All Entries Tagged With: "auctions"

Hoverwing Floats Your Boat…Literally

Hovercrafts are awesome.  Because they’re supported by a cushion of slow moving, high-pressure air, they can travel equally well on land, ice and water.  The Hoverwing, a DIY hovercraft by New Zealand mechanic Rudy Heeman, goes the extra mile, hovering well above the water at heights of up to five feet.
What’s so spectacular about this one?  As you can tell from the photo, it doesn’t just hover like a regular hovercraft – it soars.  Even better, it can perform the feat on both land and water.  Both the wings (it has a 23-foot wingspan) and tail (20 feet long) are detachable too, in case you want to use it as a regular watercraft.

Technically classified as a boat, Heeman says the Hoverwing is actually a WIG (a wing in ground effect vehicle) that’s been built in the form of a 13-foot long hovercraft.   Well, it works exactly like a traditional hovercraft [...]

200 Used Six-Axis Robot Arms Going On Auction, Will Look Perfect In Your Mad Scientist Hideout

We’re not sure what you can do with robot arms (unless you have 733t engineering and robotic skills), but finding huge ones on sale is just too good to pass up.  That’s exactly what’s going to be available to mad scientists worldwide when the University of Delaware holds the auction of items from a shut-down Chrysler plant.  Yeah.
Aah, robot arms.  Not just lame “pick up an object from the floor” kind of automatons either; they’re full-featured, six-axis, robotic limbs that can perform a wide variety of applications, like picking up enemies, swinging them wildly and tossing them about like ragdolls.   A total of about 200 robot arms are going to be part of the set, consisting of 181 Nachis, along with a few ABB and Fanuc models thrown in.
There are all sorts of industrial goods strewn into the pile, including generators, lifts and other plant equipment.  They once occupied the [...]

Unrestored 1895 Hildebrand & Wolfmüller, One Of The World’s Earliest Motorcycles, Going Up For Auction

The 1894 Hildebrand & Wolfmüller is officially credited as the first two-wheeled vehicle to be called a “motorcycle.”  Now, one of the machines produced during its 1895 production run can be yours in an auction scheduled for April 25.
Officially billed as the “ultimate barn find,” the 1895 Hildebrand & Wolfmüller is totally unrestored and is probably as good as junk.  Heck, it looks like it belongs in a trash heap.  Regardless, its status as one of the earliest examples of a motorized crotch rocket makes it a veritable treasure in whatever form.
Manufactured in Munich, Germany, the powered two-wheeler features a 1488cc twin-cylinder, water-cooled, four-stroke engine, capable of putting out a measly 2.5bhp at 240rpm.  It ran at speeds of up to 30mph during its heyday, which should have you leaving…errrr…wheelchairs and baby strollers in the dust.  There’s no exact figure on how many such motorrads were produced, but estimates peg [...]

Circa 1977 Miniature Moscow On Sale For $3 Million

Want to be the Russian version of Godzilla?  Now you can with the Miniature Moscow, a massively ultra-detailed model of the USSR’s capital, circa 1977, that just found its way to the auction block.  It’s the world superpower frozen in time – and it can be all yours.
Created by Russian artist Efim Deshalyt to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, the scaled-down reproduction features amazing detail that realistically mimics every nook and cranny of the magnificent capital.    It took 300 workers to piece the whole thing together, none of whom probably got paid overtime for their efforts.

Pretty effing stunning – there’s no other way to describe the Miniature Moscow.  It spans an area of 400 square feet, with every tiny window (even those on the small boats on the river) able to light up during nighttime (yep, it’s got a night and day setting).  A faithful recreation, every [...]

Ghetto USS Galileo Spaceship Simulator For Sale

Ever wanted your own nerd fort but mom won’t let you have one?  Relive your awkward adolescence one more time with the USS Galileo Spaceship Simulator, currently available on open auction at Public Surplus.
That’s….a spaceship simulator?!?  I know, it looks ghetto as hell.  No way NASA will have anything to do with that, right?  Well, yes.  It was actually put into auction by the Alpine School District, after they mustered enough self-respect to replace it with a more proper-looking contraption.

Originally displayed at the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center in Pleasant Grove, the USS Galileo has been used to educate young minds on how starships worked for many years.  While the exterior is more reminiscent of an elementary school art project than its Star Trek namesake, the cabin should inspire some interest.
According to the auction page, it comes equipped with stations, networked iBooks and other computers, ship-wide speakers, a main viewing [...]

1966 Batmobile Replica On eBay, Comes With Serious Batgadgetry

As sexy as the Dark Knight’s Batmobile is, there’s something about the appeal of the vintage crime-fighting ride the Caped Crusader hit Gotham streets on back in the 60s.  Even more compelling, though, is that you may have a shot at scoring one today.
Now towing the bidding line on eBay is a 1966 Batmobile replica, clad to look like the one they used on the Adam West movie from that year.  Arguably the most iconic silver screen ride from that decade, the George Barris creation undeniably set the bar for future Batman car designs.

While the original (which is still owned by Barris Inc. to this day) was based on a Lincoln Futura, this recreation was fashioned out of a 1976 Lincoln Continental.  Gotham Cruisers spared no inch, though, ably mimicking the reference Batmobile in every way imaginable.

The 1966 Batmobile replica is clad in a 1st-gen mold, with an all black [...]