The scientific genius of Leonardo da Vinci is brought to life through these 16 articulated models. The inventions that inspired these snap-together replicas are taken from the pages of da Vinci’s priceless and awe-inspiring notebooks. All models are made of plastic and require no special tools. Manuals are very educational and teach how these inventions have evolved into what they are today.

Leonardo da Vinci’s idea was to build a very powerful machine, which could throw eight large projectiles at the same time. He positioned eight long arms in a circle around a central pin, each of which had a sling capable of launching a projectile attached to it. This kind of project, where weapons were developed to hurl multiple projectiles to be more powerful, was common in Da Vinci’s time, because doing this meant creating more powerful weapons, simply by increasing their number and power, without the need to develop new building techniques and using familiar materials. They were therefore potentially attractive weapons because they were powerful, but they were also relatively inexpensive.