Watch: Robert Downey Jr. Delivers Bionic Arm to Adorable Boy

Check out the video at the bottom of this post.

When it’s time to deliver a shiny new bionic arm to a 7-year-old boy in need of the prosthetic, who better for the job than Iron Man himself?

It seems actor Robert Downey Jr. thought so when the time came to provide Alex Pring with an upgraded bionic arm. The boy is one of several children who have been helped by a University of Central Florida-based nonprofit called Limbitless Solutions. The organization provides electronic arms for people in need.

Pring was born without a fully developed right arm.

Alex was the nonprofit group’s very first bionic arm recipient about a year ago. When it was time to upgrade his prosthetic, the Limbitless Solutions team opted to give the superhero-loving boy a device straight out of the comics.

With that in mind, Alex traveled to Atlanta last weekend so “Tony Stark” could present the Marvel-inspired Iron Man arm in person.

Dressed up, complete with a little red bow tie, Pring was joined by Limbitless Solutions’ founder Albert Manero to pay a visit to Downey’s hotel room where the actor was waiting.

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Playing the role of Iron Man’s alter ego, Downey presented two silver boxes to the little boy. One contained Pring’s new robotic arm and the other a prop match for Downey.

“Each of them looks the same,” Pring quickly exclaimed after the boxes were opened.

“Actually, I think yours might be better than mine,” Downey replied.

And, it is.

Not only does Pring’s new arm light up like Iron Man’s, it’s designed to enable him to have full use of two working limbs. Created by Manero and a team of UCF students, the cutting-edge prosthetics rely on electronics to provide hand function.

The UCF venture began when Manero, an engineering doctoral student, listened to a story about one of the inventors of a 3D printed hand, WDBJ reported. Inspired, Manero became involved with E-Nable, another nonprofit dedicated to helping connect people with 3D printers to those in need of the technology to create artificial limbs affordably.

Before long, Manero heard about Pring and how he endured teasing because of his underdeveloped arm. Manero set out to create a robotic replacement for the boy and was able to deliver the first model free of charge last summer.

Alex’s initial bionic arm was a first for the UCF students and it’s been followed by several other success stories. Each limb created by the UCF students takes up to 50 hours to create and costs about $350. Funding for the limbs is offset by donations made to Limbitless Solutions.

To find out more or make a donation, visit Limbitless Solutions’ website or Facebook page.

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