A 12-year-old Angry Birds fan has taken his passion for the addictive gaming phenomenon to new heights by making his own version of the game using pumpkins as cannons.
Sam Beards built his own real-life version of the game after spending hours playing the small-screen version, which is enjoyed by more than 12million players around the world, on his iPod.
The aim of the game is to fire Angry Birds out of sling shot to kill their mortal enemy – the pigs.
But, instead of birds, the 12-year-old uses a ‘pumpkin cannon’ designed by his father to fire the orange fruits.
The cannon uses compressed air to fire a pumpkin up to half a kilometre. ‘I like the game and my brothers and I thought it would be interesting, and good fun to take the idea from Angry Birds and put it into real life,’ said Sam.
The ‘pigs’ and the ‘birds’ are painted by Sam, sister Jessica, 16, brothers Ben, 14, and Davy, four, with their father Dorian.
Mr Beards owns a farm in Barford, Warwickshire, and built the £500 cannon last Halloween as a customer attraction.
The 43-year-old said: ‘We fire it every two hours in the run up to Halloween, which all the kids seem to love. When Sam said he wanted to make a life-like Angry Birds game using the cannon, I didn’t know what he was talking about. I’d never heard of it.
‘When he explained what it was I thought: “So that’s what you’ve been doing all this time on your iPod”.’
Sam’s mother, Fiona, 45, added: ‘They had a great time firing the pumpkins at pretend targets. I think we might make this a regular event and get the customers to join in.’
A 12-year-old Angry Birds fan has taken his passion for the addictive gaming phenomenon to new heights by making his own version of the game using pumpkins as cannons.