Check out the fruits of one Mario fan’s labor, a beautiful, life-sized Mario and Yoshi costume/puppet.
For anyone raised in the 8-bit NES era, the release of the SNES was a sublime event. Not just because of the upgraded 16 bit processor, but for the included cartridge: Super Mario World. The Mario series had always done well on the NES, but for many fans, myself included, this is where the formula was utterly perfected. Mario World greatly expanded our little plumber’s universe, introducing all kinds of new bad guys and locales.
Most impressive of all, was that odd dinosaur named Yoshi that Mario rode around like a horse. Yoshi gobbled up many a koopa with his prehensile, sticky tongue, and could even gain certain powers depending on the enemy eaten. Add to this Mario’s invincibility when riding the green lizard, and it was love at first sight for this gamer.
It’s clear to me that video game enthusiast and creative person “The Streek” felt the very same way. Moreso even, as is apparent from his amazing puppet/costume of Mario riding Yoshi. On his website, The Streek goes into detail as to what what involved in this labor of love. We’re talking 5 months in the making, and an impressive range of building materials, including PVC pipe, memory foam, and papier mache.
The end result is gorgeous, and a good reminder to people like me, that no matter how much I think I like video games, some people like ’em a lot more. The Streek even provided a nice Youtube video of his adventures at Wizard World Comicon 2010 where convention attendees were treated to a demonstration of the puppet’s functioning mouth and trademark “YOSHI!” tongue.
For more Mario madness, check out these interesting pieces of Mario bullet art, and these useful Mario life lessons.
Via Instructables
