The beauty, well in this case the creativity of the Filipino
always shines through.
The Filipino creativity will always find a way to shine
through, even if that favorable trait is first acknowledged in a foreign land, thousand
of miles away from where it was supposed to be noticed.
Such is the case of now famous Filipino toy artist Elmer
Padilla, an ordinary construction worker born in Samar and now based in Cavite.
Because of his God given gift he is now made famous by a Hollywood actor Mark
Ruffalo, who portrays the Incredible Hulk in the Multi Billion Marvel Cinematic
Universe. *
 |
| Image from Mark Ruffalo's Twitter account shows the actor holding the Elmer Padilla made toy of Hulk- made from discarde tsinelas |
Over the weekend during Mark Ruffalo posted a photo on his
Facebook page showing an action figure of the green “ Avenger” he potrays made
of discarded flip flops (tsinelas).
Believe it
or not, this #Hulk doll is made out of recycled tsinelas (that's Tagalog for
flip-flops)," Ruffalo said, "Not only is this inventively creative,
but it's sustainable and just pure awesome! Thank you Elmer!"
The post has
so far drawn more than 13,000 reactions, and 1,700 shares.
On Twitter
this Saturday, the actor gave a shoutout to Elmer Padilla, the action figure's
maker, and wrote: "Not only is this inventively creative, but it's
sustainable and just pure awesome!"
Ruffalo’s
post immediately went viral and has been shared more than 5,000 times. It was
also liked by over 22,000 Twitter users.
Ruffalo
is very well known to be an environmentalist,
cannot hide his amazement to the figure sent to him by Padilla.
And the Hulk
is not alone, as it turns out , the pinoy toymaker also made a specially made
Thor for Chris Hemsworth, Ruffalo’s co-star in the upcoming “Thor: Ragnarok.”
During the
ABS CBN interview held in Sydney , Australia last week, Hemworth was quoted
saying “ I bet he is fantastic” , and acknowledging that he never would have
thought that the figure was crafted from discarded flip flops or slippers. “ It
looks better than me.” *
It was
through ABS-CBN, that the toys were able to get to the Hollywood actors.
Elmer, in an
interview said it was due to extreme poverty that Padilla taught himself how to
make toys from discarded materials at the age of 9. He used to go to toy
stores just to study the branded
figures, before going home and trying to copy them.
"Lumaki po ako na walang laruan kasi po hirap po talaga ang pamilya ko. Mahirap ang kalagayan namin. Ultimo nagkakahalaga ng P10 hindi po mabili-bili," he shared.
"Ang ginagawa ko na lang po hinahawakan ko na lang tsaka tinitingnan. Sapat na sa akin na mahawakan ko siya tapos ginagaya ko na lang po siya gamit mga tsinelas."
Elmer Padilla, has been previously featured in the art, design and photography community website Bored Panda website, other movie characters were highlighted- Bumble Bee from transformers and Dead Pool.
“Flip flops are pure summer fun, but they’re also a
major water pollutant, and the Philippines is notorious for discarding vast
amounts of them into the ocean,” the article read.
“One Filipino street vendor is combating the problem and supporting his
family at the same time by turning the dozens of worn-out flip flops he finds
into wickedly cool action figures, and now everyone on the internet wants to
buy them,” it added.
And because
of the Mark Ruffalo post, social media users around the world are probably
begging where and how can they buy these creative creations by this Filipino
toy maker.
Report from the
ABS-CBN website
0 comments