I went to the world's largest electronics market to build a fighter

Where do you actually buy robot parts in Shenzhen? I walked into Huaqiangbei with a 13-item list for a desktop fighting robot, and one counter had everything — in 26 minutes, for ¥200 in parts (~$27) plus ¥100 in tools. The list: 3 metal-gear servos (MG995/MG996), metal brackets, motors and wheels, a 5V 5A buck converter, a 1000µF capacitor, two 18650 batteries with a protection board, a solderless breadboard, Dupont wires, USB-C cables, a boat toggle switch, plus a soldering iron and a digital multimeter. Total: ¥300 (~$42). The part everyone gets wrong online: you can't tell metal gears from plastic gears from a photo. At the counter, you shake them, you listen, you test the servo spin right there. That's the one real advantage of buying in person — and why I don't source online anymore. Huaqiangbei sees 750,000 visitors a day, 7,000 of them foreign buyers. Most vendors will add WeChat and ship — you don't need to fly back to buy more. And the same street has a Saturday robot boxing league and a brain-computer interface application center. The future isn't a headline here. It's a Tuesday. This is EP1 of a desktop fighting robot series. Next: I build it. Parts list, transcript, and FAQ: https://techvoyagetours.com/guides/hu... Book a Huaqiangbei sourcing tour with a local host: https://techvoyagetours.com/tours/fut... #huaqiangbei #robotparts #shenzhen #chinatravel #robotaxi #humanoidrobot #diyrobot #maker #sourcing #electronicsmarket