Bruce Rosenbaum is a steampunk master. After turning his own Massachusetts home into a steampunk masterpiece, he’s opened his own business and is busy crafting digital/Victorian makeovers for homes, offices, and hotels.

According to Wired, Rosenbaum got the idea when he found a very old iron oven at an antique store. The oven is a sculptural piece of artistry, and its attention to craftsmanship inspired him to bring it home and re-purpose it. He upgraded it with a glass-top stove, which caused him to start a years-long transformation of the entire house.

Today, the house is filled with all sorts of technical marvels — which are neatly incorporated into 1800s-era creations. Rosenbaum, his wife and two sons own an ancient pump organ that’s been turned into a modern desk with built-in computer; a hot plate turned wireless iPad charger; a boat’s portal (with functioning valve wheel) that Rosenbaum made into a closet door; and loads more. No detail was left untouched, from the period lighting all throughout the house to the house’s stained glass windows.

It’s an astounding accomplishment, and one can only imagine the amount of time it took to salvage all of the antiques, gut them, put them together with modern technology, and then install them in the house to look as if they were made specifically for that space.

Wired says Rosenbaum is pitching a reality series to cable TV networks, which would be produced by one of the people behind The Biggest Loser. Sounds like a good fit for Discovery or The History Channel. Hit the link above to check out more photos of Rosenbaum’s amazing steampunk home.

It’s impossible to believe, but this is not a commercial product. It’s homemade.

DeviantArt user “tommyfilth” created this amazing Monopoly game, themed around the video game series Mass Effect. I’m in awe of this dude’s skills.

This Mass Effect Monopoly is just stunning. I mean, look at it! He made his own money, “Alliance Mission” and “Cerberus Task” cards (instead of Chance and Community Chest), property deeds, and game pieces. But all of it is themed around Mass Effect locations, finances, and factions. Standing in for Boardwalk? The Citadel, of course.

Tommy says he made Mass Effect Monopoly as a Christmas gift for his family. I can’t even begin to imagine how one would make something like this from scratch — especially the board, which looks like it was manufactured exactly the way real board games are made.

BioWare, get your people on the phone. Somebody needs to put this into production, stat!

Today, the most enterprising gamers make up their own board games just for fun. Maybe they’re throwing a themed party. Maybe they just have a great idea. Or maybe they love a popular game but want to put their own mark on it. Whatever the reason, here are 14 board games made entirely by hand, that flat-out rock.

Settlers of Catan

It’s been called the greatest board game of all time. One enterprising fan named “Gregory D.” was so devoted to Settlers of Catan that he sculpted his own tiles and pieces out of clay, and then hand-painted them. The three-dimensional finished product is so cool, the game’s publishers should hire this guy to make a Special Edition.

Cereal Killers

I can’t speak to how this one is played, but Etsy seller STARartproductions claims it’s a real game you can play. It looks to me more like a piece of pop art. The maker somehow recycled an old Chutes and Ladders game to come up with this. Unlike most of the other titles on this list, Cereal Killers can be purchased. The price? $165, plus shipping.

Creature Capture

There’s not much information available about this card-based board game, other than that it was made by professional graphic designer Jen MacCollum. It’s not available to buy, so I’m guessing it was either a personal project or a concept design, because it comes with all its own pieces and even a box. I especially like the creative way the game spaces are laid out.

Escape from Mystery Island

With a tip of the hat to Lost, Joshua Long created this survival game about an island that’s ensnared inhabitants who must find a way to escape. Each player gets their own dock along the island’s coastline, and the object is to be the first to reach your dock.

Harry Potteropoly

While there are plenty of versions of Monopoly to go around, but few as lovingly made as this one. Ashely, a Harry Potter fan, built, drew, and painted this game entirely by hand.

Insel Expedition

Have you ever seen anything homemade that’s this detailed? That board is a work of art unto itself. Designer Marcus Günther created this game as his bachelor thesis. It’s not the only island-based board game on this list, but it’s certainly the most beautifully detailed.

Lord of the Rings-opoly

Alida Saxon wasn’t happy with the official Lord of the Rings Monopoly game, available from Parker Bros., so she made a more authentic version of her own — as if this was a game the characters in the books and movies might have played. The game board is a map of Middle Earth, she made rivers out of the traditional railroad spaces, and she changed Chance into a Palantir and Treasure Chest into “Treasure Barrows.” Boardwalk was replaced by Mount Doom. Perhaps most interesting of all, she traded the fake Monopoly bills in for colored coins. And all of this was done as a Christmas present for her brother. Now that’s love.

Mushroom Kingdom

This super-slick, Nintendo-inspired game was made by professional designer Ashley Buerkett. All of its pieces and the board itself are made out of paper, and it even comes with custom-made plexiglass packaging.

Nothin’ Doin’

With a subtitle like “the Game of Gainful Unemployment,” you’d expect something with tongue solidly planted in cheek, though this game’s chic, sophisticated design scheme might fool you into thinking otherwise. The object of the game, as created by designer Katie Hatz, is to achieve happiness without having to hold down a steady job. Three primary elements — time, money, and pleasure — must be kept in constant balance as you move around the board, encountering challenges and scenarios that could upset that balance. You win when you reach the hammock in the middle of the board. Yeah, I said hammock.

Odysseus

For a school project, Craig Moore came up with this highbrow game that’s based on Odysseus’ journey home from Troy in Homer’s Odyssey.

Sergio

You gotta love the whimsical design of Sergio, by Lina Vaitiekunaite. You don’t often see board games meant for just two people, but that’s how this one was designed. Both players control custom-made lawn gnomes pieces as they circle the board three times until they reach a mushroom piece that’s placed in the center. Another distinctive feature: the board breaks into four parts for storage, and instead of giving the board segments straight edges, Vaitiekunaite used jagged edges, so that the parts lock together like a jigsaw puzzle. There’s even a custom package in the unusual shape of the four game board parts.

Soul Snatcher

“Party on Friday. BYOBG.” A blogger going by the handle “Ghoul Friday” came up with this one for a supernaturally-themed party she threw for some friends. Get this: the playing cards are shaped like toe tags.

Tronopoly

It may look like an officially licensed version of Monopoly, but it ain’t. Geeky blogger Sara Hellsten worked up this bad boy in her spare time (Hellsten’s got serious geek cred — she’s a Java software developer) in honor of the release of Tron: Legacy. This is what geekdom is all about: expressing your love for something in pop culture by putting your own spin on it.

Venus Needs Men

Don’t let its simplistic-looking design fool you. There’s some major strategy required if you hope to claim victory. The game begins when up to six players choose from five alien planets. The alien races on each planet have unique abilities, so after you build spacecraft to invade Earth, you use those abilities to abduct humans. The sixth gamer plays as Earth, defending it from the multiple invasions and even scavenging alien technology to use against mankind’s extraterrestrial enemies. For $30, Venus Needs Men can be yours.

This four foot tall robot not only looks fantastic but seems to be highly functional, thanks to some nifty systems and programming by its creator, Dave Shinsel.

There’s a ton of video over at Dave’s YouTube page which really gives a flavour of what Loki can do.

Loki has remote control and logistics over Wi-Fi, vision processing, speech recognition, indoor pathfinding and basic artificial intelligence.

Lots of data on the web site if you’re inclined to have a go creating your own Loki. Otherwise, just sit back and enjoy the show.

Via