When we first saw the RoboBuilder humanoid robot from Megarobotics, we thought it was pretty neat, but had some concerns about the durability of the plastic body parts, especially since we like to get down and dirty, ROBO-ONE style, with our humanoids.
Now, according to the folks over at RoboSavvy, there are plans to release a metal bracket set for the RoboBuilder. Not only will this improve the robots durability, it should also open the door for some interesting hacks and mods. Metal brackets are a lot easier to fabricate or modify in a home workshop.
The robots price point is competitive, and should put a lot of pressure on older kits that are getting long in the tooth - like the Robonova-1. And, with metal brackets, it should also provide some competition for the higher end kits like the Kondo KHR series and the MANOI robots from Kyosho.
We're really anxious to see how the RoboBuilder is accepted by fans in the robot community, and how long it will be before we start to see them show up at robot events and competitions.