50-Foot Fire-Breathing Dragon Holds Title for World's Largest Walking Robot

Every August for the past 500 years, German festival goers come to the Bavarian forest to see a performance of the traditional folk play Drachenstich, or “Slaying of the Dragon.” Naturally, you’d expect there to be a dragon in this performance — except currently, the part is being played by an enormous animatronic robot that spits real fire.

Called Tradinno, a portmanteau of the words tradition and innovation, this dragon was first introduced to the festival in 2010 and has been scaring the pants off of everybody who sees it ever since. In addition to being 51 feet tall, it also weigh 11 tons and has a 40 foot wingspan. Oh yeah, and did we mention it breathes fire? Because it does, using liquid gas that’s stored underneath it’s polyurethane and glass-reinforced skin. There’s also 21 gallons of fake stage blood in there, too. Read more...