Awesome Miniature

Expert modelmaker Luke Towan shows off how he built a tiny HO-scale replica of a Land Rover Defender. What makes the miniature so impressive is that it not only is motorized, but can be remotely controlled to drive along tiny roads. He bought the model in kit form from Tiny 4×4, but it’s definitely an advanced build.

This keychain-sized handheld system plays retro gaming emulators. It features a clamshell design that opens up to reveal a 1.54″ LCD screen, and a gamepad style controller. It runs an ARM Cortex-A7 CPU @ 1.2 GHz, and loads games via its SD card slot. It can run ROMs from NES, SNES, SEGA Master System, and even PS1 games.

Located in Manchester City, UK, Etihad Stadium is one of the most iconic stadiums in Europe. Model maker FoBIRD took about 20 days to fabricate a miniature replica of the football stadium, using wooden skewers as his construction material. He did a great job capturing the facility’s architectural highlights.

Dimitar Tilev shows off a truly awesome R/C car build. This scale replica of a vintage Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 wagon packs an Arduino-controlled active suspension which can raise and lower, along with a rear-wheel drivetrain that makes it especially adept at drifting. We love the engine noises and light-up tailpipes.

Kuma Films sends off Christmas with a bang, shattering ornaments, gingerbread men, gift boxes, and other holiday items with a tiny desktop cannon, and capturing the carnage in glorious slow-motion.

Now that you’ve built your mini video arcade, it’s time to upgrade your tiny Chuck E. Cheese’s with a couple of games that test your strength. Punch King asks you to flick its punching bag as hard as you can with your finger, while Hammer King is all about smashing its button with your fingertip. Each is sold separately.

Miniature model maker HMS2 shows us how to make some ridiculously tiny and accurate replicas of fast food and their packaging from McDonald’s. We love the individual french fries, and how the Coke even has microscopic ice cubes.

Induku’s miniature chess sets are laser cut from baltic birch plywood, and make a great stocking stuffer of bonus gift. Once you pop the pieces out, they hold in place in the cutouts on the board. The set can also be personalized with an engraving up to 40 characters.

If there’s one place you never want to get caught, it’s in a bear trap. But there is one exception to that rule, and that’s this teensy keychain trap built by BrainfooTV. It works just like the real deal, only this one has unsharpened teeth and it’s spring is calibrated to not do harm to any digits that might wander into it.

Maker of miniature things HMS2 walks us through the painstaking process of crafting a snow globe that’s so small it could fit on the tip of your pinky finger. It’s got a tiny winter scene inside of it, and is filled with water and fake polyester snow.

What you’re looking at here is a teensy, tiny, fully-functional steam engine that’s so small that its base is an old copper penny, and some of them have a flywheel made from a shilling coin. The miniature engine can run on steam or compressed air, and was built by Phil Gravett.

This 5″ long stainless steel weapon can fire skinny projectiles like toothpicks, matches, and Q-tips. Its firing range is 15 to 30 feet, and it’s perfect for taking down zombie action figures. Available in silver, gold, or black finishes.

To promote their coffee, Finnish roasters Paulig enlisted the help of filmmaker Lucas Zanotto to create what is more than likely the smallest cup of coffee ever brewed, hand-grinding (er, filing) a single bean of their Kenya AA+ Karindum into a tiny filter and doing a thimble-sized pourover.

By replicating the form of a power drill using a 3D printed model, engineer Lance Abernethy created a tiny drill that measures just 0.67″ long, and holds an spins a tiny 0.5mm drill bit. He’s already working on a smaller version.