If you ever thought real life should be more like the video games we play, you’re not alone. At the very least, you definitely have an awesome friend in Caleb Kraft, senior editor at Hack a Day. He made a real homemade version of the fire-breathing piranha plant from Super Mario Bros. It’s incredible.
The monster stands over 6 feet tall, looks exactly like a piranha plant shooting out of a green pipe and BREATHES FIRE. Yes, those are real flames.
The piranha plant itself is made from foam, cardboard and spray paint. The fire breathing part of the plant took a little more effort. Eventually Kraft settled on a fire system that used a cylinder with a hose attached. Kraft explains:
The final outdoor fire system I used took a total of about 15 minutes to make. It is a cylinder, with a hose attached to it. You put creamer (fine powder, not liquid, obviously) inside it. A blast of compressed air shoots it upwards, through the flame of your choice, causing a rolling fireball. There’s a knot in the hose to stop the creamer from pouring all the way down. I’m sure there were a million other ways to do it, but this worked.
Though Kraft makes it sound incredibly easy, it wasn’t. Read about how to build your own fire breathing piranha plant from Mario here. Don’t burn yourself! [Hackaday]