One of the great injustices in the world is that you have to make your morning coffee before having any coffee. Even if it’s not a complicated process, being caffeinated would undoubtedly help. It would also be great to have machines make breakfast for us, so we could just relax and drink that cup of coffee. Enter the LEGO pancake factory. Though it’s definitely a Rube Goldberg machine that makes every step more complicated than it needs to be, the results look undeniably delicious. And it delivers pancakes to your plate with little work on your part. Well, except for the hours and hours it must take to assemble the robotic helpers. But hey, who doesn’t want LEGOs to make them pancakes for breakfast in the morning?
Every step in the pancake-making process is covered by this LEGO build. The machine cracks eggs, adds flour and milk, and even mixes everything together with a set of LEGO beaters. It then pours the batter (which looks a bit lumpy for my taste) into the hot pan. There are separate rigs for adding oil and flipping the flapjacks. The latter also transports each pancake to your plate and then takes the plate to the table.
We saw the ingenious device thanks to Laughing Squid. It reminds us of the morning routines of many misunderstood geniuses in pop culture classics like Pee-wee’s Big Adventure and Back to the Future III. The Brick Wall YouTube channel has lots of other videos using Technic sets to create elaborate food factories. There’s a LEGO pizza assembly machine, a taco factory, and even a log cabin made out of cucumber slices. Who doesn’t need that?
There’s no shortage of Rube Goldberg machine ideas on the internet. You can incorporate one into your life at any time of day, including one to share a bottle of wine at the dinner table and one for brushing your teeth. But, we have a special love for LEGOs that will bring us pancakes in bed for breakfast.
Featured Image: The Brick Wall
Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth.