Small Scale Mad Max: Danny Huynh’s Dystopian Animatronics

The hacker spirit is always alive and well in post-apocalyptic fiction, as characters throw together contraptions from whatever junk they can find. While these might not always be practical or possible in reality, their primary purpose is usually to look the part. This is definitely the case for [Danny Huynh]’s post-apocalyptic animatronic creations, which look like they can slot straight into Mad Max or Fallout.

[Danny] is an avid RC enthusiast, so many of the models are highly customized off-the-shelf RC cars. However, it’s the lifelike moving characters in these models that really catch the eye. Their hands and feet move with the steering and throttle, and in the motorcycle builds they will often lean with the turns. Other notable builds include a hexapedal taxi and a couple of animatronic bands.

All the vehicle builds are electric, but it looks like [Danny] often includes an audio module to simulate a roaring engine. He makes extensive use of servos and linkages for character movement, with wiring and electronics carefully hidden by paint or bodywork.

With all the CGI technology available today, great animatronic builds like an eerily lifelike heart, or a talking Nikola Tesla are all the more impressive to see.

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Driving A Big RC Car On The Ceiling

RC cars are a great way to have fun hooning around. There’s plenty of laughs to be had racing your friends in the local grocery store carpark, ideally after hours. [Ivan Miranda] wanted to go in a different direction, however – and that direction was up. (Video embedded after the break.)

There are existing toys that can pull off a wall-riding feat, but they’re normally on a fairly small scale. [Ivan] wanted to go big, and so outfitted some seriously powerful brushless fans on to his 1/8th Rattler buggy from Hobbyking. After initial failure, a smaller scale model was successfully built and tested, before it was realised the full-sized build had the propellers on backwards.

With this oversight fixed, the car was able to drive on the ceiling, albeit in the limited space between the roof beams. It was somewhat less viable on the wall, struggling to stay stuck and having issues with suspension flex.

Overall, it’s a great application of mass brushless power to fight gravity – the same principle behind the multirotors we all love so much. [Ivan]’s put the same trick to use for getting around on a skateboard, too. Video after the break.

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Go Big Or Go Home – This Arduino RC Car Can Take You There

Whether we like it or not, eventually the day will come where we have to admit that we outgrew our childhood toys — unless, of course, we tech them up in the name of science. And in some cases we might get away with simply scaling things up to be more fitting for an adult size. [kenmacken] demonstrates how to do both, by building himself a full-size 1:1 RC car. No, we didn’t forget a digit here, he remodeled an actual Honda Civic into a radio controlled car, and documented every step along the way, hoping to inspire and guide others to follow in his footsteps.

To control the Civic with a standard RC transmitter, [kenmacken] equipped it with a high torque servo, some linear actuators, and an electronic power steering module to handle all the mechanical aspects for acceleration, breaking, gear selection, and steering. At the center of it all is a regular, off-the-shelf Arduino Uno. His write-up features plenty of videos demonstrating each single component, and of course, him controlling the car — which you will also find after the break.

[kenmacken]’s ultimate goal is to eventually remove the radio control to build a fully autonomous self-driving car, and you can see some initial experimenting with GPS waypoint driving at the end of his tutorial. We have seen the same concept in a regular RC car before, and we have also seen it taken further using neural networks. Considering his background in computer vision, it will be interesting to find out which path [kenmacken] will go here in the future.

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Recreating The Mythbusters Rocket Chevy – At Scale

If you tuned into the first ever episode of Mythbusters way back when, you’ll remember a certain rocket-powered Chevy Impala. [David Windestal] decided to recreate this – at 1:10 scale.

The car in question is a Hobbyking Desert Fox RC car – normally a four-wheel drive truck which ships ready-to-run, making it a great way to get a project started quickly. Rocket power is provided by the same type of motor used in the Swedish Rocket Knives we’ve covered previously.

Initial testing proves unsuccessful – the car simply tumbles out of control when the rocket is fired. It takes a beating, losing a wheel in the process. Following on from this, a decision is made to cook up a slower burning rocket motor and switch to an asphalt surface for testing. This is much more succesful and the car begins to see some properly high speeds, nearly peeling the tyres off the rim in the process!

It’s a fun concept that could likely be replicated with off-the-shelf rocket motors, too. Throw us your ideas for better rocket powered transports in the comments below.

[Thanks to Heinrich for the tip!]
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