History Main / BambooTechnology

** A simple gun might have made the Suspension of Disbelief (barely) possible, but the producers went balls-to-the-walls improbable with a ''[[GatlingGood Gatling gun]]'' design that fired several fruits per second. Never mind that it was never explained HOW that gun generated the pressure to propel them down the spinning barrels.

* ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk''. Ancient South American Indians develop a trap with a trigger that uses a beam of sunlight as an electric eye: when anything interrupts the beam, the trap activates. Question: does the trap work when the light isn't shining through at that exact spot, which would be, I don't know, most of the day and all night?

* In an almost perfect example of this trope, Princess Kaguya in ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}'' returns to the moon on a ''space shuttle made of bamboo'' while wearing an ancient Japanese spacesuit.

* Huitzil/Phobos of ''VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}}/Vampire'' fame, who appears to belong to some Mayan TempleOfDoom, but was actually created by BigBad Pyron to [[OmnicidalManiac destroy all life on Earth]] (starting with the dinosaurs).
* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3''. Bowser had a whole tank division, a navy and an air fleet all made of wood.
* ''Taz-Mania'''s Francis X. Bushman had a "tree trunk tank".
* A lighter version: Among the planes in ''Altitude'' are a WWI era biplane with a machine gun, and what looks like a space-fighter with energy weapons and teleportation technology. Both planes are of the same tier...
* As it is the SpiritualSuccessor to ''Literature/BridgeOfBirds'', ''VideoGame/JadeEmpire'' naturally features ludicrous amounts of bamboo tech coupled with DecadeDissonance. The capital city looks almost like a real, if rather haphazardly constructed medieval Chinese city until you notice the power-lines.
* ''VideoGame/{{Smite}}'''s [[{{Tanuki}} Danzaburou]] uses a wooden gun and can summon or even [[VoluntaryShapeshifting turn into]] a bamboo missile.
* Beaver technology in ''VideoGame/{{Timberborn}}'' is mostly based on wood as the starting material, even load-bearing machine parts like gears. The flavor text indicates that metallurgy was simply not a thing until the beavers figured out how to use the scrap metal they scavenged from human ruins.

* One of Rumble's skins in ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'', [[{{Pun}} Rumble in the Jungle]], subs his MiniMecha's scrap metal components for bamboo and coconuts.

* The airships in some of the earlier Franchise/FinalFantasy games may seem like this at first. They're [[http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080313061321/finalfantasy/images/9/99/FF-Airship.jpg normal wooden boats that fly thanks to some attached propellers.]] The concept on its own isn't that bad, but seeing how there's no other form of automated transport in these fantasy worlds, how the propellers work is questionable. Turns out the ships [[{{Magitek}} run on magic]].
* Among the many examples of SchizoTech in the ''Zelda'' series, ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' has a camera with capabilities similar to that of real-world digital cameras. The camera itself is made of wood, and the color version is powered by a firefly.
* [[http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=267151533 This]] Steam Workshop submission for ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' is essentially a reskin for the Engineer's Wrench made out of bamboo instead of metal.
* In ''{{VideoGame/Minecraft}}'', long before you gain access to iron, gold, redstone and diamond (to say nothing of plundering other dimensions for the riches therein), most tools and structures you build will be composed of wood, stone, and the odd bits of various animals. Pressure plates, levers, and buttons will activate nearby devices and doors, and flowing water will push objects and mobs, allowing for simple automation.
* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' has guns with shell casings made out of berries and bones, while the majority of weapons and armor are made out of the body parts of monsters hunted. Some of the missions given are also about hunting monsters for a client who needs them (or again, parts thereof) to fix or build things.
** The FinalBoss of ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterGenerations'' is the Ahtal-Ka, a monster that's intelligent enough to apply this trope to a point that it comes as better than the ''humans'' that hunt it. [[spoiler: It's able to construct a HumongousMecha the size of a small fort that can function effectively despite being built with nothing but rubble and its own webbing. And it's implied that the one it uses to fight you with wasn't even half-finished.]]
* Downplayed in ''VideoGame/OuterWilds''. The Hearthians’ interplanetary-capable spaceships have plenty of electronics and metal components, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re mostly built out of ''wood.''
* In ''VideoGame/Halo5Guardians'', the player comes across ruins on Sanghelios that are noted as being "already ancient when humanity built the pyramids." Some of them have gigantic sliding stone doors that still work, one of which is triggered by ''touching a stone idol''. It's possible that the temple's been retrofitted with modern Sangheili technology hidden just out of sight to facilitate this, however.
* ''VideoGame/HeroesOfJinYong'' has enforcers of the Ming Cult who wields ''[[FireBreathingWeapon bamboo flamethrowers]]''.
* In the ''[[VideoGame/HomeAloneSega Home Alone]]'' LicensedGame for the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis, Kevin can assemble homemade weapons by finding items in the houses and in the snowmen he knocks down. He needs a platform, operator, and ammo for each. They are auto assembled in the Beginner difficulty, but he has to assemble them himself on the Expert difficulty.
* The Bamboozler series of weapons in ''Franchise/{{Splatoon}}'' is a literal case, being a Charger fashioned out of a bamboo cane. According to its description, it's a reissue of a weapon used during the Great Turf War, and the signature weapon of veteran Cap'n Cuttlefish.
* ''VideoGame/TouhouKenbunRoku'': Midway through Chapter 4, Bunroku pulls out a rocket launcher made from bamboo, and open fires on a giant mansion.

* In ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' "Pickle Rick", Pickle Rick manages to jury-rig an assembly line made of random junk and vermin parts that installs his pickle body into an exoskeleton made of rat limbs powered by a freshly killed rat's brain.

* The fantasy novel ''Literature/BridgeOfBirds'' has three men in Seventh-Century China jerry-rig a primitive helicopter out of bamboo, palm tree fronds, and ''gunpowder,'' which they are able to synthesize because they are stranded on a saltpeter island [[ConvectionSchmonvection in the middle of a lake of sulfurous lava.]]

* In the second ''Literature/{{Uplift}}'' trilogy by David Brin, a group of inhabitants on Jijo make amazing things, such as computers, despite trying to voluntarily ''devolve'', and having discarded all their working technology to an oceanic trench. Many things, funnily enough, are made from "Boo" -- an alien plant which greatly resembles bamboo, but bigger and far stronger -- even ''space rockets''. It's a bit of a twist, though, because Boo was originally advanced biotechnology used by a MUCH more advanced past civilization [[spoiler:who were quite possibly playing a LongGame that accounted for later Jijoans needing to make do after being cut off from Galactic technology]].

[[caption-width-right:350:Baby gets thirty miles to the gallon - of coconut milk!]]

* One of the things Malaysian villagers tend to craft on the approach of Eid al Fitr are ''bamboo cannons'', made of bamboo and (illegally appropriated or homemade) gunpowder. It's the leading cause of fire and serious injury (often fatal) during the season and is [[BannedInChina supposed to be officially banned in Malaysia]]. However the villagers ignore the law anyway (and due to the proximity of villages from the main towns and cities, law enforcement is often lax) and still make them, and disaster often follows when they're used. This is why TV stations in the country airs depressing [=PSAs=] about the dangers of the weapon during the season.

* Hong Kong and some South East Asian countries still prefer using bamboo scaffolding. Not only is it strong enough for the job, it's lighter than steel and can be put up and pulled down much faster.

* Two Chinese scientists at the University of Maryland have been working on a strain of wood that is [[https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/stronger-than-steel-able-to-stop-a-speeding-bullet-mdash-it-rsquo-s-super-wood/ twelve times as strong as regular wood]], to the point that it can be used as bulletproof armor, and may have wide potential to be used as a building material in lieu of heavy metals like steel and titanium. The technical article is [[https://www.nature.com/articles/nature25476.epdf?referrer_access_token=ECLg-PpulfW2mcyvPQ8TWtRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0PCy5i9Q4zwaBEuUCd3sS81gNj7sytsS8Bu8YTTSgzFE6fiPZjQsmPHqJsPgBBwrXU60QcTZr6W8mr1PYVQ2TnlQxknhMmdYOVTZ99DBpi99SIPc3UZpI0XB-a3hYjPCoEIbl1rRy7oAwo3G5AZhh2b here]].

--> Life in Bali would have developed along different lines had bamboo not existed on the island. Out of bamboo they make the great majority of their artifacts; houses, beds, bridges, water-pipes, musical instruments, altars, and so forth. It is woven into light movable screens for walls, sun-hats, and baskets of every conceivable purpose. - Miguel Covarrubias

* During ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear: Clones'' an outpost of rather strange-acting Rebels is found. They've built a spaceship.
--> Or at least, what might have been a spaceship, if spaceships were made out of old scrap metal, bilba tree wood, and patches of woven grass. It was like a giant model of a star freighter, several times larger than their own ship, the ''[[CoolStarship Shroud]]''. It was the kind of thing children might build in their backyard, only on a much bigger scale.
** It doesn't work. The Rebels can't tell [[spoiler: because [[CloningBlues they are a kind of clone that can't quite distinguish idea from reality.]]]]

* In ''Literature/{{Insupu}}'' the kids build a mansion with a functioning modern kitchen from wood and raffia stings.
* In ''Literature/TheAmberSpyglass'', third tome of ''Literature/HisDarkMaterials'', [[spoiler:Mary Malone suceeded to create a device able to detect Dust from lacquer and juice from an admittely very special tree]].
%%* The gnomes in Literature/ForestOfBolandLightRailway build a bridge by roping logs together.

* The Stone Age characters in Johnny Hart's ''ComicStrip/{{BC}}'' often utilized this.
* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': Calvin is able to make a [[TimeTravel time machine]], [[ShapeShifting Transmogrifier]], and [[CloningBlues Duplicator]] out of a cardboard box (the same cardboard box). He even manages to convert a regular water pistol to a Transmogrifier gun. The line between what's real and what's in Calvin's imagination is never really established, so whether these were actual working devices or a kid playing pretend is uncertain.
* In ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'', two cavemen scientists travel into modern times using a TimeMachine made out of a log.

* In the ''Literature/BadMermaids'' series, mermaids have TVs, flip phones, and cars made out of clamshells.

* ''Missionaries'' trilogy by Lyubov and Yevgeny Lukin. Some guys found a portal into past (turned out to be AlternateUniverse) and tried to stop European colonization by giving would-be victims whatever technology local resources allowed -- threw hang-gliders and primitive incendiary bombs into tribal warfare, then [[LensmanArmsRace fire fed itself]], along the path [[AlternateTechline the originators didn't understand well]].

* ''The Shroud Of The Thwacker'' by Chris Elliott, a historical fiction spoof set in the 19th century, features wooden mobile phones that run on kerosene.

* Spoofed in ''Film/GalaxyQuest'', when TheCaptain is stranded on a planet with nothing but rocks in sight, and another crew member asks, "Can you construct a rudimentary lathe?" Which in itself is a spoof of the ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Original Series}}'' episode "Arena", which you'll find discussed in the TV section of this article.
** Made more absurd by the fact that he was being attacked by a giant rock monster at the time.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/MadagascarEscape2Africa'' both make use of Bamboo Technology. In the first one Marty manages to use it to build a small house with plumbing. In the second one it's upgraded and used to repair and launch a crashed plane with a giant slingshot (although landing is a little more difficult), then used again to turn it into a helicopter which actually ''works.''

* Quite literally in the fifth ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'' film, where the snake family owns a fully functional television made of bamboo.

** ''WesternAnimation/SuperMarioWorld'' takes this trope further; many of the episodes revolve around some form of modern technology being introduced into the [[{{Prehistoria}} Dinosaur World]], which is usually constructed out of rock, wood and/or some other form of plant biomass. These include television sets, cars and a telephone network made of vines and coconuts. [[AWizardDidIt A Magikoopa in each set]]. The cars have enslaved Galoombas (referred to as Goombas at the time) running on the front wheel connector. The telephones are tin cans with a string principle.

* Very much the truth for Native American and Aboriginal Australian cultures, the former [[https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn27945-myth-of-pristine-amazon-rainforest-busted-as-old-cities-reappear/ having built entire cities on the Amazon out of wood]] and the latter having invented all kinds of architecture, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCax40gFvrE filters]] and shoes out of materials ranging from reeds to human hair. Given how quickly these materials degrade, its an unfortunate fact for archaeologists and even more unfortunate since colonists could easily destroy these things and play up the NobleSavage card.

* ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'':

* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor''
** 2x4 technology, where scrap lumber and household/everyday items are cobbled together into everything from firearms to spaceships.
** HumongousMecha made from everything from metal to lawn chairs to ''cats''.