Japanese Rube Goldberg machines

Thursday 6 April 2006 — This is close to 19 years old. Be careful.

I don’t know what Japanese TV show this is from, but it’s a video of some amazing Rube Goldberg contraptions. Skip about 1:30 into it, and when the dancers come on, skip over them too. There are a couple of dozen different devices demonstrated, using some truly innovative interactions and reactions. It’s similar to the Honda Cog advertisement, but clearly hand-made, and with a repeating jingle at the end of each one, sometimes incorporated into the machine itself.

Comments

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mikey 7:06 AM on 7 Apr 2006
Goes to a Japanese video by an Evanescence knock off band...
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David Boudreau 8:35 AM on 7 Apr 2006
These videos are from one of the NHK channels (like PBS in the States)- the one that has a science slant. The name in this one means Pythagoras Switch, and that's what is sung in the jingle ("pitA,gorA,su suIchI"). I guess "Rube Goldberg" got mistranslated.

I was going to tell you about them on numerous occasions, actually but didn't think you'd be impressed. There are probably many, many of them. I also saw a TV show that had a contest of these kind of contraption builders, competing in teams, with points for creativity and difficulty, and creative goals like "coolest way to open a can" or "crack an egg to make a batter" as the final action in the contraption. Years back, there was a gigantic dominos-falling display arranged around Odaiba, spanning miles, in and out of stores and buildings, and televised live, which used video cassette cases as the dominos.
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Ned Batchelder 8:25 AM on 9 Apr 2006
David, if you ever find more video like this, my kids (yeah, that's it..., my kids) would really be interested in seeing it.
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Donna Baker 1:19 PM on 21 Apr 2006
I'm thinking you and your kids should build some.

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