Lada-Based Optimus Prime Conversion Won't Win Any Beauty Pageants

It all started with a Lada 111 that the two probably had hanging around the yard, doing nothing but collecting dust and rust. The first step was to chop it up good because for what they had in mind, very little of the Russian sedan was going to remain intact.

Seeing the car roll down the muddy track at the event in Oryol where the clip was shot, you immediately notice there's something off about the car. A Lada with wobbly wheels isn't a particularly unusual sight, but this one's are just all over the place. Surely that couldn't have passed even the lax quality control of the Russian carmaker.

And then it starts to happen. The front wheels together with the quarter panels pop out completely unsynchronized, taking the wobbliness to a whole new level. Then the entire front part of the car starts to rise, revealing a second set of wheels close to the center of the car.

The funny-looking cutouts in the thin sheet of metal acting as the hood finally expose their purpose as the head of the Transformers-like robot peeks out of the engine bay. Despite the irregularities in the running surface, the whole installation somehow manages to defy the laws of physics and remains in one piece.

With the transformation almost complete, the robot immediately starts to fire its front wheel-mounted guns, popping like a machine gun and even spitting out some flames. Even though, considering this is Russia, we can't be entirely sure those weren't just real bullets.

It might sound like we're making fun of these guys' effort, and indeed it's far from being perfect, but since the closest I've come to anything similar to this with my father was when he taught me to roast sunflower seeds, they win.

It's not the most useful thing in the world, but if they rig it to their home alarm system, it's guaranteed to make any burglar run home empty handed and with a sudden need for a change of underwear.