{"id":17143,"date":"2021-01-28T11:09:16","date_gmt":"2021-01-28T17:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/?p=17143"},"modified":"2021-01-28T11:09:16","modified_gmt":"2021-01-28T17:09:16","slug":"maker-scene-functional-batman-grappling-hook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/editorials\/maker-scene-functional-batman-grappling-hook\/","title":{"rendered":"Wow! The maker scene has brought us a functional Batman grappling hook"},"content":{"rendered":"

The bad news: There\u2019s still no hoverboard from Back to the Future 2<\/em>. Well that\u2019s not entirely true<\/a>, but it works about as well as X-ray specs in the back of a comic book. Actually I\u2019m being mean, it\u2019s quite an accomplishment (as long as your expectations are reasonable of the maker scene).<\/p>\n

The good news: Someone has made an arm mountable grappling hook like Batman uses.<\/p>\n

Youtuber Built IRL<\/a> (whose name is JT Jameson) recently rolled out an arm-mounted device that – impressively – works. The Everyday Carry (EDC) crowd has always been aware of grappling hooks<\/a> and their utility as a standard tool to haul around daily, but those are usually relegated to manually-driven (read: You have to throw it, like an animal) methods of execution and application. And then climb up under your own power? Who wants to do that?<\/p>\n

There<\/a> are a total<\/a> of six<\/a> different<\/a> parts<\/a> to this saga<\/a>, with the creator walking us through the initial planning, prototypes, failures, successes, and various examples of how the launcher works. There\u2019s a surprising amount of depth here, with numerous issues that must be navigated in order to arrive at a real and working grappling gun.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not exactly as smooth as entertainment makes it to be – we\u2019re not going to pull the trigger and Indiana Jones parkour up and down urban dreamscapes, nor will there be stealthy assaults on urban strongholds, abandoned buildings, and Area 51. But we\u2019re also only at the very beginning stages of this sort of maker merriment, and there\u2019s surely improvements that can and will be made.<\/p>\n

It should be noted that this project has to take in a lot of considerations that aren\u2019t immediately apparent. For example, the force needed to actually pull a body upward could easily injure someone if weight isn\u2019t somehow distributed across one\u2019s frame. Batman makes it look so easy, but Batman also isn\u2019t real, so maybe we\u2019re giving him too much credit in this regard. There\u2019s a piece in here about how he has unlimited funds too, and how I\u2019m jealous of that, but that\u2019s a different discussion.<\/p>\n

JT seems to have a passion for such projects, as his Youtube page shows that he\u2019s also worked on Spiderman\u2019s Web Slingers<\/a> as well (and I\u2019m having trouble figuring out which one I like more).<\/p>\n

Perhaps the larger point here is that Youtube is a wonderful gateway to the varied and immensely satisfying world of makers, whose passions drive an endless spectrum of amazingness. From blacksmiths creating real-life versions of popular swords<\/a> to a crafts project wizard<\/a>, it\u2019s an incredible time for people to take up hobbies and learn how to pursue all kinds of potential avenues in the name of creative expression.<\/p>\n

Of course, this is the driving force behind things like Etsy<\/a>, traveling showcases such as the Renegade Craft Fair<\/a>, and even long-established events such as Renaissance Festivals<\/a>. There\u2019s a slew of amateur competition shows, from baking<\/a> and cooking<\/a> to building Lego sculptures<\/a> to design work<\/a> and fashion<\/a>. It\u2019s no longer relegated only to professionals and those with decades of experience and proper training – passionate hobbyists can now enjoy their own slice of notoriety while displaying their creations in a meaningful way. (Of course, the pros get their own competitions – let\u2019s not discriminate here.)<\/p>\n

The only difference now is that it only takes a few moments to figure out how to start practicing such activities on your own. And beyond that, there\u2019s variations even within a single field. Woodworking covers everything from 3D laser cutting to joinery to furniture. You can 3D print<\/a> to your heart\u2019s desire, and use that to make unique creations, download someone else\u2019s project, or turn it into a small business.<\/p>\n

The best part, of course, is that someone out there is either doing what you\u2019d like to do, or has asked the same questions you might. With that in mind, it\u2019s reassuring to know that answers are out there from masters and journeymen and everyone else in between.<\/p>\n

In a way, it\u2019s like we\u2019re experiencing our own resurgence of art, made manifest through new avenues now available at the consumer level. While staples such as painting, photography, calligraphy, silkscreening, and thousands of other pursuits have been around throughout history, we\u2019re now seeing a new breed of creator and maker appear that is fueling new markets, delivering kinetic art pieces, and perhaps even solving long-standing issues and nuisances that would be ignored by larger companies and corporations.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all just so incredibly inspiring – the advent and rise of the new<\/em>, breathing life into things that felt so nonsensical and out-of-this-world silly that someone finally came along and said \u201cHey, why DON\u2019T we have that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Someone watch Inspector Gadget and make, just, everything<\/em> that guy had please.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(OPINION \/ EDITORIAL) The maker scene is exploding, with creative expression seen through every major entertainment medium and even launching new careers, products, and services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":337834,"featured_media":17144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[254],"tags":[2157,2159,253,2158,1234],"class_list":["post-17143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorials","tag-batman","tag-crafting","tag-editorial","tag-maker-scene","tag-real-estate-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/01\/CraftingTools.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/337834"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17143"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17146,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17143\/revisions\/17146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theamericangenius.com\/housing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}