steampunk

When is an AT-AT not an AT-AT? When it's Captain Bayley's Infernal Mechano-Perambulator. The captain (also known as Mark), created a steampunk AT-AT out of a vintage toy. It's the details that amaze.

You could get lost in the depths of this steamy tribute to the famous "Star Wars" machine. There's a smoke stack blowing out fluffy clouds of fake smoke. The finish is done in a weathered-copper look. By golly, is that a lightsaber-esque unicorn horn on top of the nose? Mossy plant life hanging from the mouth makes this AT-AT look a lot friendlier than the killing machines from the movies.… Read more

Last weekend in Taos, N.M., I watched a young girl pulverize a police car with just her right hand.

Of course, she had a little help from the 7-ton hydraulic mechanical hand that she was controlling through a sort of glove apparatus mounted to a raised control chair. The mechanical working structure is a creation of local artist Christian Ristow, who first designed the "Hand of Man" for the Burning Man festival a few years ago.… Read more

Certain descriptive words tend to get overused. Do an eBay search for vintage or retro and that becomes all too clear. Another label that gets applied all over the place is steampunk. Sometimes one can even see it applied to things that plug into the wall. For those who fancy technology from the Victorian or Edwardian eras, that is probably not what they have in mind.

Ancient tech comes at a price, and in this case that price is $699.95. Inspired by a coffee-brewing process invented by Loeff of Berlin in the 1830s, the Genuine Balancing Siphon Coffee Maker … Read more

The Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, better known as the Portal gun, has been lovingly re-created in the real world by many fans.

Sculptor Duncan Shirah has taken a slightly different approach to his Portal gun. The sleek, modern trappings are stripped away and we're left with an incredible steampunky gun full of polished wood, glass, and brass accoutrements.

This is what would happen if Portal collided with "Wild Wild West." The only question is what would happen if the device actually worked. Would you leave your test chamber and end up in Sherlock Holmes' sitting room?… Read more

"What happens when you weaponize all the horsepower of a full-size steam locomotive?" asks Professor T. Lemetry. "You get the Goliathon. One shot can level a building, down an airship, or turn a man inside out."

I bet it can take down Morlocks, too.

In any case, this is how the Nerf Vulcan should have been designed. Not out of cheap plastic, but awesome copper and brass.

Meet the Goliathon, a heavily modified Vulcan from Etsy vendor T. Lemetry. It's two and a half feet of steampunky goodness. … Read more

"This is my daughter, who just turned 9. She's amazing, and I want her to grow up to be a mad scientist and to take over the world."

So begins writer Jordan Stratford's Kickstarter pitch video for "Wollstonecraft," the first of what he hopes will be a series of steampunky, historical novels for kids and young adults that will "inspire a generation of girls about imagination and science."

Stratford says he wants to give young girls like his daughter "actual historical role models that show them that math and science and imagination are incredible tools that can shape their world." And he's chosen as his two heroines Mary Shelley, of "Frankenstein" fame -- the world's first science fiction writer, he calls her -- and Ada Byron, whom some regard as the world's first computer programmer.… Read more

Remember kicking back in the 1890s? There was nothing better than relaxing with the latest Sherlock Holmes adventure in The Strand magazine and a Gilbert and Sullivan cylinder on the phonograph.

Now you can relive those glory days with your iPad and this classy steampunk audio system by Michael Greensmith.

We've seen plenty of passive speaker systems for the iPhone, including the organic iBamboo and the funky Horn Bike. The iPhonograph is a powered, steampunk-style audio system for the iPad that Greensmith put together with a little elbow grease and several odd parts from recycling shops. … Read more

If you're a fan of old electric guitars, then axes that have been modified to look like they came out of a steampunk fantasy could be right up your alley.

Guitar enthusiast Tony Cochran (who's also the man behind the comic strip "Agnes") is selling a range of instruments that have been meticulously modified to look like steampunk creations. The guitars also come with interesting, and sometimes macabre, stories behind them--some that are linked to famous personalities from the past. … Read more

There are retro gadgets and then there are retro gadgets.

A contemporary take on a 1950s-style vacuum tube radio is one thing, and we suspect its monophonic sound is a warm and cozy delight. But an entirely acoustic iPhone dock--kitted out with an antique gramophone amplification horn--takes things back to another century. And the sound seems to be tinnily tantalizing.

The docks, made by Ryan Boase's ReAcoustic, rely on nothing more than a wooden base and a reclaimed metal horn to amplify music from the iPhone's (or iPad's) speaker.… Read more