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.

4. The "Crazy Room"

We don't know what Adam and the gang call it, but Mac|Life art director Robin decided this was what this little room upstairs should be called, for the sheer number and jumble of MythBusters doodads, gizmos, and artifacts it houses.

No wonder we felt like kids in a magical, geeky candy store.

If you made it to this year's Maker Faire, you might have heard Savage give a talk about a couple colossal failures he's worked on, one of which was a job he still got paid for and which paid for his Pismo-based PowerBook, the laptop he used to edit the MythBusters demo reel that he and Hyneman shopped around and that, ultimately, got the show on the air.

5. Afro-accomodating space helmet

Savage explained that this item was a prop from a film production Hyneman worked on in which a guy with a huge Afro was sent into space and needed a helmet big enough for his 'do.

His hair's not quite big enough, but MythBusters fans will recognize Savage's signature horn rims a mile away.

Among the thousands of figurines in Hyneman's collection, we zeroed in like moths to flame on this likeness of Yoda, done up as the Marlboro Man.

This is positive marketing for Big Tobacco if we've ever seen it.

As you'd expect on a tour of any science geek's workspace, we ran across a variety of odd items captured in glass jars, from the preserved baby tiger shark on Savage's desk to a plethora of wild-animal scat (yes, poop) that the team collected for the episode that investigated whether it's possible to polish a turd.

Pickled baby tiger shark? Check. Rubik's Cube?Check. Just a sample of the fun stuff found on any given day on Adam Savage's desk.

Hyneman chose to polish lion poop. Savage chose ostrich. These samples might sit on the table in the Crazy Room forever. In the name of science, we opened the warthog jar to take a whiff and were surprised by its pleasant grassy aroma.

Anyone who digs pop art and comics has probably admired the stop-motion animated, blueprint-like drawings that are used as a title screen for each MythBusters episode. Seeing several on the wall in the Crazy Room -- and even more rolled up and stuffed in bin -- made us feel like we'd stumbled upon Smithsonian-grade cultural artifacts.

Savage explained that the title screen for each episode is hand-illustrated by Eric Haven.

9. Buster the crash-test dummy leaning against an enormous fake butt encased in denim.

Seeing Buster in person was awesome by itself, but when we ran into him on the shop floor reclining casually against an enormous faux backside, we were struck by the pure nerd-lishousness of it all.

Buster takes a load off against some other dummy's wide load.

We know Adam Savage is a smart dude, but we had to give him mad props for his custom toolbox, which makes it possible for his tools to go to him rather than the other way around, thanks to its wheels and scissor-lift mount.

Suck it, Bob the Builder!

And, finally, for good measure, here are our favorite relics from MythBusters episodes past:

1. Door of the donated snow plow they used to disprove the myth that a snow plow can turn over a car. After a variety of mechanical problems with the plow, they decided in the end just to enjoy themselves crashing a car into the plow.

2. Adam's flatulence diary from "Facts about Flatulence."

3. The penny-shooting rifle attachment built for the fourth episode of MythBusters, in which Savage and Hyneman aimed to find out if it's possible to kill someone by dropping a penny on them from the lookout deck of the Empire State Building.

Be sure to check out our forthcoming profile of Adam Savage in the September 2009 issue of Mac|Life and on MacLife.com. We'll also post exclusive excerpts and extras from our interview with Savage online, as well as outtakes from our shoot at M5.