Robert Downey Jr. Surprises Young Fan With An 'Iron Man' Replica Bionic Arm

The world has just got another reason to love Robert Downey Jr! The Iron Man and Avengers star took some time out to present a little boy with a 3-D printed bionic arm. Seven year old Alex was born with a partially developed right arm, and the artificial limb was manufactured to look exactly like Downey’s superhero character’s red and gold robotic arm.

Downey posted a heart-warming video of their meeting on his Facebook page on Thursday. In it, the actor adopted the charming on-screen persona of Tony Stark / Iron Man and engaged in a Stark-esque conversation with Alex, who was dressed in a bow-tie.

“Nice bow-tie, by the way,” Downey says to him in a business-like manner. “How were your travels?” Alex went along knowingly, replying in a similarly matter-of-fact way “Was very good”.

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The actor then opened two cases, one containing Alex’s arm and a larger one for him. Inspecting them, Downey admits “Actually, I think yours might be better than mine. What do you say we both try them on, do a progress report?”

Trying it on, Alex seemed thrilled with his new arm, complete with a flashing light just like Iron Man’s. He then fist-bumped the actor with it, who said “Bang! Nailed it”.

Later, Downey wrote on his Facebook page: “Had the absolute privilege of presenting a brand spanking new 3D-printed bionic Iron Man arm to Alex, the most dapper 7-year-old I've ever met.”

The artificial arm is the result of a collaboration project between Microsoft One Note’s Collective Project and Limbitless Solutions, the latter of these being a start-up from a group of engineering students at the University of Central Florida with aim of making affordable bionic limbs built using 3-D printing.

One Note acknowledged Downey’s role with a message on their Facebook page saying: “coming together like this is what the #CollectiveProject is all about. Robert, it looks like you might have some competition for your next movie.”

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See Downey and Alex's heart-warming encounter here.