The Energon Pub

Courtesy of Seibertron.com podcaster and member Razorclaw0000 and news website ABC Local, here's a piece on a Transformers fan taking his passion beyond the toys and media. Tom Rhoads, of Fresno, California, built an 18 foot tall G1 Bumblebee sculpture for his son's birthday, and it has now become a roadside attraction! Check out the article here, read some below and watch the embedded video for more.

This 18 foot tall giant is the creation of Tom Rhoads.

"I built it because I've always had a love for Transformers," said Tom. "When I was growing up four or five years old Transformers was huge, Transformers and GI Joe and I loved Transformers."

And when his first son Drew came along, Tom had a chance to share his childhood love with his son.

"I really wanted to have something special for my boy on his first birthday," said Tom. "And just kind of get a feeling to be what it would be to stand next to one of these guys and try to build one."

The original Bumblebee was based on a "Bug."

"The easiest character to make was the smallest one closest one to our size is the character Bumblebee and he's made out of a Volkswagen."

Tom got one just down the road from Ron Johnson, he restores and sells Volkswagen Bugs and didn't mind giving him a bug that was beyond restoring.

I doubt that G1 Bumblebee would be 18ft tall, but cool nonetheless

He's also making an Optimus Prime to scale with Bumblebee.

welcometothedarksyde wrote:I doubt that G1 Bumblebee would be 18ft tall, but cool nonetheless

He used an actual VW bug!

Wow, this is old, and I mean really really old.
Why are they reporting on it now years after the guy put it up?

And yea, compared to all the statutes we've seen come out of China, and other Asian countries since, this looks incredibly terrible.

Makes me wish I had this kind of skill. Very nicely done.

Dead Metal wrote:Wow, this is old, and I mean really really old.
Why are they reporting on it now years after the guy put it up?

And yea, compared to all the statutes we've seen come out of China, and other Asian countries since, this looks incredibly terrible.

Well you have to remember, the ones in China an Japan were made by many people who took years to think up and build. This guy doesn't have any formal training and he did it by himself in eight months. Now I don't know what you do for a living/hobby, but I'm pretty sure anything you can build would look like s**t compared to what a professional could build. Give the guy a break.

Fires_Of_Inferno wrote:Makes me wish I had this kind of skill. Very nicely done.

Dead Metal wrote:Wow, this is old, and I mean really really old.
Why are they reporting on it now years after the guy put it up?

And yea, compared to all the statutes we've seen come out of China, and other Asian countries since, this looks incredibly terrible.

Well you have to remember, the ones in China an Japan were made by many people who took years to think up and build. This guy doesn't have any formal training and he did it by himself in eight months. Now I don't know what you do for a living/hobby, but I'm pretty sure anything you can build would look like s**t compared to what a professional could build. Give the guy a break.

this looks great that took actual car parts to make this some parts but never known news could be somewhat interesting at some cases when they want to be and not depressing news always finds way bring up old stuff that happened years ago never let it go oj simpson, micheal Jackson stories, few other tragic incidents happened over years they still bring up where I live that happened 4, 10 years ago

Fires_Of_Inferno wrote:Makes me wish I had this kind of skill. Very nicely done.

Dead Metal wrote:Wow, this is old, and I mean really really old.
Why are they reporting on it now years after the guy put it up?

And yea, compared to all the statutes we've seen come out of China, and other Asian countries since, this looks incredibly terrible.

Well you have to remember, the ones in China an Japan were made by many people who took years to think up and build. This guy doesn't have any formal training and he did it by himself in eight months. Now I don't know what you do for a living/hobby, but I'm pretty sure anything you can build would look like s**t compared to what a professional could build. Give the guy a break.

this looks great that took actual car parts to make this some parts but never known news could be somewhat interesting at some cases when they want to be and not depressing news always finds way bring up old stuff that happened years ago never let it go oj simpson, micheal Jackson stories, few other tragic incidents happened over years they still bring up where I live that happened 4, 10 years ago

It's a Labor of love. I'm glad he's not charging for viewing his stuff. I hope it gets maintained well and that he can manage to build Prime as well. That height could be a hazard though.

who cares how tall it is its freakin awesome!

It's a Labor of love. I'm glad he's not charging for viewing his stuff. I hope it gets maintained well and that he can manage to build Prime as well. That height could be a hazard though.

So this has been known for a while?

Maybe it's newsed now because he's working on his next piece, Shattered Glass Soundwave? (wild guess)

Fires_Of_Inferno wrote:Makes me wish I had this kind of skill. Very nicely done.

Dead Metal wrote:Wow, this is old, and I mean really really old.
Why are they reporting on it now years after the guy put it up?

And yea, compared to all the statutes we've seen come out of China, and other Asian countries since, this looks incredibly terrible.

Well you have to remember, the ones in China an Japan were made by many people who took years to think up and build. This guy doesn't have any formal training and he did it by himself in eight months. Now I don't know what you do for a living/hobby, but I'm pretty sure anything you can build would look like s**t compared to what a professional could build. Give the guy a break.

No, not all of them where done by professionals and did not take years to plan and make, there are some there made by people who live on or near a scrapyard and decided to make one simply to try it, or in the case of that one guy because he couldn't afford an Optimus Prime figure for his daughter.
I also stated that it looks terrible now after we've seen it done so much better since we first saw this. That does not invalidate his work, it just means that it hasn't aged well, just like a PS one game hasn't aged well and now looks terrible compared to stuff that came after it.

And yes, as everyone who's seen/ read my comic will attest, it's terrible. That however does not mean I cannot criticize someone ells' work. As I'm sure you yourself have called something made by someone else bad, and compared it to the work of other amateurs or professionals.

Also, just to not sound like such an ass in my first post here, this is not meant as a stab at Va'al posting this, since he wasn't around when we first saw this. It was directed towards ABC, this has been in his yard for at least 5 years now and they only just reported it as new?