Brothers Recreate Theme-Park Ride in Family Basement

In a remarkable display of DIY engineering, teenage brothers Nico and Matteo Mucchetti transformed their basement in Bear, Delaware, into a fully functional, Disney-inspired dark ride.

The project, titled “Big Hero 7,” serves as a self-made sequel to the 2014 animated film, “Big Hero 6”, and took seven months of tireless collaboration to complete.

The attraction features an autonomous vehicle designed to resemble the main character Hiro Hamada’s helmet. Guided by a Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller and infrared line sensors, the car follows a reflective tape track shaped like a distorted infinity symbol.

Nico, a high school sophomore, wrote the custom code to trigger automated doors, synchronised lighting, and sound effects as the vehicle passes specific transmitters.

A 3D-printed animatronic Baymax greets riders before embarking on a five-minute journey to save “San Fransokyo” from a robot factory. The climax features Baxter, a nearly 200-centimetre-tall animatronic villain named after Disney Legend Tony Baxter. Built with a wood skeleton and 3D-printed parts, Baxter’s ten joints are controlled by servomotors and programmed via specialised animation software.

The brothers used the ride as a community food drive in late 2025, attracting 100 guests and collecting enough donations to fill an SUV. While the basement has since returned to family use, the Mucchettis’ engineering feat remains a viral testament to teenage ingenuity.

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