I received this email from the NFL today. Good thing they didn't try to make a Chris Chambers monster robot!
SUPERSIZE ME: NFL COMMISSIONS RECORD-BREAKING REPLICA PLAYER
The National Football League is set to unveil a towering replica of Miami Dolphins star player Jason Taylor to mark the historic game between the Dolphins and New York Giants on October 28 at Wembley Stadium, the first competitive NFL to be played outside North America.
The formidable animatronic, the biggest animated human figure ever built at 26ft, is a ‘world first’ and has been specially created by an award winning team at London-based SFX Company Artem Ltd, as part of an experiential marketing campaign undertaken on behalf of the NFL by Not Actual Size.
Remarkably, this feat of engineering has taken just under 10 weeks to construct, with a team of more than 40 people working round the clock to build the superstructure in time for its official unveiling in Trafalgar Square on Monday October 22.
Weighing in at over a tonne, the Big JT animatronic boasts life-like features and some impressive record-breaking statistics:
* Standing at 26ft tall – Big JT is almost the height of two double decker buses stacked on top of each other (the real-life Jason Taylor is 6’6 and weighs 255 lb). It is the biggest structure of its kind ever built.
* The animatronic has moveable feet and arms and travels at 4-5mph – a single Big JT footstep covers nearly 2.5m
* 150 square metres (equivalent of half a football pitch) of fabric has been used to create the biggest-ever authentic football jersey shirt and trousers for Big JT. The fabric and specifications used on his kit are exactly the same used on the official NFL team uniforms.
* Each of his custom made boots are 6ft long and contain laces measuring 6.5m in length
* The oversized football the animatronic holds is twenty-five times bigger than an official ball
* Each of the animatronics eyeballs are the size of a large grapefruit
* Big JT’s handspan is larger than a doorway
* A specially adapted camera is fitted to the helmet of Big JT and is programmed to transmit images of what Jason ‘sees’ onto a 40ft LED screen which travels behind him. Big JT also reacts to footage of himself and team mates played on the screen - cheering touchdowns and tough tackles.