Do It Yourself (DIY) is of course not new. One of the supreme joys of my childhood was making my own toys. That was why I got a kick out of finding these D.I.Y. books from the early 20th century.
I can still remember making a little tanks that actually rolled across the room thanks to an empty spool of thread, a pencil and some rubber band power (see below). My friends and I also made a cannon that, with a broken piece of lead, a rolled up cap gun cap, a match and a used up ball point pen cartridge, could successfully fire a piece of broken lead. The sharp point would travel for about 6 feet. I tried to find a picture but apparently no one was ever insane enough to replicate what may have been our singular contribution to the toy military industrial complex.