the long nights of tinkering that did it - the ironworker labored for two years on the 3,000-pound, 18-foot-tall fiberglass-and-steel exoskeleton. Now the girlfriend is history, and the bot - dubbed NMX04-1A, or Ultra Mega Man - lives behind his house in Wasilla, Alaska.
It was all worth it, including the $20,000-plus price tag. How many guys can say they have their own flame-throwing mech? Piloting from inside the torso, Owens operates the limbs with a hydraulic control system. In tests this spring, he got it to take baby steps, moving forward 6 inches at a time. "This was just my first prototype," Owens says. "My next mech won't have any of the flaws of this one."
The upgrade: Mech 2.0, a $40,000 hottie, which he's designed to kick Ultra Mega Man's metal ass. "To see these colossal machines doing battle in an arena," he says, "would be the single most defining sign of the times that humanity has ever known in the world of sports." But will it have flamethrowers? Hell yes. And lasers, too. As Owens notes on his Web site, "What's the point of having a giant robot if you can't blow stuff up with it?" Seriously.
- Kari Lynn Dean
Carlos Owens
Backyard Bot-B-Q: Ultra Mega Man throws flames in this video shot behind creator Carlos Owensé home in Wasilla, Alaska.
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Cruising at 12,666 Miles Per Gallon
My Robot Can Shoot Fire
