Hasta La Gadget!

I wouldn’t say using pencils as zombie-killing projectiles would be my first thought, but if you do enough slingshot-ing I guess it makes sense that you would eventually run up against office supplies as a source of inspiration. Joerg updates his pencil shooter to be crank operated and more efficient. It can shoot two pencils at a time for a total of 16 in one magazine. And Joerg sees potential for use with a power drill instead of "muscle operated action" aka humans. Leave the pencil shooter going while you run away from the zombies. Solid plan.

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As Joerg points out, toilet brushes tipped with nine inch nails are a much-beloved form of ammo on the Slingshot Channel. But the old toilet brush crossbows didn’t really have a sighting system. So Joerg got serious and created a toilet brush sniper rifle, complete with telescopic sight, that can shoot with precision from 22 yards. The brushes plowed through 10mm plywood board and went 4 inches into the archery mat behind. They also went through 1.5 inch oak plank. This is one of Joerg’s more bizarre inventions, but it’s pretty amazing to see how much he can hone concepts based on seemingly impractical materials like toilet brushes.

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Artist Pedro Reyes takes confiscated weapons and turns them into fully mechanized instruments in an ongoing project called Destroy. Here’s a look at how.

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John Ptak recently posted an interesting 1916 cover from Illustrated World magazine showing the futuristic "Electric Titan" robot fighter. Though rarely in humanoid robot form, the multi-soldier death machine of tomorrow was a surprisingly common idea during World War I. Why so outlandish? Because the military predictions of the time were rarely made by the actual military.

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Long before prison guards started carrying tasers, tear gas, and other non-lethal deterrents, they apparently relied on these cell door keys that also functioned as tiny one-shot pistols. They probably weren’t lethal, but there’s no doubt they packed enough of a punch to make an inmate very uncomfortable if they tried anything while a guard was unlocking their cell.

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