grant imahara, designer, machinist, financier & driver
in real life: animatronics engineer and modelmaker for George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic, installed electronics in R2D2 units for Star Wars: Episode 1 and 2, and supervisor for the Energizer Bunny crew, also based out of the ILM Model Shop. Also lit the engines of the Protector and the sickly green lights of the Sarris Ship on Galaxy Quest. Occasionally portrays the “classic” gold suit C-3P0 (yes, in the suit) for charities, special appearances and commercials when Mr. Anthony Daniels is unavailable.
…jamie hyneman, mechanical design
in real life: owner of M5, the effects shop behind Team Blendo. His diabolical mechanical genius has spawned an electric bicycle that beat a Harley in a drag race and rollerblades with Bosch drill motors attached.
…adam savage, pit crew & fabrication
in real life: modelmaker and member of the original Team Blendo. If you look closely in the cargo bay of the space shuttle in Space Cowboys, you’ll see some payload modules that say “Savage Industries” – that’s for Adam.
Oh, that is so cool! That’s what happens when you start thinking about an obscure Discovery Channel show and go spelinking (new word! I just made it up! Shiny!).
David mentioned the other day that Mythbusters was going to be showing a marathon. After a little checking around at a fan forum, I ran across the Deadblow site. David and I already knew that Grant, one of the on-screen crew members on the second season of Mythbusters, had formerly run a winning entry on one of those “robot wars” shows. Now I see that both Jamie and Adam were part of that, too. Plus, they all have really interesting SF cred.
In addition to some fun details, there are a lot of “outtakes” videos at the Discovery Channel site that are a lot of fun to watch. It’s not all beer and skittles busting myths – it’s a lot more plywood and pelicans.
According to the fan site, the third season starts this month. Yaaaayyyyyy!