Want to make sure the American-made MegaBot defeats Japan? Donate now

OAKLAND, Calif.—The mad roboticists behind MegaBots, the ambitious project that brought a MechWarrior to life, now have launched a Kickstarter campaign in preparation for their upcoming 2016 battle with a rival Japanese team and its “Kuratas” bot.

The group hopes to raise $500,000, with a “stretch goal” of $1.5 million. As of this writing the team has raised around $60,000. So why should fans donate?

“Because we’re going to make history, and it will be the most patriotic dollars that they can spend in 2015,” Brinkley Warren, a co-founder, told Ars with pride. “So far we changed out one of the arm cannons, and we installed a t-shirt machine gun launcher.”