Carl Rankin builds awesome RC planes out of straws, plastic wrap, tape, and foam take-out boxes. (via)
posted by MrMoonPie on Dec 11, 2007 - 12 comments

Got some spare time? Then let's learn origami! Check out this large collection of origami designs (suitable for beginners too), and here's some instructional origami videos to help you along.
posted by Effigy2000 on Nov 17, 2007 - 6 comments

Recent MeFi threads have suggested how easy it is (or not) to build a gun. The comparison to dynamite or ANFO is made, frequently, in these sorts of discussions, supposedly to illustrate another "weapon" which is in the public corpus but largely outlawed. [more inside]
posted by avriette on Apr 22, 2007 - 34 comments

The Online Paper Airplane Museum. Hundreds and hundreds of designs. Also check out The Paperang, which bills itself as "The Best Paper Airplane System In The World."
posted by amyms on Apr 12, 2007 - 10 comments

It's spring, and that means its convention time! In Las Vegas, tomorrow, don't miss the Virtual Air Traffic Convention in Las Vegas! Dusseldorf on Saturday? There's Top Hair 2007 wow! But wait there's more--- Perhaps you'd like to polish your skills in treating the multiple-disordered suicidal client! I know I would! Functional Foods? Learn why seawater has a salty taste at the Bagkok International Book Fair! Hot! Find your own convention.
posted by parmanparman on Mar 22, 2007 - 11 comments

Flight simulator. As a hobby, this guy built his own Boeing 747 flight simulator. No, not just a PC simulation, but a full cabin with hydraulics motion simulation a correct control panel and the full works, just like the real thing. (via Neatorama)
posted by caddis on Sep 4, 2006 - 24 comments

Making a watch by hand. In these days of “fast” and “convenient” I decided to commence a work of “painstaking” and “craftsmanship”, making my own wristwatch. I have had the idea for a certain arrangement of the watch dial, as on the image at the right, for a while now. My investigations into available movements showed that no production movement would give me this layout. After a long period of indecision and wondering what I was really getting myself into I decided to make my own movement, followed by the case and dial.
posted by caddis on Sep 3, 2006 - 21 comments

Elongated Pennies. Pressed pennies, flattened pennies, squished pennies, smashed pennies, whatever you call them, they are an exciting, kid-enticing presence at any tourist attraction, amusement park, or museum. For two quarters and a penny (pre-1982 preferred by the serious buffs) you can legally flatten the lowest of our nation's currency (and sometimes Canada's) into a souvenir disk that's embossed with a picturesque reminder of your trip. But these pennies don't live and die by the child's pants pocket, pressed penny collecting is serious business. Heck, there's even a museum devoted to the hobby, as well as a thriving collecting scene. So next time you pass by one of these cool machines, pause, elbow the penniless kids out of the way, and get yourself a neat little trinket of remembrance.
posted by lychee on Jun 12, 2006 - 52 comments

Beer Caps. With 12,568 scans available to peruse, Uncle Corkie is the winner in my books. Franco Ferretti may have the largest collection of bottle caps but it's not online. Collecting, a postmodern pastime?
posted by tellurian on May 20, 2006 - 11 comments

Gentleman's Fight Club.
posted by the cuban on Mar 29, 2006 - 39 comments

I love beer mats. Those with a low tolerance for slow-loading pages with too many graphics on them - or pages that require horizontal scrolling need not click. Other tegestology pages. I had no idea.
posted by spock on Feb 18, 2006 - 6 comments

Big beetles (Breed your own! They're cuddly!), tarantulas, scorpions, millipedes, various butterflies and moths.
posted by Wolfdog on Oct 16, 2005 - 18 comments

Teenage tribes and Council sponsored "mayhem".
posted by lerrup on Aug 30, 2005 - 26 comments

Welcome to Otter's Plushie Forest.
posted by DeepFriedTwinkies on May 11, 2005 - 37 comments

Teens in Israel need to find a new hobby: Incoming recruits to Israel's Defense Forces (Tzahal) who divulge playing Dungeons & Dragons are being flagged with low security clearance and psychological disorders. New guidelines are in place that limit D&D hobbyists from being considered for sensitive army positions such as Sayeret Mat'Kal, one of the most elite designations of Tzahal. Why does the IDF believe the game is so dangerous?: "These people have a tendency to be influenced by external factors which could cloud their judgment, a military official says. "They may be detached from reality or have a weak personality – elements which lower a person's security clearance, allowing them to serve in the army, but not in sensitive positions." Many find this policy inexplicable, and are turning to humor to aleviate the ridiculousness.
posted by naxosaxur on Mar 6, 2005 - 38 comments

Dear MEFI, I just love Alphabetilately, and I think you will too! Yours sincerely, taz.
posted by taz on Sep 17, 2004 - 19 comments

Ballonmoleküle is a great primer on how to make shapes (be they molecular models or wiener dogs) out of balloons. Be sure to check out the gallery for some cool photos of balloon molecules and a comment from Francis Crick.
posted by anastasiav on Jan 13, 2004 - 1 comment

Old River Bill really knows inland workboats. Besides exercising his novel system of punctuation, Bill makes model tugboats and is a part of an avid community of workboat modelers. You can find out everything you ever wanted to know about how real work is done on rivers on how the hell we move 100's of thousands of tons of crap around the country every day.
posted by badstone on Jan 6, 2004 - 5 comments

Nothing to do but surf group weblogs? No worries, there's always some hobbies that you haven't considered. Try collecting sugar packets, fruit stickers, toilet seats, join a club, or just go for broke and cover yourself in porridge. There's no excuse to be bored...
posted by moonbird on Oct 5, 2003 - 9 comments

The Postage Stamps of Donald Evans (scroll down a paragraph or two) A rich and complex internal world expressed through postage stamp art.
'When Donald Evans (born Morristown, New Jersey USA in 1945) was a boy, he drifted from his hobby of collecting postage stamps to creating his own postage stamps of countries he made up in his imagination ... He left behind an astonishing planet seen through its nations' postage stamps, thousands of them, all drawn to postage-stamp size, with all the familiar periphery of postage stamps hand-done ... '
posted by plep on Oct 28, 2002 - 18 comments

New Bog Snorkeling World Champion Crowned
People have such odd hobbies and collections.
I'm not talking about things like CrossStiching, or Air Guitar, or Naming Your Pens, but really strange ones.
Air Sickness Bags are art to some, so are Wal-Mart Purchase Receipts, and Nobs, always fun at parties there's collecting navel fluff, I'm not Sure What To Call This, there's Squirrel Fishing , collecting Odd Rod Cards, heck, Books Have Been Written, even The USAToday collects them.
I dunno, is Mefi a strange hobby?
posted by Blake on Aug 27, 2002 - 14 comments

I'm here to tell you about the ultimate sporting clash of the titans-Air Hockey! That's right, the ultimate rec-room sport of the '70's is alive and well. There's leagues galore including one in Austin, Texas(home of numerous MeFite's.), and cool Flash animations of some slick moves. Ever since I bought my first table at age 10 at a yard sale, this has been my game. Nice to know it's still out there. There's even places to buy nifty tables if you're in the market. Me and the missus used to love playing at the local arcade on this beauty with the nifty flourescent puck. Now drop the puck and play!
posted by jonmc on Apr 7, 2002 - 3 comments

New type of RC plane going for around $100 They're electric as opposed to gas powered, lighter than their gas powered cousins, and a fraction of the cost. I've always wanted to get into RC planes, but the cost was prohibitive until now.
posted by skallas on Dec 21, 2001 - 11 comments

SpacecraftKits.com has an interesting way of keeping their costs low. They do it "through mass production, and by putting the extensive assembly instructions and fact sheets ... online, rather than mailing them to you." I think that's a great idea. That way if they want to revise some part of the instructions, or add schematics or notes or ideas from people who might have experienced problems, they can allow all customers to see the new instructions without having to send recall notices or try to track exactly who owns their product. This gives a company the ability to hyperlink instructions with tons of additional information, as well as definitions and photographs. I really think all toy manufacturers should do this. It would also be great for furniture makers - Sauder and those places that make built-it-yourself desks and bookcases, etc. That way you could order that missing bolt or screw or broken piece of shelving directly from the manufacturer ...
posted by GatorDavid on Dec 4, 2001 - 3 comments

Not everyone understands the excitement of plane-spotting. Certainly not the Greeks [WSJ subscription link] who have jailed a group of plane spotters as spies. Asperger's Syndrome maybe. But spies? Ask the Romanians and Poles?
posted by Geo on Nov 23, 2001 - 9 comments

One of my favorite things about surfing the web is stumbling upon someone's magnificent obsession. In order to qualify as a Magnificent Obsession (M.E.) -- at least according to my definition -- the hobby must strike me as slightly-to-extremely insane while, at the same time, fill me with admiration for the hobbyist's discipline. Some M.E.s are about collecting totally useless data (like the main link above), or like this research into EXIT Sign Coloration; or strange items, like Wal-Mart receipts or air-sickness bags. But my favorite M.E.s are the ones that lead to huge expense and huge amounts of time spent building or fixing wonderful, useless objects -- like planetarium projectors or Lost in Space robots, which "can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $35,000 and vary in detail depending on the abilities and resources made available to the builder. A project like this can take months if not years to complete." Know any other good M.E. links?
posted by grumblebee on Oct 4, 2001 - 80 comments

Geocaching is a way to put your useless GPS device, and your lazy internet to work for your important fun needs. People hide Stuff on earth, and mark the spot. Publish the coordinates, and you go find the stuff. Sometimes toys and cameras are involved. Link via my good friend J.Bu, who probably did not realize he was giving away a perfectly good Old School style MeFi post.
posted by thirteen on Jul 30, 2001 - 26 comments

Scripophily is the misunderstood love of owning stocks and bonds that shouldn't be worth anything anymore. So why not make a business out of it? I'm just glad to see that e-toys is doing good once again.
posted by samsara on Jun 26, 2001 - 5 comments

Everyone has a hobby.. mine is is playing the guitar (rather badly I may add). I love wholenote .com. Are there any other hobbyists out there who have a site to reccomend?
posted by ttrendel on May 12, 2001 - 10 comments

"People, let me tell you 'bout my best friend.." Are you too much alone? Does time hang heavy on your head? Do even the cold comforts of Internet chat rooms and community blogging reject you? There's hope. Find the warmth of solid state friendship with the companionship of computerized buddies. It worked for all the greats - Luke Skywalker, Baltar, the Robinson boys (Will and Joel) and even that creepy tree-hugger Freeman Lowell. A servomotor, some fiberglass, and a sturdy car battery is all you need to guarantee that you will never be lonely again.
posted by Perigee on Mar 5, 2001 - 1 comment