A digital clock displays numbers by using air pressure to deform silicone membranes. Removing air from a 3D-printed segment creates a visible line, and multiple segments form digits. Valves control the display, which can update once per second.
The creator, the YouTube channel soiboi soft, built the air-powered display to retain its state through air pressure. It can also show timers and stopwatch readings.
Instead of simply lighting up a digit, this clock pumps air to reshape silicone. Every passing second calls for a little pneumatic construction job.
A children's Anpanman ride-on toy has been rebuilt as a motorized moped intended for public roads. The tiny vehicle was fitted with propulsion, brakes, lights and turn signals, and its creators say it received a license plate.
The maker, Kounotori DIY, documented the build in a YouTube video titled '魔改造アンパンマンバイクで公道を爆走してみた！！'.
It still looks like a toddler's toy, but it now has the equipment and registration of a real moped. That's quite a promotion for a toy bike.
A pair of traditional Japanese geta sandals moves forward on its own with a little hopping motion. Turn it over and the mechanism is made from LEGO parts and a motor. It can also move backward.
The device was exhibited by Sugoi Lab at Maker Faire Tokyo 2026 and featured in a report on the event.
See the section 'コアメモリにダーツ、LEGO —— 古い技術と遊び心' in the linked article.
Geta are supposed to help a person walk, but these sandals can walk off without anyone wearing them. The footwear is doing the traveling.
A physical build recreates the post-capture motion of the ball from Pokémon Legends: Arceus, actually jumping and releasing smoke. The ball also includes automatic opening and closing.
Kiara's Workshop built the working replica of the game's older-style Poké Ball. Hackaday's article also includes the creator's build video.
A split-second game animation—hop, puff of smoke—becomes a real mechanical engineering problem when you insist that the prop actually do it. Screen logic gets expensive in the physical world.
Jonathan turned the programming board game Robot Turtles into a version played with a real robot. A secondhand Dash robot moves across an alphabet foam-mat grid that serves as the physical game board.
NFC tags are attached to cards from the original game. Scanning them on a custom reader sends commands such as forward, left and right to the robot, and players can queue a sequence before running it.
The game was already called Robot Turtles, but it contained no actual robot. This build takes the name literally and scales the board up around a real moving machine.
A light-field display has been built using a rapidly spinning drum perforated with holes and stationary LED matrix panels behind it. Each hole reveals a different view of the rendered object, so the image changes with viewing angle and appears three-dimensional.
The prototype uses three LED panels and has an effective resolution of roughly 100 by 48 pixels per eye. Its viewing range covers only part of a full circle, but the display is already capable of running DOOM. It was built by AncientJames.
Building a mechanical 3D display was not enough; the roughly 100-by-48-pixel image also had to run DOOM. Even when the screen becomes volumetric, DOOM remains the final test.
The proko-rc05 is a radio-controlled car built to carry an entire custom 3D printer while driving and jumping. To cope with the printer's weight and high center of gravity, the vehicle uses a wide 2WD buggy layout and weighs about 3.7 kg in total.
The printer itself was newly designed for the vehicle around a Core-XY mechanism with a 53×53×50 mm build volume. A 90-degree hotend modification was intended to keep the machine low, but filament leakage prevented printing, so the event demonstration ran without extrusion. It was created by proko.
The linked page covers several RC projects. See the section titled “Chassis #5: proko-rc05.”
This is not just a cart carrying a printer: the whole machine is built to drive and take jumps with the printer onboard. It is a precision machine mounted on a vehicle that is deliberately heading for a jump ramp.
A playable electric guitar has been built without a conventional neck or body, using strings, frets, and tensioned aircraft cable. Instead of relying on the usual wooden structure to withstand string tension, the instrument supports its playing components on a tensioned cable system.
It was built by Burls Art, a YouTuber and guitar maker known for unusual instruments. The build video ends with the finished instrument actually being played.
Removing the neck and body sounds like it should end the guitar, but a completely different structure is brought in so the playing function survives anyway.
The official report from Hebocon 2026, the robot contest for people with low technical skills held on August 29, is now online. It covers this year's matches and machines, including a robot that scatters candy like caltrops and a robot-bowling exhibition in which 16 eliminated machines run at once.
This year's event also featured HEBO-GPT, a dog-shaped toy connected to AI, while teams of children made a strong showing. The report includes award winners and many of the strange moments from the event in photos and videos.
Even a contest built around low technical skill now has AI and a new generation arriving. Technology is advancing, and somehow Hebocon is advancing right along with it.
A homemade alarm clock gives the sleeper five seconds to stop the alarm before a loaded banknote is fed into a shredder. Instead of merely continuing to make noise, the device makes oversleeping carry a physical monetary consequence.
The Arduino-based build was published by the Japanese maker channel Mechatro on September 12, 2026.
The punishment for snoozing is not a louder alarm but the physical loss of a banknote five seconds later. Waking up now has a financial deadline.
Cookie Dunker keeps the cookie fixed in place and electrically raises the glass of milk to meet it. An infrared remote shaped like a milk carton controls a 3D-printed scissor lift, slowly lifting the glass until the milk reaches the waiting cookie.
A linear actuator drives the lift. Creator Chanyanuch Charoensuk describes the project as inspired by Chindogu and deliberate over-engineering.
The cookie could move a few centimeters, but instead the machine lifts the whole glass of milk. Dunking a snack has acquired stage machinery.
Franky Candy Dispenser releases candy from a Frankenstein monster's mouth when you press the glowing brain on top of its head. While waiting, its LED eyes blink and look around; pressing the button also triggers spoken lines, sometimes including a reminder to brush your teeth.
Inside the head, a servo-driven 3D-printed Archimedes screw carries the candy to the mouth. The glowing brain is built into a large 100 mm arcade button. The project was created by Adafruit's Ruiz Brothers and Liz Clark.
Press the glowing brain, receive candy from the mouth, then get dental advice from the same monster. The candy dispenser has a remarkably complete personality.
Instead of simply lighting up a digit, this clock pumps air to reshape silicone. Every passing second calls for a little pneumatic construction job.