Awesome Russia

Before you start scratching your head, Tetris doesn’t feature a bunch of animated anthropomorphic puzzle blocks. Instead, it’s based on the true story of the man who invented it, the publisher who discovered it, and the hurdles he faced in licensing it from the USSR for Nintendo’s Game Boy handheld. Coming to Apple TV+ 3.31.23.

Engineer Eduard Luzyanin created this wild ride that combines a motorcycle and a tank. The Hamyak is a single-seat vehicle that’s propelled by a rolling track. It can reach speeds of 27mph, though, without suspension or steering, you’re probably going to want to go slower. EXROADmedia has video footage of this oddity in action.

Normally, if you want a mural on your wall, you need to paint it. But the guys at Russia’s Cool Print SPB have a computer-controlled rig that does all the hard work. The machine rides on rails and then moves along the wall like a gigantic inkjet printer, outputting large-scale, full-color images. Longer tracks = wider images.

With locations in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia, the Museum of Soviet Arcade Machines is filled with vintage arcade machines that date back to the Soviet era. Incredibly, the machines have all been restored and are playable. Baklykov. Live takes us on a tour of the museum, its machines, and other artifacts.

Russian Stuntman Evgeny Chebotarev is like a modern-day Evel Knievel, performing insanely dangerous and literally back-breaking stunts. In this absolutely bonkers video, he managed to fly all the way through a van that was moving at 50 mph. He wasn’t the one that was moving, just the van was. Here’s another angle.

With a record low temperature of -64.4°C (-83.9°F), Yakutsk, Russia, is known as the coldest city in the world. Local resident Kiun B braved the outdoors on a typically chilly winter day to perform six experiments to show just how quickly stuff freezes there. We need to try that banana hammer trick here in Chicago.

Are you sick and tired of people driving too slow in the passing lane? Perhaps this will convince them to move over. This Russian mechanic modded a Lada, replacing its headlights with a pair of road-clearing flamethrowers. We can only hope that it’s operated by honking the horn.

This low-budget Russian take on Gymkhana may not be as slick as those Ken Block videos, but it’s just as entertaining. It starts out a little slow, as our protagonist heads into the woods in his jalopy, foraging for mushrooms, but once the drugs kick in, things get good. Impatient? Skip ahead.

The guys from Russian car hacking channel Garage 54 have outdone themselves with this crazy build. After cutting the driver’s side off one Lada and the passenger side off another, they tinkered with the mechanicals and welded them together. The result is a ridiculous extra-wide Lada that needs two drivers to steer. Part 2 here.

Equipped with a DJI Mini 2 drone, photographer Vadim Sherbakov takes us on an eye-opening journey to Siberia’s Lake Baikal. The area is known for its beautiful rock formations, which are even more dramatic when covered with snow and ice. The film’s title is the Buryat word for lake, a tribute to the area’s indigenous people.

The Osipov State Russian Folk Orchestra is best known for their classic Russian tunes, but they also enjoy the occasional rock and roll song. Here, their balalaika section performs a cover of the 1971 Led Zeppelin classic Stairway to Heaven. We had no idea that a contrabass balalaika was a thing.

The Mandalorian’s gunship, the Razor Crest, didn’t fare very well by the end of season two, but it still has a place in our hearts. A group of dedicated Star Wars fans in Yakutsk, Siberia built a 13-foot-tall replica of the ship out of wood and foam panels, and while it’s not likely to be space-worthy, it does look awesome.

Russian home renovator and tile installer Masterplitka shows off a really impressive bit of construction from one of their bathroom projects. At first glance, this looks like an ordinary tile-covered wall, but it’s quickly revealed that a section is concealing hidden pipes and valves, presumably for a steam shower.

After seeing an image of a vehicle that had car wash soap stuck to it in freezing temperatures, Garage 54 decided to try and replicate the effect. For their cold-weather experiment, they sprayed their Hummer with foam in the -40º deep freeze outside their shop, turning the SUV into a fuzzy pink nightmare.

Filmmakers Vincent Urban, Max Neumeier & Tim David Höddinghaus of 27km created this amazing short film that offers a glimpse into the vast and varied nation of Russia. From the cosmopolitan chaos of Moscow to the icy and unspoiled Lake Baikal, the film is like a candy sampler box packed with all kinds of tasty visuals.

Sergey Vasiliev decided he had enough of the old “in Soviet Russia” trope which represents his country as technologically backward. Incorporating some clever visual effects, his brilliant short film imagines a Russian farm where everything is running on the latest tech. The footage reminds us of the work of Simon Stålenhag.