A Wisconsin Yankee in Walt Disney's Court

I made this a few years back when I was heavily into racing radio controlled cars. They had a concourse prize at some of the big races sponsored by the manufacturer, and I won it once with a different car. This one lost out mainly because the cheap jerks didn’t include the set of detail decals with the body, and I couldn’t find any before the race. I entered it again at a later race, with the stickers and with some other hand-made details like windshield wipers and rear-view mirrors. I’d made the interior from scratch, including the Carl figure, and I thought I’d done enough to guarantee another win.

Wouldn’t you know it, some Japanese ringer showed up with a little sports car in the same class with an opening hood and doors and a complete replica engine, among other things. I serious doubt the thing was drivable, which oughta be a qualification, but what can you do. The guy was nice enough, and came over to see my car and asked about what I’d done, but of course I looked like a piker compared to all the detail he put in. I was going to try to do something like it later on, but I gave up on the racing soon after that.

So this is up on Ebay, with a lot more pictures if you care to take a look.

Link: http://www.bismarck-class.dk/shipmodels/german_models/admiralgrafspeeterra.html

A buddy sent me this link to a guy building a toy battleship big enough to ride around in. I always wished I had this kind of single-minded determination to be able to stick to one giant project for years at a time. This would be great for tooling around the rivers and lakes down here, but I’ll probably just stick to sinking more manageably-sized r/c sailboats…

Link: http://www.takehitoetani.com/3rdeye.html

I’m fascinated by this “why didn’t I think of it” sort of gadget, the Third Eye. It gives you a third-person view ala a video game of your own existence, which sounds at least disorienting, if not mind-blowing. After I rig one up I’m going to walk into a tree and watch myself continue to move my arms and legs and not get anywhere just like all my friends do on World of Warcraft.

Found on makezine.com