Imagine how stoked we were to find out that Adam Savage, co-host with Jamie Hyneman of MythBusters on The Discovery Channel, is a longtime and quite dedicated Mac user.

One thing led to another, and with the help of the amazing PR team at Discovery, we got in touch with Savage, set up a phone interview, and arranged a photo shoot at M5 Industries in the Potrereo Hill neighborhood of San Francisco, where the show keeps its offices and machine shop ,and does quite a bit of filming when they're not shooting outdoors in the SF Bay Area or on location elsewhere. Our profile of Savage will run in the September 2009 issue of Mac|Life (Out on newsstands and in subscribers' mailboxes by mid-August), but rather than make you wait 5 whole weeks, we thought we'd throw you a bone -- and take the opportunity to gloat a little -- about the awesome geekfest that is M5.

We were prepared to be awestruck by the chance to get up close and personal with recognizable MythBusters artifacts. But since the M5 building, which belongs to Hyneman, also serves as the show's office and a place for Hyneman to keep his sizable collection of flotsam and jetsam from past projects throughout his illustrious career in special effects and model building and as the principle of M5, we got so much more than we bargained for in the awe department.

Without further ado, in order of coolness, the top 10 things we got to see and touch and photograph:


1. Adam Savage's lightsabers

There's nothing geeks of all stripes like more than Star Wars, right? But we had no idea how cool lightsabers were in person. Savage was kind enough to bring a dozen or so from his personal collection to the photo shoot, so of course we had to handle them with the deference required, which, after we snapped the obligatory photos, meant pretending to do battle with them, Luke vs. Vader style (see video, below, shot with zero filmmaking skill by Leslie on her iPhone 3GS).

We were surprised at how heavy these lightsabers were. Savage explained that the shaft is modeled from after a 3-cell Graflex flashgun because George Lucas wanted the swords to look "less like toys and more like tools."

This guy was hanging waay up high near the ceiling of the shop, but Robbie still couldn't look at him without cringing.

Nothing establishes geek cred like lots of robots, and there's no shortage of them at M5.

Aw, it's so cute we could hug it.

Just try to get past This li'l sawblade-for-a-hand guy, who stands sentry at the top of the stairs that lead to the MythBusters office and other upper rooms, including the "Crazy Room," shown below. Pop Quiz: What magazine did Leslie find in the upstairs restroom at M5? Answer: Popular Mechanics, natch.

If anyone ever tried dusting this solar-powered robot, he might just try to make a break for it at the first hint of sunlight.