A few years ago, Thorsson saw the trailer for the first Iron Man movie and it changed the course of his life. "For me the real star [of the trailer] was the suit," he says. "As soon as it showed up on screen, I figured I had to have one." He had to have it so badly that he made it. Then he made costume after costume after it—jumping from Star Wars to RoboCop to Warhammer 40,000.

"The way I usually do it is I'll see something that I really like, whether it's from a videogame or a movie or a TV show, and I'll make it a point to ignore the initial impulse to jump right in and start building something right away," Thorrson says. "If six or seven months pass and I still am in love enough with the thing to make it happen, then there's a pretty good chance that I like it enough to see a project all the way through from start to finish."