Sophisticated Science kit series for adults

[den4]

saw this on boing-boing...
a whole bunch of mechanized goodies for sale...fun for the whole family, I guess, if you don't mind dishing out $100 per unit...


http://kids.gakken.co.jp/kit/otona/vol10.html
Stunning little $100 automatons
Picture 1-1 These Japanese language website sells some incredible-looking science projects. The only English words on the site are "Sophisticated Science Kit Series for Adults." The Karakuri puppets they sell are scale reproductions of actual historical Japanese automatons, and the videos are stunning.

Greg sez: "Following the link to Gakken's toy site mentioned in your recent post regarding the phonograph kit, I was excited to see a working model of the bow-shooting boy (hiki douji kara kuri ningyou). Be sure to check out the video.

During a recent trip to Japan, I saw a television show about about these--no, not the toys, the original automatons. (The real one is much larger than this model.) I was amazed at the complexity of that machine. I am even more amazed that they have replicated the function in a tiny model that costs only $100!

other links: http://kids.gakken.co.jp/kit/otona/mechamo.html
http://kids.gakken.co.jp/kit/otona/karakuri.html

[Hiroyuki Nagashima]

I know this.
This robot is a robot of the 16th century.
Technology of the Japanese clocks which came out of Western clock technology in the 16th century is incorporated, and it is thought that this technology sublimated as "a mechanism doll" (an automatic doll) in the Edo era.
There was a how-to book of "a mechanism doll" in the Edo era, and a commoner seems to have made "a mechanism doll".
Now many people make "a robot".
http://www.robot-labs.jp/products.html

http://www.ntv.co.jp/wrs/renewal/robot/20050123/main.html
http://www.rakuten.co.jp/tsukumo/