How do you give a kid like Adrian Diaz the best day ever? Easy. Put him on stage in front of cameras, give him his dream costume, let him dominate at arcade games, and then bestow the honor of leading the famous Haunted Happenings Grand Parade in Salem, Massachusetts.
Adrian is a star in the making. He wanted everyone and anyone to see his Halloween costume, provided by the SOLIDWORKS Magic Wheelchair build team. So, at 11 AM on a beautiful October day, his loved ones, the build team, a film crew from NBC Boston, and people strolling the park gathered in the Salem Common to see the big costume reveal.
The Wandering Stage Company assembled a stage next to the famous bandstand in the Salem Common, and the SOLIDWORKS build team set up Adrian’s costume. Halloween music played while Adrian zipped around the park, telling everyone about his costume reveal.
Once he’d gathered a crowd, Adrian took the stage. His costume was covered in a Magic Wheelchair drop sheet, shielding it from view. Confidently grabbing hold of the microphone, Adrian led the crowd in a countdown. As the build team unveiled the costume, and the crowd roared. Adrian gaped.
Adrian tasked the build team with a truly unique costume; he wanted a transforming robot that could actually transform. Many Halloween costumes, even elaborate Magic Wheelchair costumes, offer the illusion of movement: a stationary character posed mid-action or lights that make costume parts seem like they are moving. Adrian’s request was special: something that could actually move and transform. It’s a mechanical engineer’s greatest dream and worst nightmare all rolled into one, but the SOLIDWORKS build team delivered.
Adrian had asked for a robot that turned into a pterodactyl. To do this, the team made a costume that would fully encase Adrian, turning him into the robot. He wanted lights, wings that flapped, and a robot head that transformed into a pterodactyl head. The team heard his ideas and spent five months designing, engineering, and fabricating the most complex costume they’d ever created.
On stage, team leader Sal Lama explained the costume to Adrian and the excited crowd. The green, gold, and chrome costume had a beak that Adrian could manually raise up and down to turn himself into a dinosaur. Colorful lights were incorporated into the eyes in the beak and front of the costume. Adrian’s costume also had a soundboard and a built-in microphone, so when he talked, he sounded like a robot.
The parts of the costume that made his eyes pop out, however, were the wings and arms. By simply turning a dial on a dashboard, Adrian could make his costume go into dinosaur mode. A motor made the arms telescope in and out and flapped his robot wings.
“Did we do okay?” asked Sal.
The microphone squeaked as Adrian yelled, “This is awesome! I was like, where’s the transforming? A transformer needs to transform!”
“Did we do it?” I asked.
“Yes, we did! I love it!” cried Adrian. Everyone loved it.
The build team helped Adrian into the costume, where he proceeded to drive all over the Salem Common, to the delight of passersbys. NBC Boston interviewed him in his costume and Adrian loved the attention.
There was still more to come. That evening, Adrian would be the Honorary Grand Marshal of the Salem Haunted Happenings Grand Parade, which officially opened the city’s Halloween season. To keep the day’s energy going (and also keep the costume safe until the parade), Adrian took off the costume while everyone went to BitBar, a local restaurant chock-full of arcade games. Adrian had a blast playing with his extended family, his parents, and his little brother Mateo.
While Adrian played games and toured Salem with his family, the build team got to work setting up for the parade. SOLIDWORKS Senior Director of Product Development John Sweeney drove to Salem in his electric truck to pull the parade float. The parade theme was “Our Time on Earth,” which promoted environmentalism and lowering individual and collective carbon footprints. The build team asked John if he would drive with his electric pickup truck to support this theme, and also so Adrian and his guests wouldn’t have to breathe in gas fumes along the parade route.
The parade float was a flatbed trailer that John pulled to the parade staging ground. The trailer, generously lent to the team by Jason Pohl, was decorated with metallic green fringe, twinkling lights, and fake leaves to match the costume’s dinosaur look. The build team also packed over 60 pounds of candy to hand out during the parade, along with stickers and leaflets about Magic Wheelchair.
While waiting for the parade to start, Adrian, Mateo, and Adrian’s best friend Pete played around with lightsabers and gaped at the other floats and costumes in the parade staging ground. “This is so cool!” Adrian kept saying.
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