Madison County man goes viral with homemade War Machine costume for Dragon Con 2014

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama--If you've been on Reddit over the weekend, you've probably seen Madison County resident Russ Meyerriecks.

He's the guy with the super cool, Hollywood would be jealous, real-life War Machine halloween costumes for couples.

As a first-timer at Dragon Con, the annual fantasy/science fiction convention in Atlanta, Meyerriecks, 32, simply wanted to fit in with the crowd. Little did he know, his creation would win the internet.

Tell me about this costume. What's it made of? How long did it take?

Meyerriecks: "I worked on it for six months. It's made of hard armor. It's funny, the morning before my wife and I were leaving for Dragon Con, my buddy says 'you're famous on the internet.' I'm like, 'whatever.' Then I found out I was the number one post on Reddit. Half the people at Dragon Con recognized me from Reddit! As the weekend went on, people mentioned other sites, like The Chive and Imgur, had my picture up. It totally blew up, and I'll tell you, after all the effort I put in, I was totally stoked."

For our readers out there who don't know what Dragon Con is, how would you describe it?

Meyerriecks: "Well, it was my first time going. My wife and I love Halloween so we went with some friends. It's a cosplay. It's actually a lot of fun being with a bunch of other people dressing up. It's like a huge weekend bumble bee costumes for women party."

Why did you choose War Machine?

Meyerriecks: "Originally, I wanted to be Judge Dredd because of the remake and I'm a huge fan. So I made the helmet, but couldn't figure out how to make the letter parts. I had the hard armor figured out, though, so I thought, "Who else could I be?' I'm an Ironman fan, but War Machine always had more guns. And he's more obscure."

Were you a big comic book fan as a kid?

Meyerriecks: "I read the Avengers comics and the Guardians of the Galaxy comics, but that was pretty much it. I'm a software developer by trade, so I spend a lot of time building things virtually. When I get home, I like making things physically."

Ah, makes sense. So are you a real handy man around the house?

Meyerriecks: (laughs) "Yeah, I guess you could say that. I obsessed over my yard most of last year. I was identifying weed types and looking into pest control. But now that I've neglected it for six months, my yard looks so gnarly. I'm sure my neighbors are complaining."

What does your wife think of the costume?

Meyerriecks: "She likes it. I have a makeshift workshop in my garage and I've built a few things around the house like a computer desktop out of this nice marble we found in northern Alabama. Actually, part of the reason [War Machine] went viral is because my buddy posted how I built it off a 3D printer. I did build a 3D printer, and I really love working with it, but I only built about 40 percent of the costume from it. And my wife, she persevered through months of me obsessing over the costume."

Were there other costumes at Dragon Con that stood out to you?

Meyerriecks: "Oh yeah, mine wasn't near (some of) the best ones. I don't followDragon Ball Z, but one guy built this bee costume for women with a LED screen in front of the eyes, so you could see the animations from the show on the screen. I really enjoyed trading shop tips with people so every time I saw someone with lights, I would ask them all about it."

So were all those months of building worth it?

Meyerriecks: "Absolutely. It was a nice thing for this community to appreciate all the hard work I put into it. It's a very significant task to put this together, and I think other people who have done it understand that."