The wonderful and many talented Crabfu (Mr Huang) has brought another steam-powered device into existance. This one, – the Steam Hauler – based off a remote control truck is – even to his eyes, less fanciful than some of his other creations, but it is still steam where before there was none.

Possibly more like a steam powered Mad Max vehicle than the usual mad genius Steampunk transport, it goes to show that steam can power the most unlikely of constructions – and if you look at the pictures of the Steam Hauler pulling Mr Huang around on his skateboard – it can do it with steam-muscle too!

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So, a while ago I thought that it’d be nice to have Steampunk food – you may have noticed my Steampunk bento earlier with cog shaped sausage cutouts. However, cog shaped biscuits/cookies sounded like a great idea – but I’d be darned if I was going to hand cut out all those cog teeth! But the internet was not going to oblige, and the few places that will make custom cookie cutters were all far away and more than I’d like to pay.

Today I made my own, temporary cog shaped cookie cutter!

It’s made from the cylinder of metal from a small tuna can, I cut the top and bottom off, (saved the tuna, because I wasn’t hungry right then and there), used a handsaw to cut it into one long strip. I then used standard pliers (with occasional help from some needlenosed pliers) to bend and flatten a ‘hem’ for the side my hand would be touching. Then, using the standard pliers as both bending tool and measurement device, I bent it into a castle parapet shape (or square wave, for you more technical types).

A bit more bending to get it into a circular shape, and then used a hole punch to make four small holes. Then, a hand-riveting tool that I bought today was put to good use and it was finished!

I’m looking forward to using it, despite the cog ‘teeth’ being dangerously thin (they will break off – I just know it). It is temporary, because I hate to think how nice a place for bacteria those riveted holes would be. Next time, I’ll make the teeth bigger, and the inner parts (tooth bases?) shorter to compensate. Fun to do though!

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Is it a bat?! Is it a plane?! Well, actually, Clément Ader pioneer of flight and the creator of the above contraption, would probably say it’s a lot of both.

But oh – what a story around Clément Ader and his flying machines! In 1890, he took his first human sized flying machine – the steam powered Eole – on a 160ft (50m) flight. That’s 13 years before the Wright Brothers! The Eole was based on the wing shape of a bat and was a steam powered monoplane. A few years later, he was at it again, and created the Avion – another bat-based twin screw machine. The image above is of the Avion III.

The design was SO based on the structure of a bat (and remember – there was no precedent for this – terms hadn’t been invented and aerodynamics was mostly instinct and guesswork) that the parts of the wings were named things like “arm”, “fingers” and “elbow”. It was even possible to retract the wing and subsequently unfurl it again!

Such a delightful machine, and such a wonderful design – and the fact that it predated the accepted powered, heavier than air, controlled first flight by over 10 years is cute too. (There’s always controversy over such things, of course – one might argue that the Eole was not very controlled). Someone needs to make a modern version of this – or even just an animated version. I need to see this thing fly!

The recently DVD released, Brisco County Jr. is a very sneaky little series – it looks for all intents and purposes like a normal, cowboy-style series. However, if you take a closer look at the image above, you will see that Brisco (our hero) is actually riding a rocket with a saddle on it. For you see, Brisco County Jr. is a Western/Comedy/Action/Fantasy – and as such, has light sprinklings of Steampunk every so often.

Brisco was one of those series’ (like the much missed Firefly) that was cut short and apparently went cult, and while I’ve not yet finished watching the series (I’m about half way through) I have to say that I’m rather enjoying it!

Bruce Campbell is very good indeed as the hero of the piece, with a laidback attitude and rakish good looks – not to mention rather excellent comedic timing. There’s the stuffy lawyer who acts as character foil to Brisco, the ‘no good’ dancehall girl who can keep up with Brisco both mentally and…. well, you can imagine. There’s the downright heartwarming friend/rival bounty hunter, Lord Bowler – the character is growing on me daily. Then, there’s the semi-regular Professor character, who is our main source of Steampunk goodness. So far, there’s been rockets, tanks, alien artifacts and brass diving suits – and I do not know what the rest of the series will bring!

Verdict: Not amazingly in-your-face Steampunk, and again, Western style (think Wild Wild West, instead of 20,000 Leagues) but well made, funny, enjoyable and heartwarming action with Steampunk garnish.

Steampunk Score: 8/10

Ok, so it’s old news to many, but I recently got the graphic novel, The Five Fists of Science. I read it today, and it was quite good fun! Started off slowly, and I had a bit of trouble telling apart some of the more minor characters (dressed as they were in near identical dark suits) but the three main characters shone out properly. Featuring Tesla, Twain and Baroness Suttner as the good guys (there are another two – but I forget them) in a plot to enforce peace – whether the silly superpowers realise they want it or not!

There are giant robots, Lovecraftian demons, inventions, phobias, crime fighting and hoodwinking of the highest caliber. I will say, I found that it got rushed, confusing and explode-y near the end, which is a shame because after the slower start, I’d started to really enjoy it.

One other thing – few reviews seem to mention the Baroness Suttner character at all – it’s as if she didn’t exist for some of them. I mean – she certainly wasn’t the larger than life Twain – or the gloriously neurotic Tesla – but she does get to apply metaphorical foot-to-backside in a giant robotic suit. I’d have thought that would have earned her a mention.

Steampunk Rating: 7.5/10

Now, I used to be partial to a quick blast of ADOM, and I’m led to believe that Angband and ADOM are very similar beasts – ASCII ‘graphics’ games of dungeon crawling and stat gaining. Much using of arrow keys to move your “@” character around a randomised ASCII text dungeon (while killing “r” rats and “M” mummies).

So imagine my surprise and cautious enthusiasm in finding Steamband! This time, you can choose your Steampunk character (I have a liking for ‘Female British Engineer’ characters – there are few games that will let me play one), kit out your character with top hat and shotgun, and boldly delve into a (text generated) dungeon to fight the bally monsters!

But alas – I was terrible at it. I remember ADOM being hard to get into – and so it is with Steamband. Character creation was simple enough, but when in the game I fumbled around, tried to buy a weapon, failed to work out how to equip it and went into the dungeon anyway. Got a few good hits into a couple of rats – but they ran away. Then, I was zapped into immobility by a sentinal. Death was swift thereafter.

I tried again – this time, I bought a weapon, equipped it and was just about to leave the shop doorway when an NPC called Baldric blocked my path, drooling on me. I couldn’t get past him, and died of hunger. sighs

Third try – I dodged any and all NPCs because I feared the evil Baldric (I died of HUNGER!!) and bought a great big sword off the black market. Equipped it and through stumbling through the FAQ worked out how to assign my skills (press “G”). Ah ha! Now – now I was ready for the dungeon! I descended the stairs – it seemed to be dark. I moved once and ZAP! I was immobile. From there, I could do nothing but watch my HP plummet like a popped balloon. I died.

But – it has potential. I fully expect that were I to give Steamband more of a chance, I could get the hang of it. I’m sure that people of stronger constitution than I would no doubt embrace Steamband – it would reward those who do with well described Victorian style clothing items, steam based automaton pets, fantastical magic devices and spells, characters from so many cultures (British, Indian, American, etc) as well as fictional races (Dwarves, Sealie Fae, Old Ones, etc). So to those who don’t mind ‘retro’ graphics, and can fight past the downright bewildering array of key presses and randomness – Steamband is still linked here. Good luck!

So, it seems that there’s a pen and paper RPG that had managed to sneak under my radar – it’s been out for a while now (and went in and out of print once or twice) but it looks to be right up my street. Space 1889, by Heliograph ticks a great many Steampunk boxes – there’s aether ships, steam vessels, the British Empire exploring mars (and encountering native Martian people), dashing rascals and plucky young ladies. So, I was starting to wonder if it could get any better. And then it did.

They produced radio plays! There’s four at present, from Noisemonster Productions: Red Devils, The Steppes of Thoth, The Siege of Alclyon, and The Lunar Inheretance. The page has radio trailers for them all, for those who’d like to hear them, and they do some apparently good offers on buying multiples of the recordings. I must admit – the book, or the CD’s are creeping ever closer to my not-buying limit. Any closer, and my resolution will fail, and my purse will open.

There’s a page of very quirky art, called Spookypop, done by someone calling themselves Doktor A. While there may not be very much for the Steampunk fan, the above toy called “Professor Whistlecraft’s Industrial Copper-Plated Marvel” definitely qualifies. Doktor A seems to do digital art, painted art, sculpture and toys – some quite dark, some very cute – some a little of both. I have to say though – were it not for the very lovely Professor Whistlecraft, Doktor A would not have made it to a post here

[edit] Well! The redoubtable Doktor A’s no-doubt robotic spying minions were kind enough to tell the good Doktor about the post here, and the Doktor was nice enough to point out some more Steampunk goodness for our perusal. Many thanks, Doktor A!

• Faceplate
• Retro
• Colonel Juggernaut and his Remarkable Steam Powered Perambulation Engine (my favourite)
• Steampunk Taxi

Over at RustyClank blog (a blog devoted to Lego constructions, with a heavy Steampunk quota) they’ve got a download for a .pdf of an article written about Steampunk as a Lego construction genre. While it may not bring much new to regulars at Brass Goggles, it’s a good introduction to those who are new. It includes some advice for colour choices on bricks, and the likely Lego sets to get parts from.

BrickJournal Steampunk Article .pdf

I’ve no idea how I missed this until now, but the Classic-Space LEGO page has a huge collection of Steampunk related images that someone there has painstakingly collected for a long time, it seems. 237 images – some photographs of wargaming miniatures, some stills from anime (most obviously, Laputa, Nausicaa and Porco Rosso), and quite a lot of concept art.

I’d be tempted to write about so many of the images there – analysing how the marvelous devices work, the people who’d use them, the society that would have to exist to support them, etc etc. But there’s just too many! What a happy complaint to be making.

The above picture generates for me fantastic visions of hundreds of these improbable machines flitting over smoggy cities and rolling green hills, possibly delivering mail and landing with a bump and a clank in little rows outside the post sorting offices, and taking off again like a flock of disturbed pidgeons flapping wildly! I pity and envy the delivery boy riding it – waking up at the crack of dawn to get the engine ‘awake’, making sure the fire stays fed through wind, rain or snow, the terrible heat from the boiler and the cold from the skies, but the thrill and exhilleration of the wind in your face with only a handrail between you and hundreds of feet of blueskythump. That’s good concept art to me – one that makes a whole new world in my head!