Incredible Machines

I was fascinated by inventors and overly-complicated gadgets when I was a kid. It probably started with the Sessame Street’s red rubber ball roller coaster and was encouraged by playing The Inventors board game with my uncle.

I built Goldbergian contraptions in my bedroom with Legos, dominos, marbles, and other toys. Hotwheels cars and tracks became transport mechanisms to move a spool of thread from one side of my room to the other. I was probably the only kid on the block who was excited when they found an old broken clothes pin, because that spring would make a great trigger for a future invention.

Of course, none of my machines were anything like the incredible machines built for what appears to be a Japanese commercial or TV show.