A dedicated Nintendo, LEGO and Transformers fan has created the ultimate combination of all three -- a Transformer based on the Super Nintendo, complete with two controllers, a game cartridge and actual morphing capabilities.
Dubbed Super Famitron, the project was developed by Julius von Brunk, who posts his intricate creations on YouTube under the name Baron Julius von Brunk. The Transformer can hold a cartridge labeled Polybius -- a reference to a fictional 1981 arcade game that has achieved urban legend status -- as well as two gamepads based on both the Super NES and Super Famicom designs. The controllers are respectively named Simian Kong and Primal Kong, after Donkey Kong Country.
The main console, Polybius cartridge and the two controllers can all transform and feature intricate details such as cannons, which are mounted on Super Famitron's shoulders and only visible when the SNES bot stands tall. On his Instagram account, Von Brunk went into detail about the laborious process required to create the ambitious engineering feat.
"The main robot [Super Famitron] is absolutely massive and despite his articulated design, he has trouble standing up when in robot form," von Brunk wrote. "However, unlike previous LEGO video game consoles of mine, the cartridge slot actually has a spring-loaded trap door for inserting game cartridges. Also the power buttons slide up and down, the dark grey eject button can reciprocate as well."
Von Brunk explained that Super Famitron "was wrought with many engineering obstacles when building, such as the functionality of the eject button, the transformation cycle of the two legs, and of course the reciprocating cartridge slot," but ultimately the project came together after over a year of hard work. He added that the Transformers' sturdiness in console form was comparable to an actual SNES system. In the case of Polybius, von Brunk wrote that the cartridge was "nearly the exact same size and thickness of a real SNES game, and when developing it I tested its size compared to an actual game cartridge, and it even fits snugly within the slot of a real SNES console!"
Despite the laborious nature of the project, von Brunk admitted in a YouTube video promoting Super Famitron that he actually owned a Sega Genesis as a child, and only dove into the SNES library while visiting his aunt and uncle's house. Aside from the Super Famitron, von Brunk has also designed transforming LEGO versions of the Game Boy Color, the Game Boy Advance, the Sega Game Gear and the Nintendo 64.