As part of our ongoing Creator Series we’ve talked to people like Taya Miller on Cosplay and Fandoms. Today, we have the pleasure of introducing you to Braden Smith. If you’re not familiar with Braden, he is a Tik Tok star who creates all sorts of Superhero themed inventions from his bedroom. At the time of writing he has almost 3 Million followers on Tik Tok and is starting to make waves over on his YouTube channel. So without further adieu, Braden Smith talks to us about his Iron Man Blaster and more, Go!
What do you do?
Braden Smith: “I pretty much invent fictional items and then turn them into real life, like web shooters and stuff like that. I have an Iron Man mask that I’ve made. I also made an Iron Man gun that actually shoots propane, like an explosion of propane that shoots out.”
How did you get started?
Braden Smith: “Funny story. I had been working on that Iron Man project for a while when I decided I would post a random video of it to my Instagram being like ‘this is the progress I’ve made’. My mom thought it was super cool so she took that video and uploaded it to her Tik Tok.
So she posted the video and then went to bed. It had zero views. She woke up and was like ‘Braden, the video I posted of you has two hundred and something views, and I was like oh, OK. Like fifteen minutes later she walked back in my room and was like ‘Braden, it has 10.2k views’ and it was nuts and that’s finally when I woke up. Every couple of seconds it was getting two thousand views. So, she was like ‘this is your account now’ because she hadn’t posted any other videos anyway.
The video exploded and I had a platform to show off some of the other cool stuff that I’ve made. I’ve kind of branched off since. Instead of a plastic bottle now its an actual tube.”
How does the Iron Man Blaster work?
Braden Smith: “That’s a good question that I get asked all the time. The tube is connected to a propane tank. More recently it’s propane and oxygen. When I let the gas out it flows into the combustion chamber and I have a little ignition switch that I can press to add a spark to all that gas inside the tube which causes a mini explosion to shoot out.
I had to replace it once because I almost exploded using it when I let too much gas in. When I lit it, instead of exploding it just lit a fire. The whole thing turned black. It almost went back into the prpane tank and blew me up. It was really bad. So, I took a little break from the blaster after that but have got back into since.”
How do the Web Shooters work?
Braden Smith: “A lot of people like to think it’s some crazy thing. So it’s actually just like a retractable line from a work badge with a magnet on the end of it. I’ve since replaced the line with a fishing line, which is strong and doesn’t tend to break. So ya, it’s like really simple.
Why do you look like Tom Holland so much?
Braden Smith: “So I get that a lot *laughs*. He actually came to Salt Lake City for Comic Con except it was like $250 bucks per ticket just to see him. I was like that’s BS, I would know that more than anyone because it’s my initials – Braden Smith. I was like I’m not going to see him, I’m not going to pay that much, it’s stupid.
So I still went to Comic Con and I was sitting by his panel and all of a sudden his security guard walks up, and I didn’t know it was his security guard, and he tapped me on the shoulder thinking I was Tom! He was look ‘oh never mind, wrong person’. He was like ‘oh my God, you look just like Tom, you guys need to meet, this is insane’. So they took a photo of me, they got my Instagram. This was before the whole Tik Tok thing.
They showed it to Tom Holland’s Manager and he was like ‘that’s insane, they really do need to meet’. So the whole Convention goes by and Tom was meeting all the people who had paid first. Anyway, when it came down to it, there was just so much paperwork that had to be signed and stuff like that, I never ended up meeting him. Maybe one day.
Do you cosplay?
Braden Smith: “I have cosplayed in the past. I’ve done quite a bit. I did Spider-Man one year, of course Iron Man and I just wore the exo-arm. I am planning on going to more conventions in the future. If anyone is ever in Utah I’d love to meet you there!
What is your Ultimate Goal?
Braden Smith: “My main goal in the beginning was to have a fully functioning Iron Man suit which I’ve gotten pretty far with. Next step for me is just flying! You can’t be Iron Man without flying right?
I want to just like show people what you can do. Like my first thing was just a plastic bottle hooked up to a propane tank. The simplest little thing but everyone thinks it’s so crazy.It’s all about how you can take a simple little thing like that and turn it into something big like a whole project. Look for the simple things. I saw a badge reel and turned that into a web shooter. Hopefully just show people these working things and let them know that they can make them themselves and that they’re not just fictional anymore.
Anything you would like to add?
Thanks to everyone that’s reading this and to people that have been following me from the beginning. I appreciate it a lot.
Huge thank you to Braden for taking this time out of his schedule to talk to us. Check him out on Instagram @bradensmith_02, TikTok @bradensmith02 and Youtube @Braden Smith. Leave a comment below if you would like to see another creator featured or DM us over on social media. Thanks for reading!
