watch tHe skies

Welcome to Maghook central, the web’s premium source for lifesaving maghook applications.

1. What is a maghook?

Aaah well this is an interesting one. In reality, it is a magnetic hook that you might use to, say, hang stuff off your fridge door. Yes a magnet attached to a hook, the example to the left demonstrates one of the more advanced types, that includes a pivoted hook which allows easy detachment of the magnetic base from the ferrous object to which is it attached.

This example is japanese in origin, obviously, because it’s a lot of smart thinking compressed in to a very small, cheap and arguably pointless device.

Pointless because if the only place you can hang a hook is on a ferrous surface then you really shouldn’t be living in a fridge, you will catch a cold.

UPDATE!

I have also discovered that a maghook can be a multi-function device for sewing - a magnifying glass, tatter’s hook (whatever that is) and handy necklace. Ok not particularly interesting but hey if you can’t handle the truth, then move along.

2. Ok then is that it?

No, actually in reality the real maghook is the lesser known one. Most people searching on the interweb for maghooks are looking for data on the imaginary device written about by Matthew Reilly, Australian Novelist specialising in the literary equivalent of The Transporter movies. That isn’t to say that they are bad, far from it, I LOVE Matthew Reilly’s work, they are by far the most entertaining action novels of recent years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The maghook is a favourite toy of one of Reilly’s characters, Shane “Scarecrow” Schofield, a highly decorated US Marine, known for the nasty scars on his eyelids that earnt him the Scarecrow nickname. The Marine Force Reconnaisance Unit carry the Armalite MH-12 Maghook as their signature weapon. It is effectively a grappling hook fired by compressed air and reeled in using an electric motor. On the end is a magnetic grappling hook which can be activated using a button on the weapon.

The maghook is the mechanical equivalent of a bucketful of cats’ nine lives, and many times has it saved both Scarecrow and the lives of his team. It makes an appearance in three of the four published Scarecrow books; Ice Station, Area 7 and Scarecrow. Only in Hell Island, a novella, is it not mentioned, probably because it would be a little lame for the maghook to save him in a 100 page story.

4. Are you saying that the Maghook isn’t real?

Yes it took me a while, not being an expert on weapons, to realise that lots of the stuff that is used in the Reilly novels is actually fictional. I even checked with Armalite who confirmed that no such device exists, more is the pity as I would very much like to have one.

3. Lifesaving maghook applications

This section will include useful real-life applications for Scarecrow’s Maghook. If you have any good ones please pass them on.

a) Avoiding a head on car crash. You know what it’s like, you are crossing the road and see that you are about to be the filling in a head-on car sandwich. Simply attaching the maghook to something metallic on a nearby building would pull you out of danger, only to face the possibility of smashing in to scaffolding at speed or having your gun arm pulled cleanly out of your socket.

b) Aiding a Jedi. Yes I remembered that Luke Skywalker had a convenient maghook in the trunk of his snowspeeder in Empire. Just as well that not only did he have that, but that the advancing bohemoth AT-ATs had ferrous shells that would facilitate the attachment of said maghook to the undercarriage, allowing our intrepid Jedi hero to ascend and drop an explosive in to the belly of the beast. It has alway puzzled me that the AT-AT can withstand blaster fire from a snowspeeder yet a lightsaber cuts through it like butter. Why not stick lightsabers on the front of everything if they are that tough?

c) Getting beers from fridge without missing the game. Shot one graps the fridge door (we know that this is ferrous as real maghooks work on them), a quick Yank opens the door and shot one grabs the six pack. A quick retract pulls the beers to you. Let them settle for a few minutes and there you didn’t have to move. Ok ok so beer cans aren’t going to work with a maghook. Come on did you think that this page had any bearing on reality?

d) Cheap transport for skaters and skateboarders. So there you are travelling along the path at a few miles an hour. Why not fire your maghook at a passing car and get transported at speed for no cost at all. “How do you stop?” you say? I’ve no idea, I can neither skate nor skateboard, sorry. Figure it out for yourself.