Maker Jason Caulfield has created an impressive Tauren cosplay that stands at 8.5 feet (2.5 metres) tall, and speaks and blinks thanks to an animatronic setup using two Arduino Unos.

The eyes of the costume blink automatically and are backlit for extra effect, but the way it speaks is much more interesting.

Inside of the head there is a microphone that Caulfield speaks into. This goes through the Arduino and a PicoTalk which synchs the audio to the motor movement of the mouth.

To make his voice more intimidating, it is lowered, run through an amplifier, and then broadcast out by a subwoofer in the leg.

While the costume is extremely tall, it’s also very wide. It’s five feet (1.5 metres) across and it holds a seven foot (2.1 metre) sword. It took Caulfield 700 hours to build and we’re not surprised that it won Best of Show at the Denver Comic Con 2017.

While the first video above was a closer look at the animatronics in the head, you can see an overview of the whole costume below. It also includes some interesting information about Caulfield’s previous Tauren cosplays, with this one being the third such build.

We also suggest you subscribe to his YouTube channel for a promised later video about how the articulated hands work.

[h/t Adafruit Blog