A while back Toyfare announced a build-your-own-Iron-Man-costume-contest. This provided me the proper motivation to get out of bed in the morning (no I wasn't depressed, I just have a really comfy bed) and do something constructive during the 10 hours that I'm awake each day.
An Iron Man costume is no easy undertaking. I don't have a whole lot of access to steel, and the steel that I do have access to isn't shaped like robot parts. Okay, well, I only needed to submit pictures for the contest, so it only needed to look like steel. So what to use? Then one day while I was relaxing in my bed, enjoying a delicious glass of ice tea, it hit me - titanium!
Five demolished G4 Powerbooks later, all I had to show for my efforts was a criminal record and something that vaguely resembled a bedpan.
So I drank some more ice tea. And then it hit me, again - copper! $300,000 worth of pennies and a smelting license later, and I had an exact replica of the movie Iron Man costume. But then I found out that pennies are actually 50% zinc, so I threw the thing out. I was building this thing
around a theme, dammit. I couldn't very well be copper Iron Man if I was 50% zinc. My kids would never respect me.
So I drank some more ice tea. And it hit me again - gold! That one didn't quite work out. Let's just say I'm no longer welcome in any area dentist offices or funeral parlors.
So I just said screw it I'll make the thing out of Arizona Ice Tea jugs.
And here is the result:
These are just the initial pics taken with my roommate's crappy camera in order to make the deadline, but I got an honorable mention:
(click to embiggen)That's not the end of the story though, so check back here to learn more about the continuing oddyssey of making a kick-ass Iron Man costume out of the cheapest materials available.
I want to take some better pictures, but that requires me to put the thing back on, and that ain't easy. But I'll do it, as soon as I finish this bottle of TrimSpa.
And check back for more on the contest itself, including snarky comments about the winners (I should have at least made 2nd place).
PLUS, a special appearance by a mannequin! Really!
