Bradford's Iron Man is star of the show at Knightcon (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Bradford's Iron Man is star of the show at Knightcon

9:00am Monday 3rd September 2012 in News

A Bradford-made replica of the suit worn by Iron Man saved the day at a star car and superheroes convention – after the organisers’ first choice hero “could not fit” into his costume.

Mark Pearson, of Tyersal , was asked to step in at this weekend’s Knightcon after the show’s organisers, who were struggling to find an Iron Man for the star-studded event at Xscape in Castleford, read about his version of the iconic red and gold suit in the Telegraph & Argus.

The car body repairer, 45, created the spectacular costume, made of 400 sheets of cardboard covered in fibre glass, which was worn by his 6ft friend Darren Higgins, 25.

He said: “The organisers got in touch to see if I could bring Iron Man along.

“When I created the suit I didn’t expect this sort of thing to happen, to be asked along to events.

“Wherever I take it there are people literally fighting to have their picture taken with it.”

The weekend’s event was organised by friends Steve Fawcett, of Otley , and Rob Ormondroyd, of Bradford, who both shelled out to buy their own Trans Ams and have transformed them into perfect replicas of Michael Knight’s crime-fighting companion KITT.

Knightcon’s origins lie with Knight Rider, but over the years it has expanded to include other film and TV replica cars, including a 20ft Batmobile, Bumblebee from Transformers, a Ghostbusters car and the DeLorean from Back To The Future.

Organiser Rob got in touch with Mark, who spent around 14 months building the costume in his garage at home as a hobby, after their original Iron Man was unable to get into his costume.

He said: “We were desperate to get Mark and Iron Man. The person we had lined up couldn’t fit into his suit! It really was a star of the show.”