Awesome

Tested dropped by Monsterpalooza 2018, where artists and showed off some amazing creature creations, not the least of which being Pat Magee’s incredibly disturbing take on Despicable Me’s normally adorable minions. Pat’s kids must win Halloween every year.

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.

Hypnotic and wonderfully-satisfying footage of a high-speed laser engraver rapidly etching an intricate geometric pattern into a metal disc. Z-Tech Lasers‘ video wasn’t sped up either, and was shot in real time.

LEGO Certified Professional Ryan “The Brickman” McNaught and his team recently completed this replica of NASA’s SLS Rocket. The model measures nearly 25 ft tall, weighs 1100+ lb, and was built using 460,323 LEGO bricks, and took over 563 hours to complete.

Bob Products makes these large-scale professional displays which use electromagnets to play with the strange and unusual properties of ferrofluid. The systems can be programmed to manipulate the magnets and fluid while displaying lighting and sound effects.

YouTuber 3D Printing!!! shows off a build that simply wouldn’t have been possible without 3D Printing!!! – a motorized R/C tank with a cockpit based on the skull of the mighty T-Rex. We want one of these for our office so badly.

JohnnyQ90 shows off a sweet miniature gas-powered stirling engine. It’s powerful enough to spin a propellor to nearly 2,000 RPM, so keep your fingers away. While Johnny made the turbine fan, he’s quick to point out that you can buy the engine itself from Banggood.

We’re completely mesmerized by this little machine – the Orlandi RAP 10 trimmer – whose sole purpose in life is to take unkempt natural shrubberies, and trim them into perfectly groomed, spherical bushes. Skip to 3:20 for the Edward Scissorhands action.

Rails? We don’t need no stinkin’ rails! That’s what this little toy train is clearly thinking as it somehow manages to continue its journey even when the tracks come to a sudden end. Thanks for the nudge, Mr. Wall!

Make: author Caleb Kraft came across this nifty plaything by Mike’s Electric Stuff, which uses sensors and a cylindrical grid of LEDs that simulate falling snow or sand as it’s flipped end-over-end. Mike needs to turn this thing into a toy you can buy. He’d sell thousands.

A video has been making the rounds showing what it’s like to open an airplane slide from the passengers’ point of view. That’s interesting and all, but this clip of a slide being opened without an airplane attached is far more entertaining. Stabilized version here.

“This skill is quite easy to do…” yeah, riiiight. Archer Lars Andersen demonstrates techniques which allow him to shoot arrows around objects and people, over walls, and even ones that turn like a boomerang. And here we thought shooting in a straight line was tricky.

Wolf Zipp shows off his working scale model of the SLJ 900/32 Wowjoint, a machine used to transport and place large sections of bridges. it has pneumatic lifts, wheels that can drive in any direction, and a cantilever system for crossing bridge pillars. It’s not fast, but it is impressive.

Check out this crazy invention – the awesomely named “Multi Headed Nut Wizard.” It’s a garden tool designed for easily picking up fallen tree nuts and small fruit on the ground, even when they’re scattered in leaves. It appears to be an amped-up version of this tool.

Animator Eran Hilleli shows off an awesome work-in-progress system which allows him to animate the movements of a character using a series of faders and knobs, not unlike a sound mixing console. The system is based on code by keijiro takahashi. We want this now.

Footage of an amazing machine in a quarry in Malta, which makes quick work of cutting slabs of stone using a pair of deadly looking saw blades which slice through the hard material like a hot knife through butter. The guy walking alongside better watch his step.

Does machine automation give you a thrill? Then tune in now for 10 minutes of robot porn, recorded by HD1080ide at Hannover Messe 2017, where robots poured beer, wielded lightsabers, lifted cars, played air hockey, and secretly conspired to take over the world.

Graphic and motion designer Vinicius Araujo envisioned iconic industrial designs from electronics brands as Helvetica letter forms corresponding to their brand names. We’d love to see actual products designed this way. Check out the full alphabet in his Behance portfolio.

By strapping a turbine powered delta wing R/C plane to a catapult, these guys were able to fly a model aircraft at speeds up to 451 mph, making it nearly as fast as a full-size jet plane. We’re impressed that the pilot was able to control and land it.

Darwinfish105 has been capturing eye-popping images of the new giant Mobile Suit Unicorn Gundam statue being erected outside of DiverCity Mall in Tokyo’s Odaiba district. The statue is the second Gundam to stand on the spot after the first one was dismantled last year.

We were really wondering how director Max Ksjonda created the mindblowing visuals in his clip Samoliot for the group 5’Nizza. Well, now we have the answer – it was mostly done in camera, with amazing prop work and rigging which was later cleaned up in post-production.

GoldPointProps walks us through the process of creating an incredible replica of the Dark Lord’s infamous head gear using sheet metal, bending tools, tin snips, an arc welder, a Dremel, and a heaping helping of elbow grease.

Just because you have a fancy fire suppression system in place doesn’t mean it will work when you need it. To ensure their system is fully functional, the Fort Indiantown Gap Army Reserve switched on the extinguisher system in their new helicopter maintenance facility.

Engineers from MIT Media Lab’s Tangible Media Group developed a unique tangible interface – a modular system which can change shape and color, and detect inputs anywhere along its surfaces. If we ever need a robotic pet snake or caterpillar, we know who we’re calling.

It may not be the most sonically pleasing instrument, but the engineering behind Josh Sheldon’s build makes up for it. The organ uses 49 stepper motors which spin backwards against variably-sized disks, producing waves of electrical current which can be amplified.