Tools

Makey Awards 2011 Nominee 08: Tamiya, Inc., “Best Product Documentation”

Makey Awards 2011 Nominee 08: Tamiya, Inc., “Best Product Documentation”

Founded in Shikuoza, Japan in 1946, Kabushiki gaisha Tamiya was originally a sawmill and architectural lumber company that made wooden ship models as a sideline. Their first plastic model, released in 1960, was a 1/800 scale battleship Yamato. Today, Tamiya manufactures R/C sea, air, and land vehicles, robots, educational materials, and a line of modeling tools, paints, and accessories in addition to their traditional scale model line.

Creating a Hackable Flashlight

Creating a Hackable Flashlight

When I told people at the Bay Area Maker Faire that I was going to make an open source, programmable flashlight, some called me crazy. Now, seven weeks later, my project HexBright FLEX, is one of the top ten most-funded Kickstarter projects to date, raising over $170,000, with over 2000 backers who think I’m not so crazy, including MythBuster legend Grant Imahara.