Teen turns herself into a real-life superhero - building her own Iron Man suits with lasers

Ellie Farrell started 3D printing when she was 14 and made her two suits last year after being 'bored' of her Engineering degree. The 19-year-old built her first suit in three months and started working on her second one in September, adding more functional features.

Ellie posted videos of her suits online, with her most viral one having gathered more than 17 million views.

Clips show the teen wearing the suit looking like she's walked right out of a Marvel movie - leaving viewers wowed as the helmet lights up and retracts on its own. Other footage shows her creating even Iron Man's weapons, including the suit opening up to reveal a laser and working hand blasters that knock objects across the room.

Social media users have been impressed by Ellie's skills and have compared her to Morgan Stark, Tony's daughter in the films. Ellie, who is now in her second year of studying Mechanical Engineering, said Iron Man is her favourite superhero because he is just an average person wearing a suit.

The student said she wants to improve her suits and even wants to add a fog machine, with each suit costing her £300-£400 to make.

Ellie hopes to make more suits in the future once she has more funding and more space to store them in.

Ellie, from Dublin, Ireland, said: "I started 3D printing and building things when I was 14. I'm in Mechanical Engineering but last year I was doing General Engineering and I was kind of bored, I had a lot of spare time, so I thought I should do something to keep me busy, I might as well build a suit.

"I built that fairly quickly before summer and after that I thought it wasn't perfect enough so I had to make another one. In the first suit I was working with all the money I saved up from a Christmas job I had, so I didn't put a lot of money into it.

"The newest suit has working flaps on the back, a laser on the arms and I'm working on the calf flaps and some fog machines. It's still in development. I made the helmet so I have a chin mount. If I lean my chin forward it opens up, and if I press the button again it comes back down. It was the spray paint that ended up costing the most, overall I spent £300-£400 on each suit.

"I had a lot of parts already. I got the 3D printer in 2021. I was inspired by seeing other people do so much online. I'm a huge Marvel fan, superheroes in general. Iron man is the most realistic one because he is just an average person so it's believable in a way. Obviously he is super smart but it's just a suit, it is technically possible. He's probably my favourite for sure.

"I'm definitely satisfied, I wouldn't say it's perfect yet, I want to keep improving. I want to make more but I just don't have the room for it. I have to hold myself back. If I get more funding I do want to have proper functionality to it and make it more realistic."

Ellie has posted several videos of her suits and the process of building them, leaving many commenters impressed.

One commenter said: "Wow sometimes I forget he could be real, there are definitely people smart enough to make it happen."

A second one said: "Are you Morgan Stark?"

A third said: "I hope you know how cool you are."

A fourth said: "Close enough welcome back Tony."

Another wrote: "That's talent."

Another said: "This is so epic."