Taiwanese Student Bests Tony Stark With Cardboard Iron Man Suit

Taiwanese student Kai-Xiang Xhong has gone and showed up genius/playboy/billionaire/philanthropist Tony Stark by constructing an Iron Man suit… out of cardboard. The Stan Winston School of Character Arts interviewed Xhong, who boasted that while Stark’s suit cost almost $1 billion to make, his cost zero.

Xhong, who is 20 years-old and has made other cardboard figures before, including the Transformers character Optimus Prime, says that the suit took him almost a year to make. Luckily for him, it’s mostly due to the fact that he’s a student and has a lot to do. Cardboard Iron Man was just something he did in his free time.

The Iron Man suit was made using the pepakura method, which utilizes 3D models that are both buildable and foldable. But one key difference between him and the real Iron Man? “I did not add any special color on the surface. Keeping the cardboard color and texture was deliberate. That’s my style.”

Among his other creations are a giant T-Rex head, a very cool looking and intricate dragon (which was his first cardboard creation), and a pterodactl. Aside from cardboard, Xhong also showed off a pretty amazing Alien replica made out of drinking straws. His message to his fellow artists out there that don’t have enough money to make art? “Just do what you want, whatever you use in your material, just do it.”

“In Taiwan,” says the cardboard Iron Man creator, “artists are not taken seriously. But if art is what drives you, it is something you must do. Do what you want with whatever materials you have. Just make art.”

The best part of the video? Seeing Iron Man wearing Sponge Bob house slippers.