Burden has the coolest Hot Wheels track (sorry kinetic sculpture) in history in his California studio. The project is called Metropolis II and uses 1,100 cars that continually move around. I assume the cars are powered by some of those Hot Wheels car flickers that are so noisy like my son has.

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The entire set up took four years and 12 people to build. I doubt that was continuous work though. The thing looks completely custom to me; even most of the track seems to be custom made. I know it’s wrong, but something about it makes me want to stomp through it playing a real world version of the arcade game Rampage.

[via Make:]

The car’s retro video game design is apparent from it’s looks. As I mentioned, it’s boxy and toy-like, just as Nintendo’s console was. Its rims and door handles are made to look like buttons. Scratch that, the door’s handles are buttons – when they’re pushed to open the doors, they also trigger sound bytes from Super Mario Bros.

That’s just the beginning. The car has both front and rear projectors for playing video games – the front projector is used to play Return of the Quack using two controllers that also double as the seat belt clamps on the two front seats.

But by far the best feature of this car for me is that you turn it on by inserting a video game cartridge into a dock on the dash. Curiously though, turning the car on is different from actually starting the engine. The latter is done by – what else? –pressing a button.

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The car was shown at last year at Pixel Pushers, an exhibit of 8-bit-inspired art that was curated by Giant Robot. I’m not at all fond of cars, but I hope when this car is auctioned off someday I’ll be able to get it, or at least have a replica made. More than anything else in this car, it’s the act of inserting the cartridge (and then the game won’t load, and you’ll have to struggle with the eject switch, then you’ll blow into the cartridge and put it back again) that really takes me back to my younger days.

[via Jalopnik, Kotaku & Game Set Watch]

The shiny, sparkly car has been outfitted with with mirrored plates strategically placed along its surface. Adding to the disco effect is a professional DJ sound system with a 15-inch bass-reflex subwoofer, 2-channel mixer and a pair of Numark NDX 800 digital MP3/CD/USB media controllers to get your beats on.

Under the hood, the iQ Disco isn’t quite as impressive, sporting a diminutive 1.33-liter, 98 horsepower engine. But who needs power, when you’ve got sound, and a car that looks like a traveling disco ball, right?

[via TopSpeed via Luxurylaunches]

Toyota is well-known for making cars, but not for making robots, which has really been Honda’s shtick. Toyota has been working on this ‘bot for about three years and finally decided to showcase it at the Shanghai World Expo that’s currently under way. The violin robot is performing daily at the Japanese Pavilion.

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[via PlasticPals]

That’s exactly what Toyoda Gosei (an offshoot of Toyota) has done with these prototypes: they’ve equipped cars with camera and radar sensors to detect pedestrians and (presumably) activate the outer airbags to protect anyone within range of the car. The hood airbag is supposed to cushion your head while the grill airbag cushions your waist, making the fact that you are getting run over a teensy bit more comfy.

I’m not sure if these cars look awesomely futuristic, ridiculously stupid, or just plain huggable. And I’m not sure that having a pillow pop out of a car that’s slamming into you is going to help all that much. Still, it’s an interesting concept, and who knows? This may become the norm in the future and won’t seem funny-looking at all. Then again, probably not.

[via Fareastgizmos]

Toyota has now developed a Trumpet playing robot. The world is saved!