Awesome Awesome

MammuthWorks‘ huge Rewarron remote-controlled truck measures 78.5″ long, making it 33% of the size of an actual pickup. It’s got a 270cc 1 cyl engine, and an off-road suspension. While its price tag may be hard to swallow, it’s still less than 1/3rd the price of a real truck.

This video of Max Miller walking in a see-through swimming pool is both awe-inspiring and terrifying. A plexiglass section of the swimming pool is cantilevered off the roof of Houston’s Market Square Tower 44 stories (appx. 500 feet) above ground level.

Artist Tim Bengel shows off the making of the first of his works from his upcoming Monuments exhibition – an incredible large-scale piece which appears out of nothing, after painstakingly dusting a sticky surface with black and white sand grains and gold leaf.

A truly unique chess set that uses old-school nixie tubes as its game pieces. Each tube displays a symbol on top representing its position, and they glow without wires or plugs thanks to wireless inductive power. Also available as a DIY Kit for about $300 less.

An awesome fan-made mod for the SEGA Genesis game Sonic the Hedgehog 2, adding one of Nintendo’s heroes. The hack lets you play as Yoshi, along with his abilities from Yoshi’s Island. If you’re willing to download random files from the internet, enjoy.

A thorougly clever design for a sign which can transform from reading “open” to “closed” while fully concealing the letters which are currently not in use. You can download the designs to 3D print your own over on Thingiverse.

Red Bull presents a mindblowing compilation of footage of daring surfers riding (and wiping out) on some of the incredible waves at Nazaré, Portugal, which can reach heights of 100 feet or more during peak swells.

Miso Robotics‘ “Flippy” can automatically identify burgers and other items on the griddle, and flip them at the right time. It’s rolling out to the CaliBurger chain over the next couple of years, and eventually will help line cooks with other tasks. We want a Mise en place bot.

Way more than an ordinary player piano, this incredible contraption is called the Hupfeld Phonoliszt-Violina. It can play a set of three violins using a special rotating circular bow, and dozens of mechanical “fingers” which press on the strings. More here and here.

A team of mechanical engineers from BYU have developed a lightweight, foldable shield which can protect multiple law enforcement and emergency personnel from gunfire. Made from 12 layers of Kevlar, it weighs about 40% less than the cumbersome shields used today.

Scientists from Disney Research are working on tech which uses something called “quasistatic cavity resonance” to emit magnetic fields that can safely deliver up to 1900 watts of wireless power to devices placed anywhere in a room. It’s still in its infancy, but the result is awesome.

♫ Iced hazelnut latte… with soy milk ♫ Vanity Fair managed to coax Michael Bolton into working behind the counter at Los Angeles coffee shop Alfred {Coffee + Kitchen}, where he was tasked with using his golden pipes to sing customers’ drink orders when they were ready.

Michael Cthulhu’s build videos are far more exhaustive than other weapon making videos, but we enjoyed being a fly on the wall in his metal shop, and hearing his him explain his thought process as he created a weighty replica of the Sun Keeper mace from Diablo III.

Forgotten Weapons examines a very special weapon. This ornate double-barrel handgun is not only covered with intricate gold inlay and engraving, it has 20 bullet chambers, and a really interesting firing mechanism. It ended up selling for $34,500 at auction.

We always thought a Sharknado was implausible, it turns out that a similar phenomenon really does occur in nature. BBC Earth’s Blue Planet shows us hows swarms of anchoveta fish assemble into massive swirling schools to fend off predators.

Using a spoon, some nuts and bolts, and a few strong Pot magnets, Magnetic Games shows us how to build a desktop catapult which can launch projectiles with the push of a thumb. The more powerful the magnets, the further it will throw objects. Original design here.

For their latest concert, Rockin 1000 gathered more than 1000 singers, drummers, bassists, guitarists, and generally awesome people got together to rock out an epic performance of Nirvana’s 1991 classic, Smells Like Teen Spirit.

MudbrainsTvDIY gives us a brief glimpse at an amazing build – he replicated the T-800 arm that Miles Dyson had in Terminator 2. It’s made entirely from cardboard, glue, and varnish. If you’ve got about 7 hours to spare, you can watch how he built it, step by laborious step.

A crazy cool modular single-voice analog synthesizer that’ll have you cranking out fat beats, crunchy noises, and amazing electronic sounds for your musical creations. It works completely standalone, or can be controlled by studio apps, sequencers, or keyboards via MIDI.

For their scene in the feature-length Robocop remake, Ghostlight built this fantastic replica of the villanous, but flawed ED-209 robot from the original Robocop. But instead of just being a static mockup or a scale model, this one is full size, and can be walked in by a puppeteer.

It might be officially called a Wacker Neuson Hydrostatic Trowel, but these ride-on machines are like a zamboni for concrete, smoothing and finishing the building material, thanks to water jets and fan blades which spin just above the surface. (Thanks Kathy!)

This scale model of an EC-135 ADAC Notarzt Christoph 33 helicopter is so ridiculously huge that it might as well be the real thing. It weighs in at about 108 pounds, has an 11.5 foot rotor diameter, and gets its lift from a turbine engine. Skip to 3:45 to watch it take off.

YouTuber BANANENBUURMAN loves to build over-the-top dioramas and environments using a LEGO model train as his main form of transportation. He’s built a set that runs through an aquarium tunnel, a ridiculously long track, and even figured out how to do a loop de loop.