A father-and-son duo from Hunan, China, have come up with a fun and profitable business idea – creating giant Transformers robots replicas from used car parts and scrap metal.
Although they are farmers by profession, Yu Zhilin and his son Yu Lingyun switched to building the models in 2007, when they realised the potential in the Chinese market. And their hunch has proved right – they’ve managed cash in on the nation’s obsession with Transformers, the highest grossing film of all time in China. They now make one million yuan a year (nearly $170,000), selling their army of robots.
The father, who has had some training in fine arts, created designs by downloading images from the internet. With his son’s assistance, he was able to use old car parts to make some pretty phenomenal models. The first model took them three years to complete, but they’re now one of the top amateur Transformer-builders in China. They have a small self-funded factory that they work out of.
This isn’t the first time we’ve reported China’s obsession with Transformers models. Last year we wrote about a Chinese scrapyard that became a tourist attraction after the workers decided to use the scrap metal to build Transformers statues. And in case you’re wondering who buys all these models, it’s obviously guys like him.
