A Chestermere man is in the process of bringing a mythical creature to life through the use of robotics.
Todd McBride is working on an electronic lake monster lovingly named Chessy Jr.
He's a retired engineer and says during the last 10 years he's been working with the Pioneer Acres Museum creating all sorts of interesting pieces.
"I built this horse's carriage that will run in the Strathmore Parade. I run a manx dune buggy and stuff. I'm always building something."
He told StrathmoreNow he always wondered why Chestermere doesn't have a mascot.
"If you're a famous lake community, you got to have a loch ness or something, don't you?"
McBride says he decided to build one that kids can have fun with.
He says his son's 3-D printer downloaded a dragon head.
"I did the electronics and stuff in it and kind of got it sketched out."
McBride is in a group called the Chestermere Men's Shed and he's hoping other people can help with the project.
"I wanted to do it with a bunch of people. Maybe some students from the high school that want to play with robotics or somebody who might get some fun out of it," said McBride.
He's even included some unique technology into the monster.
"I had a little bit of canon fuse, and it zooms up its nose so that it would snort three feet of fire out there," says McBride.
He added that LEDs were also on it, and he'd like to add a dragon sound.
"That requires somebody to put a speaker in it and a little battery in it. I thought maybe some electronics guys would want to take on that part and there'd be a team of us working on it collectively."
McBride says he hasn't finished the project but said there is some interest from residents.
The former engineer explained that he's looking for an artist to put a nice dragon flair on the piece with some fresh paint.
His next step is to figure out if the city has an interest in the mascot.
"Robert Schindler was at our man shed meeting the other day. If the city has an interest in it, I'd carry it forward," mentioned McBride. "We need to build one big enough to be the parade float for the town and it needs to be 15 to 20 feet long. Big enough so you can see it from some distance."
For now, Chessy Jr. will stay out of water until it can be finished.
A photo gallery of the monster can be viewed below: