Equal parts clockwork monstrosity and adorable childhood holdover, Overlord Butterscotch may be the raddest creation to come from this year’s Maker Faire.
Unfamiliar with the event, you say? Imagine Maker Faire as a huge gathering of techies, robot builders, hobby engineers and geeks, in which groups display their latest, greatest creations. Each iteration of the Faire — it’s held in multiple locations, at multiple times of year — produces some incredible and incredibly bizarre machines, but rarely do you see something as capital-A awesome as Overlord Butterscotch.
Created by Louisville, KY hacker collective LVL1, Butterscotch is essentially a hobby horse tricked out with an oral flamethrower. From the group’s site:
Butterscotch: 20% macabre skinned robotic pony child’s toy, 10% Wii nunchuck I2C debugging, 10% flame-thrower, and 60% safety afterthoughts. Your video was posted on BoingBoing with a representative sample of LVL1 membership. It deserves a Venn diagram of utilikilts, mohawks, and pink attire. Overlord Butterscotch is a fire-breathing pony who captured the hearts of thousands of makers, but only singed a few. Better luck next year! Edit: Butterscotch also received 2 Editor’s Choice Awards.
Notice that bit about the Wiimote? As if creating a hellsteed straight out of a 1980s Mattel advertisement wouldn’t generate enough nostalgic whimsy, LVL1 hacked a Wii controller to serve as the controls for Butterscotch’s flame-spewing head. Beats Wii Sports, huh?
Oh, and did I mention that LVL1 plans to give Butterscotch complete wireless mobility in the near future? Or that the Book of Revelations mentions this thing by name no less than 16 times? Or that the spirit of Ronnie James Dio lives eternally trapped within a gem affixed to the pony’s head?
What I’m saying here is, this thing is pretty rad. Nice job LVL1.
