Awesome Vintage

It tooks some work to modify this 1880 still camera lens to fit a Sony A7II, but the results captured in Mathieu Stern’s Weird Lens Challenge experiment produced a wonderfully ethereal and dreamy look, while still maintaining an impressive amount of detail.

IDIDTHAT creates whimsical and functional art by reclaiming vintage objects. They have lots of cool stuff in their Etsy shop, but our favorites are these old rotary phones from the 1950s and 1960 which have been converted to desk lamps. Their coiled cords can be bent into various positions, and their LED light source is nice and bright.

There are few things more satisfying than watching old, rusted out objects made good as new by talented restoration artists. In this clip from Odd Tinkering, he takes a 1970’s era Tonka toy dump truck, and gives the yellow plaything a fresh new lease on life. Scrubbing off the old paint looks like a particularly satisfying task.

Originally released all the way back in 1876 by Andrew Dougherty, these classic playing were the first known cards to feature a dragon back. They also have a unique “triplicate” feature – a tiny card icon in the corners of each card, verifying its suit and value. Choose from red or blue backs.

This little gem dates back to 2011, when Intromix decided to sell his vintage Bode 7702 Vocoder. Rather than just show some pictures of the device, he decided to perform a little sales pitch with the analog wonder. Perhaps he was inspired by its creator.

Tom Scott headed to Hull, Massachusetts to check out Paragon Boardwalk, one of the world’s few remaining Fascination parlors, in which players compete in a game that’s somewhere between an early version of pinball and Skee-ball to win actual money.

When TV shows and movies want to go back in time, they head to an unlikely place, the LES Ecology Center. This Brooklyn, NY urban sustainability organization has found a new use for old E-Waste, operating a prop shop housing thousands of retro gadgets.

VirtualArmory introduces us to one of the more unusual medieval weapons. It starts out as a sort of walking stick, but flips open to reveal a set of deadly blades. It might not have been the most practical design, but it’s sure an awesome bit of 13th century engineering.

A brief demonstration of a rare piece of office equipment c. 1953. The Keaton Music Typewriter made it relatively easy to create sheet music much in the same way you’d type a letter. If you made a mistake, however, you’d have to wait until 1956 for correction fluid to be invented.

A fantastic addition to any home, artist Rory Rundle’s handmade sign looks like it landed from a 1950s amusement park. It’s made from bent sheet metal with a distressed paint finish, and looks great lit up with vintage bulbs. Measures roughly 6′(w) x 6′(h) x 11″(l)

These days, millions of cars are equipped with dashcams to record incidents on the road. But check out this black and white film footage from a camera mounted first on the front, then on the rear of a car as it drives through Manhattan more than 70 years ago.

Two drivers set off on an amazing adventure in a wonderful classic car. Their route? A 13,000 kilometer ride in the Peking to Paris Rally in a 1941 Chevrolet Business Coupe, nicknamed “Boomba.” Plus, they did it for a good cause, raising money for young womens’ education.

We can’t imagine how much work it took Alexey Zakharov to create his short film, in which he created entirely new moving pictures using antique still photos digitally projection mapped onto 3D models.

Modern hammer drills get their name because they provide short, sharp, hammering action to help make quick work of difficult materials like rock. This crazy antique contraption uses actual hammers to smack a drill bit into a boulder, achieving a similar result, albeit more slowly.

Looking like something that belongs on a mantle in BioShock’s lost city of Rapture, these limited-edition handmade wood art deco clocks feature the warm orange glow of high voltage, cold-war era Nixie tubes to tell time.

Amazing vintage footage from an Italian police display, in which over 100 skilled motorcyclists drive in perfect harmony to create geometric patterns – without crashing into each other. Apologies in advance for the music. More here.

This unofficial music video for You’re On Fire, from They Might Be Giants’ latest album Nanobots, includes the usual odd but inviting TMBG fun – vintage school films, old cartoons and lots of combustibles.

Footage shot by Thomas Edison back in 1898 captures “a preadolescent boy, dressed like a street urchin” who starts out doing acrobatics but sneaks in a headspin and other classic B-Boy moves.

The House of Automata has a growing collection of recovered and restored automatons like this 120-year-old singing bird contraption. Sounds kind of like an early prototype for a car alarm.

Artist Breck Armstrong seems to have a knack for breathing new life into found objects. Like he did with these 6 lb roller skate bookends that will look good and keep your big reads from getting away.

A trailer sought after for its rarity, beauty and functionality. This restored unit retains its original aircraft grade metal body, L-shape sofa bed, sink, fridge and shower and kitchen rooms.

Etsy user HandySam will handcraft you a wall mounted bottle opener with a finished oak plank and even equip it with your choice of vintage “cap catcher,” with plenty of options available.

The fine folks over at Paste Magazine have rounded up a gallery of sweet and geeky old school posters propagating the Galactic Civil War from both sides of the fight. Thumbs up. (Thanks Levi!)