History Main / HomemadeInventions

* ''Film/IronMan1'': Tony Stark builds the first Iron Man suit out of spare weapons parts. It's much cruder than his later versions, but it gets the job done and breaks him out of captivity.
** Similarly, his EvilCounterpart Ivan Vanko/Whiplash seemingly just slapped an arc reactor together out of stuff in his garage.
** Technically, Tony Stark made at least the first three versions of the Iron Man armor outside of a real facility. The first version was made from "scraps" in a cave. The second and third were actually built in his garage. It just so happens that his garage contains equipment that most modern factories lack.

* In ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', Anakin Skywalker built a functioning humanoid robot with full human-like AI, and what must have been a super-sonic racer, all on a son-of-a-slave's budget before his voice broke. To be fair, his owner was a droid and starship/podracer/what-have-you salesman, so while he's pretty damn smart to make these things as a kid, it's not like he made them out of random parts.

** "In Living Statues", Walter Denton creates a paint to buffer up worn and scratched wallpapers and walls. Unfortunately, he adds "Jeffrey's Marine" (aka rubber cement) to the mixture. HilarityEnsues.
** "Dying Easter Eggs" has Walter create a 24-hour delayed-action Easter Egg dye. HilarityEnsues when [[DumbJock Stretch Snodgrass]] accidentally fills the soap dispenser at Mrs. Davis' with the invention.

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/BillAndTed https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Bill-and-Ted-robots_8435.jpg]]]]

* In ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', Anakin Skywalker built a functioning humanoid robot with full human-like AI, and what must have been a super-sonic racer, all on a son-of-a-slave's budget before his voice broke. To be fair, his owner was a droid and starship/podracer/what-have-you salesman, so while's pretty damn smart to make these things as a kid, it's not like he made them out of random parts.

* Quinn Mallory, hero of the show ''Series/{{Sliders}}'', built a cross-dimensional portal in his mother's basement.
* In an episode of ''Series/StargateSG1'', an alien takes refuge in Carter's house. While there he managed to grow an emerald the size of a tennis ball using Carter's microwave and then later borrows her toaster for parts to make a stargate. Well, that and several thousand dollars worth of specially-ordered parts that he got over the Internet, but hey...

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': When Kirk and Spock are stuck in the 1930s without computer equipment because the Enterprise was erased from history, Spock builds a "mnemonic memory circuit" using "stone knives and bearskins". Naturally it works just long enough for them to determine what changed the timeline before exploding spectacularly.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "The World Next Door", Barney Schlessinger spends all of his free time in his basement building impractical inventions such as a wind-up mechanical orchid and a missile used to kill mice. The mouse missile worked as it should but it left small mouse parts everywhere.
* On ''Series/Zoey101'', MadScientist Quinn is constantly inventing something new--things she calls "Quinnventions." However, [[RunningGag none of them ever turn out the way she wants to]]. In one instance, [[EpicFail she almost blew up the school]]!

* Homemade Inventions are Donatello's brain and butter in the ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles'' cartoons. It grows to particularly ridiculous levels in ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012'', where he is able to build submarines, hovercraft, and [[DrillTank drill tanks]] with homemade materials and the occasional bit of salvaged alien technology.

* This is usually what ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' are [[CatchPhrase going to do today]].

-->-- ''Film/IronMan''

* ''Film/IronMan'': Tony Stark builds the first Iron Man suit out of spare weapons parts. It's much cruder than his later versions, but it gets the job done and breaks him out of captivity.

%%* ''Series/TheATeam'' lived and breathed this trope.

*** There's also a [[http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hV0rzEDq7TWnlm7tMmr2zeQmiRig Nigerian man who built a helicopter]] from parts of an old car and a crashed aeroplane.

* The entire website [[http://www.instructables.com Instructables]] is based around this concept, and features a wide arrange of various homemade gadgets from online DIY posters, engineering of all kinds, as well as numerous arts and crafts projects. One guy even showed how to make his car run... ''[[http://www.instructables.com/id/Convert-your-Honda-Accord-to-run-on-trash/ on trash]]''!

* The autobiography ''The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind'' [[IncrediblyLamePun revolved around]] William Kamkwamba's homemade windmill. This included spectacular failures such as a short setting his home on fire when his roof collapsed. In true MadScientist fashion, he built a breaker box rather than fixing his roof.

* Brian's RobotBuddy Charles Petrescu in ''Brian and Charles'', built from scrap (including a washing machine for a body).

* In ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'', Gru has to resort to this to build his rocket after he fails to get funding from the Bank of Evil.

Who says you need a billion-dollar grant to build cool inventions? As every wacky scientist knows, advanced inventions can be, in the words of Creator/RobertZemeckis, "built in somebody's garage". Want your own spaceship? [[IncredibleShrinkingMan Shrink ray]]? TimeMachine? The spare parts lying around in your basement should be sufficient.

In certain settings however, these homemade inventions are ''weapons''. The reasons greatly differ from setting to setting, from proper firearms being a rarity in a post-societal collapse or a GadgeteerGenius / TheEngineer [[MacGyvering whipping up something]] to defend themselves from an opponent, dangerous and life-threatening or otherwise. The construction of these weapons, sometimes range from somewhat plausible to outright impossible.

** There's also the Saxxy-winning [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNX3NvImiy8 "Meet the Dumpster Diver"]], where Soldier makes a new rocket launcher, grenades, and helmet from discarded trash.

* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'': According to the [[http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Bazaar_Bargain Bazaar Bargain]]'s publicity blurb, the Sniper created it from an old bolt-action rifle, a long piece of metal, some bolts, one half of a binocular and a military-grade laser sight, all bought for just under three dinars.
** And there's also the Saxxy-winning [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNX3NvImiy8 "Meet the Dumpster Diver"]], where Soldier makes a new rocket launcher, grenades, and helmet from discarded trash.

Of course, Homemade Inventions won't be perfect. Due to being built out of various mechanical parts, they will have a "cobbled together" look. (If this occurs in a film, you can bet the art department had a lot of fun with it.) Sometimes, they'll [[RubeGoldbergDevice work in a far more elaborate and convoluted manner]] than their purpose would seem to require; their power source may be as humble as [[HamsterWheelPower the family pet in an exercise wheel]]. Still, they will nearly always work and, when they don't, [[PhlebotinumBreakdown they'll fail spectacularly]]. These inventions will probably be created by the BunglingInventor, TheProfessor or the TeenGenius. More than half the time, these inventors will [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup neglect to make sure that they know how to reconstruct their inventions]].

In certain settings however, these homemade inventions are ''weapons''. The reasons greatly differ from setting to setting, from proper firearms being a rarity in a post-societal collapse or a GadgeteerGenius / TheEngineer [[MacGyvering whipping up something]] to defend themselves from an opponent, dangerous and life-threatening or otherwise. The construction of these weapons, sometimes range to somewhat plausible to outright impossible.

* Niea from ''Anime/NieaUnder7'' tries to build [=UFOs=] from scrap parts. [[spoiler:In the end she makes one that actually works. Almost, anyway]].

** However, Rosa has made some specifications to what Gyro can't do: he can make a functional time-machine, but not an interstellar space ship. So far he hasn't created a computer with a display, either, although he completely accidentally created a functional AI (Little Helper).

** In ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', Khan and his followers had to fashion protective gear from what they had when Ceti Alpha VI exploded and their planet turned into a desert with constant lethal dust storms. (The mask Khan wears appear to be off-center, made from some other piece of gear with a view-slit punched through it.)

* ''Literature/TheIncredibleWorldsOfWallyMcDoogle'': Wally [=McDoogle=]]uses a time machine made out of a toaster, a vacuum cleaner, and a TV remote. He received this gadget from his future self, who had created it ''accidentally'' by trying to fix all three devices at the same time. Granted, he's supposed to be insanely klutzy. Enough so that its surprising that he, his family and his friends are even still alive after five minutes.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E10Blink "Blink"]]: When the Doctor and Martha find themselves in 1960s Britain without the TARDIS, the Doctor builds a device to detect other inadvertent time travellers out of what looks like an old fashioned tape recorder, a telephone handset, a postcard, and other... stuff. It works quite well for what he needs, but not without some unintended side effects:

** Not only are the characters themselves built out of spare stuff lying around in universe, but the show creator Joel Hodgson built the puppet props the same way in his garage in about two days.

* These are frequent in ''Pinball/JunkYard'', and needed to progress through the game. You'll make such things as a radar and a submarine before ultimately making a flying jalopy to head into space and fight Crazy Bob.

* That is the way most technology in ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'' works. Half of the parts used in making technology items can be found in a garbage bin. Some others must be bought, though. And all of the recipes can be assembled in a complete wilderness without access to any thing like a workshop.

* Well, there's VideoGame/CommanderKeen's Bean-With-Bacon Megarocket, which is capable of interstellar travel (at well above lightspeed, obviously). It was made from, among other things, his mom's vacuum cleaner, a Creator/{{Nintendo}} controller and his dad's lawnmower.
* ''VideoGame/DarkChronicle'': ''You'' see a belt, a milk can, and a pipe. [[GadgeteerGenius Max]] sees an renewable energy pack for his personal mecha --which is also built out of a barrel (or a refrigerator,) piping, and traffic lights for eyes.

* ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' allows you to collect various "schematics" for weapons, which you can then build from the junk that clutters the environment. The results resemble this trope. Good examples include the shishkebab (basically a lawnmower rotor blade connected to the petrol tank of a motorbike to form a [[KillItWithFire flaming sword]]), the Rock-It-Launcher, which is built from a vacuum cleaner (amongst other things) and can fire pretty much anything you find lying around, a rifle that shoots railroad spikes, a landmine (made out of a lunchbox, a cherry bomb, a sensor, and a few bottle caps) that's about five time stronger than ordinary landmines and has roughly the same firepower of a mini nuke as well as, of course, the Nuka-Cola Grenade that's made with turpentine, Abraxo cleaner and the radioactive variant of Nuka-Cola in a tin can. When thrown, it explodes in a giant blue fireball, with lingering radioactive damage afterward. There's also the series-wide pipe gun weapons, which are cobbled together out of various scavenged piping, lumber, bolts and springs.
* ''[[VideoGame/NancyDrew The Haunted Carousel]]'' features Miles the Magnificent Memory Machine, a riddle-spouting robot built from an old oven, bicycle parts, and the trumpet off a gramophone.
* ''VideoGame/HeartOfDarkness'', featuring Andy the kid genius. Among his inventions are a cobbled-together interdimensional vessel, a plasma-gun and a control-helmet made from a colander.
* In ''VideoGame/JaggedAlliance 2'' you could make a barrel extender out of a tube, glue and duct-tape (never mind it's not rifled and somehow the perfect caliber no matter what weapon you put it on). You could also make a rod-and-spring attachment, and build a fully functional X-Ray scanner out of a Lame Boy, a Fumble Pack, wires, chewing gum, and an X-ray lamp. Worked on AA batteries.

** The season ten episode "The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace" [[note]]The episode where Homer becomes a UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison-esque inventor after hearing on the radio that the life expectancy of males is somewhere in the 70s, and Homer realizes that he's at the halfway point of his life and he hasn't done anything that would be considered memorable after his death[[/note]] was all about Homer creating homemade (and really dangerous and/or useless) inventions, such as the makeup gun and the "Everything's OK" alarm.

** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hahn One individual teenage Boy Scout]] managed to strap together a nuclear breeder reactor in his mother's garden shed. It didn't work very well, and he caused a serious hazmat issue and was very lucky to avoid jail time and/or cancer of the damn near everything, but it's still an impressive achievement of a sort.

** While this is irrelevant, two things bear noting: One, Mr. Hahn's reactor design was self-propagating; given enough fuel, it would continue to produce energy, and, actually, would produce more fuel, being a breeder reactor. Two, the fusor mentioned above is definitely not a break-even design; it runs off of household power, and is primarily useful as a conversation piece and as a neutron source.

** The [[http://reprap.org/ RepRap]] machine is a "self-replicating rapid-prototyping tool" that was not only built in somebody's garage, but can create about half of its own parts so that you can build one in your garage as well.

** This is also a common sight in lower-tech settings. Just about any well-used workshop will have at least one example, ranging from a small labor-saving gadget or jig suited to the builder's unique workflow to a scratchbuilt piece of heavy power equipment. Whatever it is, the reason behind it is generally the same: it was needed for some job, and the builder decided it was cheaper, faster, or just plain more fun to build their own rather than go out and buy it.

* 'Chechnyan Firecrackers' is a slang term for home-made firearms... which are legal in most states of the US, by the way (so long as they aren't capable of full-auto). Have fun! In fact, there have been several examples over the years of enterprising people building operational firearms with things commonly found in ''prison''.

* Much of the Maker movement revolves around this. Device to mute the tv whenever Kardashians are mentioned? Yes please.

* The Wizard of Menlo Park himself, Thomas Edison, was self educated and set up a chemical lab in a box car of the train he worked in (until he was fired for... um... a fire that resulted from the lab). Many of his early inventions were made in his barn and a barn also served as his first research lab.

Of course, Homemade Inventions won't be perfect. Due to being built out of various mechanical parts, they will have a "cobbled together" look. (If this occurs in a film, you can bet the art department had a lot of fun with it.) Sometimes, they'll [[RubeGoldbergDevice work in a far more elaborate and convoluted manner]] than their purpose would seem to require; their power source may be as humble as [[HamsterWheelPower the family pet in an exercise wheel]]. Still, they will nearly always work and, when they don't, [[PhlebotinumBreakdown they'll fail spectacularly]]. These inventions will probably be created by the BunglingInventor, the WeekendInventor, TheProfessor or the TeenGenius. More than half the time, these inventors will [[NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup neglect to make sure that they know how to reconstruct their inventions]].

* Most of the BOYZZ bots of ''WesternAnimation/TheBotsMaster'' look like they were welded together from spare parts from a junkyard. Justified because TeenGenius protagonist ZZ initially designed them as {{robot budd|y}}ies using only his personal resources. But after being refitted for combat, these walking scrapheaps can go toe-to-toe with the industrial-built {{killer robot}}s of the evil RM corporation.

* ''VideoGame/{{Earthbound}}'': Any broken item "fixed" by Jeff.

** Depending on the incarnation, the Doctor has taken this to an art form, most notably the Third, Fourth, Seventh, Tenth, and Eleventh Doctors. Turned UpToEleven with the Ninth/Tenth Doctor's and the Eleventh Doctor's first console rooms.