THE BEST Awesome

Not too long ago, Colin Furze built himself an incredibly rad, incredibly capable homebrew screw tank. But one thing that it couldn’t do that some military-grade screw tanks can do is float on water. So he’s back to make some mods to improve the balance and buoyancy of his ride, in an attempt to make it seaworthy.

Nature photographers John Downer Productions flew a realistic, robotic hummingbird deep into a forest packed with hundreds of millions of monarch butterflies. The drone captured amazing footage of the swarm as they awoke from their long winter’s nap in Mexico. From the BBC Series Spy in the Wild.

Filmmaker Jan van Ijken captured this amazing microscopic scale time-lapse footage of the development of an amphibious alpine newt. Watch in awe as it grows from a single cell to a complete organism in just 6 minutes. More here.

This impressive LEGO Technic vehicle uses 16 Mindstorms EV3 controllers and 48 motors to drive its tank-like treads along the ground. Its builder, Eric Steenstra says it can tow over 220 pounds, so he likes to use it to pull people in their wheelchairs.

As we learned previously, Dalibor Farný is a true master of the craft of making nixie tubes. In this clip, he shows off the process of making a large, custom tube, that instead of displaying digits, glows with the logo of his client, Keysight Technologies. We want one with The Awesomer logo now!

Korean artist Hoo’s Mini World is an expert at creating sculptures using a 3D drawing pen, along with sanding and carving. In this in-depth video, watch as they build an insanely detailed motorcycle model, which took about three months to complete. More images on Instagram.

Builder Colin Furze shows off one of his craziest vehicles ever, a hydraulic tank that moves across the earth using giant screw threads. It’s the great destroyer of lawns, and makes a horribly muddy mess, but is surprisingly agile and powerful. Check out Colin’s build videos here.

CG artist pedro3dbh’s short film sends us on an epic journey deep within the most mundane of objects, the tip of an ordinary ball-point pen. As the virtual camera zooms deeper and deeper into its structure, we eventually reach the subatomic level.

LEGO Technic machine expert The Brick Wall created an amazing working sawmill that turns long logs into individual pieces of firewood. The wood is delivered on the back of a LEGO truck, then the factory cuts the wood into smaller logs, then splits them into quarters, ready for lighting.

When an airplane encounters just the right weather conditions, its wingtips and propellers can generate visible patterns in the air. Redditor cburnett shared this wild footage of the patterns made by the four props on a Hercules C-130. A google search for “propeller vortexes” turns up more incredible images of the phenomenon.

While Antiques Roadshow was visiting West Fargo, ND’s Bonanzaville, a U.S. Air Force veteran stopped by with a Rolex Oyster Cosmograph watch he purchased in the 1970s for about $350. While that was a lot of money back then, his investment truly paid off, especially since he never wore it, and saved all of the original paperwork.

A look at an incredible handmade structure being used to access and repair damaged temples in Bagan, Myanmar. These scaffolds are constructed entirely from bamboo and coconut husks, yet are apparently strong enough to hold several construction workers.

Hyperspace Lighting’s amazing lamp has a structure made up of full-color LED light strips, set into a cube of one-way mirrored acrylic panels. The result is the coolest infinity lamp we’ve ever seen. It works with a companion mobile app to adjust its lighting effects, and has a sound-reactive mode. Comes in 10″ and 15″ sizes.

Foosball is usually played by 2 to 4 players. But with this ginormous custom table, up to 10 people can play at once. This truly unique game table is built by Coeur d’Alene, Idaho’s Howards Woodshop. It has a metal base, a wood playing field, and comes with a pair of scoreboards. The centerfield logo can be customized.

Builder knexpert06 shows off an incredible creation made using K’Nex construction toys. The 141 foot-long roller coaster has dual tracks so two coasters can race side by side. It took nearly 500 hours to build, but a full lap of the coaster takes just under a minute.

YouTuber Papierfliegerei made a significantly better version of his playful gun. The portable paper plane factory now has a modular construction for easier repair, and is more durable and more powerful. It can make and fire up to 120 paper planes in a minute.

It’s a well-known fact among auto buffs that Formula 1 pit stops are the fastest in racing. And now, thanks to the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing F1 pit crew, we now have the fastest of the fast. Watch in awe as they complete a tire change on driver Max Verstappen’s car during the 2019 Brazilian GP in just 1.82 seconds.

So when you’ve got to dry dock a big ship, you need to get it out of the water somehow. Watch in awe as Boskalis show off their BOKA Vanguard, the world’s largest heavy lift sea vessel. Measuring over 900 feet long, it’s capable of lifting even the enormous Carnival Vista cruise ship.

Artist Bert Hickman creates amazing organic works of art by firing a multimillion volt electron beam into acrylic. The powerful electrical jolt creates lightning bolt patterns inside the plastic. In addition to flat art, he also makes cubes, spheres, and even guitar bodies.

Science and math-based design company Nervous System presents a duo of generative art puzzles inspired by spiral-shelled creatures. Both the 117-piece Ammonite and 307-piece Nautilus puzzles are laser cut from birch plywood, and incorporate a handful of unique pieces that resemble other living organisms.

Hollywood Collectibles Group (HCG) presents an awe-inspiring, life-size replica of the Queen xenomorph from Aliens, as she bursts forth from Level 5 of the starship Sulaco ready to take on Ripley in one final epic battle. The handmade fiberglass sculpture measures 37″h x 32″w x 20″d, and is sure to terrify all who face it.

Mojoptix’s nifty 3D-printed object works like a traditional sundial, casting a shadow as the sun moves overhead, but it displays the time using dot-matrix digits, thanks to some very clever engineering. You can buy a pre-printed version from 3D Expressions on Etsy, or download the STL files on Thingiverse if you’ve got a 3D printer.

Artist JF Lemay is a master at creating awesomely creepy and twisted black and white illustrations. In addition to his still images, his instagram is filled with cool video clips, like this multilayered human, complete with skin, bones, organs, and a special surprise inside.

Electronic Alchemy’s unique 3D printer can output multiple kinds of filaments in a single print, including conductive, resistive, capacitive, and semiconducting ones, allowing it to print out objects with built-in electronic circuits. It’s got eight retractable extruders, so objects can combine up to eight different materials.

While the world certainly can feel like a horrible place some days, it’s videos like these that give us hope for the future. Watch in awe as a man who is paralyzed from the neck down was able to walk and move his arms thanks to a prototype robotic exoskeleton controlled by his own brain. More here.

This fan-built LEGO Godzilla is truly impressive. It took Frenchy Bricks Junky about 4 months to put together this 4,000-piece monster, with its awesome scaly texture. You can purchase the building plans from Rebrickable for about $20 – bricks not included, naturally.