Tony Stark, AKA Robot Downey Jr., will always be a superhero in the eyes of 7-year-old Alex, who was born with a partially developed right arm.
Downey, who plays Iron Man in the “Iron Man” and “Avengers” movies, recently presented Alex with a fully functional Iron Man bionic arm. The bionic limb was made by Albert Manero, a volunteer for the non-profit organization Limbitless Solutions that builds and donates 3D-printed bionic limbs to kids around the world.
Downey was dressed as Tony Stark and stayed in character the whole time, and you can see Alex light up as he acknowledges he’s hanging out with Iron Man.
Alex’s new bionic arm looks so much like a real Iron Man arm that even Stark was a bit jealous.
Manero says each bionic limb he builds takes 50-70 hours to print and about 12 hours to put together. He’d been working with Alex’s family to perfect the arm, which is fully operational and is controlled by Alex flexing his biceps.
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Downey is getting a lot of the headlines with this story, but the real hero here is Manero and Limbitless Solutions. Their goal is to have 3D printers around the world so children who live in countries without advanced medicine can benefit from Manero’s designs.
This isn’t the first Iron Man bionic limb we’ve seen either. Three-year-old Rayden Kahae, who was born without fingers on one hand, received an Iron Man hand at no cost thanks to the non-profit group E-Nable.
