Batman fans build real-life Dark Knight Tumbler

 As flamboyant millionaires go, Bruce Wayne’s got the right idea: spending massive wads of cash on state of the art get-up and crime-fighting tech. Who wouldn’t if they could right?

So, taking a leaf out of Bruce’s book, a group of wealthy car enthusiasts have built their own ultimate vehicle – a completely road legal Batmobile.

Inspired by the imposing ‘Tumbler’ version of The Caped Crusader’s car, as seen in Christopher Nolan’s ‘Batman' series, a group of Florida based friends undertook the epic build for a cost of around £1 million ($1.6 million).

The men, who call themselves Team Galag, regularly compete in the infamous Gumball 3000 rally where the rich, and occasionally famous, drive across Europe in the world’s most exotic cars.

But this year they have decided to take part in a road legal replica of the Tumbler – as driven by Christian Bale’s Batman.

The car will be on its way to London later this month, where after being shown off in the capital, it will head off to Copenhagen, Denmark for the start of the 3,000 mile rally.

Team Galag is made up of a number of anonymous car enthusiasts aged between 21 and 34, hailing from the UK, Germany, USA and Saudi Arabia.

One member said: "The main reason behind doing the Tumbler was that we wanted to bring back a little originality and fun to the Gumball 3000, something it was always known for.

"We wanted to capture the spirit of movies and cartoons such as Cannonball and Wacky Races, while keeping with the cool and rock and roll image of the rally.

"Car number 74 (The Tumbler’s entry) is not your regular supercar. Who cares that it weighs 2.5 tonnes and is wider than a truck, it is certain to turn heads and blow eardrums all the way from Copenhagen to Monte Carlo." The Tumbler replica has a reported top speed of 100 mph.

Gumball 3000, which is run out of West London-based by Maximillion Cooper, kicks off in Copenhagen on May 18.

The entrants will then drive to Stockholm, Helsinki, St Petersburg, Tallinn, Riga, Warsaw, Krakow and Vienna before ending the rally in Monaco in time for the F1 grand prix.

Teen Builds Incredibly Realistic-Looking Iron Man Suit

 Fans can do all kinds of things to show their love for their favorite superheroes. In the case of Archie Whitehead, a 17-year-old high school student from Welwyn Garden City, a town 20 miles outside of London, that means building an amazing, highly realistic costume of Iron Man. The homemade suit is so good, you can barely distinguish it from the one used in the movie.

In January, Whitehead wanted to make an Iron Man suit. He saw somebody in the United States had made a DIY Iron Man costume in fiberglass, but that wasn't going to be possible. "That's real expensive," he thought. "At 17, obviously I don't have the kind of money to make something like that." But then he saw somebody else had made a Halo costume with foam, and he thought, "Why can't I make the suit out of that?"

Once he decided on the material, he downloaded some 3D files from online prop and costumes forums and used "loads of reference images" to modify the downloaded templates. He then printed the templates and used them to trace them on the foam, which he then cut with a knife. Once he polished all the corners, he glued everything together and used small bolts for the joints. He then sealed the foam with acrylic gel, which allowed him to keep the costume flexible but at the same time make it paintable. Finally, he colored everything with spray paint. Every part of the costume is made of foam, except for the helmet, which is made of resin fiberglass, and took him the most time to build.


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The whole project took approximately four months. He put in a few hours of work every day during his spare time. The entire costume, counting all the materials, cost him about $500.

"I really didn't realize it would come out so well until it did," Whitehead told Mashable in an email.

Eventually, Whitehead wants to become a conceptual artist, but he also enjoyed building his first costume, so he says he will keep exploring his options now.

The results of his tireless work are in the slideshow above, and check out more pictures on Imgur.