Finding Garage Kits: A Personal Approach to Discovery

As I sat down to answer one of my favorite questions from Jack Builds, I couldn't help but reflect on how I find garage kits. It's a process that involves a combination of personal interests, online searching, and a healthy dose of curiosity.

For those who may not be familiar, garage kits refer to pre-made models or kits created by enthusiasts for enthusiasts. They often feature intricate details and can be incredibly rewarding to build and customize. As someone who has built many of these kits over the years, I've developed my own approach to finding them.

One way I find garage kits is through personal connections. People who know my interests and hobbies often send me links or tips on things they think I might like. My friends and colleagues, such as Sean Charlesworth and Tom Sachs, have sent me many great resources over the years. Even people from my Twitter feed have reached out to share their own projects or recommendations.

However, there's a more systematic way I find garage kits that I've developed over time. The internet is an amazing tool for free association, and I love using it in this capacity. I'll often do image searches, which allow me to search for specific types of kits without necessarily knowing exactly what I'm looking for. This is where the magic happens – I might stumble upon a kit that I wouldn't have found otherwise, but that ends up being exactly what I was looking for.

To take this searching process to the next level, I'll often use multiple search engines and combine them in various ways. For example, I might do an image search on Google, Bing, or Yahoo, depending on the specific terms I'm using. Sometimes, I'll also look on DeviantArt, eBay, or Etsy – these platforms offer a unique way of searching for garage kits that can lead to some amazing discoveries.

But here's the thing: finding garage kits is not just about stumbling upon something new; it's often about discovering a specific type of experience or aesthetic. When I was working on my Clavius-based costume, I became interested in other kits related to science fiction movies like 2001. From there, I started searching for 2001-themed garage kits, which led me down a rabbit hole of similar searches – I'd look at images, check out DeviantArt and eBay, and even scour Pinterest (although I'll admit that's not my favorite platform!).

The key to finding garage kits is to approach the search process in a non-linear way. Don't be afraid to try different combinations of search terms or platforms; sometimes it takes a few iterations to stumble upon something truly amazing. And most importantly, don't be afraid to think outside the box – what might seem like a weird or obscure combination of keywords could lead you straight to the perfect garage kit.

As I wrapped up my response to Jack Builds' question, I couldn't help but feel grateful for the amazing community of makers and enthusiasts out there. The internet has given us so many tools and resources at our fingertips, and it's up to us to use them wisely (or at least in a way that makes sense to me!).

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enHey everybody Adam Savage here and I know. I am not in my cave. That is because I am  on a vacation of sorts that I'm taking some time out of to answer some questions from you guys.  And here is the first question. Or here is the question I'm answering in this video.  I'm answering one. Here we go. Jack Builds asks: I was wondering how you find garage kits. He says he  found some like the cosmonaut -- that's a one day build we did a while back on on Tested. Do I have  sites that I prefer? And he says thank you for being a maker inspiration. Well you're welcome  Jack Builds. I appreciate that. I'm very lucky. On one level a lot of garage kits find me. People  who know the kinds of things that I'm interested in often send me stuff that people are making and  that's everybody from close friends, colleagues like Sean Charlesworth, friends like Tom Sachs  and also people in my twitter feed. And people send stuff to Tested all the time, send  links the things they think I would like to build so a lot of that stuff comes to me and that's a  benefit of this position which is really great but when i'm interested in a specific kind of  kit or a kind of kit experience um the internet is an amazing sort of free association machine  and i love using it in that capacity which is an inexact search capacity and yet it allows me  to search for things i'm not even sure that i'm looking for which is the key here right i don't  just want to go find a garage kit of a specific thing necessarily i want to know about the garage  kit that i might never find out about so i will do image searches that's that's one of my main ones  but i'll also do image searches on more than one search engine because i want to see what  what other algorithms have archived that i might be missing just by using google so i'm certainly  not above using bing and i've used go um i i don't love the interface with pinterest so i often do a  boolean search and remove it from the search terms because i find clicking through all the endless  click-throughs on pinterest to be super annoying despite the fact that it can be a great compendium  of of reference for me it's hard to go find the origins of that reference and that makes me cranky  so i will also use multiple search terms again i'm often like i said my way of looking for for  garage kits is i'm looking for specific kinds of experiences so if i'm on a 2001  kick i was recently working on the helmet from my clavius-based costume and that just got me  interested in other kits that people had done of howe uh the hal 9000 panel and then i was curious  if anyone had done kits of the ares 1 or of the space plane uh so i start searching for things  like 2001 garage kits um and again like i'll do that search as an image search but i'll also look  on deviantart i'll also look on ebay i'll also look on etsy and ebay and etsy are awesome because  they give you two very different worlds to search through uh and again this is like what i'm looking  for is not necessarily just an exact specific kit although i certainly go looking for that  it is looking for a specific uh uh an experience for instance the cosmonaut kit that kit betrays  a an attention to detail that is really almost intoxicating to me as a maker so those guys it's  like when i go do an image search for their stuff other ancillary stuff might show up in that image  search stuff that was like that because of sites that are linking to both the cosmonaut kit makers  site and other stuff like that it's like i'm using the internet in the same way that that netflix was  promising to show you what other people liked i have to say on that front the netflix algorithm  has never understood me it doesn't seem to have any clear understanding of the kind of movies that  i love and i wish you would stop recommending things that i've seen and hate based on things  that i'm watching and love but that's just a small complaint if you guys have tips about search terms  for finding things you didn't know you needed or finding things that you didn't know you were  looking for i would love to hear those hints because um searching for stuff on the internet  is a it's a dark art it is non-straightforward and you have i feel like i have to approach it uh in a  kind of a non-linear or even orthogonal way like i'm coming at right angles to the thing i want  i hope that was some semblance of an answer i know that was i kind of went all over the place but i  i hope that helps thanks very much for that question and i'll see you guys next time\n"