The Strandbeest began as an art project of Dutch artist Theo Jansen in the 1980s. Today, amateur Strandbeest enthusiasts are building their own walking beasts and putting some unique spins on the idea of a wind- or gravity-propelled walking sculpture. I-Wei Huang, an artist and tinkerer, has come up with what might be the cutest version yet: a hamster-propelled Strandbeest.

After receiving a mini Strandbeest kit from Gakken Magazine, Huang set out to create a unique propulsion system for the little plastic critter. He though about steam, but realizing that plastic and steam don’t exactly get along well, he scrapped that idea for a far more adorable one.

Huang modified the small Strandbeest to include a hamster ball on top. He hoped that, as the hamster ran inside the ball, its weight and movement would be strong enough to propel the machine along. He added some cogs and a chain that would activate the Strandbeest’s legs and move it forward with the hamster’s movement.

The artist didn’t have a pet hamster himself and wasn’t interested in keeping one as a pet, so he borrowed a hamster named Princess to test drive his contraption. It clearly worked very well, and it made for an oddly beautiful vision: a tiny animal running quickly while the mecha-legs below seemed to creep along slowly. In any case, Princess the hamster got to feel large and powerful for a few minutes while running right past a seemingly disinterested cat.

The post Hamster Powered Walker Ushers in Era of Rodent Rule first appeared on Gajitz.

Halloween may be over for this year, but some costumes are just too awesome to wait until next October to share. A super-dedicated DIYer from Vancouver built this insane mecha and took it out for a spin on the streets of his city, attracting all kinds of attention and probably scaring the pants off of a few passing motorists.

According to the suit’s creator, it cost him more than $1350 to get this beast up and running for its big debut. $600 of that was spent on sheet metal and aircraft aluminum alone. The awesome mecha took more than 250 hours over the course of two months to put together.

As the mecha’s wearer and his “co-pilot” wandered the streets awing onlookers, you almost could have mistaken them for celebrities. The huge metal contraption probably couldn’t fit through most doors and definitely wouldn’t allow you to ride in a car…but something tells us that in a costume this awesome, the party would come to you.

The post Robot Takeover: Giant Mecha Takes Downtown Vancouver first appeared on Gajitz.