The Invention That Almost Killed Grant Imahara

When Grant Imahara tragically died at the age of just 49 back in 2020, the world said goodbye to a television personality with an uncanny ability to make the general public excited about the world of engineering. As one of the hosts of the smash hit show "Mythbusters," Imahara was responsible for building ingenious devices, machines, and robots to test common beliefs about the world around us. It made him a star, and led to later projects including the similarly riveting Netflix show "White Rabbit Project."

But Imahara also had a creative life off-camera. Holding a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, he was in demand to offer his skills for numerous film and TV projects, working on the robot R2-D2 in the "Star Wars" franchise, and creating models for "Jurassic Park" and "The Matrix" movies. Building robots was also Imahara's passion in his spare time — indeed, he gained his first flush of fame in the mid-90s after competing with the robot "Deadblow" in the TV show "Battlebots." As an engineer, Imahara knew the importance of safety. But as he admitted in 2014, one of his passion projects, a mechanical spider which he housed for a time in his garage, was incredibly dangerous to work on.

Grant Imahara always exhibited a childlike joy when it came to robots, and his love of working with them was palpable. Speaking to Make in 2014, he said picking his favorite would be like choosing a favorite child. And he was also childlike in his enthusiasm for cool robot designs, spending a great deal of his spare time trying to make his engineering fantasies a reality.

One of these eccentric projects was a giant "killer" spider, which saw Imahara attempt to create a metallic arachnid which was not only able to walk effectively using its legs, but could carry Imahara himself on its back. "I wanted something big enough that I could ride on ... I'm going to be riding this thing down the street," he told Make. As another aspect of his fantasy, Imahara said, were he to have a weapon on it, he would arm it with an automatic gun, suggesting it could function as the deadly steed of a Hollywood villain. However, the danger it posed to Imahara itself was far more prosaic.

Grant Imahara's giant killer spider was undoubtedly ambitious, but it was also unwieldy, cumbersome, and heavy, weighing more than 625 pounds. The engineer recalled that, though it took just minutes to load into a truck using a forklift, it took four people six hours to get the metal creature out again and into Imahara's garage.

Nevertheless, Imahara continued to work on the spider at home, where he had a few scrapes in which the project nearly crushed him. Writing in Make, Imahara admits that his habit of working alone on the project late at night was indeed a bad one, describing moving the spider as "the most dangerous non-work-related thing I've ever done." Ihamara recommended that other would-be inventors consider this a cautionary tale, writing: "PRO TIP: Don't do what I did. Never work alone around heavy or otherwise dangerous equipment."

The spider project was never fully realized. As well as being incredibly heavy, it had several control issues, as was eventually shelved as Imahara couldn't get the necessary torque from the wheelchair motors he eventually installed to get the legs to swing. But the project shows Imahara's ability to dream up and attempt out-there ideas, an aspect of his personality that made him a hero to engineering nerds around the world. Here are some other tragic details about the "Mythbusters" cast.