YouTuber Sufficiently Advanced (Allen), whose stated goal is to “make pretend things into real things!” has given us two magical gifts of engineering: the most epic version of a real-life Mjolnir, and the most lovably inept.
The above video shows Allen’s long process of learning to use his flying version of Mjolnir, which he created by fitting a laser-cut foam and balsa wood model of Mjolnir around a micro racing drone. He then hacked an RC transmitter so that he could control its flight with an Arduino Uno, potentiometers, and accelerometers. You can check out his full tutorial at hackster.io.
Confused drone Mjolnir is my favorite of the two, because its haphazard flight gave me a serious case of the giggles. Look at it learn!
But I also loved it because Allen’s video captures the joy of nerdery and the scientific process. It takes a whole lot of tries to get this hammer right, and he clearly has a blast even with the saddest and least successful flights.
Allen also created a less flighty, but no hilarious, version of Mjolnir that only he can lift. As anyone familiar with the films or comics will know, only the “worthy” can lift Mjolnir. In that Age of Ultron party scene, even the other Avengers can’t move it (though it shakes a little for Cap). With his real-life Mjolnir, Allen has recreated that effect using a powerful electromagnet and fingerprint scanner. When this Mjolnir is placed on a metallic surface, no one but Allen (or someone with Allen’s fingerprints) can lift it. You can see how the hammer works in the video below, or you can just amuse yourself watching all the guests at Comikaze try to lift it.
(Via Nerdist; image via screengrab)
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