Pingtung City’s Chienkuo Elementary School threw a costume party at
Ku Yu-kai, a kindergarten student, puts on his Optimus Prime suit in his living room in Pingtung on Dec. 25 last year. 幼兒園學童辜昱愷去年十二月二十五日在屏東家中客廳穿上大黃蜂套裝。 Photo courtesy of Ku Hsin-wei 照片：辜鑫緯提供
Christmas last year, and Ku Yu-kai, a kindergarten student, drew everybody’s attention by transforming himself into Optimus Prime, a Transformers character. His smart suit was tailor-made by his father, Ku Hsin-wei, who spent three months on the production with ivory board, cardboard and foam. It cost him less than NT$1,000 to get it done.
Ku Hsin-wei says both he and his son loved the Transformers, but since the elegant party costumes on the market were pricey and none of the transformer suits fit his son, he decided to make one himself. After the decision was made, he started to search for relevant information on the Internet.
“We had to put up with the mess in the house,” said Ku Hsin-wei, smilingly. The production process required constant modification; as a result, scraps of paper were constantly flying around in the house. Having his family endure the messy living environment was the most challenging part of making the Optimus Prime outfit. [FULL STORY]