How badly did you want to be Iron Man when you were a kid?

Posted by on May 18th, 2012

Andrew Mayne and his brother Jamie are Iron Man (men)

I wanted to be Iron Man so bad when I was a kid, my hair smelled like Folger’s Crystals from wearing a coffee can on my head.

Not a joke.

I cut off the end of a tennis ball can, put a dish glove on it and made my own slapdash armor. You have to understand, this wasn’t a costume, in my demented little mind, I WAS MAKING MY OWN ARMOR.

I was obsessed with robots. I’d build little walking things from broken toys and Tupperware containers. When I saw my first Iron Man comic, my head exploded. Dude, you could BE A ROBOT.

In the above photo, my brother and I are dressed up as hybrid Iron Man/C3PO/R2-D2 characters. My dad made the costumes from popcorn tins, life vests, Legos and plenty of silver tape. If you wonder where my creativity comes from; look no further than my dad. He’s always been that awesome.

Before I decided to become a magician, back then I was a little inventor. My goal in life was to go to MIT. Why? Because that’s where Tony Stark went to school.

Life turned out differently. I got into magic, discovered other science heroes like Doctor Who, but I’d be lying if I don’t get a little nostalgic every time I see a coffee can and wonder what could have been…

For more from Andrew Mayne, visit his website: AndrewMayneBooks.com

One Response to “How badly did you want to be Iron Man when you were a kid?”

  1. Michael Hilliard Says:
    May 18th, 2012 at 1:53 pm

    I have this hazy memory of trying to build something that could fire electricity or power blasts like iron man.  I succeeded and Think I once even got a short bolt to shoot off from it….

    The experiment was stopped when I switched from car battery to a wall plug. You see I was not waring a rubber glove under my “gauntlet”  I cant recall the design but there was metal on skin at some point because plugging that thing in resulted in an amazing hair doo and burns on my hand and forearm…Parents made me stop after that but I wonder what could have been as well…