I’ll start. I have recently gotten into 3D printing, and, while incredibly frustrating sometimes, there’s nothing more rewarding than getting a perfect print.
I like buying LEGO minifigures and then designing/building biomes for them to inhabit. I use BrickLink Studio to design the builds and then upload my parts list to BrickLink to get used bricks to build them. I also post them on Rebrickable for free, but I’ve fallen behind and need to post more on there.
Here are a few that I’ve built.
Hey that’s pretty sweet man. Has some diorama feel to it.
Blacksmithing. Something so primal and simple about it. And you get to play with fire. But what I find most satisfying is the ability, once you have a few simple tools, to make any other tools you need. It’s like the og 3d printing.
Lockpicking is nice. You won’t believe how many friends ask for help after they know your hobby. Most of the time it’s just “my keys are still inside, so it’s not locked”. It’s the easiest, but you don’t need to pick the lock to open those.
I’m a big fan of amateur radio, specifically portable operation, and Parks on the Air.
I’ll take my radio out to a remote location, throw an antenna up into some trees, and talk to people all over the US.
Currently I need mains power, but I’m looking to buy a battery soon, and I already have some solar panels gifted from a club member.
I live in Michigan, and last time I was out, my most distant contacts were in Dallas, Texas, around 1100 miles away, while I was sitting at a picnic table at my local state park campground.
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Gunpla. It’s literally assembling Gundam (Japanese transformers) models. Modern gunpla kits are very cool with what they can do. This can be a pricey hobby if you get really into it (painting, air spraying, even 3d printing) but it can also be a $20 a month hobby. It all depends on how far you want to take it and what aspects you enjoy.
I got into this recently. Seeing that there were Evangelion kits helped too. Blows my mind how intricate it is. It’s so relaxing.
Recently got a fountain pen and have been practicing my handwriting with it. Oddly meditative and relaxing
How did you find out about it?
For me it started with r/pens, which led to r/fountainpens.
One of my vices is buying things, and I excessively research almost everything I buy. So one stressful day I realized I needed more pencil lead, and ended up researching mechanical pencils for like 5 hours. In that process I kept going through a thought loop of “I rarely even use a pencil, why would I buy a nice one? I guess I could use it for drawing. But I already have drawing pencils. I should probably just get a pen. But then I’d spend another 5 hours shopping for pens and I need to stop wasting time. So I’ll just get lead. But pencils are cheap, just buy one”
Then after I bought a pencil, I got a YouTube recommendation for a video on fountain pens because Google is creepy, and then I watched it. Pretty much downhill from there
And it is quite a hill! Pens, nib grinds, inks, papers and notebooks, cleaning/maintenance, penmanship! I feel like Pooh hitting the honey jackpot. It really is a delight writing without applying pressure.
I badly want a Montblanc Agatha Christie fountain pen, but they are a bit pricey.
Lol I hope I never get to the point I buy a pen that expensive o.o
Not sure if it’s niche: Bouldering. It’s such a great sport and comes really natural to us, like running or swimming. It provides a full body workout without feeling like a workout. It makes you quite strong without feeling like repetitive or dull. The community is very nice and positive.
It’s pretty popular among my fellow students here, but I’d agree that it may be pretty niche overall.
I heard that you do races as well, although that was from my very unreliable friend, so it’s probably all just balderdash
Yeah that’s pretty much balderdash (like that word). Never did a bouldering race before or seen one, and I’ve been doing this sport since 7 years.
But there’s speed climbing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RZ5RiaMFYI
Most climbers belittle it, but it’s really entertaining to watch.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/watch?v=4RZ5RiaMFYI
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
I want to start working out again without going to a Gym. There is a climbing Gym close to where I live and I need to check it out. How did you start do you recommend taking classes? Any gear I need to buy?
For bouldering all you need is a pair of shoes and a chalk-bucket! :) if there is an intro class, I would definitely recommend that, otherwise just bring some friends and have fun!
The ability to identify practically any bird or reptile in North America. I get friends asking me what things are all the time… then trying to extend my knowledge to fungi and plants (which I’m getting better with, but not at the same level). It doesn’t feel too niche until I interact with my friends outside of biology.
Hi there! There are a bunch of active nature-centred communities on mander.xyz you might enjoy :)
I have an account for that instance too, hah. I might make that my main. Definitely my people!
One of us! One of us!
I do nearly all my clothes shopping at second hand stores. I love finding just the right items to make up great outfits to go out in. It can sometimes take months to piece together an outfit, though I do also mix and match things. It doesn’t matter to me how long it takes; I enjoy shopping around, I enjoy a bargain, and I enjoy the challenge and reward of making my own great outfits at a tiny cost.
I do pyrography and make amplifiers, guitar pedals. I sometimes fix them, too :) It makes me happy to fix sound systems and crave for more!
Surprised it hasn’t been mentioned already but Mechanical Keyboards. I’ll spend hours scrolling for different builds. There’s also something therapeutic about spending hours lubing and soldering switches.
Calligraphy. The color of the inks are just mesmerizing. But my normal handwriting is really ugly…
I was never really into calligraphy that much but for some reason Arabic calligraphy just kinda hits different for me so I’ve been thinking of looking more into that as I learn the language
Home server take an old pc setup with a load of old harddrives noodle about with all the self hosting apps.
Role-playing games. It might hit close to mainstream now - those tv series and movies where they appear directly or indirectly, certainly made the hobby more famous - but as an actual hobby, it’s still a niche thing.
I think they should be part of educational program, globally.
Like DnD? Or what role-playing games?
Tabletop role-playing games in general. D&D and Pathfinder are now the most widely recognized and played ones, but there’s whole library of alternatives. Thousands of games out there, catering to different needs, offering different experience, set in different worlds and offering different choices.
For example, there’s BLUE PLANET in production - a SF/cyberpunk/environmentalist game in production, taking place on a distant planet covered mostly by water. In terms of the setting, it’s antithesis to DUNE, or very old, but stil amazing DARKSUN but the undertones are similar - people fighting against greed that ruins their world.
Whatever idea you have, zombie apocalypse, kids saving the world, people investigating Lovecraftian horror, spaceships, weird west world, clash of fantasy kingdoms - there’s a game for that.
I second with Vampire: The Masquerade, The Dark Eye, Shadowrun and StarWars RPG in my family. Teach your kids to play and they will never have time or money to waste on drugs. ;)
A man after my own heart!
By the way, do you know “Star Wars: REUP” edition?
No, sorry. We are playing Age of Rebellion rules during the Old Republic, because the children wanted to be Jedi.
I’ve never really enjoyed playing online games. (I don’t like being harassed by strangers. I have enough problems with my self-esteem, thank you.) But now I’ve gotten into several niche games I’d prefer to play with people and I have no skills or energy to make that happen. The most niche one is the Armada 3 mod for Sins of a Solar Empire. I love that game and I’d love to play with my friends, but my friends have very little trek fandom/rts enthusiast crossover.
