When technology gets refined, our quality of life is not the only aspect that improves; it also affects the way we express ourselves creatively, including turning our dreams into reality. One may ask whether all dreams are worthy of this treatment. At least Japanese companies certainly think so. After functional mechas, we are getting Pokémon in real life, or at least a couple of them. The Koraidon and Miraidon projects are futuristic motorcycles built by Honda and Toyota, respectively, blurring the line between childhood dreams and innovation.
From inspiration to reality
It all began with the yearly expo called Wakuwaku World (World of Excitement) in Japan. During its 2023 expo, they asked elementary school children what the future mobility of their dream is. Among 8,000 ideas, a child’s proposal of the Pokémon, Miraidon, was picked to be the prototype for the expo in collaboration with the Pokémon Company. A year later, Honda decided to do the same with Koraidon. The addition brings to reality both legendary Pokémon from the Scarlet and Violet games, appeasing fans of both.
Miraidon
Of course, being faithful to the original designs while making functional products was not an easy task. Miraidon’s design is based on a futuristic motorcycle. It has a slender tail that needs to turn into the rear wheel. The motorcycle also has slender legs. Engineers found it hard to fit all the necessary wiring into them, but ultimately succeeded.
Koraidon
Honda’s case is a bit different; Koraidon represents a motorcycle in ancient times. Compared to its counterpart, it doesn’t run on wheels but on legs. Despite that, Honda was able to keep the design of the legs in such a way that it can hide its wheels. They built a motorcycle capable of self-balancing thanks to first-party balancing technology, something that they had initially unveiled for humanoid robots in 2017.
Pokémon in real life
Both the Koraidon project and the Miraidon project also include innovations such as motorcycles changing forms and facial expressions. This is in the hopes of reproducing the Pokémon not only visually, but also having an almost one-to-one reproduction while keeping them rideable. Beyond its function as a motorcycle, having a robotic Pokémon coupled with advanced AI would be a dream come true.
Photo Credit: All images are owned by The Pokémon Company and have been made available for press usage.
Sources: The Pokémon Company / Honda
