Top 10 Food-Based Rube Goldberg Machines (videos) If this type of food preparation is too elaborate for your tastes, the Super-Fast Pancake-Sorting Flexpicker Robot might be more to your style.
posted by madamjujujive on Sep 27, 2009 - 31 comments

We've seen a number of Rube Goldberg machines in advertising before, but here's the first one I've seen that actually uses the controlled chaos of one to describe what their product actually does. Or doesn't, really. If you've ever worked in a print shop, you've probably seen something like this happen. Usually once or twice a day.
posted by loquacious on Apr 29, 2008 - 45 comments

Crumbling Paper is a collection of old comics. And I mean old, some from the early years of the 20th Century. There are strips from artists such as George Herriman, Rube Goldberg, Basil Wolverton and Gustave Verbeek. It has such strips as Katzenjammer Kids, Little Orphan Annie and Count Screwloose. Warning: Some of these comics feature racial caricatures, as was the unfortunate norm when the strips were drawn. Here is the collector, Steven Stwalley, on Race and Ethnicity in the Early Comics. [via Eddie Campbell]
posted by Kattullus on Feb 3, 2008 - 12 comments

You got your Rube Goldberg machine in my department store catalogue. (Or the other way around, I'm not sure.)
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Nov 5, 2007 - 58 comments

Launchball : Think a stylised, fluoro version of The Incredible Machine. And when you finish the level, it reveals a science fact -- which you can pretend to read and claim it's educational...
posted by robcorr on Oct 9, 2007 - 36 comments

The folks from Japanese public TV's excellent children's show "Pythagora Switch" have for several years been creating some of the most delightful and inventive Rube Goldberg-esque contraptions you're likely to ever see. Here's a 9 minute clip featuring lots of these little kinetic masterpieces, guaranteed to entertain.
posted by flapjax at midnite on Jun 24, 2007 - 43 comments

Finding it hard to get out of bed this morning? You might consider building your own Rube Goldberg Alarm Clock. (3:17 video)
posted by ColdChef on May 6, 2007 - 26 comments

The Thief And The Cobbler. Richard Williams via Garrett Gilchrist. The best of YouTube (to date)? You decide. Want some animated M.C. Escher, Rube Goldberg mayhem, magic, despair, true love, a happy ending...and more? Click the link and try the "Play All Videos" link on the right (17 segments make up the whole). Cast and Crew. If you categorically hate YouTube links, pass it by. via
posted by taosbat on Jun 22, 2006 - 22 comments

Japanese Rube Goldberg Ramen Machine (warning: link goes to embedded video)
posted by jonson on Jun 17, 2006 - 18 comments

Incredible Machine 01 - clever Japanese Rube Goldberg type devices in action. Film clip, annoying soundtrack alert. (via digg)
posted by madamjujujive on Apr 7, 2006 - 27 comments

Clik. Clak. (embedded Quicktime video.) Short animated film featuring little robots who make their own language using Rube Goldberg contraptions.
posted by jann on Feb 17, 2006 - 28 comments

If Terry Gilliam and Rube Goldberg made flash games, they may go something like this.
posted by onkelchrispy on Jan 15, 2005 - 75 comments

The U.K.'s answer to Rube Goldberg. Cartoonist W. Heath Robinson, 1872-1944.
posted by crunchland on Jun 20, 2003 - 1 comment

Industrialised society's fascination with useless invention: as a kid I used to love the work of Heath Robinson, inventor of (among others) a method of testing safety matches, the potato peeler, and an inoffensive method of weighing a lady friend. His American equivalent was the slightly more scientific Rube Goldberg. Occasional attempts of the patently useless to make the leap into the real world have been furthered considerably by the Japanese art of Chindogu, made popular by Kenji Kawakami, inventor of (among others) the Hay fever hat, the portable road crossing, and dusting shoes for cats. Maywa Denki seems to transcend earthy Chindogu with fish-based and musical (via sharpeworld) inventions.
posted by gravelshoes on Dec 29, 2002 - 4 comments