DIY: COBRA Naval Base Playset (made with upcycled plastic waste)

Christmas. When you are a kid, toys beneath the tree are the best thing in life! But when you are a parent, you have to suffer how much “Evil Toys Megacorp” makes you expend a lot of money for only for a big piece of  “Made in China” plastic with a famous logo.

Don’t get me wrong. I like toys, I love action figures and some of their vehicles and playsets are pretty cool. But, when we talk about the heroes/villains average headquarters playsets, a lot of those are overpriced things for children who will destroy them in the worst case scenario or stop playing with them in the best. Depending of the size, an playset for action figures costs between $45 and $200 in US, and if you live in South America, the price triplicates.

(And don’t start with the classic G.I.Joe playsets, from $500 to thousands of dollars).

Do you want to know something? You can build your very own and personalized playset for much less, using upcycled plastic things and a lot of imagination. No limits for what you want to build for your favorite heroes/villains. A new mass destruction weapon for Cobra Commander? You got it! A great garage for your Cobra HISS Tank? Checked. Destro and the Baroness want a hot tub? Why not?

As example, I made a Cobra naval base playset for G.I.Joe action figures and the Cobra MANTIS vehicle. I used a big discarded tape recorder, some printer pieces and other found plastic stuff. The maritime base has a dock, Cobra Commander’s last Annihilation Ray and a defense droid I called CRAB (COBRA Rapid Attack Bot).

So… LET’S PLAY!

(G.I.JOE, COBRA and all characters, vehicles and names related, are trademarks and propierty of HASBRO)

(by M.C. Langer)

DIY: Become a Mad Cyborg… Part human, part dead computers

M.C. Langer was an ordinary DIY artist until a bizarre accident (papercut printing an instructable) crippled him physically and mentally. Now, he had to rebuild his damaged body with dead computers pieces for the only target in his twisted mind: REVENGE AGAINST INSTRUCTABLES.COM!!

(What?? It was a big papercut. And It hurt so much. And the instructable was the Bacon Cheesecake Brownies recipe. I’m barely alive…)

If you want to join me in this insane quest, you will need your own cyborg attachments, so I will teach you how to make props of a mechanical arm (the clamp can be activated by spring action or motorized action, I will show both possibilities), a face plate (the eye lights) and the battle vest (the chest plate lights too).

And the best part? The props are made 90% of dead computers pieces. You will find here plastic cases of almost any kind of computer parts or accessories related with computers, PC and MAC. (Curiously, the only thing you will not find here is a mouse).

(by M.C. Langer)

Chávez que no se meta con los colombianos, capáz y nos manden una tropa de cyborgs así hehehehe… <3

Colombian Police Turn Drug Trafficker’s Seized Ferrari into a Patrol Car after No One Wants to Buy it / Policía Colombiana transforma Ferrari de narcotraficante en patrulla de policía después que nadie lo quería comprar

The Colombian police authorities were recently confronted with this problem: what could they do with a low-mileage Ferrari 348 that was seized from a local drug lord and that no one wanted to buy?

Well, after some deep thought, they came up with a rather simple solution: turn the classic Ferrari into a patrol car painted in the Colombian national police’s green and white colors, and tour the country before placing it permanently in a police museum.

The 1991 Ferrari model has only clocked around 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) and has been valued at US$250,000 by Colombian authorities.

The classic sports car was seized back in 2007 from Hernando Gomez Bustamante, also known as “Rasguno” or “Scratchy”, who is currently serving time in prison in the States for drug trafficking, money laundering and other crimes.

Up until recently, the vehicle was in the possession of Colombia’s National Drug Office, or DNE, which was supposed to take care of seized assets from the illegal narcotics trade. But some 20 years after it was established, the government decided to shut down the division in September as…far too many drug assets were mysteriously disappearing, according to officials.

Authorities then went on to put the car for sale, but buyers stayed away, most likely due to fears of potential repercussions from drug traffickers related to Bustamante.

(vía Carscoop; source El Colombiano)