BEIJING, June 23 (Xinhaunet) -- "Autobots, transform, and rollout."
Visitors to the China Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) may well be tempted to mouth this famous line from the movie Transformers.
For, just as the movie's Optimus Prime is turned into a Peterbilt truck and Bumblebee into a Camaro, a China-made Jiefang CA10 truck stands transformed into Guan Yu, a general of Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25-220) period, a giant Green Dragon Crescent Blade in hand, in the academy's grounds.
The 9.7-meter figure is the brainchild of CAFA's 26-year-old sculptor major Bi Heng. A 3D video clip posted on the Web offers a detailed account of how the old truck transforms into the fighter Guan Yu, thanks to another CAFA student Han Han.
The Guan Yu figure is part of the ongoing exhibition of works by CAFA's graduates.
Bi says the idea of creating this Chinese version of Transformers came to him in 2006 and he hopes to convert his "toys" into a commercial proposition.
His ambitious plans include transforming a taxi into the Monkey King and turning his cudgel-shaped weapon into the Olympic Torch.
Naming his current work Revolution, he says it embodies important elements of Chinese history.
