Batpod Motorcycle Replica Built from Junk

It takes a serious Batman fan to build a replica of any of the Dark Knight’s vehicles. It is even more impressive when they build them from junk as is the case with this Batpod motorcycle.
batman batpod
It not only looks amazing, but this is a fully functional hand-built Dark Knight BatPod. It was made from scrap metal parts by Vietnam’s Tùng Lâm. It looks like it cost him a fortune to build, but believe it or not, it cost just $480(USD). That’s a lot less than Bruce Wayne paid for his (or the $100,000 for this replica.)

The video shows Tùng tearing up the streets on this cool vehicle and just generally feeling good and being his own superhero. You can see more pics from the build at the link below.

[via Obvious Winner]


Mega Man Cutting Board Rocks, Man.

Fans of Mega Man will find this kitchen accessory as hard to resist as taking down Dr. Wily. It’s an awesome cutting board assembled to look just like the classic 8-bit gaming icon.

mega man cutting board 1

Jim Van Winkle of Prairie Oak Studios made this intricate cutting board from a whopping 504 individual blocks of wood. He used walnut, maple, cherry and purpleheart woods to provide the appropriate pixel shading of Mega Man. The 16.5″ x 13.25″ x 1.75″ thick cutting board is food safe, and finished with oils and waxes to protect it from damage, should Fire Man, Ice Man or Stone Man take a shot at you while preparing dinner.

Given its complexity, the Mega Man cutting board isn’t cheap – selling for $230(USD) over on Etsy – but with nearly 2000 individually glued joints, there’s a ton of labor that went into this amazing thing.

[via r/suatmm]


Kid Builds Life-Size LEGO Iron Man

Remember Evan Bacon, the kid who built the life-size Batman LEGO? Well the now 14-year-old LEGO fanatic is back with another sizeable superhero creation. This time, Evan crossed over from the DC Comics to the Marvel universe, creating a life-size model of Iron Man, entirely from LEGO bricks.

iron man lego 1 b

Photo Credit: TJ Avery

Evan says the 6-foot-tall model is comprised of about 18,000 individual LEGO bricks. Iron Man’s eyes, arc reactor and palm even light up. The sculpture was on display at the recent Brick Fiesta 2012 in Austin, TX.

iron man lego 2 a

Photo Credit: TJ Avery

All told, the model weighs in at about 80 pounds, and won the People’s Choice Award at Brick Fiesta. Great job, Evan! I can only hope you’re planning on building all of the Avengers and Justice League over time. Of course, you might just go broke buying LEGO bricks.

iron man lego 3


JaJa Stylus Starts Shipping to Kickstarter Supporters

Back in January, we talked a bit about the JaJa Stylus that was on Kickstarter. This is a cool pressure-sensitive stylus for the iPad. The company behind the project, HEX3, needed $25,000 to fund and eventually raised more than three times the amount needed. The company has announced this week that the JaJa Stylus is now shipping to the initial batch of Kickstarter funders and developers.

jaja pressure sensitive ipad stylus

In case you forget, this wireless stylus supports 1024 levels of sensitivity, making it a very capable input device for artists. The stylus also now supports the latest version of the iPad illustration app Procreate. The company also says that other major developers are working on versions of their apps that support the JaJa stylus.

This looks like a really cool product, and I’m looking forward to seeing it in action. Normal retail availability is expected to happen in September with an MSRP of $89.99(USD).


Papercraft Starry Night: Painting with Paper

I don’t remember exactly when I started obsessing about The Starry Night, but needless to say that this is one painting that I find unforgettable, especially when it comes to the swirling wind patterns in the sky. I guess I’m not the only one because one artist decided to recreate tan intricate version of the image using paper as her medium.

quilled starry night susan myers

Susan Myers uses quilling, a paper filigree art form that involves countless hours of folding and shaping in order to recreate Van Gogh’s Starry Night. She used a white colored pencil to draw a template. Then she quilled, cut, rolled and glued thousands of colorful card stock pieces to reimagine the famous painting. Her canvas measures 36″ × 24″.

quilled starry night susan myers closer

The Starry Night has been recreated countless of times, but this is the first papercraft recreation I’ve ever seen. I like it. She recently sold the piece through her Etsy site.

quilled starry night susan myers closest

[via Wave Avenue]


Remote-Controlled S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier Assembled

In Soviet Russia, you carry the Helicarrier. But that’s all right, because just like the S.H.I.E.L.D.’s flying fortress, this small remote-controlled replica made by a Russian RC enthusiast can also float and take to the sky.

shield helicarrier by native18

The replica was made by RC Design forum member native18, the same guy who made the DeLorean quadrotor. Strangely enough, native18 also pointed out a very similar toy that was shown off at an RC airplane show way last February, except this one is literally an (RC) aircraft carrier:

Here’s native18′s Helicarrier in action:

Brush up on your Russian (or use Google Translate) and head to native18′s thread on RC Design for more details and images. Combine this with this and you have a winner.

[via Buzzfeed]


R2-D2 Cake Looks Droid-licious

This is exactly the droid cake that I am looking for. That dome is not accurate though. It should have a giant bite taken out of it, because no one can resist an Astromech with icing.
R2D2 Cake
They say that this cake is enough to feed about 30-40 humans, but I don’t know, I think I could eat 5 people’s worth of this thing. It was made by the Lola May Cake Company. They sure build a decent droid, and they did a fantastic job on this sugary treat.

I’m guessing that the birthday boy or girl got dibs on R2′s restraining bolt, because I don’t see it in the pic.

[via Between the Pages via That’s Nerdalicious]


Space Invader Floor Tile Job: Intentional or Random Coincidence?

While we’ve definitely seen our share of video game themed bathrooms here on Technabob, all of the ones I’ve come across seem very much like they were intentionally done that way. Not so much with this bathroom, which has a subliminal message for all fans of retro gaming…

space invaders tile

Look carefully at the tiny blue tiles, and you’ll see a Space Invader lurking there, right in front of the toilet. The guy who snapped this picture says his employee that installed the tiles in the bathroom of this drug treatment center is a video game fan, so he suspects it was intentional, but I like to think that it was totally random. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stared at the marble tiles in my bathroom and tried to imagine a pattern was there, like a demonic human face staring back – but it’s always my mind playing tricks on me – like the man on the moon, or Jesus on a grilled cheese sandwich.

Have you guys come across other video game characters lurking in seemingly random patterns? Feel free to post in the comments if you find any cool ones out there. And installations by Invader don’t count.

[via Reddit]


Triceratops Tractor Looks Awesome, Runs on Fossil Fuel

This tractor in the shape of a triceratops looks pretty sweet. Now that I’ve seen this one, I want to see a whole fleet of them. Then I want to see them race and fight in the mud.
triceratops tractor
This army green 309 triceratops tractor will have dinosaur loving geeks drooling as it goes by. It looks like it is fully constructed out of metal and fully functional. The head even moves around in a neat way. It was spotted recently on the streets of Shoreditch, London. There isn’t much info on this awesome ride, but I want one. Check out the video to see the triceratops tractor up close:

Dinosaur themed cars and trucks are pretty awesome. I’d settle for a VW Stegosaurus, though. I’m not hard to please.

[via Obvious Winner]


DIY Lava Flows: Perfect for Making Volcanic S’Mores

If there’s one thing that I never thought you could turn into a DIY project, it’s lava flows. But leave it to the ingenuity of sculptor Boby Wysocki and geologist Jeff Karson at Syracuse University to create their own DIY lava project. They create molten rock, then pour it out to produce lava. Then, kids get to melt marshmallows on it.

diy lava flow

The lava is created by melting crushed basalt from Wisconsin that’s 1.1 billion years old. It’s melted in a gas-fueled, tilt furnace up to 2192 degrees Fahrenheit. A couple of hours later, the rock has become molten, and it’s poured out. They’ve done more than 100 lava flows since the start of the program.

flow ir camera

I’m not sure how the lava-toasted marshmallows will taste, but the project is pretty awesome as most of us haven’t seen lava up close and personal. Geologists and volcanologists are on hand to answer any questions you might have.

It sounds like a great field trip! If you don’t like marshmallows, then you can opt for hot dogs and roast them up on the lava as well.

diy lava roasting marshmallows

Wysocki and Karson are currently working on making even more realistic lava flows, as is demonstrated in the video below:

[via Make:]