A Lancaster County teen’s homemade Iron Man costume is fooling people into thinking they’re seeing Tony Stark himself.
Brendan McClelland, 15, of West Lampeter Township, became somewhat of a rockstar when he debuted his suit at Baltimore’s Comic Con this year.
“I thought it was pretty cool, like I didn’t know I was going to be able to do it,” McClelland said. “I waited a long time, then I finished it, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is great.'”
Brendan first made a helmet out of paper for his sister, and that spawned the idea that he was capable of making the entire suit.
“You have these templates and this 3D model and you print it out, you have all of these templates for these small parts,” he said. “You trace them onto the foam that I used and you cut up the foam and glue it together.”
Brendan makes it sound easy, but his mom Alyson said it took more than four months and about $200 in supplies from start to finish.
“It would be like 3 o’clock in the morning and I’d get up to go to the bathroom or something and I’d see his light on and I’d be like, ‘What are you doing?!”‘ and he’d be in there just having to finish certain things,” she said.
For this teen who tends to shy away from the spotlight, the priceless reactions from the people he comes across, are all worth it.
“When we were at Comic-Con, this little boy came up and he was like, ‘Oh wow,’ that’s really cool! And he was holding my hand and I thought that was really cool,” Brendan said.
After all his hard work, Brendan isn’t finished yet. He plans to start on a RoboCop suit next year.
As for his Iron Man suit, the McClellands plan to have it on their porch on Halloween for the trick-or-treaters to enjoy.