Description:If you're a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and wish that you could emulate your heroes, you could certainly do worse than to take a look at this incredible Iron Man suit created by Caio Cesar. Here it is in action:
Caio is 30 years old, and lives in Campinas, near to São Paulo in Brazil. As you can see, the costume he's created is pretty incredible - and it works, too.
More impressive perhaps is that it's his first go at this sort of thing.
He told LADbible: "I'm big fan of comics and - in particular - Iron Man.
"I had never cosplayed before, but I always had the desire to bring the armour that appeared on the movie screens into my home, but without spending a fortune."
"So, I decided start with this challenge shortly after purchasing my 3D printer, and wanted to make the armour as close as possible to the films.
"It's just my first suit, and I think I've achieved my goal."
Yeah, you could say that.
Before you rush to try this out for yourself, it's worth bearing in mind that you've got to have a decent set of skills - and overcome some obstacles along the way - if you want yours to turn out like this.
Caio continued: "Initially a big difficulty was convincing my wife that I was using the credit card for printer supplies!"
"Just kidding - the biggest difficulty was adjusting the armour to my body because, to make sense, it couldn't seem that it is much bigger than me, or that it would be crushing me.
The original armour is around 1.88m, but I'm 1.60m so making the scale was very important to obtain a good result.
"I also had to calculate the internal space for lights, wires, motors, circuits and also the 'shock' points, so that I could move in a satisfactory manner.
"Another difficulty that appeared in the middle of the journey - which was my fault - was that I accidentally dropped the chest plate on the floor and it broke in half.
"That made me lose some time."
These things happen. It's turned out OK in the end.
He added: "I printed this entire outfit with just one printer, and if you know Brazil, you know how things are much more expensive here and not all material is easy, so you always have to be looking for alternatives.
"I started this project in June 2019 and in fact ended in November.
"I had the opportunity to go to just one local event to present the armour, but after that the pandemic started, so, I continued to improve the costume so as to surprise when everything normalises."
Caio only managed to road test the suit at one cosplay event, but he's already had some positive feedback.
He explained: "Because it was my first time at an event like this, I really didn't know what to expect.
"I dressed into the armour in a dressing room before going out.
"At this event there was a contest and I was pre-registered, but with 20 minutes left I just had to cross the lobby to get to the presentation site and register effectively.
"The problem was, I couldn't take three steps without someone stop to take a picture. Even a child saw me passing in the middle of the lobby, grabbed my leg and said, 'Iron man, Iron Man!'
"I was like, 'Hey, I only have five minutes to cross this room!'
"In total, I probably took more than 400 photos in less than 20 minutes and I couldn't make it in time for the contest.
"Most of the photos were with adults. People were like, 'Wow, did you really come flying on this thing?'
That's probably the highest honour any cosplayer could ask for.
Now, Caio has set his sights on the next challenge - building a suit for his wife.
He added: "My next project is about to start, I even got a sponsor to provide me with material to print it.
"I am married, and in the Iron Man films, he [Tony Stark] built armour for [wife Pepper Potts], and I want to make the same armour for my wife.
"Because, nicer than having an Iron Man suit is having a couple sharing the journey.
"I must confess that my wife is not a big fan, but she's agreed to join in the game."
Caio reckons that next suit will be ready towards the end of this year, and hopefully he'll send in more pictures once it's all finished.
