Live Long and Prosper: This Guy Built a Real-Life Star Trek Phaser

You can think this guy isn't awesome, but then you'd be wrong.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QuuL_Tel79g]

Go ahead, call him a nerd. Get it out of your system. Done? Good, now we can all move on and acknowledge that this guy’s awesome.

In what appears to be a garage extremely well-stocked for just this type of project, a man has created a real-life, functional version of a Star Trek phaser. He likely took a store-bought handheld phaser casing like this one and combined it with some sort of laser unit, the website Geek.com reports. Their techies (and perhaps Trekkies) suspect it may be the laser unit from a PlayStation 3 Blu-ray drive, though a variety of high powered laser pointers could also do the trick.

The highlight of this video demonstration comes about 20 seconds in, when the man points the device at a balloon, steadies his hand, and all of a sudden — POP. That’s when you know this phaser is not a silly plaything. This is a weapon and could inflict considerable wounds. Still want to call him a nerd for crafting this device? Just don’t do it if he’s pointing it at you.

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