Eureka has been Giz’s celebration of inventors of all stripe, from Tesla to Popeil. But one of the most memorable inventors of our time were actually invented themselves. Listed here are ten fictional innovators near and costly to our hearts.

Q

Who: Major Boothroyd, MI6 Quartermaster, Q was answerable for keeping James Bond one laser watch just before the bad guys.

Greatest invention: Every can be spy has their favorite Q contraption, but the remote control BMW 750iL, which Bond could not only start but operate from his cellular phone, caused the most effective backseat driver chase scene of all time. The flip-open cellular phone that served as the automobile’s remote was actually an idea by Ericsson, and they used elements of its design for a real handset they sold some years later.

Other noteworthy Q-nnovations include the Lotus Espirit Submarine Car from The Spy Who Loved Me, the Boombox Rocket Launcher from The Living Daylights and the Wet Bike from the Spy Who Loved Me, a Jet Ski-like craft that dazzled moviegoers in an era before there were Jet Skis.

Dr. Robotnik

Who: Dr. Ivo Robotnik, Sonic the Hedgehog’s egg-shaped nemesis.

Greatest invention: Metal Sonic, a robotic version of Sonic that was charged with going back in time to do dirty, destiny-changing deeds for his creator, Dr. Robotnik. Metal Sonic was as fast, if not faster, than Sonic himself and had the advantage of myriad technological enhancements, similar to a abdominal laser cannon and built-in force field device.

Doc Brown

Who: Doctor Emmett Lathrop Brown, an eccentric physicist based in Hill Valley, California.

Greatest invention: That vast wall-sized guitar amp that knocks Marty McFly on his ass? NO! The flux capacitor, the core section of a machine that allowed Brown to travel through time. Brown came up with the theory of the capacitor on November 5, 1955, and worked tirelessly for a better 30 years developing it into a working time machine. The capacitor, which requires 1.21 Gigawatts of electrical energy to function, was first implemented in a personalized DeLorean and later, or even earlier?, in a 19th century train.

Brain

Who: Brain, or Biological Recombinant Algorithmic Intelligence Nexus, a genetically modified lab rat bent on taking up the realm.

Greatest invention: Brain’s schemes for world domination were manifold, though one particularly ambitious effort was based around a device called the Infindibulator. In Brain’s words:

” After we construct a superconductive magnetic Infindibulator, the sector can be ours! … Due to the infindibulator to deplete hydrogen and promote gravitational collapse, we are going to produce a magnetic charge from the guts of the Earth so strong that all people who has loose change in their pockets will likely be magnetically interested in the ground and fixed there!”

Wayne Szalinski

Who: Wayne Szalinski, a struggling suburban inventor and father of two.

Greatest invention: The Electro-Magnetic Shrink Ray, a volatile high-energy device capable of shrinking matter. Though Szalinksi was unable to convince a symposium of scientists that his invention was viable, the device was triggered by an errant baseball and accidentally shrunk Szalinksi’s children, in addition as his neighbors’, to a quarter of an inch size. After that episode was resolved, Szalinksi added on oversize red safety button to the Ray, though it did little to stop further shrinking hijinks.

Dr. Horrible

Who: Dr. Horrible, an fledgling supervillain and aspiring member of Bad Horse’s Evil League of Evil.

Greatest invention: The Freeze Ray, that is not a death ray nor an ice beam, can stop time, allowing Dr. Horrible to engineer the appropriate romantic encounter. That after all being a crucial step in his ultimate project of ruling the area.

Tony Stark

Who: Tony Stark, a wealthy industrialist whose expertise in engineering is matched only by his lovable sass.

Greatest invention: The Iron Man Armor, a weapon-laden exoskeleton first conceived during his time spent in captivity at the hands of a terrorist organization in Afghanistan. Though, many versions of the Iron Man Armor were created, the are defined by palm-embedded repulsors and jet-boots, effectively allowing Stark to fly. Later, more advanced iterations of Stark’s armor were powered by a high-yield arc reactor.

Jigsaw

Who: John Kramer AKA the Jigsaw Killer, a civil engineer who specialized within the construction of elaborate death traps late in his life.

Greatest invention: Not applicable.

Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts

Who: Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts, a mustachioed American inventor from the early 20th century who specialized in exceedingly complex machines that accomplished trivial tasks.

Greatest invention: Butts is healthier known for his Self Operating Napkin, a contraption that a diner would wear around his head to facilitate automatic chin-wiping. Butts described its function thusly:

Raising spoon to mouth (A) pulls string (B), thereby jerking ladle (C), which throws cracker (D) past parrot (E). Parrot jumps after cracker, and perch (F) tilts, upsetting seeds (G) into pail (H). Extra weight in pail pulls cord (I), which opens and lights automatic cigar lighter (J), setting off skyrocket (K), which causes sickle (L) to cut string (M) and allows pendulum with attached napkin (N) to swing forwards and backwards, thereby wiping off your chin.

Tom Swift

Who: Thomas Swift Jr., a precocious teenage tinkerer with little formal education.

Greatest invention: The large Telescope, a pioneering stargazing device made possible by a unprecedented mineral discovered in a meteorite. Swift discovered the meteorite on an expedition in South America, and quickly observed the unique optical qualities of the mineral it contained. Swift used the fairway stone, which turned invisible when exposed to an electric current, in a 10 meter telescope, and the mineral made it powerful enough to read, he suggested, a telescope on the earth Mars.

Imagery by our contributing illustrator Sam Spratt based on the painting by CM Coolidge Have a look at Sam’s portfolio and become partial to his Facebook Artist’s Page .

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This post is tagged: Fictional, greatest, inventors, Time