Who said a mug should do nothing more than hold your morning beverage of choice? Part one of this collection introduced some unique yet practical mugs, and this installment continues that discussion with 11 more. These innovative coffee and tea mugs help add some perk to your morning routine, and can prove as expressive and unique as you!

Brass Knuckles Mug

(source: thabto)

A strong cup of coffee needs an assertive cup to hold it! What better way to communicate to your boss and co-workers that you are in no mood for cheap conversation? The name “Mug” was inspired the word’s literal translation in Cockney slang, meaning, “fool.” Hit yourself hard each morning with the “Mug”.

Coffee Bean Mug

(source: rctaylorphotography)

This intriguing coffee mug makes a great project for any coffee enthusiast! Constructed by hand, a standard mug was carefully covered in coffee beans and glazed for appearance. This project can be recreated by anyone with some time and care. Simply choose a mug for a skeleton, a shade of coffee beans and begin carefully adhering them to the mug, attempting to remain true to the mug’s original shape. Before long, you’ll have a coffee mug that is sure to incite conversation wherever coffee is poured.

SmartMug Electronic Travel Mug

(soruce: amazon.com)

If you are tired of having to dump out half of your coffee because you simply can’t drink it all before it cools down, this mug could be the answer to your prayers. The SmartMug is an electronic travel mug that plugs into your car’s cigarette lighter and keeps your coffee hot at your specified temperature! Perfect for that long morning commute where traffic frequently causes your coffee (and you) to loose steam before you even get halfway to work. A digital screen displays the temperature and various other information. Lights on the mug alert you that your coffee is either heating or at the desired temperature. Its like taking your coffee maker’s hot plate on the go! Stay warmer, longer with the SmartMug.

Pantone Mugs

(Source: curlby)

Now here’s a collection of mugs to brighten up any morning! Those who work in the interior design field can now express their love for pantone colors with this collection of coffee mugs. Each mug is colored and coded with its corresponding pantone color specification. Use them as they relate to your current job or project. Bring the entire collection to your next job for inspiration and laughs.

Camera Lens Mug

(source: dvice)

Any fan of photography would be proud to pour themselves a tall cup of coffee into this amazing mug. Constructed from a real zoom lens, this mug is both intriguing and charming. At the moment, this mug is concept with few in actual existence, however we may soon see them on shelves, ready to be snatched up by photographers everywhere! What better way to assert one’s love for your hobby than to drink out of a mug made from the tools the trade?

A Mug With Security

(source: core77)

Had enough of your friends or co-workers using your coffee mug when you aren’t around? Worried about the health risks of sharing cups? Finally, a coffee mug with security! A hole at the bottom of the mug that can only be plugged by the mug’s key-holder serves to prevent anyone but it’s owner from using it. Try pouring coffee into it without the key to plug the hole and you’ll have quite a mess to clean up!

Gun Mug

(source: shopmodi)

Kill time with this innovative coffee mug! Sporting a trigger and lever that feels like that of a large revolver, it has never been easier to shoot the breeze at the breakfast table! You’ll have endless fun asking a coworker or friend if they “feel lucky, punk?” as you maintain a tight grip on the mugs firm and comfortable handle. This unique mug is sure to please any gun enthusiast or just help you feel a bit more like John Wayne in the morning! Sniper scopes sold separately!

Mustache Mug

(source: shanware)

As any man with a bushy mustache knows, the morning brew is often no cup of tea! Many have struggled to find a way to drink their coffee or tea without also wearing it. This question need no longer be asked, for the Mustache Mug takes saves your facial hair from contact with scorching hot beverage. Featuring a mustache shield at the drinking end of the mug, beverages can be easily consumed without the constant wiping that comes with standard mugs. Perfect for consuming coffee during a meeting or on the go where dabbing your upper lip with a napkin after every sip is simply impractical!

Undress Me Mugs

(source: cgets)

Some people need a little extra push to wake up in the morning. Available in both “His” and “Hers” versions, the more you drink the more of the naked woman/man you see! What more motivation to drink your coffee fast could you need? After drinking your coffee faster than ever, you’ll find yourself awake and ready to conquer whatever the day brings! “Undress Me” mugs are a great pick me up for those sluggish mid-week mornings and the ultimate cure for the slow-starter!

Mug With a Pocket

(source: Vat19)

Have you ever dreaded that long walk to the trash to throw away your spent tea bag once all its contents have been strained into your tea? Tired of leaving tea-bag stains on the table or desk because you don’t want to put the paper down and leave your breakfast to dispose of said tea bags? This mug is perfect for avid tea drinkers, sporting a handy pouch on it’s side made for holding spent tea bags for as long as needed! No more messes to clean or tea bags to be thrown out of your speeding car. This handy mug makes the morning wake-up a little more comfortable.

Inbuilt Plunger Mug

(source:nathanaelb)

A perfect tool for those busy professionals who are always on the go, a mug that makes your coffee and holds it all in one! Simply raise the plunger, add the coffee and hot water stir and then plunge it down. Add milk and sugar to your preference and you’ve got a steaming cup of Joe in minutes. No more waiting for the percolator to brew up a pot while you wait! Add an extra 15 minutes to your morning sleep with a plunger mug.

Why would a portable toilet need a jet engine and wheels? Jet and rocket engines are appearing in the most unexpected of places for reasons most people simply can’t comprehend. As examine these ridiculous, bizarre and in some cases incredibly dangerous DIY creations, you’ll be tempted to question the purpose of these objects and shake your head at the waste of fossil fuels. Perhaps more important is the amazing fact that all of the people who have taken these jet-powered contraptions on test drives lived to tell the tale.

The World’s Fastest Leather Recliner-Rocker

(images via: GizmoWatch)

The next time you sink into that Lazy Boy chair during your favorite TV show and suddenly realize you’re out of beer, you could jet off to the store during a commercial and be back by the time the show’s back on – if only you had a rocket engine built into the back. There’s at least one guy in the world that thinks this sounds like a great idea: Bill Decambre built the ‘rocket recliner’ above and took it for a spin at the 2002 Reno Air Races. It looks comfortable, but you’d best come to terms with the idea of death before turning on the engine.

The Turbitrac Tractor Lawnmower

(images via: GP3)

Is there a practical purpose for a jet-powered tractor lawnmower? Probably not, but it’s unlikely that ‘Turbitrac’ creator Nick Haddock cared much when he put this thing together. Nick explains how it works and even generously provides instructions to others who’d like to take a deadly, ridiculously fast ride on their very own jet-powered lawnmower on his website.

Jet-Powered Porta-Potty

(images via: UberGizmo)

Why yes, that is a Port-a-John hurtling down the street with flames shooting out the back. It’s not because somebody thought lighting a match in a methane-filled box was a good idea, either – there’s a Boeing jet engine built into that thing. Mechanic Paul Sender spent £5,000 building the world’s fastest toilet that can go up to 70mp and sends a 30-foot fireball streaming out behind it.

Rocket-Powered Shopping Cart

(images via: JWZ)

Andy Tyler followed instructions he found on the internet to build the jet engine that he then attached to, of all things, a shopping cart. A heat shield at the rear of the cart protects him from the 600+ Celsius temperatures that the engine reaches when in use. Scrap wheels, brakes and a steering device finish it off. “It can’t go on roads, runs out of fuel after two minutes and at over 50mph becomes unstable. People think I’m off my trolley but it’s exhilarating.”

Toyota MR2 Powered by Twin GE t-58 turbines

(images via: Engadget)

Why a Toyota MR2 would need twin jet engines is anybody’s guess, but one thing was for certain when photos of this car first started making the rounds on the internet: you can officially buy anything and everything on eBay. It was up for auction in 2005 with a description that read “everybody needs one of these”. No word on how much it sold for.

Street-Legal Jet Powered Beetle

(images via: Ron Patrick Stuff)

Engineer Ron Patrick wanted “the wildest street-legal ride possible”, so he outfitted his VW Beetle with a dual engine that allows him to legally drive it on public roads for everyday transportation and take it for the occasional insanely fast spin on the track. Patrick says he doesn’t know how fast it’ll go and probably never will, since he’s not looking to kill himself.

Jet-Powered Wheelchairs

(image via: AllegroMedical + BBC News)

The Allegro Medical jet-powered concept wheelchair, pictured top, may not actually be a real functioning vehicle – but that doesn’t mean a jet-powered wheelchair has never really been made. Giuseppe Cannella of England surprised his Parkinson’s Disease-afflicted mother-in-law by bolting a jet engine to the back of her wheelchair and equipping it with a steering wheel. Cannella put on shows in the wheelchair to raise money for the Parkinson’s Disease Society.

Fire Truck Equipped with MiG Jet Engine

(images via: Life on Top)

This fire truck could certainly get to an emergency fast, but it wouldn’t be much help given that installing a 27-foot-long Russian MiG fighter jet engine in the back of it required the removal of its water tanks. Said to house the largest turbine motor in a land vehicle anywhere in the world, it’s hard to imagine this vehicle being able to stop itself once it gets going given the weight of that massive engine.

The World’s Fastest Ambulance

(images via: AutoMotto)

Continuing the trend of making emergency vehicles useless by outfitting them with jet engines, this ambulance could theoretically go up to 205mph but can’t carry any patients due to the engine taking up all of the space in the back. It’s powered by a GE J-79 jet engine from a Ford Phantom 4130 and features functional lights and sirens, aluminum wheels and disc brakes with questionable efficacy. It’s for sale, so if you’ve got $189,000 to spare, you can have it for yourself.

Pulse-Jet Go-Kart

(images via: Zach Sartell)

Zach Sartell is just one of many enthusiasts who have made their own jet-powered go karts at home, spending years testing and modifying parts until he got it to reach 50mph – albeit, with brakes that barely worked. Another design, by ‘Missile Man’, appeared in the Jet Racers episode of UK series Scrapheap Challenge, as seen in the clip above.

Hot, Loud Pulse-Jet Bike

(images via: Autopia)

Bob Maddox bolts pulse jet engines onto old-school cruiser bicycles and sells them on eBay. He’s gotten his own up to 50mph, which he says “feels way too fast”, and figures it could hit 75mph if anyone were brave enough to try it. The engine is so loud that if you don’t wear protective gear, you could pop your eardrums. Maddox also straps a jet engine to his chest when skydiving in an amazing feat of not ending up smashed on the sidewalk like a bug.

Super-Fast Sinclair C5

(images via: JetPower)

The Sinclair C5, a battery electric vehicle invented in the 80’s that suffered a public relations disaster when it debuted, was meant to be the beginning of eco-friendly personal transport. It didn’t exactly take off, but an enthusiast named Richard Hammonds decided to equip his very own C5 with a JFS100 jet engine, making it infinitely faster but less than environmentally friendly. It can get up to 100mph on a smooth surface and is described by Hammonds as being “very noisy and very dangerous”.

Record-Breaking Jet-Powered Luge

(images via: Gizmodo)

Joel King strapped a 90,000-rpm jet engine to a two-meter street luge and broke a world speed record, reaching 112mph. Despite the engine’s small size it puts out 80lbs of thrust, propelling King around the track at breakneck speed strapped to a board just a few inches off the ground. The engine King used was an off-the-shelf model that’s normally used on unmanned aircraft and to get gliders up to altitude.

Jet-Powered School Bus

(images via: Hacked Gadgets)

No parent in their right mind would ever allow their children to travel on this jet-powered school bus, but that’s ok – it’s no longer meant to shuttle kids to and from school. The jet engine takes up so much room that only a few people can fit inside. There is reportedly a Westinghouse J-34 Turbojet housed under all that yellow aluminum.

M-497 Jet-Powered Train

(images via: Jalopnik)

In the 60’s, New York Central was experimenting with building high-speed trains on the cheap, hence the M-497 – a modified Budd commuter car with US Air Force surplus General Electric J47-19 jet engines in a B36-H bomber engine pod planted on the top. It reached a top speed of 183.681 mph – still the current high speed record for light rail in the United States. Once the experiment was over, the jet engines were removed and the train went back to regular commuter duty until it was cannibalized for parts in 1977 - the end of a short but amazing jet train era.

Dulles: Anything But Dull

(image via: The Crowne Plaza Hotel )

Airports aren’t just portals to and from exotic, far-away places. They also serve as first impressions for those who emigrate to another land. When your guests arrive at your front door, you want it to look nice, right? Washington’s Dulles International Airport’s main terminal, designed in 1958 by Finnish architect Eero Saarinen, was radically modern for its time and still looks new today.

Weird and Wonderful Collide in Denver

(image via: Metafysiko )

Denver International Airport is the largest in the United States and the third-largest in the world. Opened in 1994, DIA features an eye-catching terminal designed to emulate Colorado’s mighty snow-capped mountains.

(images via: Bibliotecapleyades and Cuttingedge )

Inside though, things turn from wondrous to weird - like the odd time capsule that displays the Masonic device and some very strange murals depicting what appear to be an alien soldier, whales leaping out of a burning sea and a dead girl in an open coffin. Enjoy your fright!

Beijing’s Airport Rings with Olympian Splendor

(image via: Showchina )

China is on track to build well over 100 new airports this decade but the highlight is the Beijing International Airport. Finished just in time for the Summer Olympic Games, the huge 1 million square meter airport is the largest in the world and, one of the most beautiful.

(image via: Skyscraper Life )

Some of the original designs for the Beijing Airport look even better, resembling nothing so much as a huge electric guitar.

Happy Landings at Funchal

(image via: Pilot Outlook )

The Funchal Airport at the island of Madeira, a Portuguese possession off the coast of west Africa, looks like a design exercise but actually exists! The narrow, single 9100 ft long runway has the ocean to one side, coastal hills to the other and runs partly over a bridge.

(image via: Structurae )

Landing at Funchal looks to be anything but fun, though it’s said pilots who expect to use the airport receive special training. Let’s hope they were paying attention in class.

Jeddah: An Airline Oasis Arises

(image via: Designboom )

Water isn’t a problem at Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, where Jeddah International Airport rises from the desert sands like a mirage. Beautiful as it is, this exquisite airport is in use for just six weeks every year - that’s when more than 2 million Muslims fly into Jeddah on their way to Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage.

Spanish Flew?

(image via: E-Architect )

Spain recently opened the new Madrid Barajas Airport and it’s quite an improvement from the original, dating from 1933. The updated terminal is huge - 1.2 million square feet - and is capable of processing up to 75 million visitors annually

(image via: Giramondo1 )

The architects - Richard Rogers Partnership with Estudio Lamela - took pains to make the new airport’s passenger and baggage terminals as environmentally friendly as possible, orienting them in a north-south direction and using passive design features to reduce the need for energy-intensive heating and cooling as much as possible.

Innsbruck: Nice Design; Ice Design

(image via: James Feess )

Trains have inspired their fair share of design exuberance as well, especially in Europe and Asia where rail travel has historically been of high importance to both commuters and city planners. Innsbruck, Austria hired architect Zaha Hadid to design a series of railway stations that would complement the city’s reputation as an alpine landmark.

(image via: Architecture Revived )

Says Hadid, “We studied natural phenomena such as glacial moraines and ice movements - as we wanted each station to use the fluid language of natural ice formations, like a frozen stream on the mountainside.”

Tibet: Himalayan Mountain High

(image via: China Daily )

The new Lhasa Railway Station is the largest station on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway line which serves much of Tibet and southwestern China. The stark design gives respect to the abundant natural beauty in this rarefied area of the world.

Luxembourg: New Traditionalists

(image via: JSWD-Architekten )

This design for the new Central Railway Station in Luxembourg manages to look forward (above left) on the outside while retaining the grand tradition of luxurious rail travel pioneered by European nations in the 19th century. The tiny nation’s first train station was built of wood in 1859.

Great Britain: Where it All Began

(image via: Daily Mail UK )

The steam locomotive was invented in England and rail travel has always figured prominently in the nation’s transportation grid. Above is St. Pancras Station in London, newly renovated to host Eurostar trains running under the English Channel from Paris yet still covered by its 1860’s vintage glass & steel roof.

(image via: Panoramio )

St Pancras Station was slated for demolition in the 1960s but luckily reason prevailed and a true national treasure was saved for posterity. The renovation cost close to $2 billion and saw the baking of new bricks to the original standard while the gothic exterior and iconic clock tower fronting the station were spiffied up to match.

Australia: Rolling Thunder Down Under

Australia is a former British colony and has inherited Merry Olde England’s love of trains and rail travel. The Southern Cross Station in Melbourne takes railway travel into the 21st century with its undulating, self-ventilating roof.

Japan: Great Gate; Cool Clock

(image via: Paul Mannix )

One can’t talk about trains without touching on Japan. The long, narrow, crowded country is ideally suited for rail travel and though it may be best known for its high-speed Shinkansen (bullet trains), Japan is also a center of aesthetic commercial design. Kanazawa Station is a perfect example, as the classic gate shown above illustrates so well.

(images via: Paul Mannix and Univ. of Freiburg )

A unique feature of Kanazawa Station is the incredible digital clock that displays the numbers with jets of water! The clock is also programmed to display Japanese text messages and announcements - here’s a video of the clock in action:

Kanazawa Station digital fountain clock, via NielsViv

Fruitful Endeavors

(image via: Neko-Obasan )

Last and… well, least are bus stops. Buses are often considered the “poor relations” of transportation but as with all publicly funded projects, their stations and stops can display a surprising degree of sophistication. They can also be just plain fun - like the fruit-flavored Japanese bus stops above.

Can’t Wait to See the Bus

(image via: Neko-Obasan )

Here’s another goofy Japanese bus stop near Nagasaki that sports a Tai motif. Tai is a fish popularly used in sushi.

Save the Wales

(image via: Tony Hogg Design )

Sometimes all it takes to give an old structure new life is a snazzy new roof. Such is the case in the town of Pontypridd, Rhondda, Wales. The local municipal council asked architects Base Structures Ltd. to “design and install a bus station canopy which would provide shelter for the public and to make visiting the station a pleasant experience.” It appears they succeeded admirably.

San Rafael’s Steampunk Station

(image via: Design By The Bay )

Closer to home, the San Rafael bus station near San Francisco, CA, shows off a distinct style enabled by the use of steel, concrete and etched glass. Designer Robn Chiang was given a tough chore by city planners: make the station look historical yet reflect a high-tech sensibility. Sounds - and looks - like steampunk to me!

Holland: Plastic Fantastic

(image via: Demanio:Re )

The Hoofddorp Busstation, above, was built on the grounds of the Spaarne Hospital in Hoofddorp, The Netherlands. Opened in 2003, the station is world’s largest all-synthetic structure. The 150-foot long station is built entirely of factory-cut polystyrene foam covered in polyester fabric.

Sydney: Designing Wizards of Oz

(image via: North Sydney Council )

Competitions are an effective way to bring out a variety of designs at a low cost to the planning authority. The North Sydney Bus Shelter and Canopy Entrance Competition of 2006, won by Hannah Tribe and Marcus Trimble, is a perfect example. The winning design presents two diametrically opposite aspects depending on whether it’s viewed by day or by night.

Can I Ride Your Magic Bus?”

(image via: kaveFISH )

Search the globe and you’d be hard pressed to find a weirder looking bus stop then the one above, designed by Dennis Oppenheim and located in Ventura, California. Seems like the only bus stopping here would be The Magic Bus.

China’s Compact City of the Future

(image via: AIArchitect )

Cordogan, Clark & Associates of Chicago have drawn up an astounding concept for the Chinese city of Wuxi. The master plan envisions a Transportation Center to serve as the hub for Wuxi’s train and bus traffic, as well as being the heart of a “compact city” based on traditional Chinese colors, shapes and forms.

(image via: AIArchitect )

The bus and train stations will feature solar energy collectors on both roof and walls. The entire complex will be situated on a 10-block footprint and house over 27 million square feet of commercial, retail and residential space. This mega-project and many others like it are set to leap off architects’ easels and into reality - these designs are moving and will move you - literally.