Retro

Adam Savage’s Blade Runner Blaster

Adam Savage’s Blade Runner Blaster

Mythretirer Adam Savage has a post up this morning on that one Boingy blog about the latest in his lifelong series of personal replicas of Deckard’s handgun from Blade Runner. There’s more shots of the build as well as pictures of the original prop and two of Adam’s earlier replicas. The very first one uses the famous contoured handgrip from Italian toymaker Edison Giocattoli’s TG-105 ‘Super Thur’ ray gun, which also appeared in a prop from Joss Whedon’s Firefly.

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Biomechanical steampunk taxidermy

Biomechanical steampunk taxidermy

We have blogged about American assemblage artist Ron Pippin’s work before, with a focus on his wunderkammer pieces. But he’s been busy since then. Fair warning: Much of Pippin’s work uses real animal parts, and although I personally find it very beautiful, some viewers may be disturbed and/or offended. [via The Automata / Automaton Blog]

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1984 hexapod weighed 300 lbs, could lift more than 1 ton

Odex 1, from Odetics, Inc. ; is a six-legged walking robot that weighed only 300 pounds. Its onboard computer could be operated remotely and the robot moved under its own power. It is capable of reconfiguring its shape to be tall and slender or short and squat, and able to walk in either configuration or anywhere between the two. Each leg is able to lift 400 lbs, the “legs” are versatile enough to be used as manipulators as well. Odex is capable of lifting over 2,100 lbs vertically, or carrying over 900 lbs. at normal walking speed. To display Odex 1 agility, engineers commanded the robot to walk to a truck, get on the truck, and then get off and actually move the truck.

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