SHIJIAZHUANG, Nov. 20 (Xinhua Finance) -- It will take something huge to beat Yao Zihan's 18th birthday present: The diehard "Transformers" fan was made an almost lifesize "Optimus Prime" by his father.
Over the course of three months, Yao Fuxing crafted the 4.3-meter high character out of scrap metal, and car, motorcycle and farming vehicle parts. The final piece weighed at 1.5 tonnes.
Yao Fuxing based his design on images of the character and calculated that the parts must be 2.45 times that of a human body. He installed a power and gear system and, due to the weight of its components, he had to hire a crane to construct the towering movie character.
A motorcycle helmet has been repurposed as the head, webcams were installed as eyes and motorcycle tanks serve as armor. The eyes "shine", the arms move and it plays the "Transformers" soundtrack as well as snippets of dialogue.
Back in August, the metalwork magician made a 1-tonne, 3.5-meter tall "Bumblebee", another character from the American movie franchise.
Yao Fuxing is a local government worker in Hejian, Hebei Province, but spent many years in the Navy as a pilot, as well as being a blacksmith.
"My son loves the Transformers movies and he has a lot of Transformer paraphernalia. So I decided to make one for him," he said.
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