Shank Mods
Meet the Texas console modder who’s fascinated with retro tech
» Shank Mods turned this outdated Hot Wheels PC into a three-screen, modern gaming marvel.
Photos By Danny Gallagher
» Shank solders some ribbon to fix a crack in the motherboard of a Hot Wheels monitor.
Shank Mods of Arlington, Texas scavenged the pieces for Patriot’s Hot Wheels computer and turned it into a ‘sleeper PC’ with lightning-fast parts that can connect to three Hot Wheels monitors at once. He’s also built a Nintendo GameCubeinspired Joy-Con for the Nintendo Switch that mimics the look and feel of the beloved Nintendo controller. These two videos alone have netted him at least 15 million views on YouTube (YouTube.com/ShankMods). Here we chat about his famous videos.
Did you know about the Hot Wheels PCs when you found them?
I’d heard about them. I was into CRT [cathode ray tube] monitor collecting and one of my buddies was talking about some of their favourite ones, [including] the character ones like SpongeBob, Mickey Mouse and Hello Kitty. Someone was like, “Oh, the Batman one is the coolest,” and someone’s like, “The Batman one is not as cool as the Hot Wheels one.” They showed me a picture and I’m like, “I’d love to own one of those one day because I just love the blue and the flames.” It’s just, like, so cool.