Maker Mahmoud Ahmed has created something rather special to display at the New York Maker Faire: an animatronic Sauron from The Lord of the Rings.

Intended to impress kids with what can be done with the Arduino and 1Sheeld platforms, this project builds on top of existing creations. The robotic head assembly is based on the Fritz open source robot and Sauron’s armour was made using cosplay tutorials on Instructables.

While the custom arms were a huge challenge, the final product is a showpiece with three modes: an automated standby mode for running through animations, a game pad mode for direct control and imitation mode, which is modelled after the shadow boxing scenes in the movie Real Steal.

Imitation mode uses a phone strapped to a glove which sends movement data to the Arduino controlling everything. Robotic Sauron will then move accordingly.

If you want to learn more about how this project was made, check out its hackster.io page. It’s got everything you’d need to replicate this yourself.

We do hope someone takes this project and improves upon it. While it does look intimidating, the look is far off from how it appears in the movie.

If you need more maker animatronic projects in your life, check out this larger than life LEGO minifigure and the sorting hat from Harry Potter, both of which also use an Arduino.