Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
It is a tradition to start every description of mine with an apology for being late lol. I know how late this is and I'm really sorry, I procrastinated on editing and typing this long description. But enough excuses. For the last five years, I have been part of Sirgabealot G's megacollab Machine Multiverse. This year, I had the honor of making the final clip of the video! (thanks so much Gabe) But this isn't just an ordinary machine, as you might have guessed from the suspicious title and the uncharacteristically dramatic editing style...
I have had the idea to do a self-destructing machine for quite a while now. I used to use my bookshelf as a machine table, and every time I peeled tape off of it, a bit of paint would come off too, so after a few years the table was covered in ugly white marks. To fix it, my mom got me some wood-textured contact paper which we stuck to the table. I later had an idea to take some contact paper, cut it to the size of the table, build a machine on it, and have it end with a weight falling and pulling the paper, machine and all, off the table. This idea ended up slipping through the cracks until last year when Gabe asked me if I would like to participate in MM2025, specifically asking if I could build the finale. I was initially hesitant to build a full machine, because I am a chronic procrastinator (evidenced by the fact that I am uploading this over a month after MM2025 came out lol) but I decided to do it. It was around this time that I thought of resurrecting my old idea of building a "self-destructing" machine, as I knew that if I was going to make the finale, I wanted to make it special and climactic.
When I first presented this idea to Gabe, he thought it was a really cool idea, but he was understandably concerned with how risky it was. We ended up deciding that I would go with the self-destruct concept, but I would make it simpler and less compact than a typical machine of mine. We also decided that I would film an alternate take without the destruction at the end in case of an emergency. (I luckily didn't have to use it) Honestly, the worst part of building wasn't the self-destructing aspect; it was the fact that I was building on a literal sheet of paper. Not only could I not secure anything firmly to the table, as the paper could flex and bend, but every time I peeled adhesive off the table, it would peel or tear the paper and I would have to repair it as well as I could to make it look non-suspicious. It was just incredibly irritating and I'm glad that I can go back to building machines on a solid surface again lol.
Testing was also hard, as you can probably imagine. After every attempt I would remove the weight from the mechanism to avoid any tragic accidents while resetting, but filming actual takes was very stressful because I knew that if the end triggered early, I would have to rebuild the entire machine. If you're wondering if there were any disasters with the self-destruction, there was only one, and it luckily could have been worse. When I was designing the original weight drop mechanism, in which the weight cart fell directly from the table itself, I unfortunately didn't test it enough. I let it hang freely from the table multiple times throughout the build and saw that it could easily pull the sheet, so I thought it should work. The issue was, not only was the weight pulling directly downward instead of horizontally, but it was also pulling from the front right corner, the lightest corner of the sheet. This resulted in a tragic attempt in which the machine got to the end and the weight only pulled the sheet halfway off. (You can see this attempt in the bonus video on Gabe's 2nd channel) Luckily it wasn't as bad to reset as you might think; the paper was a little beat up afterwards, but the damage to the actual machine was annoying to fix but not too bad. After this I rebuilt the weight mechanism to pull from a shelf from across the table instead and adjusted the strings to pull from the center and left corner of the table instead of just the right corner, which worked flawlessly. This was one of the most satisfying working takes I have ever gotten; watching the machine fly off the table just as I had intended was incredible. I'm overall proud of how this turned out, and I think it works well as a finale. Not only did the destruction turn out just how I wanted, but the tricks are pretty good too, especially the palette carousel trick and the gear trick. While it was very hard to make, I think it was all worth it.
You have likely seen MM2025 already, but in case you haven't, watch it here:
youtube.com/watch?v=y9FlqH8mlLI
Music:
VS Ridley (Super Metroid) Remix Arrangement - Coopinator Mixes
youtube.com/watch?v=lohaGbSKg70
Metroid - INITIATING SELF-DESTRUCT!!! ~ Quick Escape (SNES Remix) - Hooded Edge
youtube.com/watch?v=ZxXguLoKLLE
Siren sound effect from Sonic Adventure 2
youtube.com/watch?v=gXjG5hytCmk
It is a tradition to start every description of mine with an apology for being late lol. I know how late this is and I'm really sorry, I procrastinated on editing and typing this long description. But enough excuses. For the last five years, I have been part of Sirgabealot G's megacollab Machine Multiverse. This year, I had the honor of making the final clip of the video! (thanks so much Gabe) But this isn't just an ordinary machine, as you might have guessed from the suspicious title and the uncharacteristically dramatic editing style...
I have had the idea to do a self-destructing machine for quite a while now. I used to use my bookshelf as a machine table, and every time I peeled tape off of it, a bit of paint would come off too, so after a few years the table was covered in ugly white marks. To fix it, my mom got me some wood-textured contact paper which we stuck to the table. I later had an idea to take some contact paper, cut it to the size of the table, build a machine on it, and have it end with a weight falling and pulling the paper, machine and all, off the table. This idea ended up slipping through the cracks until last year when Gabe asked me if I would like to participate in MM2025, specifically asking if I could build the finale. I was initially hesitant to build a full machine, because I am a chronic procrastinator (evidenced by the fact that I am uploading this over a month after MM2025 came out lol) but I decided to do it. It was around this time that I thought of resurrecting my old idea of building a "self-destructing" machine, as I knew that if I was going to make the finale, I wanted to make it special and climactic.
When I first presented this idea to Gabe, he thought it was a really cool idea, but he was understandably concerned with how risky it was. We ended up deciding that I would go with the self-destruct concept, but I would make it simpler and less compact than a typical machine of mine. We also decided that I would film an alternate take without the destruction at the end in case of an emergency. (I luckily didn't have to use it) Honestly, the worst part of building wasn't the self-destructing aspect; it was the fact that I was building on a literal sheet of paper. Not only could I not secure anything firmly to the table, as the paper could flex and bend, but every time I peeled adhesive off the table, it would peel or tear the paper and I would have to repair it as well as I could to make it look non-suspicious. It was just incredibly irritating and I'm glad that I can go back to building machines on a solid surface again lol.
Testing was also hard, as you can probably imagine. After every attempt I would remove the weight from the mechanism to avoid any tragic accidents while resetting, but filming actual takes was very stressful because I knew that if the end triggered early, I would have to rebuild the entire machine. If you're wondering if there were any disasters with the self-destruction, there was only one, and it luckily could have been worse. When I was designing the original weight drop mechanism, in which the weight cart fell directly from the table itself, I unfortunately didn't test it enough. I let it hang freely from the table multiple times throughout the build and saw that it could easily pull the sheet, so I thought it should work. The issue was, not only was the weight pulling directly downward instead of horizontally, but it was also pulling from the front right corner, the lightest corner of the sheet. This resulted in a tragic attempt in which the machine got to the end and the weight only pulled the sheet halfway off. (You can see this attempt in the bonus video on Gabe's 2nd channel) Luckily it wasn't as bad to reset as you might think; the paper was a little beat up afterwards, but the damage to the actual machine was annoying to fix but not too bad. After this I rebuilt the weight mechanism to pull from a shelf from across the table instead and adjusted the strings to pull from the center and left corner of the table instead of just the right corner, which worked flawlessly. This was one of the most satisfying working takes I have ever gotten; watching the machine fly off the table just as I had intended was incredible. I'm overall proud of how this turned out, and I think it works well as a finale. Not only did the destruction turn out just how I wanted, but the tricks are pretty good too, especially the palette carousel trick and the gear trick. While it was very hard to make, I think it was all worth it.
You have likely seen MM2025 already, but in case you haven't, watch it here:
youtube.com/watch?v=y9FlqH8mlLI
Music:
VS Ridley (Super Metroid) Remix Arrangement - Coopinator Mixes
youtube.com/watch?v=lohaGbSKg70
Metroid - INITIATING SELF-DESTRUCT!!! ~ Quick Escape (SNES Remix) - Hooded Edge
youtube.com/watch?v=ZxXguLoKLLE
Siren sound effect from Sonic Adventure 2
youtube.com/watch?v=gXjG5hytCmk
